Fri Oct 14 - The fasting yesterday got much easier after I had taken a little nap during "lunch" in the middle of my work day. I was tired and spacey, so I just went out to my car, set the alarm on my pager, lay the seat back, and went to sleep. An hour later I woke up a tiny bit disoriented (I think these contacts have gone long past the 30-day mark) but feeling much more on top of things.

And I was doubly glad I'd napped from 11-noon, because I'd forgotten that my co-worker who went on a Mediterranean cruise was showing her photos to all of us co-workers at 12:05. So everyone spent another hour in one of the training rooms, watching photos on the projector, and I got just that much more rest from work and time to recover again for the afternoon.

Finally it was late afternoon, and time to go battle the traffic. I popped my head in to my boss's office to mention I was headed out a little early to go to Yom Kippur with my best friends, and she replied with "Be sure to atone for something for me. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I'm really sorry." Everyone at the party with whom I shared that line thought it was really funny. I adore my boss and my job and where I work! *grin*

Traffic *was* quite evil, and I even had to resort to using my air conditioning to endure the 75-minutes or more (on what should be only a 35-min trip). When I arrived at Adrienne's and Jeff's place, they were really only waiting for me, which was so cool. Let's see, who all was there? Adrienne & Jeff of course (Cat & Lot, in SCA names), Alan/Mordecai, Alexandra/Lilya & Nate/Dillon, Emily (an old friend of Jeff's who's staying with them right now), my own roomie Mel/Mina (with whom I joke that I only see her when she and I go to events together), Eric/Marcos, and me. Later Theresa/Mariam arrived, and even later Matt/Jaime.

[I know, the whole double-name thing is weird, but I figure if I give you the name pairings now, and then if I inadvertantly say "Lot" in one sentence and "Jeff" in another, you'll still know who I'm talking about. Dayle teases me sometimes because I never say just "Ann" or "Mwynen" but I almost always say Ann-Mwynen like it's all one name.]

Back to the party. One of the things I like so much about hanging out with these friends is that they are so comfortable showing normal healthy affection for one another. Any one time there might be three or four of us (usually a string of girls) comfortably reclining against each other on the couch or the floor or chairs... in fact, there were times when you might see 5-6 people all casually leaning against each other in combination. There's nothing icky or weird or eww-sexual about it, and you get lots of hugs and your hair braided or your sore shoulders rubbed gently or whatever. No one seems to feel left out, and no one seems to feel icky about it. When you need to get up and stretch, you do. If you want to curl up at someone else's feet, you can. And it just feels nice to relax and enjoy each other's company without anything weird.

I know this doesn't translate well in some circles that are more uptight or suspicious, but I feel so at home here and I'm constantly thankful to the Almighty for bringing me home to friends like these. *beaming smile*

Anyways, we had the prayers and songs at sunset, the wine, the hand-washing that goes with Yom Kippur, and Lilya helped those of us who wanted to participate but who didn't know the Hebrew prayers by heart. Afterwards, we shared bread together and then "broke fast" with an incredible meal put out by Cat. (She's our Momma Cat and loves to serve food to everyone. We love our Momma Cat!) There were bagels and lox and onions and tomatoes and cream cheese. There was hummus and pita bread, pasta salad, and deviled eggs. And instead of baking hallah (is that right?) she made "monkey bread" which is this gooey amazing pull-apart bread in cinnamon and sugar and everything-goodness. We declared we're having monkey bread for Yom Kippur Break Fast from now on. Oh! Yum!

After sharing food together until we were stuffed, we just lazed around chatting and hanging out until all hours. Some of us flipped through pictures of Adrienne's and Jeff's wedding, we told stories from GWW, we heard stories about Jaime's time at synagogue that evening (he came over after breaking fast with his parents) and tons of other stories. I found out that Mariam also loves to play with hair and have her hair played with, so I owe her lots of hair-time later, since she was kind enough to play with my hair last night. And hers will be so much fun to braid and coif because it's much longer than mine, and so I'm just thrilled to have someone else who's hair I can adorn and decorate.

Finally it was very late and we were all stuffed *and* sleepy, so I drove on home... very thankful that these are some of the few friends who just live about five miles from my home, as opposed to all the friends who live 30, 60, and 90 minutes away from me (when there's no traffic).

This morning I had to stop on my way to work to put another quart of oil in the car, but it's been over 3000 miles since that last oil change and the oil-leak-repairs, so I'm impressed because the car did NOT burn much oil in the past month. I still need to get the engine steam-cleaned so I can have my car guys check and see if there are any more leaks to repair, but I'm really happy with my little energizer-bunny car! Over 325500 miles now, and still running beautifully. (Thanks Mom! ...I bought the car from her.)

At work today, I was coughing just a little (still) and my boss pulled a "I'm going to nag you and guilt you into going and having that checked" on me. And in the process, a total of three female co-workers were aghast that I haven't had a gyn-doctor in *mumblety-mum* years, and so they recommended a clinic to me. I'm glad to report that I now have a primary doctor, an appointment for a checkup, and I'm going to take care of all those girlie-squicky things that I've been avoiding for much MUCH too long. So there. *blech*

And now this afternoon / tonight I'm looking forward to a fabulous evening. First, I'm thrilled that I've been invited to Shabbat dinner with Noah and Karen and Saul and Shoshanna and Ben and Erika and Harmony, so I've got to pick up salad fixin's and get through traffic as fast as possible to get up to LA. Then after dinner, Saul's put together a big ol' poker night, and so even more people are showing up for cards and fun. So from one evening with some of my favorite people in the world to another evening with some of my favorite people in the world.

Followed by "Dye Day" tomorrow with Bjo and all the textile friends I could ever dream of wanting to spend time with, an Evening In with the Ladies of my Shire (theme = Goth Pajamas), and then the rest of my Sunday in my shire with all the things I do there. I'm not sure when I'll get to post again, but I did just get paid which means I'll need to log on and pay bills sometime this weekend.

I can't remember when I've been this happy in life. I really can't. I almost feel silly smiling this often, this freely, and this much. My friends so totally rock.
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Recently Listening to: Tori Amos Boys For Pele