just LIVE it (with a side of Griffin)

My big weekend went great! On Sunday morning, I left for the 1.5 hour drive to my nearest Reform synagogue. When I arrived at the meeting for current/prospective converts, I was met by the rabbi, a couple and their younger daughter and a a ten year old girl. Definitely a spread. I won’t go into too much detail because I am crunched for time (and it would likely be tedious information for most of you), but it was really great to go. The couple has actually been on the path to converting for a couple years now and will go through the bet din and mikveh in a few months. The young girl (even I was skeptical at first) got interested in Judaism a couple years ago. The rabbi actually turned her away several times (telling her she was too young) but she has been very persistent and is active in the children’s education program at the synagogue.

Long story short, we all talked about our experiences that had led us to this point in our lives. Turns out the couple actually lives in a town that’s about an hour away as well, which gave me a little more feeling like “Yeah, this is do-able.” They and the rabbi reinforced that it is definitely a commitment, but well worth it. When I asked the rabbi about the requirements for converting through her synagogue so I could get started, she replied, “Just start living it!” She suggested that I come to the Learner’s Minyan that they hold once a month (mostly for b’nai mitzvah students) that would help me learn about the meanings of the prayers. She was really understanding about the time and money going into driving and said that my goal should be to attend two services a month. She also said that if I planned on coming for a weekday holiday or if I ever wanted to attend a Friday evening service, she could set me up with a family to stay with so that I wouldn’t have to drive home late at night. Other than that, I’m meant to start “doing Jewish” as much as possible at home, including celebrating holidays and observing mitzvot. I’m planning on attending the Saturday minyan this weekend which will be really exciting. Funny thing is, this congregation is in the middle of building a new synagogue, so they meet for services at various local churches or the Ronald McDonald house across the street. So, I won’t have my first real synagogue experience for awhile.

Anyway, I talked to one of my supervisors about this today (the only one who knows about my plans to convert and who I’m getting to be friends with) and shared that I am going to start being observant of Shabbat by not working from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday. Since our office is only open Monday through Thursday, this really only affects the “on-call phone” that I get on a three week rotation, but it will affect everyone so I figured it was fair to let her know. She was really understanding and really excited for me, which was great. I’ll admit I don’t expect my other co-workers to be quite as good about it, but I guess we’ll see.

Expect a post on Shabbat observance in the next couple of days. I will be needing some advice.

Anyway… onto Griffin! I’ve posted the first few photos to Flickr, so check that out. He is adorable and cuddly and cute. Hanna was not having any of that for the first few days, so Griffin stayed in the kitchen whenever I was gone or at night. But lately Hanna’s resistance has gone from angry, adamant snarling to lazy, last-second hissing just to keep up appearances. She was truly on edge at first, but on the second day you could tell that Griff just wanted to be friends. He follows her everywhere and when she hisses he just meows back pathetically as if to say, “But I just wanted to sit by you.” Griffin definitely finds me much less interesting that he finds Hanna. He would rather spend 4 hours being rejected and ignored by her than 10 minutes cuddling in my lap. Which I think is a good sign.

I’ve also determined that having two cats does indeed make one a “crazy cat lady.” First of all, you have to be on the edge of sanity to even consider a second cat. Once you’ve exceeded that threshold, any semblance of reasonable thinking is out the window.