Sleeping in, Tea, Dinner, Games

Whenever I am away from home, I always wake up at 7am, sometimes I can get back to sleep, but it's like my internal alarm clock is stuck on 7am.  So, even though I went to bed between 4 and 5 this morning, my eyes snapped wide open at 7am - and I was having a pretty strange dream at the time that involved digging and a cemetery - so my mind was also racing and rather confused.  Compounded perhaps from the lack of sleep after a night in Tel Aviv.

Actually got out of bed around 10 or 11, and did some work here.  The middle part of the day is a blur, but at some point in the later afternoon I headed to Nicole's for some tea.  We spoke for about two hours when I realized the time, and that I had to head home to pick up the wine for kiddush and some other things to prepare for shabbat.  We were doing an all male shabbat, and the women were doing an all women shabbat.  I heard there was a reason, but I don't know the details.  Regardless, it was amazing.

In my experience, for Shabbat dinner, women are typically the authority.  In religious households, I get the sense that women run the show in the house, especially shabbat dinner even when the men do kiddush.  Women light the candles.  So, when we decided to have separate Shabbat dinners for the  men and women this evening, my initial response: where are we going to find a shabbos - woman (it's a play on a shabbos - goy, a non jewish friend who takes care of all the stuff you are forbidden to do on shabbat, it is more of a saying since actually having a shabbos goy would not be in the spirit of shabbat, which I think is more important sometimes than the specific rules).

I said Kiddush and Hamotzi for the table, we skipped any singing since we didn't want the food to get cold and sat down to some delicious steaks, roasted potatoes, an amazing fruit salad, and amazing pasta.  It was all so good.  The whole evening was wonderful, very much in the spirit of shabbat, with lots of good conversation, toasts, stories, and of course some jokes.

We finished with some tea (never benched) and then a few of us headed over to the villa where people were playing card games.  I decided that I am going to look for a good backgammon set.  I don't think I want to volunteer in the retirement home, but there is a park in Ramla, and apparently some of the older men from Ramla go there and play backgammon during the day.  It might be a great opportunity to hear some good stories and practice my hebrew.

When I was in Jerusalem on the roof, I could see down into a private courtyard where tables were set up and a few games were going.  It seems like a great way to connect with people.  I guess I am thinking about my dad and his friendship with Pando, and how it blossomed over backgammon and continues on today.

No plans for shabbat day, except to make french toast.  Hopefully, we have all the ingredients.