Gassel wedding

I went to the Gassel wedding in Abu Gosh last night. turns out there was a bus provided by the gassels to get to the wedding, which i was able to use coming home, but they didn't let me know and i used public transportation, which wasn't egged, but superbus #185, which the place didn't tell me, but egged told me and involved a few phone calls and much worries and worrying mom because of the weiss's who were going to be there.

i said hello to the weiss's at the wedding. nate didn't even say hi though i was 18 inches away from him, but leah responded friendly.

the batemans were there, david and beverly and their presence changed the affair from a negative to a plus (a mild plus, but a plus nevertheless). the place was very nice. lorin was quite nice. ray repeats things and hardly ever says anything interesting. debbie more or less waits him out. rafi seemed to appreciate my gift. ( i think i gave tzvia a hundred more shekels, which was before i even knew that lorin knew about my sin. their wedding was two and a half years ago. only wedding regret i should have gone to shrader's wedding.)

beverly is selling real estate. (what a waste that such a creative person should be doing something so mercenary.) when i said i wasn't working, she said that sucks, which is true in terms of adjusting to living here that it sucks.

i talked openly to bateman, even mentioning the split between aryeh and me. he has covered the be fruitful and multiply side and all i need to do now is accomplish something. he is out of the rabbinate and he said it was addictive, the hero worship part of it. the upshot of all my copying down of my autobio and writing about aryeh is that he spooks me.

her cousin in ezras torah is rich, and her cousin's mother is both upset that he didn't make more money and also didn't become a talmid chochom.

money, money, money was all beverly really talked about. except her exception with the "i can't sit next to a woman who's not my wife". the couple from shilo who arrived there on erev yom kippur three years ago after a short stay in har nof, who invited me to sleep in their son's room. their son is a renaissance man who studies music at a high school yeshiva geared towards music (in the territories). they were the ones who told me about the bus that was leaving and "saved" me from the experience of waiting for the superbus out in abu gosh.

the woman who i met at gassel's a few purim's ago and who was at the wedding of tzvia. (little gassel, i called her) and who lives on karnei shomron, didn't recognize me which is no great loss to me.

i sat next to a lawyer from minneapolis who had spent many years in chicago, who set up a business for israelis who then fired him and he told me of various hiring and firing shennanigans by israeli companies and his wife is now cleaning homes and he is watching money that he saved (not that mommy and daddy gave me, but that i earned and saved) dwindle away.

someone announced that there had been a bris of his grandchild on yom kippur and i wondered how the mohel did metzitza. (beverly drinking tempted me to drink, but the yetzer tov won out and i drank coca cola instead.)

how old are you? beverly asked. i hesitated. you can say. finally i got 55 out, and i was a year younger than she and david. but can i still have a slice of bread. i look young for my age.

the corned beef at the smorgasbord was to be chewed and spit out. the meat at the meal was better than that.

the rabbi who read the ketuba dissed abu gosh and said yeah for kiryat yearim or anavim or whatever.
the lawyer next to me, predicted sharia as the system of government for sweden in a few years.

i didn't have all that much to say to beverly and david or ray and debbie and found a seat when they wanted to start the chupa although i sat ten minutes before the crowd was sufficiently subdued. i had brought my knapsack with me, which was a pain in the butt, but i pulled out my dictionary and read.

after going to the bank this morning, i saw klitsner at the mega and said hello. kind of awkward. i gave him my phone number. "we were talking about when to invite you." he wished me a good kvitel (chasidic connections) . first time i ever talked to someone in the mega, have spoken to people in the mall.

i got a sruga yarmulka at the wedding.

the guy next to me hoped i wouldn't make yerida. bateman's hero worship got me thinking about becoming a rabbi. comments about the rabbi's anti abu gosh comment got me thinking about my future as a prominent leftist in israel.