I spent the "3 day yom tov" (Shabbat, followed by 2 days of a holiday that are usually kept in many of the ways that Shabbat is) in the MD suburbs of DC. Most of the time was at
The time in Silver Spring, honestly, was much more intense than I was expecting. This was mostly in a good way. It was very Jews-in-the-Woods-like in terms of the sense of both isolation and camaraderie, even though when we sang the craziest and hippiest of the songs I associate with JITW, it was in a fully ironic manner. A bunch of the people there were fantastic people I know from JITW, plus my roommate, a few people I didn't already know, and a few people I know from other Jewish contexts. Also, Lawee!!!! I knew he was going to be there, but I hadn't spent extended time with him since he graduated college in 2005. DAMN that was nice. I'm so glad to be with him in the same Jewish contexts that we've both grown up into.
There was some bad. For one thing, seders were awkward. The first seder started absurdly late. (10:45 -- 3 hours after sundown, and about 2:15 after we were allowed to start according to the often-ignored Jewish law that we were following.) I hear it was fun, but I was in bed and asleep an hour into it, before most of the singing and nearly all of the eating. So I didn't really have a first seder. Second seder, in Chevy Chase, was only awkward because it had the distinct feel of a second seder, but it was essentially my first this year (both with those people, and really at all).
There was other bad too, teenage angst and food prep stress and carbon monoxide alarms and trips from the fire department and return trips from the fire department, but it's probably best to not dwell on such details.
Things were mostly good, really. Lawee made me so happy. Actually getting to be in the same city with
Eventually, yom tov finished, I spent one more night in Silver Spring, and then left. I rode back to Philly with
Oh, and I ran into JSS on Wednesday morning! I had a vague idea she was in America, but no idea at all that she was in Philly! What a lovely surprise!
And now it's almost next weekend, huh? Still processing. (And still not sick of the food just yet. Huh. Having people make matzah lasagna for you tends to help with that, I guess.)