NYC: Concrete Jungle Return

Wednesday bleeds into Thursday and we drive and sleep, drive and sleep, talking about love and relationships, traveling and future trips, elections and voting, and also not talking at all. Finally we are in Connecticut, where we make a drop-off at a beautiful little house that belongs to a woman named Keoani (whose name is not spelled right here, my apologies), who teaches indigenous peoples’ studies at Wesleyan. We get coffee in Middletown and talk with many enthusiastic and supportive Kerry-leaning folks. We talk with the woman who runs the Chamber of Commerce and she buys a lot of Codepink gear. We drive down to New Jersey and make a pick up at a guy’s storage locker. Ariel and I haul boxes onto the truck and Sam stacks them all up. We become a hardcore moving team that day. Ariel finds some interesting magazines in the locker and I cannot stop laughing for most of the whole process. We make another stop so that I can pick up fall leaves for my mom. Then we’re on the road again. We roll into Manhattan at around 8 p.m. and Sam drops Ariel and I off at Kyla’s parent’s apartment on the upper west side. I say goodbye to Sam and she drives off in the truck.

We all go out dancing in the synagogues for Simchat Torah- the celebration of the giving of the Torah to the Jews. Celebration is everywhere and I see so many beaming faces from the New York crew. I am still wearing my “pink slip Bush” shirt, which conjures up a lot of surprise. At B’nai Jeshrun, a reform/renewal temple, people are happy and supportive. But at the Carlebach shul, my shirt is met with a lot of disapproval, as all these young conservative Jews are itching to back Bush because of his political views of Israel. If only they all knew how absolutely similar Kerry and Bush are on Middle East issues. This is frustrating.

We return to Kyla’s house late at night and sit out on the porch eating split pea soup and talking about adventures, creating sisterly solidarity that will unfold later, when our goddess adventures commence, after all this election madness is over.