alexist

They're showing Logan's Run.

Which, according to IMDb, is being remade by Bryan Singer..

If you're one of the few people who still contacts me using ICQ, please consider switching to MSN/AIM/Google Talk. I'm getting spammed a lot lately and I'd like to be able to turn ICQ off, but some people I actually like use it. :)

Check the profile for other IM names....

I'm not feeling quite right. It's odd. I can usually tell when I'm about to get a cold, because I get a sore/tickly feeling in my throat. That's not it, but for the past day and a half, my nose and throat have felt funny. I can't be more descriptive than that.

Other than that, this weekend has been a sleepfest. Literally.

The madness has begun...
My local Waitrose has the Pesach stuff out. (The selection's not bad, actually. British supermarkets, even in North London, don't normally carry a huge range of kosher products, but the Pesach selection is better than I would have expected. As well as the regular Rakusens stuff, and some Israeli items including Pesach Coke, they've even got things like Manischewitz cake mixes.)

Then Friday's Jewish Chronicle had the Pesach supplement (with the list of LBD-supervised products) and of course lots of ads.

From this point on, Jewish balaboostas the world over will be in a cleaning frenzy. Except for those who are going away to avoid the whole mess. ;) This part doesn't affect me so much.

The problem is Pesach itself. I have nowhere to go this year. Pesach revolves around the Seder, or ritual meal, rather than a synagogue service. Every year of my life, bar one, has been spent with my relatives and the Goldberg Haggadah. (The exception was my first year of college, and that was spent at a Hillel-sponsored one.)

There doesn't seem to be any point doing one just for us: Neil won't understand any of it anyway. (Well, he'd understand it literally since haggadot have the English printed on one side, but it wouldn't have any real significance.) I know shuls and communities have hospitality committees for things like this. They even print a list in the JC. But I'd feel so dumb asking. Like a chesed case. And even though we all do chesed gladly--who really wants to have to be the recipient? Plus, it gets awkward with Neil--I don't think he'd want to go to some stranger's house for a Seder he won't understand (leaving the problem of inviting a non-Jew, which can be dealt with) or alternatively, I have to explain why I have a wedding ring but no husband.

So, yeah, one chag I'm not looking forward to. :-( Last year I ended up being glad I did my trip home then; I'd thought I'd like to avoid the whole extended-family shindig, but it was better than the alternative.