Dancing with Shloims

I took my last final. Probably nailed it. Or failed it. Difference of one letter. Take your pick. 

So, it's been a week. Much has happened during these past days. I don't even remember all of it. Must be my early OPS showing up. 

So, we left off last week with Sarah Leeeeeah coming to the Holy Land to see me. And what a trip it was. She actually stayed in my dorms. Shhh. Don't tell my aim bayit. I'm pretty sure it's illegal. It's a good thing she'll never read this. Otherwise, I might be homeless. 

So, Wednesday was busy. I went shopping, went to work (my last day, actually), and studied. 'Twas a lovely day. 

Thursday was spent studying, dancing with Shloims, learning, and crying about how much studying I need to do but don't want to do and where are all of my chocolate twizzlers and I think I know this except I don't think I do, and it was very unpleasant for everyone involved. 

But, the saving grace was Shabbos. For I couldn't study on Shabbos, as that would ruin all of my happiness and joy for the Sabbath day, and probably the rest of my week. And what a beautiful Shabbos it was!

On Friday, we went to Geulah and met up with Sari, one of our friends who is a madricha in BYA. That was all very cute.

After lighting, Sarah Leah and I walked to Mrs. Powitz's house to shmooze. 

You know those people who (whom?) you love but don't talk to or see in a very long time and forget why you love them so much? Well, that happened a lot on Shabbos. Mrs. Powitz is the aim bayit of Maalot--remember, dear readers, that I didn't actually go to Maalot; I was merely their mascot--and she is an all-around awesome human bean. We sat and talked for a bit about Sarah Leah's whopping six names, shidduchim (of course), and just a little bit of everything. It was quite adorable. 

And then we walked to Mrs. Cohen's house, an esteemed Bnos Avigayil aim bayit. She is also one of those people whom I absolutely adore but, seeing that I am terrible at keeping in touch, don't often get to speak to. 

The meal was beautiful. I don't know how to put into words how amazing and rejuvenating that meal was. It was the whole ambience, the atmosphere of the family, the house, the table, the kids. Everything. The way the parents spoke to the kids, asked Parsha questions to them. The way the father and boys sang. The way they didn't stop speaking Torah and hashkafa the whole meal. Whut a meal.  

Wow, that might be the most serious thing I've ever written on this blog. I feel like I have to say a joke now, or my family might start thinking that the person writing this is not Hudi, but rather her nice twin. 

So, here's a joke for you all: 

Knock knock. 

Who's there? 

To. 

To who? 

To whoMMMMM.

All right. Now that that's settled and we know that Hudi is still her ridiculous self, we can go on. 

After the meal, we stayed at the Cohen's, just talking with Mrs. Cohen about anything and everything. Her children were under the misconception that therapy is simply looking into someone's eyes and knowing what he/she is thinking. So, I was subject to many staring contests with her children, after which they guessed what was going on in my mind. Quite an entertaining entertainment. 

And then we walked back to my dorms, after being severely psychoanalyzed by a 10 and 12-year-old. 

After warming our freezing bones, we davened the evening prayers, had some oneg with really, almost disgustingly, sweet cinnamon rolls, and then got into bed where the real fun began. Sarah Leah gave me singing lessons. Now, Netama and Abba, I really wanted to zoom you into these lessons; however, I felt like that might have ruined your Shabbos. So...I nixed that idea. One of the hardest decisions I ever made, right up there with "should I marry Binyomin or not?"

So, the singing lessons consisted of a few seconds of singing and then a few minutes of hysterical laughter. 

And then, we decided to retire. 

Shabbos morning, Sarah Leah went to daven at Neve, while I went to burrow under my blankets. I did get up eventually and daven. And then I went to the Low's, home of Mrs. Low, our other esteemed Bnos Avigayil aim bayit. 

And what a meal it was. Full of discussions and Torah and reminiscing about seminary and more talk about psychology--Mrs. Low disproved the Cohen kids' theory about looking into someone's eyes and being able to tell what he/she is thinking--it was quite the experience. The food was delicious, the company was so nice, and it was a really great meal.

It was also very confusing, for the Lows have a boy named Yehuda, who chose his nickname "Huds." 

I'm Huds. 

Enough said.

After that, I went back to the dorms to learn some parsha and maybe get a nap in there. I didn't fall asleep, unfortunately. 

But that was okay. Because I had great company in the form of Sarah Leah. We talked some more, learned for the first time in awhile, and then realized that we needed to hear havdalah. But, we couldn't ask the aforementioned aim bayit of my dorms because Sarah Leah wasn't really allowed to be there. It was a secret. 

So, we went to Mrs. Sendler, one of our teachers from seminary. She lives across the street. She invited us in, we spoke for a bit, her husband said havdalah, and it was all so nice and unexpected. 

After that, Sarah Leah had much to do, for her flight was leaving that night. So, she had to go get her coroina test and all that wonderful stuff. 

It was so sad to say goodbye to her. But, as Winnie the Pooh so aptly said, "How nice it is for us to have people that make saying goodbye so hard."

Well, dear Winnie, that doesn't make things any better or easier. But thanks for trying. Better luck next time. 

Then began real studying, and by real studying I mean a few minutes, if that, of watching videos or taking tests from last year, and then dancing or working out or learning or doing anything else in the entire world except for studying. Probably why I failed. 

He he he. 

Shana Aleph came back to us this week, which was very lovely. She decided to grace us with her presence once more. 

I did end up studying quite a bit. 

And that's how the first half of the week went. Studying, eating chocolate twizzlers, not studying, eating chocolate twizzlers, etc. 

Wednesday was our final. And then after that, we were free!!! 

I went to the koisel with Faeven Manebust (we love spoonerisms). It started pouring as we got there, so we went into a tent. Hey, that rhymes. What a budding poet I am. 

After davening holy things, we went back to the dorms, where we did a writing challenge. We sat for half-an-hour and just wrote. No prompt, no nothing. Just our imaginations running wild. And they ran wild. 

And then, I went to a vort of my cousin. His mother is maybe the nicest person in the entire world. She invited me to the vort, so of course I went. Free food is no joke. 

I saw my cousins there, spoke some Hebrew, ate some food. My younger cousin, who's about seven, was telling me to eat all the desserts. And then her older sister, about eleven, said, "She's in shidduchim. She can't get fat." So, that was very cute. As I was leaving, all of my cousins were giving me brachos that I should be next. I'm probably an old maid to them. 

It was so nice to go and see them. 

I went to sleep slightly earlier than usual, for I woke up at 4 am. My fam jam was having a meeting, and I love family meetings. Though not as much as Netama. 

After the wonderful, enlightening, hysterical meeting, I decided to daven neitz. Because why not? So I did. And then I went to sleep. 

And then I was hungry, so I got out of bed to eat cereal and milk. Food of champions, I tell you. Shana Aleph spent maybe 30 minutes dissecting a whole chicken, while Shloims, her friend, and I sat, watching in faskination. 

And now, I come to right now. Writing this post. 

Bye, y'all. Have a nice life. 

Toodles from Hoodles!