A Radical Sabbatical

In all the years I’ve been making Rosh Hashana lunch for my friends, I always had to compete with work to prepare the meal.  I would shop and prepare various dishes for several days before the holidays, rarely putting any real effort into it because I was forever tired.  It became a chore and it was no longer enjoyable.  In the end, I usually landed up running to Tov U Mativ for chickens and feeling like I let myself down.

This year, having 23 guests (not counting the one year old), I had more than amble time to plan a menu, strategize the table settings and all I had to hope for, was that the weather would turn out pleasant.  At least pleasant enough to put everyone outside on the deck for lunch and have a radically good time.

How much luckier could I get this week? I left all the cooking for Wednesday, something I rarely did in the past.  Lunch would be on Thursday but all my preparation work would be complete by Wednesday.  Being on a sabbatical certainly has its advantages when you’re having company.

Thursday arrived and the weather was gorgeous.  I think my friends saw our plates, silverware and wine glasses for the first time….lol.   I wanted everything used.  The flowers were beautiful, the table settings were pretty and the company was terrific.  Only thing that would have made this day perfect would have been if Thaniel were home and part of the New Year celebration. 

Though the years have certainly taken a toll on me, there was a deep satisfaction in being able to prepare a meal for 23 people from beginning to end. Sure there are people out there who do this simultaneously while working full time jobs.  But I never admitted to being superwoman and I’m the first to admit, its alot less stressful to do all of this when you don’t have another job on your back.

Oh yea, the food was pretty good too. I decided to drop the traditional meal and go a bit radical with cerviche, vegetarian stew, Israeli couscous, mushroom quinoa, BBQ’ed Salmon, moroccan chicken with hot and sweet tomato sauce and a bowl of new fruit.  .  .  .  yea, there’s a time to cook and a time to prepare but the best time is when you’re on a sabbatical.

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Hmmm, my college son tells me not to wait until the last minute to study.  Today is Friday and it’s already 7:32 p.m. and I haven’t picked up my Spanish textbook to review for the test.  The test is this Monday.  Have I waited to long? or will the material absorb better at this rate if I start studying now?  I think I’ll do what I use to do, put the textbook under my pillow…..and hope osmosis works.

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OMG, I have not studied for a test in years.  No, I take that back, I have not studied for a test in three decades (that sounded alot worse).  I have a Spanish quiz on Monday and an Anatomy test on Wednesday.  I am actually trying to figure out what to tell the Professor of my Anatomy class if I bail out on Wednesday.  I came up with the following excuses:

-my bird ate the pages of the book I was suppose to study from and while he did that, the book fell and knocked my computer off the table and therefore I could not access the notes that the Professor put up on the blackboard.

-my uncle died and I was very close to him

-my aunt died and I was very close to her

-I got food poisoning over the holidays and couldn’t study

-I cooked for the holidays and accidentally spilled borcht all over the books

-The kids needed my attention and I couldn’t study

-My husband needed my attention and I had to choose between him and studying so I flipped a coin and he won

-I had company over the holidays.  As we were leaving for tashlich, I realized we had no bread so we took all my notes to use in place of the bread.  The notes went into the ocean for a very good cause. 

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