Shana tova 5775!!!

Shana tova 5775!!! 

May this be your sweetest year yet -- and may you make the world sweeter for all living things, including those not yet born.

For the beginning of our first high holiydays living together, we visited the Interfaith Families Project (IFFP) for the first time, attending their Erev Rosh Hashanah service at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring (MD), and we intend to return to them tomorrow morning. And while I was at work, my sweetie shopped for sweets for us at Dawson's Market (Rockville MD), and after I got out, we had a New Year’s Eve dinner date at Jewel Of India (also of Silver Spring; don’t be fooled by the exterior – they aren’t kidding about the "jewel", in any sense). 

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Happy 5775!! 

Here we are in some of our Rosh Hashtylishness (tallit from Boomerangs, pendant by Artemisia Studio / Emanda Johnson of Etsy, earrings by me with beads from Arya’s Trinkets of Etsy).

We did indeed return to Interfaith Families Project for their RH morning services (at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring) -- where we got to connect with their Rev. Julia Jarvis, who is also part of the Montgomery County Transgender Day of Remembrance planning process -- then returned home to lunch on matzo ball soup and challah from Dawson's Market (and made by them in-house). Then on to Clopper Lake at Seneca Creek State Park for our own Tashlich for two -- we didn’t bring Ursula, the Pugston Terrier because she is still in therapy about our feeding bread to a duck instead of her a year ago (despite my repeated explanations that however valid her anger may be, it is not what is meant by “gluten intolerance”). And then my oh so shiksappealing one made kugel for the first time (I never have either, but my late shiksa mother did) and it was amazingly yummy. And we do have apples and honey and more.

I do miss Congregation Am Tikva -- the people, our machzorim and melodies, our shofar blowers in all the corners of the room and their competition to hold the last note longest, the superb sweet breads made by our prez’s mother, Tashlich at the Charles River… -- but I look forward to hearing about their hi hols.

Open Door Metropolitan Community Church's Cabaret & Open Mic

We very much enjoyed spending our havadalah at Open Door Metropolitan Community Church's Cabaret & Open Mic tonight (Boyds MD).

We've been to Open Door before -- for an Equality Maryland training for the Fairness For All Marylanders Act (#FAMA, the statewide trans equal rights bill, which has since passed into law and goes into effect on October 1st), some services, and the Maryland Trans*Unity picnic.  And we've been otherwise connecting with their Rev. Miller Hoffman, including serving with him on the Montgomery County Transgender Day of Remembrance event planning committee.  That's him in the graphic, actually, taken from a photo.  
 
And we won our table's centerpiece in the raffle.