She Can't Take It Any More!

On Friday night, my mother and I went to Shabbat services at the synagogue.  It's not often that I get to go to the grown up service and I always enjoy it when I do.  Our usual gig is the Family Service, which is an abbreviated service followed by a potluck dinner that occurs once a month.   Every now and then, though, a holiday falls such that we all end up at a regular Shabbat service.  For example, last week the first night of Chanukah fell on a Friday.  Our synagogue celebrated it with a dinner followed by a service.  The week preceding had been a busy one, full of class parties and special events.  By the time Friday rolled around, we were all pretty whipped.  The dinner part was lovely--lots to eat and plenty of friends for the kids to play with.  The service didn't start until 7:30.  We found seats and Juliana began to occupy herself in the usual way: drawing pictures.  Our syngagogue actually shares space in a church, so Juliana spends her time drawing pictures on the prayer request cards.  Here's a typical one of her drawings: 


Soon, however, she was getting tired and antsy.  She passed me a note:


I was under the mistaken impression that there would not be dessert, and told her so.  This did not make her happy.  She scowled and passed me this note:


I whispered to her that the service would be done soon.  (A bald-faced lie, that.)  Now she was practically lying down in her chair and giving me the dirtiest looks possible.  I worked hard on absorbing myself in the service, namely with praying for patience.  Ritu decided he would help matters by passing me note.  Apparently he thought we were at a piano bar, so he put in his request:


Very funny, that one.  <insert eye rolling here>

Juliana wasn't going down without a fight.  She passed me another note:

You can see she was too tired to make an entire sad face.   Again, I encouraged her to hang in there and that we'd be done soon.  She wasn't falling for it.  A few minutes later, I got this:


At this, I actually burst out laughing.  Right in the middle of a solemn part, of course.  Eventually she climbed onto my lap where she stayed for the duration of the service.  I held her and wondered if attending the service was enough to cancel out the murderous thoughts I had when she misbehaved at the synagogue.  Probably not.