MHSeattle, Neal Schindler, 9/18/2008

Life at the house is good. I made wasabi ice cream today, with help from Masha, and one other person liked it enough to have seconds. We've had a bunch of events lately -- last week saw a Tuesday potluck, a Thursday coffeehouse, and Shabbat dinner -- and I find that eating the right amount is becoming hard. So much good food so often, in such a comfortable social setting; I'm afraid I'll regain the "freshman fifteen" my housemates have warned me about. On the other hand, what would a tight-knit Jewish community be without lots and lots of food?

I'm kind of amazed sometimes that within the space of just a few months I've become part of this vibrant, fun community full of smart, entertaining, kind people. I'm blogging late at night, so I should probably save further, more grandiose thoughts for later, but I wanted to say that more than three weeks after moving in, I'm still really glad I did. And I think it had to be this way -- I had to spend six and a half years in Seattle before I could comfortably move toward my Jewish identity in such an overt, meaningful way.

Quick update on the Israeli film series: The first film will now be "Sweet Mud," since "The Galilee Eskimos" is still on the festival circuit and therefore tough to get ahold of. October's film will be the widely praised (and Sukkot-appropriate) "Ushpizin," and in November we might screen "Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi," which Masha really likes. There's a particular projector I've got my eye on for the house, but we'll have to see whether it makes sense to buy one new. For September, we'll borrow one from Mo Fine, a community member who's also a filmmaker in her own right.

Tomorrow I have lunch with Leyna Krow from Jew-ish.com, the site I'm currently blogging for, and meet in the evening with members of the committee in charge of reviving Seattle's Nextbook literary salons. The first one in the 2008-09 series, scheduled for Oct. 23, is about sex, and I'm reading Neurotica to prepare for it. I like how the components of my newfound Jewish life -- Moishe House, Jew-ish.com, Nextbook -- overlap naturally and freely. And I like that I'm blogging more, even if the fact that our Wi-Fi is strongest at night means I'm often doing it after 1 a.m.