Being Jewish in Arkansas

Surprisingly, not as difficult as one might think. Although this year's was the smallest Yom Kippur service I have attended by far, we were out of services and breaking the fast about an hour after we headed in for Neilah services. Not bad. 

And everyone was very supportive of our fasting. I say "our," because Chris signed up to fast right along with me, mostly for morally support, and partially (I think) to prove to himself that he could. Which he did. Despite the fact that many around us were cracking open cold ones while Arkansas beat Georgia (for the first time in seventeen years, might I add), we stayed strong. And then later broke the fast with cheeseburgers and milkshakes, and spent much of Saturday night in a food daze.

Other weekend activities included:

Seeing Inception, finally. My three takeaways: 1) Christopher Nolan is a genius. 2) Ellen Page needs a new walk. 3) Cillian Murphy looks exactly like the lead singer from the All-American Rejects.

We also attended a birthday party on Sunday morning for the three members of Chris's family with birthdays in September: his sister, Stephanie, his aunt Laura, and his grandmother. I contributed scones, which I somehow managed to bake while fasting (incidentally, I don't recommend this). We ate, we drank (blood orange mimosas, thank you very much), and there was much gift exchange. Chris and Paul held the fort down as the two males among seven ladies, and after much argument over whether or not Granny-Ma would be allowed to keep her wrapping paper (not, as it turned out), we all headed out to the rest of our day.

Which, for Chris and I, included hosting our first dinner party for four friends of his that I hadn't met. We did pork chops, a chopped salad, bread, beer, wine, and for dessert, a cheesecake. It's not quite cool enough to make use out of our deck yet, but we crowded around our dining room table very comfortably, and ate and ate and ate.

Just realized that, since we broke the fast, we seem to be determined to eat the least Jewishy foods as possible. Cheeseburgers (kosher no-no), with milkshakes (additional no-no), and then, finally, pork. Oh well. I may be Jewish, but I am still in Hog-country!