Well, the bat mitzvah part is over. The haftarah was chanted, the services are done, and I ended them surrounded by current, former, and not-quite-mine students. (The last are students who were in the school, but past fourth grade by the time I started teaching.) I did okay on the haftarah. I was nervous. I’m thinking of having weekly lessons with Elisson and starting all over, so I can do the trope correctly without him yelling at me. My mother came in on Friday during one of my lessons, and he is a perfectionist, so he was telling me, “No!” when I was getting the trope right (IMHO). I yelled at him, he yelled back, and my mother evidently thought we were battling. Nah. Just expressing our opinions strongly. (Sorry about the time I told you you suck, Elisson. I didn’t mean it. I blame the pressure of the last few weeks.)

I think I shall re-do my haftarah next year. A year is more than enough time to study and get it right.

A fuller report is going to have to wait until I’ve recovered a bit. I look forward to getting my first full night’s sleep in ages. My pulse is finally back to a normal rate. The worry lines are gone from my forehead. Yep. Tonight it’s party time, and I get to leave with a clear conscience. I’ve hired a caterer and a clean-up guy. All I need to do today is finish my lesson plan, drop it off tonight, then get together and party with my friends and family.

Services were great last night and tonight. I had the kids come up for a lot of the prayers. When I gave the option to all the young people to come up and help me with the Ashrey, every child in the place came up. We normally only give that one to sixth and seventh graders, mostly only seventh. And they came up to the bima again for Adon Olam. Like I said, I ended my bat mitzvah surrounded by children. It was wonderful.

My first year’s madricha (teaching assistant) is a junior in college now. I asked her to give the “Mom” speech. Her speech was wonderful. She came very close to making me cry.

Hm. Looks like the report is mostly full. Well, off to create a lesson plan for tomorrow and then relax with my friends and family. This was a wonderful day, and it’s not quite over yet.