First Fruits

Happy Shavuot, to one and all. The cheesecake season is once again upon us, as we celebrate the harvest, the milk & honey, and the giving of the Law. Sure, I am not exactly the greatest person at keeping those Laws, but the cheesecake I can do.

So I am thinking of Laws and interpretations, for this is the season. Straining out gnats suddenly springs to mind from New Testament and Talmud classes… It takes on a whole new importance in early June. Swallowed one just last night, by accident (why I feel pressured to add the “by accident” rider is beyond me). That’ll teach me to shut my mouth once and a while (but I doubt I will).

(By the way, do you know how many freaking pics of Gwyneth Paltrow comes up when you search for an image of Moses…? What the hell is the earth coming to? I couldn’t find one good image of Dudley Moore from Wholly Moses! What a world!)

(But it makes no difference, as Blogger apparently is not up to the task of posting pics today. sigh.)

Today I meet with a pal from the department for coffee and lunch (combining this, of course with a library visit for more dissertation books – too bad carrying is not prohibited on Shavuot… And neither is the transfer of fire, so that is why I am using the computer, all you nosy Parkersteins out there). How I look forward to outside contact!

I may dress up, just for the occasion. (By “dress up,” of course, I mean something clean and without holes.)

I am inordinately excited by this lunch. I mean, I like Margie and enjoy her company, but I shouldn’t be this excited by a chat with a classmate. This is a grim view of what the next year will be like… a group of wraith-like pariahs carrying around comp books and haunting campus for someone, ANYONE, to talk to. It is also so very surprising how fun it actually is to discuss dissertation ideas when it is becoming a reality rather than an abstract “some day.”

Speaking of first fruits! There’s more than one form of harvest.

And Margie is doing some humdinger stuff. The relationship between religion and the political right. In CANADA! This is truly exciting, as most work on this subject is usually confined to the US, I think, and applying religion in the USA to Canada is a mistake, as the situations differ much more than may first appear. Right from the first week, hers was the PhD work that most interested me (aside from my own), so I am thrilled to get a closer look at the process in which she puts together her actual proposal. I am trying to convince her to work on Jews who go Conservative, in hopes that someone can FINALLY explain this to me.

Oh, the joys of social interaction! Margie and I appear to be the only schmoes who have started comp reading on a regular schedule, so we must construct some sort of mutual aide society, lest our tongues rust and our minds start to atrophy… Or at least to keep the late night crying at bay. Not that I do that… Just saying, hypothetically… *cough*

STOP LOOKING AT ME!


Leave me alone.