Shidduch Shabbos
I went out with Shira tonight. We got some pizza and saw Ocean's Eleven. It's a pretty good movie although there were places where it just didn't quite make it in believability. I think I want to rob a casino now.
This weekend I spent in Ann Arbor for the "Shidduch Shabbos" event that U of M Hillel was having. Part number one was finding some place to stay. I asked Rick D, Ezra's friend, if I could stay with him, and he said it was fine. So I got there about an hour to Shabbos, changed and got ready, and went to Hillel.
We davened Mincha and Ma'ariv, and headed down for dinner when the other groups were done with their services. I found my place card sitting on a table, and found my way to table 5. I thought that the table seating arrangements were set up somehow relating to the questions that I'd answered. I'm still not sure about that one. Going counter-clockwise from me, on my right was a guy and then a girl who were obviously a couple, as they were staring at each other and talking constantly. Continuing, there was a girl (who I've seen at some lunches but whose name I can't remember now), then another girl (Dalia, who I remember from last year). Then a significantly older guy and girl. And there was an empty seat on my left.
I didn't get to talk much during dinner. The pair on the left were talking to each other, the couple on the right were holding hands while they were eating with their free hands, and it's kinda hard to talk across the table. I ended eating mostly in silence.
As the meal was ending, a whole bunch of printouts were dumped on the table outside. Everyone who'd answered the questionnaire had a slip listing the names of the people who'd matched their answers the best. I'd written on my questionnaire that I was interested in senior and grad student girls. Well, it didn't seem that there were any grad students who signed up, and there were six senior girls who did.
One was the girl two seats to my right; she was thrilled that her boyfriend and her had matched each other so well. One was the girl sitting next to her--I think I remember her saying something about a boyfriend. One was Dena S, who's seeing someone. One was Shoshanna C, with whom I'd tried several months ago to instant message but kept getting blown off. And the other two weren't even there. After dinner was "Singled Out", where the students were asking terribly unoriginal questions ("What ice cream do you like--and why?"), although one particularly clever guy asked, "What's your favorite plague--and why?" After that was an oneg where it was quite crowded when I got there, I didn't get to talk to anyone much and didn't end up feeling so hot.
Saturday went better. I prayed in the morning, and spent the afternoon sitting around Rick's apartment talking with his roommates and some people who came by. That's the closest thing I've had in quite a while to chatting with people my own age and it was pretty good. Then was Mincha, where I got to read the Torah since it was my Bar Mitzvah parsha, Ma'ariv, and then I went home.
Would I go again for Shabbos? Actually, I would. Just not on a weekend where there is a backdrop of people who aren't actually single signing up for a singles matching weekend to make everything uncomfortable.