The whirlwind is starting. My parents and Jonathan arrived in Israel yesterday, so most of the day was spent settling them down in their apartment and carousing about in the town's lovely restaurants with the collected Pearson and Siegel families. There's nothing like having the whole family together. Ashira provides us with endless amusement with her boundless energy. Jon and Rachel's brother Dan seem to be taking to each other instantly. Seth and Rachel only become more darling together as the awaited day approaches.

In the evening hours before dinner, I also went to an orientation at the Open House for people who are volunteering for World Pride. Most of it was just going over fairly uninteresting details, however important. But in the middle, we took a break to transport the eagerly-awaited program schedule magazines from street level to the upper floors where they could be stored in the Open House's facilities on the upper floors for subsequent distribution. We formed a great big chain of lezzies and homos around the building's spiralling stairwell, and passed bundle after bundle after bundle of programs hand to hand. It was a blast: a spirit of cheerful camaraderie pervaded the scene. Someone with a video camera managed to record it, and I hope the footage does it justice.

Oh, and if you're waiting for me to start writing about the Nokia 770 that my parents brought me, you'll just have to wait a while. I hope to really put that thing through its paces and report back thoroughly, but that will have to wait until life returns to the slightly more boring routine that allows me to indulge in my gadget-love at a more leisurely pace.

Finally, a status report on the adorable Avishai. On Monday night, we had an amazing dinner at Agas V'Tapuach, strolled through Geulah for a little window shopping, and then hung out at Gan Sacher again, chatting about our favorite movies. He left to visit friends in Ashdod yesterday, so we most likely won't have the opportunity to meet again till after Tisha B'Av, but we have plans this Sunday to go shopping for proper wedding attire for me. I'm hoping we can also get together before that, though.

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.