Season's Greetings

It's Motzash in early September which means no sushi man at J2 and no parties that need crashing, so why not go to Slichot. All decked out in my super long undershirt and old school Camp Lavi sweatshirt, I headed off to the Bialystoker Synogogue. I know it's not a girls' thing to go to Slichot, but that will be one of me New Year's resolutions; to go to Slichot, and so far I'm 1:1. Being that this was probably the second time I said slichot ever, I wasn't so familiar with the services except for the phrases I knew from songs (off the top of my head, shout out to The Alumni's "Bau", and V'Haviainu 2's "V'Harainu"), so it didn't come as a shock that the entire shul was about 3 Artscroll pages ahead of me. And yet somehow, I only finished about a minute later than the rest of the congregation, I guess it was some sorta Slichot Miracle.
Throughout the davening, besides thinking about the davening itself and the fear that the shul closing with me still in it catching up, I was thinking of an event that took place a few hours earlier. I was walking back into shul at the start of Kedusha when I saw my little friend Ezra, 4, trying to open the doors to get in the men's section. As he was struggling, I called out his name so I could say hey. He comes over and we were shmoozing about some deep meaningful stuff, and then I asked him if he caught a lot of candy, because there was a Bar Mitzvah going on. He said yes, and then he started smiling, I told him he should come upstairs with me because I had an extra red Sunkist. He was so excited he takes my hand and walks upstairs with me. I give him my candy and then he asked if he can have another one for his little brother. Of course! And skipped off happily back to Shabbos groups. The sound of my stomach rumbling reminded me of this during Slichot.