In case anyone is still interested in reading about me, well then, today is your lucky day…

Yossi and I got in our trusty Chevrolet and drove down the road to Southbury, where we found the house of our longing without too much trouble. Eli, for that was the name of our Persian-Jewish host, welcomed us with open arms. He seemed genuinely happy to see us, which was nice. We met the family, Eli's mother, wife, and sister, and then began to chat. Nothing earthshattering was said by either side; we just exchanged some family histories and they found out that I'm a big fan of tahdig, the golden-crusted Persian rice which no human (at least the ones that I've ever met) could possibly resist.

After this rousing conversation, Eli put on Tefillin, we all recited a few Psalms for the health of everybody involved, and then it was out the door to grandma's house we go.

Well, not exactly grandma's house. In fact we Chevied our way up to New Milford Hospital, where we were informed that a Jewish patient was on the second floor. The second floor of the New Milford Hospital is the location of the ICU, and consequently we weren't so enthusiastic. Sure, it's great to visit people, but it's not so great so see them lying on beds with bunches of tubes sticking out in multiple directions.

Anyway, we got into the ICU, and besides for a couple of nurses and a police officer (she was just sitting there reading a paper), we found neither Jewish hide nor Hebrew hair. The nurse suggested that we pay a visit to maternity ward and off we went, feeling even more apprehensive. When you visit an ICU, everyone expects clergymen to pop in and administer last rites or comfort the patient/family members/pet goldfish. In a maternity ward though, nobody expects a couple of 21 year olds to just pop in and say, "Hey, we just thought we'd pop in."

Fortunately, there we met a kindly nurse who asked the father to come out, and we were quite happy to wish him a hearty Mazal Tov on the birth of his daughter - Cameron - who was born just a couple hours before we rambled in. He seemed happy to see us, and it sure was nice to finally be in a hospital for a good thing.

And that, friends, was another day in my life. Shocking, but true.