The Extrovert Chronicles

[dorchadas]

I guess I am an extrovert now.

On Thursday I went to the new member shindig for Mishkan members who had joined within the last few months. I wasn't sure what to expect--it was listed as a Happy Hour and started at 5:30, so I went right after work and didn't bother with dinner--and what I got was prety fun! I quickly ended up talking with a couple who had also gone to Emanuel Congregation for a while and also just kind of stopped going when Rabbi Zedek retired, though in their case, they had gone to his synagogue in Kansas City and that was specifically why they chose Emanuel Congregation, so they had floated around until they found Mishkan. Then the rabbi came out and talked a bit about starting Mishkan as a place for progressive and as-traditional-as-people-want Judaism to co-exist, where people could keep kosher and fight for immigrant rights, or say all the prayers and conduct all the rituals while also being inclusive, which is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. We broke into small groups and discussed the principles of Mishkan, had a tour of the offices (including a small religious school and a self-care-focused space), and then the orientation was over!

I noticed that the office Judaica library had a copy of Michael Carasik's The Commentator's Bible. I listen to his podcast Torah Talk where he mentions the book pretty regularly--I wonder if I could borrow it?

britshlez had invited me to go see a movie as part of the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema, but her choice Israeli Men in Shorts--short films, not what you're thinking--started at 7 p.m., during the Mishkan Happy Hour, and Synonyms, the following film, was sold out. When I asked her if she wanted to meet up afterward she said she'd probably just go home, so I had accepted lisekatevans's invitation to come over and join her and her boyfriend after dinner for drinks. On the way out of Mishkan, though, I checked my phone and saw that britshlez had texted me that there were still some tickets left for Synonyms before she went into the movie, but by the time I checked, she was in the movie, so I went on to lisekatevans's house. When I got there they had just started dinner, lisekatevans having finished her writing project before dinner began. I asked if I could invite britshlez over and lisekatevans agreed, so we stayed up and talked until 12:30 a.m. or so, including lisekatevans and I trying to sell britshlez on the glory of Monstress. We left, britshlez walked me back to the L--realizing when we arrived that it was the complete opposite direction from the way she had to go--and I went home and went to bed.

Most of Friday was taken up by waiting for the plumber, which also ruined my early-evening plans, but I still had the time to make it to the Anime Chicago 13th anniversary meetup at Logan Theatre! There were dozens of people there and I quickly got sucked into a discussion about what our favorite garbage anime that we sincerely enjoy was--I answered Keijo!!, the only time I've ever watched a sports anime

Him: "Did you ever watch it with a good sound system?"
Me: "No."
Him: "It sounds like two pieces of rubber slamming together."

and people started talking about Anime Chicago's Bar Mitzvah since it's turning 13. D3adend and I discussed it a bit but since there was barely any reception in the bar next to Logan Theatre, we couldn't look up the Torah portion so the discussion didn't go very far. I did end up talking to another attendee about purely Jewish issues, though! He told me about going to the High Holy Days at Base Hillel (and it was only now that I realize it's not Beis Hillel [בית הלל, "The School of Hillel"]) and we talked a bit about our practice. I was told I should come back to the manga circle because people were asking after me with the words "Where's Legolas?" and I talked a bunch with people about the upcoming Daishocon trip, got my ride situation squared away--I'm the token Jew (direct quote) in a car otherwise occupied by black people--and then left so I could go home and go to bed early. Ish. Relatively speaking.

I later looked up the Torah portion and it's וזאת הברכה V'Zot HaBerachah, the final parashah of Deuteronomy. So it's totally suitable to make some trippy "the Beginning is the End is the Beginning" anime short.

Saturday I woke up and ate a snack before I left to go to thosesocks's apartment to meet her mother and some of her friends for board games! We played Betrayal at House on the Hill, one of my favorite games, and I think this marks the second time ever that I've played Father Reinhardt without dying! I got lucky with my events and items and had maxed Knowledge and Sanity, which proved vital when the haunt started. One character was obsessed with summoning a ghost, and while we found the ghost's bones and were able to bring them to the graveyard, we couldn't bury it successfully. So even though Ox Bellows (played by thosesocks) successfully killed the traitor, the rest of us were forced to run for the basement in a mad dash to the pentagram chamber while pursued by the ghost and with the house collapsing around us, until Father Reinhardt could confront the ghost and banish it back to whence it came. It came down to the wire and was legitimately exciting. There was even a clear path out of the house when we were done because we won just before the exit would have collapsed! Someone make a horror movie of our game.

I went home, ate dinner, and read for a bit before britshlez texted me about the movie she was watching (The Ugly Truth), which she described as misogynistic garbage. I asked her if she wanted to get together to watch a good movie, and she said:

"Sure if you want to come by. I'm just drinking wine in sweat pants like a total champ. I don't want to stay up til 3am though!"

I left at 3:30 a.m.

Since she had picked the movie last time when we watched Better Off Dead, I checked my tiny stock of DVDs and brought over Dark City, となりのトトロ / My Neighbor Totoro, and 千と千尋の神隠し / Spirited Away. britshlez vetoed My Neighbor Totoro but couldn't decide between the other two, so I picked Dark City. She was very suspicious when I asked her to trust me and skip the first couple of minutes, but eventually agreed, so we skipped past all the spoileriffic opening monologue and imagery that executive meddling forced in and started with the camera zooming in on John Murdoch's hotel room. It was a good choice:

britshlez: "Okay, first of all, this movie is great."

When it was done, britshlez, astonished that the pop culture of my youth basically slid completely off my back, suggested we watch Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, so that was next on the docket, which reminds me of this twitter thread I saw only a few days ago:

just thinking about how Baz Luhrman solved the "how do we put guns in modern adaptations of Romeo and Juliet when they're always talking about swords?" problem by just showing a close up of a gun that had "sword" written on it. Legend.

— ROU Weaponized Transparency (@braak) November 12, 2019

And this tweet out of the thread:

a dramaturg: "Baz, should we be maybe indicating some of these things by allusion or metaphor or something?"

Baz Luhrman: "No."

— ROU Weaponized Transparency (@braak) November 12, 2019

And then we talked for a while afterword, and when I got home it was 4 a.m.

I had a great time, but waking up at 9 a.m. the next morning was not so great.

Sunday afternoon I went to the Sea Shanty Singalong at The Atlantic even though I had a bit of a cold--ordering a hot toddy as thosesocks suggested really helped my throat get back into singing shape--and then when that was done, I walked over to Burke's on Broadway to meet pinandstutter for drinks and to talk about the last year or so of our lives. It's the first time I've ever met up with a solid bro for drinks, and I kind of wish I liked beer just for the sheer classic image that would have resulted. But the gin-based drink I got was good too. After he was done eating and I was done drinking, we walked up to Lickity Split to get some maple custard, and then we went our separate ways. I went home and did a couple chores and then went to bed.


This week is a short week, since I leave on Thursday for Daishocon. Full report on that when I get back!

Comments

[earthspirits]

Except for having to deal with the plumber, this all sounds fascinating and lots of fun! Glad you had such a good time!

[dorchadas]

The plumber telling me I was right and it was totally broken kind of made up for it, but losing a whole day wasn't great.

Staying up to 4 a.m. was pretty fun, though!

[helvetica]

Hehe wow you really are an extrovert! Sounds like so many fun activities. A sea shanty singalong truly sounds amazing!

[dorchadas]

There's one every month! ...at least one, anyway. I know there are others out there, but I only go to one. I have too much else to do!