We Make Choices

6:21 PM - Just got a ride home, followed by a shorter walk than some rides lead me to (3 blocks versus the usual 15). I'm sitting, eating salmon, listening to the news report about Charles Rangel being found guilty on 11 counts. It's an interesting case. His side of the story (as explained by an NPR reporter) is that he broke rules in the context of being overzealous rather than corrupt. He plans to run again for a high profile position and not to go down without a fight.

6:41 PM - Finished my Chop Chop dinner. Very good. Thinking about my day. One student told me he's a deist - thinks G-d created the world and then stopped existing. Another student hung out and started to become comfortable enough to talk a bit more than before. I had to send out a few progress reports. Sigh. I wrote a massive review sheet for my 12X Gemorah class. I davened ma'ariv at work. I remembered to forget to say kaddish. Tonight I have to write the test. I discussed Noach in my 3 Chumash classes today. One class has a hard time getting the ideas, another class gets them in time, and the third class guesses and asks about all the next logical steps before I can say them.

10:12 PM - Yesterday I found out last minute that I didn't have a ride to work. It was my last day of saying kaddish, I was to have the amud the whole time. It was too late to get another ride. I cabbed it. I got there in time to say kaddish but didn't get my tefillin on till right before Baruch Sh'Amar. So I took over at Yishtabach.

As I was writing the above I got a call back about a ride for tomorrow. This ride provider sometimes tells me five minutes later than the planned time.

I'm still working on that test for tomorrow. I'm still processing today , and yesterday, and...

10:53 PM - Here's a thought on Parshat VaYishlach. I'm taken by this idea of being aloneness.

Now it's time to turn toward sleep.

We make choices

We breathe and time passes

We become ourselves