Mazel Tov

Shabbat Shalom....and other Hebrew words that I don't completely understand.

I went to a Bar Mitzvah yesterday for Justin Dekelbaum. Deb deals a lot with Justin's father Larry and Grandpa Max. All lovely people by the way.

The event was in Potomac Md. So we had to get up early and drive. We got there with a few minutes to spare and went in to the temple service. It was 9 am. Not many people there, so I didn't think it would be too bad of a gig.

Time passed...

A LOT of time passed.

3 hours and 15 minutes later it was all over and young Justin was now a man. The service was actually more interesting than boring. With the small exception that I don't understand a word of Hebrew. But I'll stop kvetching.

I could never be a Jew. It's really a lot of work. The Torah's that were provided had an english translation. They say a few lines of prayer, have to bow left right then center, say a few more lines, bow, take 2 steps back. It's a lot of work.

Then there's all the acoutrements. They have a bag with a robe they have to wear. There's the standard Yarumulke (Jew Beanie).

Imagine how many people would show up at the local 1st Lutheran if you told them they needed special clothes and had to learn a language, as well as have a ton of money. :)

The service is interesting tho. They save money on an organist by doing the whole gig acapella. A lot of milling around and chit chat. Since I didn't know what I was doing I didn't really understand. My Jew guide (Deb) was separated from me upon entering the chapel.

So we went and had a nice catered, stand up lunch in the lobby. We talked to Larry and got some directions and headed to the mall.

We managed to kill a major chunk of time. Hit the Apple store (think Video IPod for me folks) and Sharper Image (Roboraptor!) to mention a few. Then headed out to the parking lot and caught a quick nap.

We went back to the temple around 7 and found the bar. Deb found a wine she REALLY liked and I was having Grey Goose and OJ. I see what all the fuss is about. This guy filled a glass up half with GG and it tasted like straight OJ, I shit you not. They had a sushi bar set up, a mashed potato bar, a mini cup of soup bar and a band in the lobby.

The kids had a room where they could make their own pixy stik art. They had 2 big projection screens that they could play video games on. I should mention that Justin and his family like to deep sea fish, so the theme of the evening's festivities was fish and the ocean. Both vid games were Sega Deep Sea Fishing 2003 or something like that. The kids also had a french fry and onion ring bar set up.

They then hustled us into the main event room (still in the temple, folks). I guess around 300 people in all. A large balloon archway covered the dance floor. The band had now moved inside. A 4 piece that covered jewish standards and cranked them up a bit, not bad, actually. Facing the bandstand at the other end of the dance floor was Justin's name in balloons and a Disc Jockey.

We sat with folks that work for Larry. The man has 3 businesses, Food Distribution, Restaurant and Catering. So naturally he catered his own event. The guy is a ball of energy, moving all over the place.

They started dancing crazy right away. (An open bar helps, folks) The tables were done with a tackle box full of gummy worms and candy fish. Each place had a fish shaped caribiner as a gift, and Deb wrangled a fish shaped pen. Now that I think of it, we could have gotten 2 more.

Anyway, the 1st course comes out. It looked like a fish, meat and chicken kabob. But when you started, you find out it's all fish. And very tasty.

They brought a red and white wine around to the tables. I preferred to refer to both as battery acid.

They had some kid games so the adults could get more lit. Then we heard "The Stations are open" Turns out there were about 10 courses total if you wanted. Chicken or Meat of some type in peppers and onions (very tasty), Chinese, Chicken breast, Prime Rib, Filet Mignon, etc. It was quite the spread.

We got desert, which was the coolest. They had a boat made out of chocolate with a chocolate sail. There was mousse inside the boat and it set on a "sea" of blue tasty stuff. In the sea were a few small candy fish and a gummy fish. Very neat.

I would be amiss to my regular readers if I didn't describe 2 VERY attractive women that were there. One, seated to my right, was the spitting image of Claudia Black. One to my left was a cross between Eva Longoria and Pat Benatar. Very nice.

We drove home and made it in exactly 2.5 hours. That's interesting, because I've always gone a different way to DC and it takes about an hour more. It's nice to know we can get down there, cause the mall we went to has shops on a par with King of Prussia.

Ok, enough from me. Sorry I've been so late posting, hope this makes up for it.

Cya