Kickball!

Sunday was so much fun. Chris B. was organizing a game of kickball at Piedmont, and between me and her, we got 25 people together to play! Before hand, a few of us ate at flying biscuit for breakfast, which was fun since I hadn’t been there in about 2 years (since I was at tech probably). And then at 1:00, we all met at the park, met each other, and divided into teams. I hadn’t played kickball in at least 10 years, if not much longer, but it was so much fun we decided we’d have to do it again soon. While we were playing, Moshe came and used his fancy shmancy new lens to get some great shots from all the way on the sidelines. See his pictures here:

http://www.focalfinesse.com/gallery/3536948

After the game, I went to Trent & Anke’s for dinner, which was delicious, and Anke and I topped it off by going to IKEA. What a fun day!

Last Comic Standing

This is a little late of a post, but on Sunday, Sebastian and I went to the Funny Farm to see comedian Matt Kirshen - who recently made it to almost the end of Last Comic Standing. He was HILARIOUS. I laughed so hard. Anyway, at the end of the show, he posed in a picture with me =) here it is!

Such a Catch.

So, every month or so, the Atlanta Jewish times runs an article titled "Such a Catch" where they feature a single young Jewish person in Atlanta. I got an email a couple months ago that my "friend David" had nominated me for this article, would I like to participate? Sure! that sounded like fun to me. Well, the article came out in this past Friday's times. It's a weekly newspaper, so I figured hey, this is a pretty good week to be in the times since it's Rosh Hashana, and if there's one week a year that people will read the magazine, this is it! I was joking about it with my mom, and she said "if this doesn't get you a date, you'll have to join a convent!" which I thought was pretty funny. Let me clarify though, it's not that I can't get a date, it's just that I manage to get the ...how do you say...less than desirable...ones. Even if this article doesn't get me a date, it was a nice article, and the photo attached was taken by my friend Ethan, who did a very good job =)

I have attached the article in case you don't get the paper (or if you're my mom and want to send a copy of it to every relative across the globe...)

Greg/Rachel's wedding weekend

What a weekend! This weekend was the most fun I've had in a long time, and one of the most amazing weddings I've been to. Greg and Rachel were married last night in Dallas, TX. Greg is a co-GT grad, and has been dating Rachel as long as I've known him. Rachel and I hit it off when we first met, and I am glad Greg married such a great girl. (Pictures are posted here)

The weekend was great. From the tiniest details, Greg and Rachel had planned the whole 3 days start to finish. Now, I am not sure what happened (if anything) Friday, but DZ and I caught the first flight out of Atlanta on Saturday morning because we wanted to get to Dallas in time to go to the Shul and be at the Auf Ruf.

Our plane arrived early, we had no problems getting a car, and we got to shul probably earlier than I normally would when I'm in my own town. I'd forgotten that they attend a Chabad shul, so I wouldn't be able to sit with the guys, and that is when it occurred to me that I was often the only girl in this group, and sat by myself on the women's side for the first half of the time I was there at services. About halfway through though, Rachel being the perceptive host that she is, noticed I was sitting alone and brought me to sit with some friends of hers, so that was nice. After services ended, there was a lovely Kiddush lunch, and I got to say hi to most of the guys who'd come in for the weekend. I always love seeing these guys that I went to college with - they're a fun group. During the kiddush, Greg came around with a bottle of vodka and we did a "l'chaim" with him. Not five minutes later, the rabbi came around and asked if we'd do one with him too. So two shots down, and it was still 1:00 in the afternoon. We knew it would be a long weekend of drinking.

In the afternoon, GT was facing Notre Dame in the football season opener. ND is always a recognized team, and this is the second year in a row we've opened with them. Last year we had a last minute devastating loss, but we were ready this year. We all went to a sports bar across from the hotel to watch. GT pulled through to embarrass the "fighting" Irish, who didn't put up much of a fight - losing 33-3 to GT. We were thrilled.

We went back after the game to get ready for the rehearsal dinner at the hotel. The hotel was the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas. It's a non-chain hotel, and was beautiful inside. It was built in 1892 and has been taken care of meticulously. The rooms are large, the fixtures - quaint but beautiful. As a matter of fact, I heard they used the hotel in the movie Borat for one of the Hotel scenes! All of the hotel that I got to see was gorgeous. Check out the pictures for some of the lobby and the ceiling of the French room.

The rehearsal dinner was for all out-of-towners and members of the wedding party. There were probably 120 people just for that. That's when I realized it'd be a pretty big wedding. We enjoyed the Mexican food, unlimited beer and margaritas, and a lovely movie put together by some of Rachel and Greg's friends. After dinner, we went to a bar near the hotel with a refreshing rooftop terrace. Unfortunately, it was pretty hot outside, so it was pretty much just hot, but still more time to hang out and spend time with everyone.

In the morning, Becca and I had plans to work out in the hotel gym. we followed through with them, as did a few others. After a good workout, we went to lunch with a bunch of people, and afterwards the boys went for a walk, and Becca and I stayed and chatted for a little while in a nearby courtyard. After a few hours, it was time to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was lovely. Before the ceremony, Greg's Tish was in one room while Rachel was in the other. Greg and the rest of the men paraded in for the Bedeken for him to ensure that he was indeed marrying Rachel, and veiled her. This is a long time tradition stemming from the matriarch Rachel when Jacob was deceived into marrying her sister Leah. We then moved into the room where the ceremony would take place, and the decorations were amazing. You could tell Rachel (and probably Greg) spent hours perfecting the final details and making decisions on the smallest of things. After the ceremony, there was a "cocktail hour" with a buffet of everything from Thai to Sushi to Middle eastern food. We weren't sure if we should eat then since the food was so good, or wait for the sit down dinner that was expected an hour later. So we did both. When we entered the reception area, the decorations immediately stood out. The band they'd hired was exceptional. I've never heard a band at a wedding that was this good. There was also a guy that I assume was hired separately who played a lot of the Jewish music at the beginning. After all the Horah dances, dinner was served, and dancing commenced. Hours of enthusiastic dancing later, we benched and the wedding was over. A few of us stayed around for a few more hours in the lobby chatting and joking until we just couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.

This morning was a brunch for the out of towners, which was more welcome food for our mostly hungover crowd. After lunch, we packed up and walked to the area where Kennedy was shot and took a picture, and then hung out and talked more for another hour. At that point, we all had flights to catch, and called it a day and headed for the airport. I have just arrived home and can't believe how well planned out and executed this whole weekend was. Thank you Rachel and Greg for being such a beautiful couple inside and out, and allowing all of us to share in your obvious happiness!!!

Tango.

Beginning the first week in August, I began taking an Argentine Tango class series. I saw Argentine tango for the first time when I was in Argentina back in January. For the most part, people did it for tourists on the street and at shows, but there were also Milongas or dance parties at night, but I never went seeing that I didn’t know how to tango. Upon entering my first class, the first thing I noticed was how many faces looked familiar. About ¼ of the class looked familiar from other dance events I’d been at. I suppose I should have expected that people who dance may do more than one type of dance, but for some reason, I just didn’t think about it. Anyway, I got to my first class, and was surprised by who was teaching. The class is taught by a pair – neither of whom are Argentinian. The lead sounds like he’s from somewhere rural in the south, and the follow has a thick eastern European accent. But they seem to know what they’re doing, and I like their teaching style. Another thing I really like is that they seem like they enjoy dancing. Well, being the girl, my job (as it is in most dances) is to follow. While I think it’s easier to follow than to lead, many guys say the opposite. Basically, we have to figure out what the lead is attempting to do, and follow it. This dance is much more upright than swing dancing. Well, almost all dancing is a lot more upright, but since all I’ve really done in the past is swing, this is different.

I have been doing pretty well in the class learning the footwork and the basics of the dance. I can’t say how good I look doing it, but it feels OK. After the hour long session, there is an “advanced beginner” class that we have the option to stay for. It is essentially an extension of the beginner class with a few variations. They encourage you to stay for the second class, assuming you’re understanding the beginner class. This week (week #4), I didn’t want to stay for the second class because although I do get a few new moves out of it, they do an exercise at the beginning and end of the class that I really don’t enjoy too much, so I was going to blow it off this week. Meanwhile, at the same time as the advanced beginner class, there is an intermediate class going on at the same studio. After changing into my street shoes to leave the studio, my teacher stopped me and asked me to join the intermediate class as a follow. I asked him if he thought my 4 weeks of beginning knowledge would really be enough to jump in halfway into the intermediate class. He said he thought so, so I thought about it for about half a second and joined in. I of course didn’t know a lot of the moves they’d taught earlier in the semester, so I was a little behind, but I picked it up pretty fast, and really enjoyed the class. After it ended, I was so excited, I wanted to come to the class again next week. Let’s see if he lets me =). I spent the next half hour dancing with the teacher learning a few of the other steps I’d missed, and after 150 minutes of straight dancing, my feet hurt and it was time to go home. But I was excited and now of course even more likely to dance more tango in the future.