Dinner with Steven and Bradley

After all the furor and garbage burning in Jerusalem over the scheduled gay pride parade a few weeks ago, me and yitz (yitz.com) decided to prance around town like a couple of chubby bear buddies on vacation in the holy land ("oh, that Jesus is cute, but thorns are so pase...").

The only thing is that any real gay guy, even a chubby bearded one, would have better style than me. Those jeans are a wreck-- I seem to have lost about 23 pounds over the past few months (Mazal Tov!!-- through no apparent effort of my own, no dietary or exercise effort, that is; Alice, my naturopath, says the weight has slipped off because I "no longer need it to protect me." Spiritual/Emotional Dieting! Now THERE'S a book that would sell in L.A. {Jenn...?})... as i was saying, i seem to have lost a bit of weight (about 11% of my body mass, in fact), and so my mildly baggy jeans suddenly are just shlumpy. The worst was the other day when I went into town with the outfit in the photo, but with a blue sweater and a brown, African-style boxy kippah-- for some reason, the combined effect shouted: "Total Dork on Safari."

The truth is, that yitz and I hung out for dinner with no gay costuming strategy. But when we got out of his car, we were horrified to discover that we were dressed exactly the same. I wonder if the haredi guys ever have a moment like that (Aw man! Yossele is wearing black and white today too! I'm going home to change.).

Going to see the new Scorcese flick tonight. It will be fun to read the subtitles. I have yet to learn how to really cuss or kick in someone's head in Hebrew. [NOTE: film people have the pretention of calling a filmmaker a "filmmaker" and using his last name... "Scorcese's work is really flar blar blah blar blar compared to the early Copolla stuff..." Industry folks use nicknames on the first name: "Yeah, Marty's been out of it for a while, but at least he hasn't vanished the way Frank did... ]

A Little Sucky

ugh-- i tried to post the other day, and bargled the whole thing, and got in trouble for inappropriate posting. THEN, i sent a bitchy email to five people, whining that they ignored my mom on her birthday, and found out that 2 of them had NOT ignored her.. Meanwhile, the promised Renaissance of Wanderingstu.com has yet to happen, and NO ONE has bought my car yet.

It all is somehow linked to the fact that i ate no turkey on Thanksgiving.

Were you at my Thanksgiving in August in Oakland, CA, year 2000?
Those were the classic days.

Stick with me friends, I'll come around soon!!!

3 weeks until Chanukah!

Just to Say

Shabbat Shalom, my friends.

I have been reviewing the blog this week, once via a guided tour with a friend, another time by tracing the comments of a new friend. And besides remembering how much I enjoy crafting words for all of you, I was also reminded how much I love having all y'all scurvy scalawags in my life.

Which is why I started this thing in the first place.

I have to go and shower and cook Quinoa with scallions and Pine Nuts (Tznobar in Hebrew) for the pre-wedding Shabbat celebration of my yeshiva-mate and fellow Broward County son, Pesach Ben Tzion Rothberg.

Take care.

i want to , i need to

but it just isn't hitting that flow at the moment.....

sorry it's been slack lately. signal issues don't help, nor does a busy schedule and bad time management and my general running-aroundness.
i just was reading some old wanderingstus, from last month and last year-- it's good stuff folks, you're right.. so i will try to keep it up more so, and more deep and real as well.

i've been toying with the idea of doing more thinking here on the page, and less brooding...
_____
so what's new?

here at yeshiva, I've been pushing into the Zman (Hebrew for "semester" or "learning term"), wrestling with issues of freedom and tradition, openness and boundaries, milk and meat. finding the deep, glorious core of grandiosity that is this creature they call Shimshon Stuart (Bennett) Siegel. Fighting apathy, both within and without. Stacking cans of mushrooms and jars of tahina (my work-study duties). Sleeping later than I'd like. Making nice with friends, getting deeper and closer as we experiment together with these two crazy ideas: Life and Torah. Or is that just one idea.

Pesach Ben Tzion (a/k/a Zack Bennett Rothberg), the other South Florida guy here (also Rav Daniel Kohn is from Pompano), is getting married in a week. He asked me to be the announcer at his wedding. This will be my third wedding as the Man with the Microphone. I think I am also doing my roommate David Fuchs' wedding in December, and then I will be kicking a little Hocus Pocus at Jason and Sarah's wedding in Palm Beach in Florida. For a guy who is so intimately involved in so many weddings......

(you finish the sentence)

A fair price to pay

Many restaurants in Israel don't even offer it at all.

Anyway, a cute shot from somewhere in New York last April. Did a little survey of photos from my trip to New York, found myself missing lots of people, and wondering about communication over long distances, the reality/necessity of being in frequent contact with dear ones, and the role that nostalgia plays in mythologizing the past.

Then I ate a whole container of cottage cheese.

I have not been feeling so bloggy lately; it comes and goes in phases. I wonder if there is really a point to doing this anymore-- to do it without a "drop of service" would probably present itself as bland weekly updates on my life. To put heart and soul into "The 'stu," as it's fondly called by many, would mean.... what would it mean?
_______
Ah yes-- important news: Esta figured out how to make an overseas call. She called me. That was great. For real.