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Forum -> Yom Tov / Holidays -> Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh, Fast Days, and other Days of Note

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SunshineGirl

Fri, Sep 13 2024, 3:23 pm

Have you ever not had things ready for shabbos? I’d like to hear your craziest story of not being ready for Shabbat. How did it impact your Shabbos?

amother

NeonBlue

Fri, Sep 13 2024, 3:27 pm

It's not that I haven't been ready for shabbos, it's that I got to where I needed to go almost past when shabbbos started.
Fridays are a bit stressful for me...especially when going away. I leave way way before shabbos but still get nervous sometimes we'll be late.

Goody2shoes

Fri, Sep 13 2024, 3:31 pm

My first Shabbos married!
Ya know how you feel you have it all figured out cuz you're a kallah and other than getting your face done there's nothing for you to do?
Yeah, it doesn't really work that way. I wasn't late late, made it into Shabbos at the very last second, huffing and puffing and clearly not managing.
I look back now and laugh at how cute and innocent we were then.

amother

Oatmeal

Fri, Sep 13 2024, 3:53 pm

I remember having such a situation but I don't remember the details. I think I had been told the wrong time for lighting and by the time I got the correct info it was already shkiah. I don't think I did any actual melacha, for sure not deoraisa - probably things like still being in the shower. But we had no candles that week and it felt very uncomfortable.

Good Friend ↓

Fri, Sep 13 2024, 4:51 pm

Yes when my first baby was born we were supposed to be discharged from the hospital Friday morning, but you know how these things go… waiting for the doctor, the signed papers etc by the time we left it was late afternoon in the winter.
We were going to my in laws, my father in law had come to pick us up. He drove as fast as he could but there was traffic. In the end we parked on the side of the highway and I and the baby switched to an Uber (so I would be able to ask the driver to carry our things from the car into the apartment building where they live) and my father and father in law walked the rest of the way, about an hour if I recall.
I remember thinking it was already Shkia but my mother in law told me to quickly light so I guess it was right before. No shower and sweaty and exhausted but we made it bH.

amother

Acacia

Fri, Sep 13 2024, 5:12 pm

Also my first Shabbos married. We got married Thursday night, it was one of the earliest Shabbosim of the year and our hotel was an hour away from where we were having Shabbos sheva brachos. By the time we woke up, checked out and drove back it was late. Then we had an issue with the shower in our chosson/kallah apt, was funny looking back but very stressful at the time.

amother

Steel

Fri, Sep 13 2024, 6:35 pm

we got stuck on the highway on the way from Bklyn to Monsey. ended up taking a train home from Manhattan and making it around shkiya. I just turned on and off the lights, as there is an opinion that can be counted as lighting. (I could be wrong...ask your own Rav!!)

rainbow dash

Sat, Sep 14 2024, 9:18 pm

After summer vacation this year, we arrived home Friday at 3am. I looked at the calendar and noted the time, so I worked out when to put up the food, etc. Turns out it was the wrong date. It was earlier than the time I thought.

But I'm always having dreams were its time to light and nothing is done.

amother

Impatiens

Sat, Sep 14 2024, 9:27 pm

We once went to Brooklyn from Monsey for Shabbos and got stuck in hours of traffic. It didn't make sense to turn around. We called the rav who told us we have till 40 minutes past Shkia. Bh we basically followed an ambulance and got there 5 minutes before shkia. Dumped the stuff out of the car and ran to light.

↑ Good Friend

Sat, Sep 14 2024, 11:27 pm

I remembered another time. We were traveling to my brother’s wedding in NJ, and our flight was canceled. There are limited options from where we live, (different continent) and the only option that made any sense to still be able to go to the wedding was to fly to Miami getting there early Friday afternoon (staying by a family who offered to host us) and then fly to NY Sunday morning. Of course we were a little delayed on the flight to Miami, and then it was raining so they weren’t taking the luggage off the plane for a while… long story short we realized we won’t make it to the family and quickly ordered some food, tea lights, grape juice etc and went to a hotel near the airport. It was a crazy rush of trying to find our room in the hotel and getting the boxes we ordered (only one of two boxes showed up so we had tea lights and grape juice but hardly any food), and trying to move quickly with 2 tired little kids, strollers, and suitcases (and 5 months pregnant) but I managed to light before shkia. Then we spent Shabbos trying to entertain the hungry kids with no toys… fun times!

CPenzias ↓

Sat, Sep 14 2024, 11:36 pm

I commute and the winter is really hard. I am usually late at least one Fri. Once it was so late I called my husband and told him to light candles. I turned off the radio so I was doing the minimum but it was sad.
Friday traffic is awful sometimes but I do my best

amother

Firebrick

Sat, Sep 14 2024, 11:37 pm

Also our first shabbos married.
Made it by the skin of our teeth, I did not shower that week.

amother

Pansy

Sat, Sep 14 2024, 11:49 pm

Goody2shoes wrote:

Yesss, I got married a couple weeks before Shavuos, we were going to my walking-distance parents for YT so it was a long Friday and we figured we have nothing to do besides shower and get dressed, so we just did random things, went to the mall, got home, showered, somehow we totally lost track of time and I was doing makeup when we realized it was already the zman and I dropped everything on the spot, I didn't even get to light! I felt awful that I was married just a few weeks and I missed my chance to light and also now I'm going to have to add a candle for the rest of my life. We asked our rav after YT and he asked if I prepared any light for YT, I told him I turned on our Shabbos lamp, he said that counts and just be more careful in the future. For years after I made sure to always be the one to turn on the Shabbos lamp just in case. I was really shaken up.

ittsamother

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 12:03 am

One time early in our marriage we were driving from Brooklyn to Baltimore on a winter Friday. We left 10 am, our ETA showed we were getting there in plenty of time, and when we were an hour out from our destination, we realized we left the suit bag at home! No big deal from me, I had my Shabbos robe in my suitcase so I just would stay at our host in my robe and not go anywhere, but my husband had to go to shul! We found a Macy's on the way, only half an hour to our host. We found a gorgeous suit, but it needed some hemming, and the concierge there told us they could tailor it on the spot! We still had quite a while before Shabbos, so we left the suit with him and drove 5 minutes away to a TJ Maxx to see if we could find a dress for me or a tie for him. We did find a tie very quickly, drove back to Macy's, picked up the suit, got in the car, checked the eta, and almost fainted on the spot- the half hour drive had tripled to an hour and a half due to sudden traffic. We were due to arrive minutes before shkia with this new time. We drove the entire hour and a half with our hearts in our throats, panicked that more traffic would pop up. At some point Waze beeped and notified us we were hitting 19 minutes of traffic and my husband practically jumped out of his skin, that was 19 minutes we simply did not have. BH it turned out Waze had already accounted for those 19 min in their 90 min estimate. We pulled up with 7 minutes to spare. Raced everything into the house, I quickly lit, he ran out the door to shul and I collapsed on the couch to recover. For what it's worth it was a truly beautiful suit at a steal of a deal and he enjoyed it for a number of years! But we are never going to Baltimore in the winter again! 😆

amother

Aster

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 12:16 am

Got stuck in really bad traffic on the highway, by shkiah we had to pull over, park and walk in rainy cold weather for 3 hours

amother

Electricblue

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 2:44 am

One Friday I went to the Dr. He sent me to the hospital.
After all the tests and everything we got out less then an hour before Shabbos. We lived over an hour from the hospital so we ended up going to someone who lived only 20 minutes away. The Bikor Cholim gave us the number.

Another time we thought my husband would be in the hospital over Rosh Hashana, fortunately he got out right before. My neighbor brought over meals so we would have food and could eat them when it was good for us.(My husband did not make it to Shul that year)

fbc

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 7:14 am

Ah yes, this actually happened when I was single and still living with my parents. We were on summer vacation visiting family and friends in NY. We got in on Thursday night to New Rochelle where we were staying by cousins. We hadn't seen them in a few years and we sat outside in their backyard that evening shmoozing. Friday our plan was to head to boro park to visit more friends and do some shopping before heading back to New Rochelle for shabbos. We got to boro park to our friends and while we were shmoozing one of the girls asked me why my thumb was purple...I took a look and noticed that not only was my thumb purple but I had a purple line going from my thumb up toward my elbow. They told us there's an urgent care not so far and I should go there immediately. So my family got in the car and drove over. The doc took one look and said I had to get to the ER for IV meds before it got worse. Ends up that while we were outside the previous evening I got bitten up and one of the mosquitoes decided to infect me...So we ended up at maimonedes (sp?)... Of course, until they called us in and set me up with the IV took awhile. I had to be on the IV for almost 3 hrs. Then they prescribed meds which we had them call in to a pharmacy in New Rochelle so we could grab them on the way to our cousins. Once released we drove the hour or so back to New Rochelle, picked up my meds, got to my cousin's house 20 min before shabbos, all took the quickest showers we ever did, and made it by the skin of our teeth😁

amother

Vermilion

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 7:43 am

Mine is actually a crazy hashgacha pratis story….
We were having a family shabbos a 15 minute drive from where we live. Everyone was given some food to make and I made a tomato based veggy side. About an hour to shabbos we started packing the car and my husband brought out the food that I had made. In the way out, he tripped and it spilled all over him. His shirt had tomato sauce everywhere, so he went back in to change. We start driving to our hosts and on the way my husband checked again what time shabbos was. We the realized that his phone settings were set to where we were the week before, not local. We had seconds to shkia. We got out of the car, left everything and started to walk.
We had a 3 year old and a 7 year old at the time and I was nine months pregnant.
It was summertime and boiling hot. The walk took an hour and a half and we were exhausted. We finally got to my sisters house where the meal was and collapsed.
Now for the crazy part.
My sister had put us up at my aunts house - a block and a half away. We were so exhausted at that point so my sister told us to just stay by her, we’d move people around and figure it all out. We were back and forth about what to do but in the end decided to walk to my aunt. I had felt bad that she was all prepared and figured it was only right to go to her after all the trouble she went through to prep for us.
Shabbos morning, I woke up really not feeling well. Remember, I had done a crazy walk while nine months pregnant. I asked my husband to please stay home from shul to watch the kids, I had zero energy to get out of bed. I think in all out years of marriage I have only asked that of him twice.
Well, our host had some visitors that morning, a mother and a little boy.
The boy was eating grapes.
He choked.
No one knew what to do except for my husband. Everyone else had froze.
My husband grabbed the choking child and did the heimlich. The grape flew across the room.
He saved his life.
Only HaShem could orchestrate events like this with such precision.

amother

Blueberry

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 7:46 am

My chicken was raw. Nothing happened. We had fish and soup and sides. Good lesson tho.

↑ CPenzias

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 8:34 am

amother Vermilion wrote:

Wow! I thought you were going to say you went into labor.
What an amazing story. Bh your husband was able to save the little boy!

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