Things to Look Back on - and Forward To

The week went by in a blur of - hmmm, I'd have to look at a calendar to list everything. And a lot of it was fun at the time, especially the shopping therapy at Pearl Paint (thanks to Elyssa - what a wonderful place!) and then on to Kohl's to find the perfect button-up-the-front pink flowered shirt for coming home from the hospital.

A very cool and rare sighting from home - my dad is coming to visit the Saturday before the surgery, and my sister-in-law and niece are coming with him to visit with her sister, who lives here in Oakland, right near us. They're all coming on the train, and going home that Tuesday. I joked with Dad that he was just staying long enough to be sure I had survived, and he laughed and said "that's right!" Those who don't know us too well would be horrified, but that's the way we talk. Underneath we're very soft and squishy sentimental folk.

Also during last week my birthday present to myself was ordered - an iPad. Although I had hoped it would come sooner, God's cosmic joke (in the form of Apple's shipping department) has dictated that it probably won't arrive until closer to my actual birthday, a far-too-close-for-comfort 4 days before the surgery. Plus, being a "want what I want when I want it" kind of gal living in an age of instant gratification..............well, you get the drift.

Sometime midweek each surgeon's office (because I couldn't remember which one's paperwork said "no nail polish" and needed someone to tell me why not) called to tell me that yes, it is ok to wear nail polish, as long as there are no acrylics underneath. I have gels, thanks to Jane(!) so it turns out a nice manicure before the surgery will at least be something pleasant to do to get ready, along with the special antibacterial soap washing and no eating or drinking (not even water) after midnight the night before.

The synagogue itself is pretty quiet right now, which is great, since my own little end of the hallway is busy with movement - books and papers going everywhere while we count what we have and decide what we need. Thank goodness Rachel is there with me. We made a list of all the work she is going to do over the summer, with or without me there, and she filled a whole lined pad! Granted, it was one of those little half-sized ones, but still, I never realized how much we do to get really, really ready.

The paradox (or is it a dichotomy?) of the calendar for me is that while I am just desperately impatient for Ari to be done with school, live through his finals, and just be able to stop struggling with things for a while, I am pretty patient about waiting for the surgery. There is so much I want to get done first!

This morning Rod & I drove down to West Orange for a one of our dance "family" child's Bat Mitzvah (Hi Ann & Stan - D. was great.) It was Conservative, so it started at 9 a.m. but she didn't start participating for real until around 11 a.m. We got there about 10:30 and it was different from what we're used to, but the same enough that we could make comparisons to our own services along the way. As we arrived they were into the 2nd or 3rd Torah reading, and I automatically started translating in my head. I actually could do quite a bit; Then they went on to a section with a bunch of names and numbers and parts of animals (all kinds of organs and such) because they were talking about sacrifice, and I lost track, but I had it for a while!

We sat with some of our other friends - it was good to hug everyone, most of whom we last saw at New Year's. We ducked out before the service was over and were in the car by about 12:30. The trip home should have been a little over half an hour. Nope. Trailer and its truck turned over in the middle of Route 287 and we didn't get home until around 2 p.m. Oy.

So we had plenty of time to check in with Ari, who Alex had driven to the youth group election/Chinese Food/Laser Tag end of year blowout. He was running, with a friend, to be the liaison to the junior youth group kids, and the boys didn't win. I felt bad because I knew he would have done a good job, and now there are no boys, er, young men, on the board at all. The girls who won are terrific, and I like them a lot, but as I take off my virtual synagogue hat and put on my virtual mom hat, I just felt bad. Probably he doesn't, and I'm sure it'll all be fine.

This afternoon we're going to meet Ari at the synagogue to pick him up from his youth group mall fun, then turn back around and go to the mall for Alex's "you had an awesome sophomore year in college" Dave and Buster's family outing.

Andrew will come over after he's done at work and join us for dinner and some gaming, and with any luck I'm going to go back to concentrating on NOT concentrating on anything for a few hours except enjoying being with Rod and the boys.