Being the former corporate spy I did my research on my new match. He'd given kosher protein bars to an Israeli athlete that could not find kosher ones for her training per an old internet post. He had a webpage that connected local Seattle businesses, too. On Aug. 29th, Shabbat, the visiting ex-wife from Seattle of one of our prominent Torah scholars confirmed that she knew this man and told me that he was a good man. She routinely ate near him at Kiddish on Shabbat. He was very serious and handsome. When I asked why he and his wife divorced, she said that he was controlling, but he'd done some work on that over the years.
Though I did briefly talk to him right before Shabbat, he was trapped in a car carpooling 9 and 10 year old kids who were intently listening. I completely understood. When a parent carpools, they get to hear their kids talk freely with their friends while forgetting their parent is in the car. It's a great time to be innocuous and just listen and learn about your kids; however, if you're the one talking, then the kids get to learn about you! A first conversation with a love prospect would not be the best thing for your own kids to over hear, of course.
Finally on Sunday after Shabbat I looked forward to his call. He ended up at a music festival all day which was a little irritating. Was he really serious about talking with me? Once he returned he carved out a little time for me before evening prayers. I love his Carl Sagan-like voice. He definitely is a man of science. We effortlessly talked during the little time that we had. Our conversation was short and sweet with hope for future conversations, but I wondered if my heart would ever really open up again.
My match makers found yet another match to my surprise. He was on the East Coast in Virginia. He is also a man of science---engineering. He also liked to travel to exotic places. That sounded great! He isn't orthodox though. He also wasn't as attractive to me, and I had no way to find out if he was real. I did my background check on him and found Linkin pages, where he lives, and that all his relatives live around him in Richmond, Virginia. He was probably going to want me to move there should we be a match. I'd give him a chance, at least.
In the meantime, suiter #3 and I talked again. I just felt at ease and the conversation was interesting and flowed. We both had a deep connection to G_d. We both told each other a brief synopsis of our life journeys, as brief as you can be after living over 50 years. We closed on a beautiful note as he had to leave to go pray again at his synagogue.
He texted me late into the night, "On my way home I sat by rippling waters. Still wild geese watched me think about you."
I adored this line and responded, "How beautiful and sweet. Water is such a spiritual conductor and certainly connects us."
"Torah: Jews: water: humans. Erev Shabbat Shalom."
"Interesting. I hope that you had a great day! My students watched me think about you. Erev Shabbat Shalom, too."
"Just about physics: I touched her. She was more light than form. She touched me back. That was all it took to get waves of love to flow back and forth like breathing adoring moments."
Oh, suddenly after reading that my heart warmed. This man knew how to talk to me---in the language of harmonics, my favorite subject in physics at U.C. Berkeley!
"And the wave periods aligned amplifying the harmonic oscillation of the two waves," I quickly responded as my students came into my classroom and stood around me before the bell rang. "What? It's still my lunch break!" I smiled at my students while I texted in front of them for once, instead of them texting in front of me.
Later I texted, "You're very poetic btw. I'm enjoying this aspect of you. My students got into my classroom early, so I hurridly finished my other response to you. I will smile all during Shabbat while thinking of you."
"Let's meet. As a rib taken while I slept. I want to kiss you once before Rosh Hashana. We should be together soon. Hours have passed, since I wrote five other drafts. I just need to know if we are destined for each other's tender embrace. But we can get in our cars, GPS our mutual destination, drive until we meet, rest at peak amplitude, then decide who's driving the rest of the way to paradise. Poetry wax. It's going to be a bumper crop after 34 years of drought. It happens when I turn my attention to you. The feeling is warm as a pulse and deep."
"I haven't written any decent poetry for 10 years. I, too, have been in a drought. I would love to meet you also to see if you are who G_d made for me." Then I proposed how to drive to each other, but ended that it's safest to fly, and we should probably Skype first.
Then he told me that he knew in his heart that I was his bashert and that he wanted to betroth me on Rosh Hashana and marry me before the end of the Holy Days of Tishrei on Shmeni Etzeret.
.
I was uncomfortable with the speed of this betrothal. Once you're betrothed, you are considered married, but you can't touch each other until the actual wedding which could be months or a year or two later. I would have to cover my hair during the betrothal---just like I would when we married, since he's an orthodox man. The hair covering indicates to all other Jewish men that I'm married. I also didn't know much about him or if he really is over being controlling.
He is definitely quite knowledgeable in the Torah and a builder of the Seattle Orthodox community. He definitely is exactly what the Jewish prayer for a spouse requests. He definitely is the front runner of my three prospects.
P.S. To my blog readers: If you want to support a struggling math/engineering teacher and author, please buy my first book, "The Romance of Kilimanjaro," soon to be followed by my second book at: https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=9781613464960 Thank You!
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