My Buddy Rahm

Apparently Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and I have a few things in common. He went to the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, and so did I, albeit several years later. He's a member of Anshe Sholom Bnai Israel, and so am I. I think I trump him on ASBI membership, though, as I've been a member for 27 years and have somehow wound up on the Board of Directors.

I find it fascinating how many people have commented on, via phone, email or Facebook, the fact that Rahm Emanuel is a member of my shul. It's not as though I see him every shabbos. I wouldn't know his wife or kids if they cut in front of me at the kiddush table. He's a famous, increasingly influential person that happens to pay dues at the same shul as my husband and I.

The bewildering part is that so many eyes now seem to be on ASBI, and Rabbi Lopatin. It's as though the shul is now a reflection of Rahm Emanuel, and vice versa, and I'm not sure that this makes all that much sense to me. How many of us go to shuls where we frequently find ourselves disagreeing with something the rabbi said? Or that another member said? Paying dues to a shul does not mean that you henceforth vow to agree with every statement and stance uttered by everyone else associated with that shul. Or does it?

On a personal note, while I'm excited about a Jewish Chief of Staff, I wish he did not belong to my shul. ASBI has been in the spotlight in Jewish (and occasionally non-Jewish) media for cutting edge ideas and practices that cut more edges than I'm comfortable with. I can't help but wonder how this added publicity will affect my shul. To be continued...

Alive N'Kicking

I still haven't figured out whether to keep this thing, or let it moulder in the blogosphere, but for the time being, I feel like posting. My life is so very different from where it was when I last posted in January. I graduated, got a job, got married.

The job part pretty much sucks, and I'm looking for a new one after 4 months, but the marriage part is wonderful. Even my mother says I'm almost like a different version of myself now, noticeably happier. I don't really like the notion that I was noticeably unhappy before, but when people now tell me that I glow, I believe them.

So, while I figure out what direction to take this blog (and I'm open to suggestions), if anyone still reads this, they can rest assured that I'm happily married and doing phenomenally well.

T-186 Days

Yay! Step One of Wedding Planning is complete.

We'll be getting married, IM'H, on August 17, 2008. We have the location reserved, and can now begin filling in all the other details. Like caterers, band, flowers, dress, invitations, benchers...

Actually, it's already feeling less stressful. Just having one detail finally pinned down (and by finally, I mean a whole 2 weeks after getting engaged) feels like we're moving forward. That, and I'm blessed to be engaged to a man who can communicate. We're both learning quickly how to help the other cope with stress in ways that don't increase our own stress.

I'm on a roll. If it weren't so frigidly cold outside, I'd go leap tall buildings in a single bound...

Twelve Days of Engagement

I've always considered myself a fairly stable person, emotionally speaking. I experience ups and downs, strikes and gutters, just like anyone else, but I feel like I generally manage to maintain an emotional balance.

And then I got engaged.

It's been 12 days since the day H-Bomb went from boyfriend to fiance, and I cannot even begin to count how many different times my emotions, thoughts and perceptions about the wedding (read: wedding planning) have flipped, spun, tied themselved into tangled knots of confusion, and done impressive gymastic moves inside my head. There are a moments when I optimistically believe that I can single-handedly plan my wedding without mortgaging either my soul or my first-born child (which I think I may have already pledged to my alma mater anyway). And then there are moments when a cold, harsh reality comes crashing down, and I begin to think that it is impossible. There don't seem to be that many in-between moments. They might be there, but they get so overshadowed by the extreme highs and lows that I can't be certain.

H-Bomb (and he will need a new nickname, but I can't think of one yet. Or, to be more honest, I can't think of one that I'm willing to post online) and I are both in agreement that we do not want our engagement to be 6 months of Supreme Suckiness. We both recognize that it won't always go smoothly, but we would like to be able to enjoy this period of anticipation. It is supposed to be a simcha, right?

So far, the one thinkg I've learned is this: do not start discussing wedding plans when one or both of you is running on an empty stomach. Do any of you wise, married folks out there have any real advice or suggestions on how to make engagement less sucky? (And by "real advice", I do realize that I've just rejected the immediate responses from just about anyone who graduated from OTI. Sorry guys.)

Happiest of Happies and Most Joyful of Joys

By now, most of the people who still read this thing will already have heard. But, for those of you who have not (and you're not that behind the times, as it's been just about 24 hours)...

I'm getting married.

I'll try to post more soon, as I will most likely need a place to express my whirling thoughts on engagements and wedding plans. At the moment, I'm so excited and so eager to hit the ground running that I wouldn't even know what to post. For the ladies, I'll try to post the proposal story. For the gents...sorry guys. This just became wedding central.

And just because it's so much fun to write and read:

I'm getting married! I'm getting married! I'm getting married!