I'm not a boy to kiss and tell, so you only get the following synopsis: Indian food, very long walk in the park, introducing Avishai to parts of the city he never knew about, olive trees, holding hands, hedgehogs, sitting on a park bench with arms around shoulders to ward off the cold, lots and lots of talking about religion, music, relationships, and a really very long good-bye.

Yum.

So I really have to thank Avishai for introducing me Elroy, my most gracious host for this past Friday night Shabbos feast. I had a great time and made some nice new friends. It was the first time I had the fortune to spend a Shabbos meal at a table surrounded entirely by gay men, and I must say I like the feeling of fitting in. The five of us spanned a religious spectrum from strongly Orthodox-identified to non-Jewish, and the languages spoken around the table included Hebrew, English, and Dutch. So we formed a nice little rainbow. Elroy's cooking was amazing; elegant, rich, and delicious. One of us facetiously asked why he wasn't married already.

In the morning, I davened at the kotel and had lunch with Rebecca and Avraham and Ashira. Ashira never fails to astound and delight me with the way she shifts moods between bubbling, independent liveliness and focused, intense fascination with all things mechanical. After a nice long nap, I finished off Shabbos with a visit to the Brodt's overcrowded-as-usual Seudat Shlishit table. I thought I was overdue for a visit, and it was nice to catch up.

Tonight, I went to the Jerusalem Open House to catch their monthly meeting for English-speakers. I met a lot of warm and friendly people there, and found the staff there to be very nice. The topic of the meeting was the upcoming World Pride week here in Jerusalem. I got a lot of really useful information out of the meeting, and I succumbed a bit to their appeal for volunteers. (I should be able to help guide people around at the Multifaith Conference on Wednesday, the day after Seth and Rachel's wedding.) The event seems to be shaping up to something really exciting, something with a lot of substance. Unfortunately, one of the consequences of the war on the northern border is that the Jerusalem police force won't have enough humanpower to provide adequate security, so the parade part of the week is being postponed. But we are determined that the march will go ahead as planned as soon as the crisis is quelled.

After the meeting, I stuck around for some schmoozing and got myself invited to Friday night dinner in the neighborhood of Catamon. And after that, I went out for dinner with a cutie from the meeting named Avishai, which went quite well. Seems like there could be some real chemistry here.

The week's winding to another end. I'm spending Shabbos in Maale Adumim at Jacob Laderman's house, Seth and Rachel are in Efrat, and I presume Rebecca and Avraham and Ashira are spending Shabbos in the apartment they're renting in the Old City of Jerusalem. I saw Steve off this morning at the bus station on his way to the airport. We celebrated his last night here with a pint of Haagen Dazs, followed by a stroll around town to work off the resulting sugar buzz. It's too bad that the sudden war kept me from showing him a better time here, but I think he still got his money's worth. :)

Not much else to mention. I'm getting fairly settled into the routine of living at Seth's apartment. I stopped by the Jerusalem Open House earlier in the week to pick up a flier listing their upcoming activities. I figure I might as well try to have a social life while I'm here.

Sunday's headache had the good grace to stay away. Didn't do much yesterday besides go to yeshiva and work and nap away the hottest part of the day. Very fortunately, the yeshiva managed to get the dorm boys settled in a decent place in Jerusalem that will be able to take them in for as long as the fighting lasts up north, so today's classes actually took on some semblance of normalcy.

Last night marked the first of what should be many happy Pearson/Siegel family get-togethers. Rachel and Jacki and their mom and I met Rebecca and Avraham and Ashira for dinner at Lugar, where we ate Seth's exquisite cuisine and generally had a wonderful time.