I feel I've been doing Jewish stuff constantly since I got back to Sweden: Wednesday evening erev Rosh HaShanah, Thursday Rosh HaShanah, Friday 2nd day Rosh Hashanah, Saturday Shabbat Shuva (involving giving a talk on repentance twice, and a party with the American crowd), Monday teaching, Tuesday meeting related to teaching, Thursday preparing food for the fast, Friday evening Kol Nidrei, Saturday Yom Kippur, Sunday recovering from Yom Kippur, Monday teaching, Wednesday evening erev Succot, Thursday Succot, Friday evening Progressive service I was partly organizing, Saturday morning Progressive service where I was gabbai and reading Torah, Saturday afternoon shiur, Sunday Progressive group children's party and another meeting related to teaching and dinner / meeting with the Progressive group, Monday evening presenting my BM class to the rabbi and another shiur, Wednesday evening (today) four-hour committee meeting, Thursday evening Simchat Torah, Friday evening Progressive service, Saturday morning Progressive service followed by meeting... *splat*

The most hard work part was the Progressive Succot extravaganza with our visiting rabbi; I was, jointly with some others, in charge of hosting him and making sure things went smoothly, so I had to be there and alert for every single part of a very packed schedule. It was obviously far worse for him though, and indeed for anyone who's properly frum and has to deal with all this plus all the festival restrictions for three days in a row, three weeks out of four.

It's also been a lot of fun and highly social, so I'm not really complaining. But I have basically had no time at home or online, except what I can steal from sleeping time (as I am doing now). So if you were expecting to hear from me and haven't, that's why. I've barely been fitting work around all this, so the few days I might theoretically have had free evenings I've mostly ended up working late. My conclusion is that I don't know why people refer to "bitter" Cheshvan; right now, nothing sounds more delightful than a whole month free of festivals!

Chag sameach to those who still have the energy for just one more celebration!