The end of a tough weekend, where not much was actually done, is never something you are eager to have. This is my story this weekend. A very tiring weekend, but not very productive.

Saturday started with me going Synagogue hunting again. This time I chose Emanuel Congregaton, a "Modern Orthodox" synagogue. When I got there, there were 4 elderly gentlemen at the bima discussing about something related to the service. Another older person went to greet me and explain some things about the congregation. Most of them came from New York, where they participated on the "Young Israeli" movement. One of the ideas behind this movement was to teach everybody how to conduct services. So, what happens is that everybody there knows how to conduct the service and take turns to do it.

It was a good service, but I don't know if I felt too strange in an environment where the average age is almost 3 times my age. I guess next weekend I'll just have to continue "shopping".

Then, after services, I went to my apartment and signed the lease. Officially now I have a new apartment. I analyzed the size of it and went shopping for the three basic things that I need before moving in: a bed, a desk for my computer and a dining table. I didn't have any well-planned ideas, so I just went around where my apartment is and visited some of the many furniture places there. The problem is that they were mostly very expensive, I mean VERY expensive! So I went to my temporary home kind of disturbed and worried. But I devised a plan. I went online and got the address of many places that sold things a little cheaper and even set a route to pass through all of them.

This morning, starting at 10am, I left my apartment and went shopping. I had all the measures in my mind, and a pretty good idea of what I was looking for. Something actually very similar to what I have here in my temporary housing: dark wood, metal and glass, with modern and clean lines.

At around 6 pm I was exhausted, hungry (I didn't have time to have lunch) and clearly depressed with the result of my shopping: the only dark wood that I could find was for a dining table. All the rest were either too "classic" or very light wood. The kitchen there is already in light wood with white appliances. If I have a light wood living room, I can't have a dark wood dining room. It just wouldn't make any sense!

In the end, not only I didn't buy anything (apart from a toolbox for me to put my license plate on my car and a vacuum cleaner), but all my planning backfired and I have to rethink on my furniture ideals. Now I'm more for a light wood, but still keeping the glass and metal. It's not perfect and would require a lot of decorations to make the house look a little bit less "white", but it's something that I can find, at least.

I just hate to shop... Why isn't there an inexpensive store online that you could enter your floorplan and then play around with the furniture. When you found the right things you want, you press "buy" and they ship and install it in the same places you have indicated in their system.