Hebrew Birthday (Happy Birthday, Me!)

Today is my Hebrew birthday, the one I now acknowledge and celebrate.  The Hebrew date is the seventeenth of the month of Shevat.  The date moves around the English calendar, because the Hebrew calendar is lunar; next year, for example, my birthday will fall on February thirteenth.

Because Jewish days start the night before, I opened my birthday gift last night.  This year, I got a Vermont Teddy Beat misfit bear (four colors of brown plush on one bear, and allegedly each bear unique), which I have been wanting for years.  Her name is Theodora, so she can go by Teddy, and her middle name is Ketamine, because of all the good that that treatment did for me.

And now I am a whole year older! Goodness gracious, I don't feel 23!

"A Miracle Happened Today; Was I Aware? Did I Even Care?"

(Title quotation from an addictive Jewish song I like.)

Now.  My miracle story:

Recently I went for a two-week Ketamine treatment at Rutgers University hospital in Newark, NJ, to help solve my RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, a chronic pain syndrome affecting the nervous system).  Ketamine is a big-deal pain killer, with big-deal side effects, delivered intravenously.  Side effects can include psychosis; and yes, I experienced that and dealt with it.

But.  But.  But.

My pain is SO MUCH LESS.  I now stay in single-digit numbers  ALL THE TIME.  Also, the pain is localized again; the ONLY areas that EVER hurt now are my feet and my hands.

Wow.  Wow.  WOW.

Thank you to God first, my doctor second, and the medication third.

Thank you.

Big Adventure

Today I leave for the city and my Ketamine treatment at a hospital in Newark, NJ.  My father is taking me because the procedure is outpatient, but involves sedation, so I need someone to bring me back and forth.  I'm due at the hospital at 7:00 am tomorrow, and the infusion starts at 8:00 am.  It takes an hour to get ready because the medicine is made just for each patient and the pharmacists cannot make it until the patient is in the building.  Two weeks from now, and I should be feeling much better...I can hardly wait, and I'll hold on to that vision through the hard times.

The Christmas Season

So the dining hall at school played Christmas music non-stop for the last few weeks of the semester.

I get that we live in a Christian society, and I really don't mind.  Allow me the freedom to light my Hannukah candles in peace, and we're good to go.  But I remember repeating to a friend (I think it was a Jewish friend; I hope it wasn't a Christian friend), "If I hear 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer one more time, I'm going to punch something, preferably Rudolph."

You see, my problem wasn't with Christmas, or even Christmas music in public settings such as dining halls.  My problem was that for every three to four times I heard "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (and that's just that particular song!) I heard something like "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" maybe once.  Maybe.

Again, we live in a Christian society.  Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, and is a religious holiday.  In my opinion (and this is the opinion of someone who is thoroughly Jewish, so maybe it doesn't count for much), if you're going to play Christmas music, please, please play the religious songs that have  meaning and depth.

I am so over "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," but if you surprised me with "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," or something similar (sorry don't know all the carols), I could be happy.

Please play your religious songs.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

Dressing for the Sabbath

Dressing for the Sabbath (usually with some music that is Jewish, Hebrew, spiritual or some combination from those categories playing in the background) just might be my favorite moment of the week.  When I dress for the Sabbath, I dress to impress.  My aim is really to please God, but/and I do that by dressing my fanciest.  I wear:

• A fancy skirt.  My winter fancy skirts are a straight, long, black velour and a flared, caramel-colored suede.
• A fancy blouse.  My winter fancy blouses are a pink lacy tank top with matching shrug, a silky blue button-down patterned with birds' nests, and a plain purple top and purple cardigan with gold buttons.
• A ladies' tallit katan.
• Tights to match the top.
• Perfume.
• A big (think hat-size) kippah.  My three big kippot are a wine-colored embroidered velvet, a similarly colored silk embroidered with pink and blue flowers, and a purple and white embroidered with multi-colored birds and flowers.
• Jewelry.

This is my dress-to-impress master plan, so to speak, and I never tire of thinking up variations and combinations that I haven't used before, or not in a long time, and implementing them.  I can only hope that God appreciates my efforts.

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht.

The Night of Broken Glass.

November 9th, 1938.

Considered by many to be the start of the Holocaust.

Kristallnacht was a pogrom carried out by the SA, SS, and related forces against the Jews of Germany and German-occupied lands 67 years ago.  For the first time, Jews were arrested just for being Jewish, and sent to concentration camps, where many died.  Others were released only after they promised to emigrate and transferred their property to Aryans.

And...that is all I have to say.  Just felt I should mark the day somehow.

And...DONE!

Well, I have officially finished my Hannukah gift to myself, my purple flowered tallit katan! Now we wait till Hannukah...Hannukah starts on a Sunday night this year.

And here is a picture, for all who are interested: