Welcome to Gaia! ::

My synagogue can be likened to an office building. It pretty much fits right in to the stereotypical conservative shul, being the oldest and only one in Sarasota. It's a place where many who are Jewish just cuz come to feel a little more modern. It doesn't have old artwork and deocrated walls and fine antiques and a high cealing and beautiful polished pews and a marvelous ark. It's big, long, and white.

The sanctuary is about ten feet from the Temple offices, to the point where you can walk in a straight line (if the door's open) from the Memoriam wall to a fax machine. Until about two months ago, the sanctuary was lit by 300 fluorescent, square, office-building lights. Now, it's lit by 73 smaller, nicer-looking lights. Believe me, it's 73. Ask any kid who's had to sit through a sermon- they can name you the number of tiles, the number of spots per tile, everything.

We do have a few little artsy things- we have beautiful woven tapestries decorated with the names of the five books of Moses, and we have two stained glass windows which serve two purposes. One is to have something to space out on when you've counted the lights and tiles, and the other is to stop pigeons from crashing into the old, clear windows. Funny as that was, it was kind of harmful to the pigeons. xd We also have a Torah on display rescued from the Shoah, and many travelling art exhibits stop in the hallways.

The coolest part about our temple, though, is its quriks. The biggest temple quirks are the disco ball and the sticky ball.

In our social hall, we have this random disco ball that never does anyone any good, but it's right in the center. Go figure. It's just really cool.

The sticky ball, on the other hand, is a warm, adolescent tradition. It all started in 1996, with Joshua Oynick at the Purim carnival. They had given out these gross balls that were sticky, and if you threw them at a wall they'd stick. Josh, being clever, threw it up in the air, only to get it stuck to the roof of the social hall. He laughed, walked away, and went on with his life.

Fast-forward to six years later. The Jewish day school is having it's annual Thanksgiving lunch, when PLOP! The ball falls down onto one of the tables. Those old enough to remember mourned the day the sticky ball came down, and vowed to do something about it.

Two years after that, the spot hanging from the roof was finally filled again with a ball. Two girls, Morgan (Hey! That's me!) and Sara, snuck over to the temple during their lunch period to re-attach a sticky ball. After several tries, Sara succeeded in fastening the ball permenantly to the roof. Today, it still remains there, and we hope that when it someday falls, a new kid will put one back up. *sniff*

Yeah. No pictures, I can't find any. Our website doesn't exist any more.

O.O where in NY? ( can you tell I really love the state I'm from?)

the synagogue i want to go to shares a building with a christian group
the church i am forced to go to has 2 windows 1 has Shalom written in big letters on it
the other one has a torah, menorah, several different hebrew symbols, and a few stars of david... odd