4 weeks

I have barely four weeks to get back into the out-of-shape shape I was in just last summer. Somehow some of the bulges have increased these past few months. I'm being realistic, since I'm not trying, not even dreaming, of looking like I did in my NCSY years. That was decades ago, and even my youngest child is older than I was at my last "national."

The reason I should stop noshing, even on healthy stuff, and start really exercising is that NCSY's Ben Zakkai Society is flying me to New York for
the 10th Annual Ben Zakkai Honor Society Scholarship Reception! I was suddenly, at least that's how it seems to me, voted into the honor society. I didn't even know there was such a procedure. In my day either you got in a year after high school, or you had to make peace with your exclusion. I guess it's one of those things, like the ticket machines for the LIRR that have changed in NY.

Everytime I go back for a visit, I feel like Rip Van Winkle. This time there will be an additional challenge. I haven't experienced a New York winter since we moved to Israel, made aliyah, in the summer of 1970. I really don't have any desire to experience a New York January and hope that the weather will cooperate. Please, G-d, keep the blizzards away until I'm safely back home in Israel.

My new winter jacket (no coat) is fine for Jerusalem and Shiloh, except that my skirts can get awfully wet when it rains. I hope it'll suffice for the visit. Ditto for my boots; I'll bring my cheap ones, which are more reliable than the expensive ones.

The "dinner" is one of those fund-raising affairs with a journal, and I know that I'll have less ads than anyone else, since I can't reciprocate like all the Americans. But it'll be a great privilege to represent Israel.

Any chance I'll see any of you there?