So someone posted a comment saying they were curious about my life. I’ll warn you all up front… it’s pretty boring. Most days, I spend 12+ hours in front of my computer. But today is Friday. Friday, in my life, is Shabbat. For those not familiar, Shabbat is the Jewish day of rest, and it’s from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday (as opposed to Christianity, where Sunday is the day of rest).

I’m not religious… I was raised religious, and I attended services and Sunday/Monday school through 10th grade, getting both a Bar Mitzvah and Confirmation. I was very active in my synagogue’s youth group… etc, etc. Around the time I went to college, I kinda changed my viewpoint on religion, probably because I actually gave it a good thinking about… but that’s not the point of this post. This is all just explaining back information.

My girlfriend, who many who read this know as Whorli (and now the rest of you may know her as this too), is Israeli. About 2.5 years ago, we both moved to SoCal to be close to her family. And when I say close, I mean that her parents live 3 houses down from us. So each Friday, we walk 3 houses down and have Shabbat dinner with her family. But it’s not 5-6 people around the table… no. It’s 20, minimum, every week. Parents, me&her, 2 siblings, 2 grandparents, 3 aunts & 2 husbands, 4 cousins… that’s base of 16. Then always additional random Israelis… friends, distant family, friends who are called family, etc. It’s crazy. Then to top it all off, it’s the same damn food EVERY Friday, for the past 2.5 years.

So that’s how I spend my Friday evenings most weeks. That is #2 reason that I’m happy about moving back to Philly. Full list of Philly pros/cons for another post.