Different from all other blog entries

DID YOU KNOW? LBJ needs pants.

I came home from work today, opened my front door, and screamed because there was a strange young woman descending the staircase in my apartment.

"AAAAAH!"
"Hey! Oh, I knew this would happen. Hi, I'm Ariel!"
"Okay, I'm Sam."

After a short discussion I remembered the e-mail that my roommate John had sent me about someone named Ariel coming white he was in Sumatra so that she could pick up some things that had been left in our shared closet.

"So, yeah, I just needed to take some of John's camping stuff, and then I might be back tomorrow morning to get some things too."
"Oh, cool, I'll probably be here. Where are you going camping?"
"Well, it's Passover, so we're going to Death Valley."
"Okay, this is not an association that any of my Jewish friends have made before, but cool!"

Apparently Ariel participates in something called Wilderness Torah, and apropos of our discussion of exclamation points last week, I think this can only be spelled Wilderness Torah!. So I guess for all the major Jewish holidays you go out in the Wilderness and celebrate and learn about yourself and camp and things like that. We got into a little discussion about the symbolic aspects of doing this in Death Valley.

"So, yeah, I'm taking a ton of stuff... we're in the desert but it's not at all like wandering around lost in the desert for 40 years."
"Well, you know, you have a car, why not pack heavy?"
"Right, right!"
"I bet Moses would have taken one too if they hadn't left in such a hurry."

I know that every goy and every shiksa who has ever attended a seder thinks that the seder he or she attended is the coolest seder ever, but seriously, seder in Death Valley does sound like the best that could possibly happen. Sorry, seder I went to with Colin 2 where we ate three-year-old macaroons that had worms in them.

However, I think as far as religious celebrations go overall, my favorite is still the Christmas where Cousin Sarah kept requesting that we sing the carol "with Satan's fire." That was pretty good.