I may not be leaving the country quite yet, but my trip begins in the morning, this Sunday, as I make my way south to D.C. for a visit, before coming back to fly out. I layed everything out on the bed to make sure I haven't missed anything important, or am including anything that will be a nuisance to carry along during my trip.
This morning, I went to Shul. I sat in an empty row and a family joined me. After a while, my father showed up for services and our row is contently praying. There is a Bat Mitzvah going on. The Rabbi talked about how our synogogue is different because it is not a performance, it is an act. Meanwhile, tons of kids are streaming in from a bus. It's chaos. Then, in the middle of the service, the woman next to me turns to her daughter, my father and I and says, "you two know that you used to play together when you were about 2 years old." My playmate looked so familiar, but I couldn't place her. I am wondering if the familiarity is from those early play dates, or maybe she was one of the kids I couldn't ID in my younger photos / videos, which I was recently transferring to DVD. We chatted a bit during the reception and that was all. Iwould like to try and figure out the connection, or at least the familiarity. Perhaps I remember her from Hebrew School from when I was younger. Anyway, it was the comment that threw me off. Afterwards we stopped at the beach. Nick and Yanika saw us drive by, and came to join us. After we went out for some food in Sag Harbor, and saw some amazing yachts.
I went to volunteer this evening at a local benefit for the preservation of nature on the east end. Not the most exciting ending to my summer in the Hamptons, but the live music was entertaining, as was Alec Baldwin doing the live auction. He made references to controlled substances in almost every item, actually it got a little strange after a while and one does wonder. After the event ended, I had the chance to chat with the volunteer coordinator about what I liked, and what I thought could be changed or tweaked to reinvent the volunteer experience and make it more fulfilling and satisfying.
I also ran into a high school classmate who spent four months in Madrid, and promised to fill me in on the details of all the cool places to go. I am excited to get a jump into the local areas and skip the touristy ones as I find my own niche in the city. To top it off I received an awesome email from RL who sent some suggestions for Turkey - so lots of incoming advice! Thanks everyone.
The goody bags from the benefit were awful, I was surprised, given that it is an environmental group, how much trash and paper they included. I remember going to the James Beard Foundation and one year they gave a few bottles of wine in each bag. Another year, there was this strange looking knife that everyone got. Turns out it is a tomato slicer and server. It's a great party tool - "guess what this is for" and the like. This year, I liked the T-Shirt from the benefit (there is german writing on the tag about changing the world through buying T-shirts), although I don't think anyone in that room was an XXL, the size given to everyone.
My excitement with regard to my pending travels is only growing - not sure how I am going to get to sleep tonight! Or even anytime through wednesday...
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