In weather news, a guy on the TV just said it was a good thing that this snow happened on the weekend, for getting-around purposes, but all I can think about is the double-time all the plow drivers etc. are getting paid. One year when my father was working for the city of Somerville and all the snow was over the weekend, and especially on Sundays, they spent the snow-removal budget by like December. It was terrible, budget-wise.

hey, Nilly! I had two blind dates -- well, internet dates: I still think of them as blind, or maybe just vision-impaired -- in the last two weeks.

One was a meh; the other I had a third date with last night.

Granted I don't have the Orthodix/lesbian thing you and meara have, but it IS just damn hard for me to find someone smart and witty and able to (1) keep up with me and (2) be able to deal with my bluntness.

hmmm. Damn, it's gotta be hard to be an Orthodox lesbian? Can you imagine how small THAT community is?

Pre-Calculus. Graphing, lines, slopes, etc.

Oh, I may even be able to help with that, if you ever need any sort of help and if Emily is not around.

Hil! Congratulations on the internship!

Robin, thanks! There are probably quite a few of my past blind-dates who wouldn't agree with you, though.

without having to find that person in your own community.

I know several people who are practicing orthodox, but their spouces aren't. They've met through school/work/etc. and fell in love, and were willing to make the sacrifice - of both sides, the one who wants to keep the rules and the one who doesn't - in order to be together. It definitely adds a layer of difficulty. Especially when children are added to the mix. Nobody I know would deliberately date somebody who looks at things vastly differently in religious terms (or lack thereof).

SUPPOSABLY it has slowed down, but its still falling pretty hard outside my window. Go team record breaking!

Nilly, a friend of mine is here from Israel right now and her two small children are going stir-crazy -- they went outside for about seven minutes (snow really IS more fun after it has stopped falling). I'm guessing you'd be in heaven.

Broadway houses are open. Its tempting to bundle up and go down there.

It would make it harder, I think. Are you talking like Ortho/Christian relationships (Or Ortho/Muslim, whatev) or like Ortho/non-Ortho Jewish?

Did you see the bit on the same show where Nora Roberts called Anna Karenina a wimp and Buffy the Vampire Slayer a real kick ass character?

Now that's worth channelsurfing onto.

finding someone you're (one is) compatible with is hard enough, without having to find that person in your own community

I can't imagine. I mean, I guess you narrow down where you go to meet people, but there just aren't that many people left as a result.

the other I had a third date with last night.

Oh, yay!

it's gotta be hard to be an Orthodox lesbian? Can you imagine how small THAT community is?

There is a small community of Orthodox lesbians and homosexuals. Not Conservative or Reform, but Orthodox. With lesbians, it's a bit easier, because it's not directly forbidden in the Torah, but it doesn't really affect the end result. There was a documentary made on these communities a couple of years ago that I got to watch. It's horrible. Being torn by two things that define you so strongly, your religious belief and your sexual orientation. And that's even before talking about the way the families, communities etc. are treating this.

Ortho/non-Ortho Jewish

These are the ones that I know. Any other religions here are automatically conncted with the political situation, what with the people who practice them being mostly Arab-Israeli or Palestinian, and that's way more complicated, and therefore even rarer (is that a word? "more rare"?).

[Edit:

I mean, I guess you narrow down where you go to meet people, but there just aren't that many people left as a result

I can't think that "meeting the person" is up to statistics alone. If it were, what were the cnaces of anyone, including the already-married and in-love people I know, to meet anybody that's right for them? It's a little bit of magic every time it works, in my opinion. Otherwise it defies any rule of numbers that I can grasp.]

Damn, it's gotta be hard to be an Orthodox lesbian? Can you imagine how small THAT community is?

Heh. There's a movie (documentary) out there about Orthodox gays...(edit: I expect it's the same one Nilly is talking about!--Trembling Before G-d?)

finding someone you're (one is) compatible with is hard enough, without having to find that person in your own community

Sigh. Amen. Not that there aren't plenty of fabulous lesbians out there, but sometimes, man...

(more rare.)

Ugh. It hurts my head to think about having to deal with the fucking POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS of falling in love.

I'ma gonna have to bitch-slap the world again, aren't I?

I went out to get coffee this morning.

It's still coming down really hard. HOORAY FOR DEATHSNOW!