Sunday, May 06, 2007
Right now I'm at a friend's in Crown Heights. This trip has been really amazing and interesting, lots of stories to tell.
I arrived Friday afternoon and the bride picked me up from the airport. I ran around with her for a couple of hours and got into Crown Heights about 90 minutes before shabbos. Shabbos dinner was lovely, except the schvartzers across the street were barbecuing/playing music until 1:15 am. Disco, R & B, hip-hop, and even Elvis - which of course prompted a discussion on his Jewish roots.
Shabbos I went to 770 and there was some craziness in the ladies' section. I'm not blogging about it - suffice to say I was shocked. Yaakov jokingly refers to me as "The Meshugener Magnet," because crazy people are generally attracted to me (my theory is because I'm a little nuts myself). After shabbos, I called Yaakov and told him what happened. He reminded me of my nickname, and said it musta happened because I was there...
I basically ran around visiting people all day on shabbos. I spent some meaningful time with some very special people, including my old mashpia. I also went to the shabbos kallah (the party for the bride on the shabbos before her wedding). Everybody was so excited to see me, complimenting me left and right. I need to visit here more often, it's great for my self-esteem! The kallah looked gorgeous and we all had a grand time. Motsei shabbos I ran around with the bride some more, and collapsed into bed around midnight.
This morning I was with the kallah again until about 11am. The highlight of my morning is when she got to da'aven with the Rebbe's siddur. The Rebbe hand-delievered a box of 6 books for brides to use on their wedding day. I had the amazing opportunity to touch, hug, and kiss each one. I could not believe I had the honor of holding seforim that were in the Rebbe's holy hands. After I left the kallah I got to watch the amazing lag b'omer parade on Eastern Parkway! GEVALT! Thousands of Jews! It was awesome. I can't wait to post pictures.
The wedding was amazing. The chosson could not stop smiling. I never saw a groom smile so much. Usually they are somber, as weddings are very intense and holy. But this guy was even smiling away under the chuppah! And let me tell you about that, by the way: I've never experienced a funnier one! At one point, there were 2 five year olds having a little fist-fight. There was also a long delay, as they forgot to bring wine. So the couple is just standing there, mid-ceremony, while somebody ran out to get some. Then - and this has got to be the weirdest thing ever - some chossid walks in mid-way and gives the chosson a tap on the arm and says, "I'm here!" Hello? While the chosson was standing under the chuppah! (Maybe my meshugener magnet was still on?) The chosson just turned to the guy and - you guessed it! - smiled. The wedding was a blast, very leibedik. I even got to meet someone special from "the Jewish blogosphere." (HI!!!)
Late in the day I called Yaakov and said, "Whatcha doing?" "Oh, me and the kids are watching the Shmais.com dreidel-cam." "Is it live?" "Yeah, it's live." "Awesome! I'm going to go stand there and wave to you!" And that's what I did, dear readers. They were all laughing hysterically on the phone as I waved like a looney-tune. I even threw in a few John Travolta finger-points for their amusement (Okay, maybe it was for mine). Several hours later, I realized that ANYBODY could have been watching the dreidel-cam at that time.
I'm a nerd.
Love, Maven @ 
8 Comments:
At 10:31 PM,
Anonymous said…
Please notify us what happened upstairs in 770.
At 7:48 AM,
Ayelet Survivor said…
Hi! ;)
At 8:42 AM,
Anonymous said…
"except the schvartzers across the street were barbecuing/playing music until 1:15 am. "
"Schvartzers"? Really? In 2007?
Hmm..
At 2:03 PM,
Maven said…
Mendy - Sorry, not gonna do it. If you want to read our dirty laundry, you know which websites to go to.
Ayelet - Yeah, that was you.
Anon - are you surprised by the term "schvartzer" or surprised that they were having a loud barbecue until 1:15 am?
At 3:30 PM,
Anonymous said…
why they use of that term?
At 6:09 PM,
Anonymous said…
shvartze - adj - yiddish meaning 'black'. duh.
doesn't mean they weren't being selfish animals, but calling someone black when they are, in fact, black, is none too surprising, eh?
At 5:31 PM,
anonym00kie said…
uh huh
At 11:06 AM,
Anonymous said…
Look, I grew up with Yiddish. We all know the literal translation of "shvartzer".
But we also all know, that it is used in a derogatory way, as a socially acceptable way of saying the "n" word.
At least be honest about it.
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