King David

My friend brought me pizza back from New York City. 

Just think about that for a minute.  Let that sink in.  That is a friend.

Thanksgiving

I learned about a prayer on Thanksgiving morning and I keep thinking about it and thinking about it.

This is the prayer of thanks when one of four thinks happens.  You cross an ocean, cross the wilderness (dessert),  recover from illness, or get out of prison.

You say thank you to G-d, creator of the world who bestows kindness on we who are in debt.  It's a very humble prayer.  We are saying, "we fully acknowledge we have just gone through something where many factors were way beyond our control ( i.e., sustenance in a desert, good weather on the ocean, other people's whims in prison and our body when we are ill) and we also realize you have given more than we could expect and more than our fair share - more than we deserve, so to speak.  We are humbled and so grateful."

I was taught about this in conjunction with a saying that goes: Leah was the first person in the Bible to show gratitude to G-d.   Huh.  It says this because when Leah had her fourth boy she said the prayer of thanks - thank you for giving me more than my share.  More than I deserve.

So I understand humility, I understand that G-d wants us to know and realize we are given not just enough but so much more than we deserve - but there is something I don't understand.

I don't know what is bugging me about this particular prayer and why I keep trying to understand the hidden or deeper meaning here.

Probably just me being nuts!

So, here's what we ate last night:

La La Land

There is something truly magical about Santa Monica.  The crash of the ocean, the sandy beach, the shopping, the style....

We had lunch on Saturday at place right on the water.  It had the best clam chowder and sourdough bread I may have ever had. 

When someone like me goes to a place like Santa Monica for less than 48 hours it pains me to not be able to go to a variety of restaurants, but the sister of the bride reassured me Friday night that I was going to be getting the good stuff all weekend and lo, she did not lie.

I didn't take pictures of everything but I was spoiled rotten - here is a tiny sampling of the gourmet fare.

Chapter 34

The great Tao flows everywhere.
All things are born from it,
yet it doesn't create them.
It pours itself into its work,
yet it makes no claim.
It nourishes infinite worlds,
yet it doesn't hold on to them.
Since it is merged with all things
and hidden in their hearts,
it can be called humble.
Since all things vanish into it
and it alone endures,
it can be called great.
It isn't aware of its greatness;
thus it is truly great.

FTW

I didn't want to blog, but you haven't seen any pictures from my life of food lately.

Here they are.

First it was Five Guys Burger and Fries.


There is zero special about the burgers in that place unless you load them up with toppings and that's what you have to do and that pays off.

They have so many toppings and if you just get all of them you will be happy you did.

Yum!

Then we took a trip to the new International Market on 119th and 69 highway.  This is a Chinese grocery store where a big Hyvee used to be.

It made me a bit sad because it reminded me of Mitsuwa except it was Chinese so I didn't know what anything was.

I need to move to Japan.

Also, today we had a chili cook off at work.

Lots of competition.

Mine did not win, in fact of the 12 people entered, 9 were women and 3 were men.  The 3 men won.  I tasted the first place winner.  Not impressed.  I voted for the third place winner.

It was chicken and white bean chili but the main thing was the cilantro garlic sauce!  Oh my, this was amazing!

I got a Jewish divorce the other day and it was something!

The Rabbi was maybe 90 years old and he spoke in a mixture of English, Yiddush and Hebrew the whole time as if they were one language.

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A short story that I wrote last week

It may be schlocky but I wrote it and I like it and I hope you will read it:

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