tomorrow is yom kippur. i have stuffed myself full of my favorite vietnamese food and am now close to vomiting. (and no, i don't intend to vomit. i don't belong on one of those sort of boards.) i won't be in shul, though. i have workmen coming over, and i have tons of work to do. i will set aside time, as i like to do, to contemplate the year and think of ways in which i can be a better person. (anyone who has suggestions, feel free to let me know. i might even pay some attention to said suggestions.) it does remind me of past yom kippur holidays where i spent the time unusually.

one year, i made the fatal error of not checking the calendar before my husband bought plane tickets and game tickets to see the Cleveland Indians play in their old stadium, just before the new one was completed. upon realizing said error, there was really nothing else i could do except sit in a cold, dank ballpark, smelling food all around me, and praying. pretty unorthodox, but hey, gotta give me credit for following through. by the time i was to break fast, we were in a Sfuzzi Restaurant and i was nearly eating the table cloth.

then there was the year that i also neglected to buy tickets because i had a job that somehow could not afford me to take the day off. so into work i went. at the time, i inhabited a windowless office in the US Department of Education that i shared with a gentleman who thought he was essentially smarter and better than the rest of us. that alone would be penance for any evil done during the year you'd think, right? wrong. for i allowed said southern gent the ability to play the country music station all day long. i don't believe in hell as a concept, incidentally, but if there is one, then they are surely playing WMZQ there.)

let's hope next year is a happy, healthy, and peaceful one.