Gearing up for Yom Kippur

admin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:00:43 +0000

Let me run a new theory by you. In a day of fasting or just regular inactivity, an average person burns about 2,000 calories. Why do we need to fast for 24 hours when we can simply burn those calories on a 3 hour bike ride? This is what I did based on the obvious notion that a fast should be fast.

Often times I wonder what I would be doing if I were back in Israel right now. I have to say that with Yom Kippur there are no surprises. At around 7:00 PM I walk up the street to meet and greet my friends who have come to Ra’anana (my home town) for the day. They have been fasting for about an hour at that point. We proceed to walk down the main street and chat with people from high school that we aren’t particularly interested in. When we’re fed up, someone asks the rhetorical question that will kick start our evening – “Anat, do you have food at your house?” “I do”, I reply. At this point we all know where this is going and specific request are brought up. “Do you have popcorn?”, someone asks. “No”, I reply. “Do you have Bamba?” someone else asks. “I don’t think so”, I reply. “Do you have pizza?” “Yes, a frozen one I think. We would have to check it’s expiration date though…”.
Good enough, everyone is on their way to my house for food and television. When I say television, I don’t mean to watch television, it’s on in the background but there is no programming so we just stare at the ‘Yom Kippur’ screen saver. It must be good, it’s on every channel.
The next day, I grab my bike and ride the highways of Israel until I can’t feel my legs anymore. Not ethical, you say? Well, when they make a happy day with no cars in the streets, give me a buzz.

In Chicago, the city doesn’t stop but there’s no reason to do anything differently. I grabbed my bike and I set off on the path by the lake. I rode all the way up north as much as I could. Then, I turned around and rode back. On the way back someone asked me about my water bottle and it turned out to be Sharone, the Israeli triathlon instructor who lives in Chicago. The two hours which I had planned, quickly turned into three and I learned about the secret bike paths in Chicago.

So how do you ‘gear up for Yom Kippur’? This was Sharone’s status on facebook so I’m guessing it means to add up to 120psi, fill your bottle with Gatorade and have a pasta dinner. For everyone else it just means to have a pasta dinner, sleep, sleep and sleep.

Culture:
I went to another opera called ‘The Pearl Fisherman’. Your waiting for the cliff notes I bet: Two friends promise not to let a girl get between them, after years they reunite, woman comes to village to pray for fisherman, if she falls in love she will be killed, she falls in love, they get caught, village wants to kill them, other guy lights village on fire, the couple escapes, other guy is killed by villagers. The end.

Food:

I found a great recipe. Most recipes on the back of food products are underestimated so I thought I’d take a chance (take a chance take a chance…). Last time I made chicken, it didn’t come out as chewable as I had hoped but this recipe made the chicken good and juicy. It was on the back of an Athenos package of feta cheese.(See : Easy Feta Chicken Bake)

On a hard assets note, I went all the way to Kellogg for a lecture about managing risk by Sam Zell. No matter how far away I get, University is always important to me and any chance to sit in on something interesting is an opportunity I’ll take. Sam can’t deliver a lecture without saying the word f**k which makes it a treat to hear him speak. Only a man in his position can afford to blurt that kind of language whenever he chooses.

Now a story for children –

Bottom line – I’m a spinning instructor! Hopefully, they will let me work at the gym in my apartment building. That would be mighty convenient.

Coming up…

Country music festival

Chicago Marathon

In Anatshell » recipe

Gearing up for Yom Kippur