Gosh darn. I've had such a day. Such a day...that you can only chronicle it...bit by bit, before you forget it all. Plus, it's always fun to write a blog entry while losing a buzz...

This morning I woke up all ready to go to temple quite early...and promptly fell asleep. I jumped out of bed at 11 a.m., already more than an hour late for services, rushed over to services...and saw some people I knew walking out. I decided that was shameful enough...and turned right around and went home. How horrible. I felt quite ashamed.

Which is why I checked my cell phone, and realizing I had missed a text from German guy...texted him back. He just got his apartment in Paris set up late last night, and was texting me to ask me to come take a look at his place. I texted him back that this afternoon would work out fine for me...then I went home and ate what shall soon be the norm...matzah, matzah, matzah...and fell into bed. Tired.

Of course I kept putting off the wake up moment...so that I ended up rushing through my workout and shower before going over to meet German guy at his metro stop...more than 30 minutes late! I felt so badly when I got there...even though I had texted him a warning.

I jumped outta the stairwell, saw him waving to me on the other side of the exit, ran over...apologizing superfluously...Luckily, he was very understanding, gave me a hug and we continued on our merry way--in the opposite direction of his apartment.

His new place has a...(drumroll)...VCR! Okay, I know for you high-tech DVD people there that's not much, but I have no television, no movie, no nothing capabilities here. This is news. And he knew this...

So German guy took me around several stores to pick out movies we could watch and bought them, then we walked over to a supermarket and he bought some drinks (me a bottle of water, him juice)...and we walked over to his place.

He had a "surprise" for me there, so he said. Oh yeah, it was a surprise all right. A piano!...I was stunned, and immediately fell in love with his apartment. It's not more than a small studio, basically one room with a loft and a ladder leaving up to it, which is where he sleeps...tons of rafters overhead allow one to scoot about opening skylight windows and going over to the other side of the "loft" where the smallish TV and VCR is. It was absolutely wonderful at the place with plants hanging up in the rafters by the window...the blue sky and sunlight streaming in...windows open so that there was a light breeze. After I messed around on the piano a bit and we listened to some music and chatted, he put on the television--which we soon learned had cable! Now...I've been on the ultimate hunt for television (which normal channels AKA cable) here in France, not because I'm a TV addict (hardly)...I rarely watch TV in the States, but more because I want to improve my French comprehension. Anyway, we climbed up to his loft where he had a two soft futon-y mattress-y things on the ground next to each other to make one big mattress across from the rafter holding the TV. We threw ourselves onto the matresses, with the television on MTV...and just lay there talking, staring at the ceiling and the skylights with sunshines, blue sky and a light breeze coming into the room. It was heavenly...

Later on he put on some of his own favorite music, very very diverse, and some philosophical German pieces--for which he explained the lyrics...and then we proceeded to talk about the philosophies, etc.

About midway through another thoughtful silence on both our parts he turned towards me and said, "I had a dream with you in it last night."

I stared back at him and said...well something to the effect of "ya don't say, what about?" Anyway, he couldn't remember his dream, "Sometimes perhaps you can't remember dreams because they're so much crazier than any reality you can imagine."

I didn't agree though. I always remember those crazy dreams. Especially the crazy ones. In any case, we proceeded to discuss different dreams. Me my running from killers dream...him his Armageddon dreams. Yeah...

Anyway, after a couple hours I had to get going for tonight, Passover...so I told German guy I must bid him adieu...(actually, it's something else in German, isn't it...damn!)--which reminds me...yesterday while doing laundry he was like..."I know you said you don't speak German, but a few minutes ago I just felt like no matter what you said, that I must try speaking German to you, because you really do speak it." It was odd. Okay, enough of that digression there...The funny thing about the German guy is all his little quirks. For example, after reading this book on "smells," he's really interested in smelling people...apparently I'm "flowery"...blech! That sounds so cliche...banal.

...Anyway, German guy got his stuff together too and we both left his place, got on the metro and then went our separate ways.

Sidenote: I'm in biiiig trouble...I was starving already, only after a couple hours on matzah...and I'm gonna have to do FOUR DAYS...WHILE traveling...nuts and berries folks...nuts and berries. That there is the challenge.

So I got home, got dressed and, after quickly eating some more matzah, went over to services, which were pretty good...though I was very tired...

During the halfway point where we do a little course thing...I found out that the family I was supposed to go to Seder at tonight had had some "problems" yesterday. Specifically, a member of their family died last night. Not any member, alas, but one I had been teaching English too.

That hurt. Especially watching the woman's family members stand up and recite Kaddish (the mourner's prayer)...while wiping tears off their cheeks. It was waaay too difficult to watch, and I wavered between tearing up and staring off into space for the remainder of the service...and also praying for the family of course. Things like that make you really sense your mortality. I mean...this was someone I knew...someone I had worked with, tried to help, who had employed me (however briefly). I knew her and I knew her family. They invited me over to their house all the time for holidays etc...It was and is hard to see them face tragedy, especially during the holidays. Sigh.

Earlier I had been speaking with the German guy about hearing things...you really take that for granted too, I mean, even simple things like walking in the dark...imagine how hard that would be without hearing anything. I proposed the theory that hearing renders things more three dimensional.

Anyway, suffice it to say that I didn't go to the family's house for the Seder, but instead was invited to crash someone else's Seder. Kind kind people...Even though I feel like they hate me for always imposing myself on them. =/

The Seder itself was wonderful...although it really really made me miss my family Seder, our customs...etc. I mean, it's been waaay too long since I've been at home for a proper service. It was odd because out of all the people there (eight including me)...I was easily the second most fluent person in my Hebrew...I think they were surprised (which kinda pissed me off...hmph! I showed them!). lol. anyway...

Services got out sooo late. Much later than in the States, and we ended up eating dinner at midnight...finishing up the service just on time, at 1:45 a.m....all of us quite buzzed (cmon...you gotta drink at least four cups of wine...no really, it's an obligation).

Of course, my watch stopped working during the middle of all of this, so I was off balance for most of the night. I gotta find me a new watch...or a battery...this is the second watch that's stopped working for me in the last 10 months! And man...I think everyone around me wants me to get a watch, because me without a watch is torture on wheels. Every person around me is hassled into telling me the time every. frekin. second. And now, until I get that watch of mine fixed, or a replacement...well, I'll be one of those annoying peoples who use their cell phone as their watch. Then I keep imaging myself this summer, on deadline, and screwing up because of the darn watch...I had this great one that I got in New York (Nike!) my sophomore year in high school...it was a sporty black one that I loved, cherished, adored...then it broke this summer...it was horrible. Though not as bad as losing my Jewish star necklace...I still think about it. I wonder if, to reference SITC, I lost more than just the necklace with that one.

Hmm...food for thought, or thought for food. Yum.