hm

Wow! I am in debt. To y'all, to the creator; I owe words! I owe writings!

And now I sit in my hostel, in Jonah's room actually, because my desk
is rarely clean enough to sit at, to type at, and all the time that I
spend sitting on my bed (on the ground) doesn't seem like the best
thing to do for my body. It's rather uncomfortable.

All by way of saying, I'm sitting at Jonah's desk, and typing. Here at
the hostel, there is something of a culture of shared space; our
living room, kitchen, common use computer, our breakfast nook and full
bathroom, they are all uncommonly common spaces.

So many emails! My latest venture, Shared Route, has taken off in a
number of ways, not the least of which is an article my friend Raymond
submitted to the Willamette Week:
http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3303/8256/

Life is settling down a little bit, after an east coast jaunt and a
cross-country journey. FIRST, I went to this thing called "Jews in the
Woods" that was held in Pittsfield, MA. It was a shabbat with a bunch
of college age kids; more Jews, and less woods than I was expecting.
Davening was very central; it was harder to organize a walk. One thing
that was great was to have a good co-counselor friend there with me.

Afterwards I spent some time in Boston, especially with Joseph Berman
who is studying at Hebrew College in a transdenominational rabbinical
program. And I spent a little time in Providence, where Anat,
Shulamit, and Maya live, who I met at Jews in the Woods. They are
really really awesome.

Then I bought a minibus. It was Monday, and I was supposed to fly back
Thursday. I canceled my ticket, made my way down to Philly (where the
minibus was that I bought), and stayed there for the next shabbos.
With Maya! Who's studying at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
And I ran into my old roommate Annah there, that was special.

New York for a few days, including time with my business partner
Benjamin's family (without Benjamin), right around Thanksgiving. For
the day of, I ate lunch at a vegan restaurant with a good friend down
on 4th and B in the City. I wasn't feeling up for negotiating my
dietary needs that day. I headed out, in a minibus, along with JT, who
was moving to Seattle from the lower east side. Two days prior, we had
filled up the minibus with all his crap- there was very little room
available.

First stop was to pick up Mike and Sully, styrofoam replicas of the
animated characters from Monsters, Inc. These guys clocked in at 2.5
feet and 7 feet tall respectively. It was all we could do to get them
on board, after detaching Sully's arms. They were going from Mays
Landing, NJ to Tacoma. Then stayed the night in Philly, with Annah's
brother Will who is SO gracious and SO nice and welcoming, a true
mensch, if not a Jewish Mother!

Then picked up some more boxes. going from Philly to Phillipsburg, KS.
We were only about to take about 1/3 of the boxes that I was hoping.
Next stop, State College area, to pick up 4 winter tires heading for
Pocatello, ID. That day, we went to an amazing burrito place with
vegan options in Harrisburg that I recommend highly. They even have
about 8 choices of type of tortilla (sundried tomato, spinach,
jalepeno cheese, whole wheat, etc.) which I thought was brilliant and
tasty. I am so thankful for the people in my life who had the patience
and ability to offer me ground support while I trekked westward- a few
hours before our next meal, I'd call Benjamin, or my mother, or
someone at the hostel, who would look up vegetarian restaurants for me
in that town. I did the same thing in order to procure biodiesel along
the way.

Second night, made it all the way to Bloomington, IN, where I had the
good fortune to spend a morning with Lucy Elizabeth! It seemed like
ages since I had seen her, and she seemed well indeed. After a stop
off at the posh co-op (from a dumpster-diver's point-of-view), we hit
the road and made lawrence, ks for dinnertime with joe carr and marta!
A lovely newish friend that I met last time I breezed through
Lawrence, and who I got to come to Jews in the Woods with me. Friends,
friends, everywhere. A wonderful night, and morning, complete with
Greg and Cory: old friends from Olympia. The next day we made the
drop-off in KS, and made it as far as Rock Springs, where we pulled in
to the motel sometime before 3 am. In conversations with my father I
heard about the "winter storm" that was going to cover the pacific
northwest the next morning.

Not a bad motel. We got up early, 8-ish, and hit the road to get to
Pocatello to drop the tires. Just inside Utah, there was some funny
white smoke that came in the interior vent; we stopped, took it to a
mechanic shop, and waited two hours to find out that there was nothing
wrong. Must've been some coolant that burned off or something.
We were negotiating snow all the way to Pocatello, and from Pocatello
to Boise it got thicker, the roads slicker. Between Boise (sundown)
and Pendleton (1:30 am?) there was a lot of ice on the roads, and we
could only go about 30 or 40 mph. We made it through, and to Portland,
to stay at my mother's house, around 5:20 am. Whew.

Got JT and the monsters to their appropriate home (although I think
maybe we lost a little piece of styrofoam that belonged to Sully;
oops). Got home, hung out for a second, then went to an "Owning Class"
Co-Counseling Workshop south of Portland. I expected it to be a very
difficult workshop, but it ended up being great!

The last great thing that I want to tell you about right now is that
my relationship with Catherine is really nice. We spend nights
together a couple times a week, and it's a really low-key, mutually
supportive relationship. Neither of have said we know what we want in
a longer-term sense. I certainly don't.

Here's to the sea! And here's to the me.

Shalom y'all,
Jacob

yeah, yeah, I'll start writing more often (rolls eyes)