Category archive for ‘Backstory’ 
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The End of Marina City
In 2005 this blog began with the subtitle, ‘The life and times of a former New Yorker living in downtown Chicago.’ I’ve almost left downtown twice since then. At the end of this month, I finally will. I’m heading to Edgewater–and realizing more than just my address is moving on.
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Fifteen Christmases and an Eitz Moed
Last December, on a Jewish journey and with my possessions in storage, I celebrated my first tree-free holiday season. This year, officially Jewish and back in my own apartment, I’m finally faced with the December Dilemma. Jews don’t put up Christmas trees, and there’s no such thing as a Chanukah bush. And then I got an idea.
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Counting to Ten
Ten years after 9/11, to the older but wiser, blogging Jewish Chicagoan that I’ve become, about the only thing that still resonates for me is the sense of loss. It’s still there. It always will be, but life goes on. And so do we, God willing.
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God Was on the Brown Line and I, I Did Not Know
One year ago today, I got on the Chicago ‘L’ feeling spiritually homeless and got off knowing I would spend the rest of my life living Jewishly. God’s whisper comes in many forms. For me, it came on the Brown Line.
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Life, the Universe, and Everything Jewish: Six Years of Chicago Carless
Three months after officially joining the Jewish people, things make sense in a way I never expected. Some say Jewish converts are born with a Jewish spark waiting to be realized. Now I realize how the past six years of my blog–and the past 41 years of my life–have led me to my Jewish self.
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Unwritten
There are very few times one is able to say that an event is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and not be exaggerating. Tomorrow morning will be the most important morning of my life. What are you supposed to feel the evening before you become a Jew?
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Perfect
Could my biggest problem be thinking that there’s something wrong with everything not being perfect? Nine months of my Jewish conversion journey didn’t get me any closer to things being perfect–but got me a lot closer to things being right.
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Now how much would you pay?
As I learned staying with friends during my nine months of near-homelessness last year, misery really doesn’t love company.
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Reprising the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
I am officially a big, fat hypocrite. A big, fat hypocrite who’s moving back home…to Marina City.
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Fourteen Christmases and a Chanukiyah
Living Jewishly obviously means spending the period from Thanksgiving Day to New Year’s Eve with a different emphasis. This year, I’ll leave my well-known tree fetish behind. But as I ponder all the adult Christmases I’ve kept, I’m realizing I won’t miss that holiday’s sense of joy and wonder…because I’m increasingly finding those feelings to be an everyday part of my new journey.
