Weekend in Northampton: Friday

On Friday morning it was sunny and fairly warm. We woke up on the early side and headed to The Green Bean, a local, mostly vegetarian place that opened up my senior year. They serve awesome breakfast and lunch in a sunny spot.
I had Green Eggs and... which I had with this sort of smoked tempeh that I just love. Don't get me wrong, I usually find tempeh about as appealing as, well, fermented soybeans, but there is something about the Green Bean's that is so tasty! They also use it on their V-BLAT (vegan bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato sandwich with homemade vegannaise). Anyways, my breakfast was a scramble of chopped up kale, eggs, cheddar cheese and spices. With the tempeh on the side. Sarah got the monumental and delicious huevos green beanos.
It has kale, black beans, homemade salsa, scrambled eggs, tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, and sour cream in a delectable heap. We watched an adorable 2 1/2 year old flirt with the table next to her. We smiled incessantly at eachother, so joyful to be at the same table in the sun.

We spent some time poking around a few shops in Northampton. I replaced my rainbow bumper sticker at Pride Connection. The warm colors had faded away on the old, and I was left with green, blue and purple. Pride Connection had done some re-decorating. I like it.
We stopped in CVS for some drugs, and saw this on the pharmacy counter.
Click on the photo to read the list. Apparently this basic surgical mask protects against HIV, Hepatitis (all 3 kinds!), and Ebola, in addition to H1N1 flu. This is nothing short of miraculous, as HIV, Hep and Ebola are NOT spread by droplet or air transmission. Bottom line: don't pay 3 bucks for a surgical mask that makes outrageous anti-infection promises. And go the CDC flu website if you have questions about H1N1 flu.

We had lunch with Rabbi Bruce at KCZ (Kosher Cutter Ziskind. I helped coin this acronym, I might add). Nothing like Michelle's matzah ball soup. Headed to the chapel afterwords and visited with Maureen and Kim, the chapel's wonderful admin staff. Unfortunately, Jennifer was home sick, but I did get to take this photo as we walked back to Wesley.

Also this one, which resulted when I tried one too many times to get a nice photo of Sarah. This is known as the hairy eyeball.

At Chris W-Z's suggestion, we checked out Ford Hall, Smith's brand new (Gorgeous!) science and engineering building.

The biochemistry and molecular biosciences departments/labs moved over there along with the engineering program and computer science. The labs are so nice! Chris has a wonderful new space, with a huge area for RNA work. And the SAW lab (where I did STRIDE for 2 years) has offices for all of its adult staff, as well as a great lab facility. I am so happy for everyone that they now have this updated and spacious facility.

One of the things we did on Friday was admire the fall foliage around Smith campus. We took pictures of eachother, and then Celeste appeared and offered to play photographer.


In lieu of tea in Wesley, Sarah and I sat in Haymarket with lattes and a dark-chocolate chunk cookie. We have our best conversations at a table over food. Sarah told me all about her thesis. I am continually amazed by how good she is at Torah study and critical analysis. It is wonderful to hear how excited she is by this research and writing process.

On our way back to Wesley, Celeste again materialized to photograph us before we changed for Shabbat.I led Shabbat services, from our new and spectacular siddur (Sbolts you rock my socks!) We started making this siddur in the spring of 2006, gathering poems and readings from other siddurim and books of poetry. And now it is real. Leading services in Dewey common room, in the small circle of friends felt like home. I missed the tunes, the willingness to do an alternative reading instead of a mumble-version of a prayer, the laughing and ease. And we even got to sing "Shabbat Feeling." It felt like Shabbat.

It was my first time at the Kosher K (for more than 10 minutes) since I graduated. I felt removed, but not freaked out. It felt really strange to be there without Nora and Sbolts, my constants every Friday for 4 years (Dane, I missed you too).

After dinner, we headed home just as the Haven-Wesley haunted house was wrapping up. We forced Rosie to wash the make-up off her face and ate chocolate mints from Trader Joe's while sitting on the couch by the door. I missed the Haven couches dearly. After Rosie left, Sarah read me Harriet the Spy for ages while I curled up in her lap. It was wonderful.