DNA samples from one of the Talpiot tombs!! 2006(?)

And a parting shot of the conference room🥰

Some of Dr. Tabor’s own collection, including ancient coins AND—

A crucifixion nail!

The Torah scroll is a couple hundred years old.

Waiting for the conference to get started here. Gorgeous morning, so I took a little walk.

Look what my terrace overlooks! You can’t see it from up above in my suite, because it is directly underneath it!

A beautiful park, a walking trail and a little pond!! And ducks!!

Okay. More later…🙋‍♀️

Good morning, gang! Happy Sunday!!

It’s 6:30AM here in North Carolina and here is a slightly different view of the full moon from my terrace just now!

The hotel doesn’t start serving breakfast until 8AM, so I’m just hanging out, getting a slow and easy start, and thinking about life.

And here’s something I remembered! I think I posted something to the blog on Thursday, about not being able to remember the name of the record store in Times Square, where I used to buy records all the time when I lived on W.45th Street.

Anyway— it was Disco-O-Mat!

“Disc•O•Mat in Times Square (located around 44th Street and Broadway) was a legendary, gritty New York City record store that served as a cultural hub for vinyl buyers, new wave, disco, and early hip-hop fans in the 1980s.”

🎉🎉🎉

I bought so many records there. Plus, records still only cost about $4 back then.

📓📚📄

I am really looking forward to this morning’s lecture, gang. Updates on the James ossuary! I cannot wait.

I think it’s still too soon to post about the things we went over yesterday. I think I have to wait until James Tabor makes it public. But I can at least say it was some more exciting news about certain ossuaries still in Talpiot (outside Jerusalem).

☕️☕️☕️

I’m going to jump in the shower now and then head down to the restaurant for the breakfast buffet!

But before I go, I want to share this thought.

At 6AM Friday morning— my mom was still asleep and I was already in the kitchen, feeding the cats.

I stepped out onto my kitchen porch to collect the food bowls from Tiki and Rasha, and in the darkness, a man’s voice calls out. “Good morning!”

It startled me a little. It was too dark to see anything. And the voice called out again.

This time I saw that it was the older gentleman across the road. He was on his front porch, waving his arms around so that I could see him.☺️

I called back to him, “Good morning!” And then he hurried over to me in the dark. Across his wet grass, across the road, up on to my curb in the dark —

I saw that he was barefoot! “Your feet must be freezing,” I said.

But he wanted to make sure we were still having our lunch date when I get back from the conference!

“October 1st?” he said.

And I happily agreed. October 1st. He was very excited.

And I keep thinking about how he ran across the wet lawn and across the road, barefoot, in the dark, just to make sure we were still having lunch.

It keeps making me smile.

What a nice man.

Okay! I’ll probably be back here at the break!

Meanwhile, enjoy your Sunday!!

Thanks for visiting! 🥐☕️☺️

Here’s the view looking down into the lobby from the hallway outside my suite!

I’m on the 3rd floor. That cute little fireplace seating area is on the 2nd floor.

And here’s the view outside the windows directly opposite that view of the lobby.

Can you see the swimming pool?

On the terrace just now, having my coffee. 8AM.!!

Last evening was very interesting, gang.

The lecture was about recent archeological updates on John the Baptist’s cave. Unfortunately, I was very tired from my trip and had been up since 5AM .

But the more interesting part—

After I had checked in (and posted photos of my unexpectedly huge suite to my blog!), I checked in at the conference room, got my badge and the printed materials for the conference.

Then I introduced myself to Dr. James Tabor! Finally. Yay!

We all had a 2-hr break for dinner before the conference actually got started. James Tabor walked with me to the hotel restaurant and we chatted like we’d known each other forever, but then he was meeting with 2 men who were already at the bar.

I somehow managed to start chatting with a group who were sitting at a round hightop table (they were wearing their badges, so I knew they were part of the conference).

Long story short, they left their table and, taking their drinks with them, sat down at a much larger table so that we could all have dinner together!

If you’re new to the blog — I have struggled my entire life with borderline autism. This makes it extremely difficult for me to feel comfortable around strangers (and that is putting it mildly, trust me).

But while having dinner with these 5 strangers — all around my age or a little older; 1 man from Texas; a married couple from Washington State; a married couple from Georgia. I suddenly realized that I felt totally, completely comfortable with them. I was at ease and we were all chatting about things like the Historical Jesus, the James ossuary, the Talpiot tombs.

It was such an incredible feeling — to feel how relaxed I was! That never happens to me, gang.

Normally, I put up a totally artificial barrier where strangers think I’m friendly but in reality I’m extremely tense and can’t wait to get away. I have been like this my entire life. Creating strategies for how best to survive being around strangers.

It was just such a beautiful feeling. After 66 years… I think that’s a large part of why I slept so great last night.

Okay. I’m gonna go get breakfast. The conference starts at 10AM.

I hope you’re having a great Saturday, wherever you are in the world!!

Thanks for visiting! See ya later, gators!!🥰☕️🍳🧇🥐

Best hotel pillows, ever.

I slept great, gang. Had detailed and vivid dreams all night.

It’s Saturday morning, 5AM.

Here’s the view from my terrace!

I was not expecting a huge suite!!

I can’t believe I’m going to be in this huge place all by myself.

Oh!! And I have a terrace!!!

Okay, well. Both flights went great. No hitches at all. I’m gonna unpack and find other conference-goers so that we can celebrate a Shabbat dinner!!

Hope your day has been great, wherever you are in the world!

It’s such a gorgeous morning.

Waiting on the kitchen porch for my ride to the airport.

It’s starting to get cold at night now, so these flowers are almost leaving us.

And check out Rasha!

And ready to go!!

I’m checked in for my flight. My Uber is booked to take me to the hotel. And my girlfriend is driving me to the Columbus airport tomorrow morning…