I am off. Tonight at 9:15pm I board a plane for Nice, France to spend nearly two weeks in France and Italy. I cannot wait.

Obviously, you can expect posting to be non-existant. There's a chance I might pop into an internet cafe, but don't count on it. When I return I will be sure to have many, many photos and a recount of the whole adventure.

In the meantime, if you can manage to email me your address before 5:30pm EST, I will do my darndest to get you a postcard. Oui oui!

Ciao! Prego! Ragu!

This Saturday is Judaism's holiest day -- Yom Kippur. On this day you atone for your sins from the last year and fast for the entire day. If you practice Judaism at all, this is a day you don't miss.

Nonetheless, I seriously toyed with the idea of going to the Cubs game on Saturday. They're playing the Mets and, seeing as I live in New York, I rarely get to see them play. I was still going to fast, but I wanted to go to the game on Saturday so I could watch the Bears on Sunday. As of today I was making plans to buy tickets. Then I noticed that Shawn Green, baseballs most prominent Jew, is not playing on Yom Kippur.

Immediately I thought of the sermon I heard at Shul while I was home for Rosh Hashanah. My Rabbi spoke of his biggest heroes in American Jewish history. Sandy Koufax was one of his choices. He chose Sandy because on October 6th, 1965 the famous pitcher decided not to pitch the first game of the World Series in observance of Yom Kippur. It shouldn't be that surprising, given the gravity of the holiday, but in 1965 it was definitely a big deal. He brought Judaism to the forefront of the country's agenda and made a lot of Dodger fans into bigger anti-semites. More importantly, he showed young Jewish men that they should not hide their Jewishness, which made a huge impact on those who experienced this first-hand.

I'm guessing you can see where this is going.

Despite my love for the Cubs and Bears, I am going to observe the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. Even when I put my not-terribly-firm religious beliefs aside, I believe that it is important to take a day out of the year to think about your actions, and sometimes that means giving up other things that are important to you. So, I will be at home for Yom Kippur and I will not eat any hot dogs, be them kosher or traif.

Oh, but I will be at the Cubs game on Sunday. Anyone want to join me?

The last week started off quite hectic, as I was busy at work, but ended nicely with a trip home for Jew Day Jew Year (duh, my bad), as my friend Steve affectionately called it. Today was a bit of a mixed bag as the Bears and Cubs won, but my flight was delayed and I think I'm coming down with a cold.

A week from tomorrow I leave with Jori for my trip to France and Italy. I am tres excited (and practicing my French). That should leave me with just enough time to book one last hotel and figure out how I'm going to deal with all the photos I'll be taking.

Now I'm heading to sleep in an effort to ward off whatever cold is trying to attack me, even though I have a couple more things I'd like to get done.

Night.

In two weeks and one day I will be going to Italy. While there, and when I return, I will need things to read. Lately I've been tearing through books so I need some recommendations before I run out of things to read. So, suggest away. As a guide, and so you don't recommend something I've read, here is a list of books I've finished in the last, uh, while.

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13 edited by Chris Ware
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Choke by Chuck Palakhniuk
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I feel like I'm missing a couple, but that's a representative list.

It's probably just the craziness of today's weather in NYC, but things feel all out of sorts. I'm gonna take off early from work as I can't seem to focus anymore.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is just a quick update since I haven't really had the time or drive to post here over the last couple weeks.

• I spent most of the long weekend in Long Island at my Grandpa's. It was really nice to get away and relax. It was only my second pool experience all summer, which is not nearly enough. While there I saw Hero. I really enjoyed it.

• Plans for the Italy trip are coming together nicely. We've decided to drop Florence from the plans. I'll have to make it there next time. I'll have more on this soon.

• Jori and I are celebrating our 1 year anniversary this weekend. We'll be going to Craft (update: the link was wrong. fixed now.). I'll be sure to give a full report. Oh, and I'm a lucky guy.

• The Cubs are so annoying, but I love them anyway.

• Ken Jennings is back on television. I've also been enjoying the new season of Scrubs.

• Someday soon I'll have something interesting to post. Very soon I'll have a smattering of photos to post. I have a lot of reviews I could post, and hopefully I will. In the meantime, check out my recently updated links section on the right. If you don't see it, head to the homepage to check it out.