BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS

Friday, July 17, 2009

blind date and Jesus IS jewish, after all.

Apparently you can be happily married, never having once signed up for a profile on Eharmony.com, and still end up on a blind date.


Like today.

Mandy, a lovely Texan who found me through this blog offered to take me out for a real meal while here (it seems she had read one too many mentions of my penchant for PB&J's on twitter and well, nobody leaves Texas hungry). At first I laughed it off, not wanting to be the awkward gauche person who takes somebody up on an offer that they meant as a joke. But she made it clear she was serious, and so I bit.

She picked me up at noon today and we spent a great couple of hours together. She's kind and talented with a fun sense of humor and also loves to blog.

The fact that she's 5'8 just like me doesn't hurt, either.

She took me to this cute Mexican place called Chuy's and the waiter was obliging enough to document the moment.
And here's a little gem from there as well.
Our silverware was wrapped in paper that gave us three options for prayers, depending upon your preferred faith and assuming that you couldn't just make one up on the spot, I guess.

Not everybody can free-style, you know.

All three prayers are lovely, actually; I'd be honored to pray any of them and I am pretty sure God would be happy to hear them.

The fact that there was a gentile/jewish choice made me think of my six year old nephew, Ollie, who now lives in California during the school year. Anyway, one day his mom came into his classroom only to find him covered in a prayer shawl and wearing a yarmulke.

They were studying Judaism. Which is awesome.

Later, when Ollie announced to his family that he wanted to become Jewish, his sister Lyric informed him that he simply couldn't.

Why? he asked.
Because we are Christian! she said, leaving no uncertainty in the matter.
Showing some budding abilities in diplomacy, Ollie stated, Then I will be Christian when I am on the east coast and Jewish when I am in California.

And that plan seems to be coming along just fine. He's back on the east coast for the summer now and, as far as I know, has been faithfully attending church every Sunday, just like a good Christian should.

Anyway, it's quite a lovely world considering we can start a meal with a stranger and finish it with a friend--and be given the option of three different prayers all the while.

Oh. And perhaps I can look forward to observing Passsover with Ollie next year.

Or Easter.

I guess that will just depend upon which coast he happens to be on at the time.

8 comments:

kathiek said...

You'll have to introduce Ollie to Jeff S. at VCF, who is a Messianic Jew.

Michele said...

I love all of this - the sweet girl who went out of her way to bless you, the fact that the restaurant even had prayers, nonetheless 3 options, your crazy creative nephew!

Jessica said...

Yes--Ollie and Jeff would have much to discuss!

Michele--I know--Ollie came up with quite the solution this time!!

Nina said...

I love this post. Silverware wrapped in prayer options? That's awesome. And such great prayers too.

As for Ollie's decision to be jewish on the west coast...well, it just doesn't get better than that.

El said...

Isn't Mandy great? Sounds like you guys had a great time...I'm jealous!

Mandy Hornbuckle said...

Aww this was sweet! I'm glad you enjoyed it. See you in Delaware...someday! :) (There's a much better chance of seeing you in NY someday, actually. We do have plans for a trip there in mind at some point!)

And oh my gosh, Ollie sounds so funny!! What a great story!

merry said...

When Darby texted me about Ollie and his Jewish garb I literally laughed for like 20 minutes. He is the funniest kid ever and the cutest. He obviously takes after his aunts, Mer and Jess.

Jessica said...

El--Mandy is fabulous!!!

Mandy--we'll have to shoot for NYC, then;-)

Mer--absolutely. no doubt about it. considering our amazing amount of cuteness and hilarity, respectively, I think it'd only be fair to say he gets it from US!!!!!