Category: Navel Gazing
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Grinding it out
As a blogger-nerd birthday present Joe over at movementmovement was kind enough to drive some traffic to this blog. Thanks Joe. Today is my 38th birthday. Feels like a good day to take stock. I’m married to an incredible woman. I own an apartment I love. I work, all the time, at a job I…
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2013 Goals – Running
Although it is much maligned in the modern world, I’m still a big fan of the New Years resolution. The new year is a chance to start again, to imagine a better version of yourself, try to try, even if you fail. This year I’m starting off with running goals which can be accomplished through…
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The Year That Was
About a week ago I was doing a loop around the park when I was passed by a member of my running club. In the summer of 2011, when I was running strong and setting PRs, he and I were just about the same speed. Perhaps I was even a little faster. Now, he was…
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The Books I Read in 2012
Attention conservation notice: this post is long and has nothing to do with working out. I have kept a list of every book I have read I have read since I was thirteen years old. Yeah, obsessive record keeping didn’t start with my running log. Below is a list of every book I read this…
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Keeping My Head Above Water
What a month. Day after day, week after week, I’ve barely been keeping my head above water. Work, then more work, then endless, Kafkaesque red tape around trying to buy an apartment, then more work. I’ve squeezed in a run everyday, but it hasn’t been easy. Too many of those days have been one milers,…
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Extra-Ordinary Effort
I had it all planned out. I’d quit my job, start a foundation to fund the political projects I believe in. finally get to take structure Hebrew classes, run a hundred miles a week, go out and spend a month in Hueco climbing every day. Get another degree for fun. It’d be great. But alas,…
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A Final Stand Against Bourgeois Normalacy
Attention conservation notice: Total navel gazing, nothing of substance here. There was a time when I lived in a punk house in San Francisco. I worked thirty to forty hours a week loading trucks and the rest of my time was my own. I spent it in doing political organizing, reading, traveling, going to rock…
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First Yom Kippur
Monday was my first ever Yom Kippur fast, and yesterday evening was my first Yom Kippur service. Maybe it was the hunger, but I was genuinely moved by the whole experience. We had our pre fast dinner around five o’clock so as to finish in time to go to the evening services, dinner was pasta…
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Conversion Reading List
Just a quick post today to note what the reading will be for the conversion I am taking and some thoughts on study: The text book is Living Judaism: The Complete Guide to Jewish Belief, Tradition and Practice The bible we’ll be using is the JPS Tanakh Other recommended reading is: Jewish Literacy Jewish Holidays…
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Rabbi Reflections
The meeting with the Rabbi last night went very well. He was as warm and welcoming in person as he seemed on the phone and I feel very lucky that my first experiences with conversion have been with someone like this. Sitting in his well-appointed study, we spent some time just chit chatting, E told…
Milo and the Calf 