On Challah, fun with friends and cameras, and being Jewish

I present to you these completely unedited photos, interwebs, because sometimes I think it's important to see how things look straight out of the camera. I took these with my point and shoot camera, a Canon S90. Andrew and Chad came to visit this weekend, and we all had a great discussion about how many cameras one should have. Steph doesn't understand why I NEED multiple cameras and lenses. Andrew and Chad understand that it's necessary to have at least one point and shoot, at least one DSLR, and a variety of different lenses for different shooting situations. And this is why we are friends.

Having Andrew and Chad here was wonderful. It made me so happy to be with them. Last week was a particularly difficult one, and it felt good to relax, eat, and laugh a lot. I made a challah to have with our roast chicken on Friday night, and it turned out great. I used my mom's recipe, which was very easy to follow. As I was kneading my dough, I felt very connected to my mother, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother, all expert challah makers in their own right.

I'm reading a book right now called Living A Jewish Life, because I feel very disconnected from my Judaism and I want to think about ways in which I can incorporate Jewish customs and rituals into my daily life. I watched Shoah, a 9 hour documentary about the Holocaust, over MLK weekend and it got me thinking about how important it is, on both a personal and historical level, to carry on Jewish living and traditions. Most of the people interviewed in Shoah have already passed away and soon the last living Holocaust survivors will be gone as well-- a frightening thought. I think about how important Judaism was to those in the Holocaust and now, only 2-3 generations later, for most Jews who are not Orthodox, Jewish living is not a priority or even something that we think about. So yeah, connecting with my religion and heritage is something that I am exploring right now.

The other photos are of flowers Steph got for me as an early birthday present and to cheer me up. I am especially enamored with the white flowers pictured. I'm not sure what they are, but they are very unique and beautiful.

Wow, this post is all over the place. Oh well, my blog-- I do what I want!