It's no longer summer for a teacher

It's started again, that dirty word. Teacher meetings. We started on Wednesday, and this year I made it through the whole meeting without being frustrated at the administration. I can't say that happened today, as I just sent an email to my prinicpal asking him to explain the most studid opening-day schedule that I have ever seen.

Where do these people get this stuff?!

I've had a minute or two to relax this week after last weekend. I converted to Judaism last weekend. I spent an hour in a Beit Din, which is a question/answer session that is really quite grueling. I was nervous through the whole thing. Once that was completed, the three members of the Beit Din, Rabbi Beyer, Mike Medvin, and Pam Zohar went with me to Lamoille Canyon which has to be one of the most scenic places in Nevada for my mikveh. The mikveh is a ritual bath that you take to become purifed. You have to immerse yourself three times. After the first time, you recite some blessings that the Rabbi repeats for you. The second time, the Rabbi sings a quick song, and after the third time, your attendant, (mine was my best friend, Mira Kurka), says a special vow and prayer for you. I have to tell you that the water was the coldest I have ever been in and my toes were numb by the time I got out. This water is mountain glacier run-off. Sooooooo cold.

We then went back to our house where we had a shabbat dinner that was awesome, even if I was the one to cook it. We had grilled portobello mushroom burgers and grilled salmon burgers with artichoke salad that Rob made and a rice and pea salad that I made. We had challah and some smoked salmon that I did on the smoker that Rob's mom gave us. All in all, I think it went very well.

My good friends Walter and Cindy came to Elko with their son Luke. It really meant the world to me that they came. They are lovely and caring people. They stayed with Rob and I and it was such fun.

Saturday we had a ceremony at the presbyterian church. We don't have a synagogue in Elko, we're just too small a community, so we have the presbyterian church. We had a regular Saturday morning service with the conversion ceremony thrown in for good measure. It was a lot of fun. I was called up to the alter and read the blessings for the reading of the Torah and then we relaxed Saturday afternoon after a great Indian meal. For dinner we went to the Star Restaurant (18 of us) and Rob fed us all a great Basque meal. It was a tremendous amount of fun. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Sunday, we got up and took our friends Walter and Cindy and Luke to our friends Mira and Gary's house. It is an amazing house and Walter who is a metal artist is going to do some work for them. It was a lot of fun to see all of the house and Mira's plan for it.

Well, I must finish with my syllabi. School starts on Monday. Have a great weekend.