This afternoon, as Buggy and I were trying to tackle all of our errands, we were driving up Aggripas Street and stopped at one of the red lights. I looked over to my left and saw this huge crowd of people, many with head scarfs and a couple of black hatted men dotted throughout, clustered around a door. I was jubilant about something else, perhaps just the happy mannerism that hasn't really rubbed off since the wedding, and I excitedly asked Buggy what he thought these people were waiting for. As the traffic inched us forward, I got a better look at the group and was able to read the sign above the warehouse door. It was extremely sobering; these people were all waiting in line at a food shelter. I also got a much better look at the faces of some of these women, who looked downcast and grave as they waited their turn in line. One woman was crying on a cell phone while another woman seemed to be yelling at her. I felt terrible and asked Buggy if there was anything we could do to help these people before the Chag.
And that's when I remember what my friend Tova in Beit Shemesh told me about this wonderful organization called Table to Table which is dedicated to feeding Israel's poor. Their website has some incredible statistics, which are extremely shocking to read and very upsetting. In the spirit of Rosh Hashana, I urge all my readers if you had a minute, please check out the site and maybe - if you have the means necessary - make a donation to help feed Israel's hungry. The website is able to accept credit card donations as well and, well, not to sound corny but every bit really does help!
Friday
I woke up on Friday to the sound of liturgy. Loud and clear, the Sephardic version of Shacharit wafted like a cloud through the window and tickled me awake. It was the 6:00 a.m. minyan and they were a couple of men there with amazing sets of lungs. I had to be up at anyway in a few minutes, so I got out of bed and got the apartment ready for the workers who were coming to finish up the kitchen. They all arrived together, around 7:15, along with our cleaning guy and I spent three hours supervising and being shuttled from room to room so that the fixing/cleaning could take place. I let Buggy sleep until our bedroom needed to be cleaned, and so he was able to get some extra hours before the 10:00 a.m. wake up call. I shipped him off on a few pre-Shabbos errands and then started to cook as soon as everyone left the apartment. For the next 4 hours I made spaghetti and meat sauce (ok, ok I'll admit it - I was trying to make a meat loaf but used WAY too much tomato sauce so we ended up having whole wheat spaghetti and meat sauce), a cauliflower kugel, green beans sauted with onions, chinese five spice pargiot (soo good!) and montreal chicken spiced pargiot, and steamed edemame. You'd think I was entertaining - this was just two meals worth of Shabbos food for me and Buggy! Well, you can imagine how exhausted I was once I lit Shabbos candles! I was practically falling off of my face, but Buggy was great and helped me a lot over dinner. We both passed out early and made a resultion to try out a new shul in the neighborhood.
Shabbos
Once again, the davening woke me up but it was a very good thing because we really wanted to go to shul. So, I woke Buggy and told him he could snooze while I got my fall ready, and picked out my hat and outfit. We were on the road withint 30 minutes and had a nice davening at Nissanim in Baka. Afterwards, we had a kiddush where Buggy enjoyed his herring and I had a peach (and some left over blondies) and then we read while lunch warmed up. We took a 5 hour nap in the afternoon and then Shabbos was over! I spent Saturday night writing thank you cards while Buggy went to do some work, and then he brought back a video (Deja Vu - very unbelievable and weird) and we tried to go to sleep. Didn't work, which is why I tried to call my folks at 3:00 a.m. but it was apparently still Shabbos. We both slept fitfully until the alarm went off bright and early.
Today
Errands, errands and some more errands. We went food shopping at the Wolfson Center because I had to pick up a referral for some tests and Buggy had a dermatologist appointment. I asked him to leave me the keys and went food shopping alone while he had his appointment (trying to be efficient!) and somehow I managed to get into some mischief. Well, I know Buggy likes these parve soy chocolate puddings and upon further inspection of the dairy aisle, realized they were ALL the way in the back. There was no way I could reach them myself and I spied a little step ladder one aisle over so, well, I grabbed it and was able to get 4 puddings for Buggy! There was some casualty, but not to worry, the soy choose was a-ok after the avalanche. Check out was going smoothly until the huge jar of pickles exploded on the belt and covered the poor check out woman. I felt terrible, even though I was pickle juice free, and even though she offered for me to go back and get a new jar (after, mind you, she mopped EVERYTHING up and the stench of brine was enough to make you sick) I decided to cancel the item. But folks, my adventures did NOT stop there! You see, I had to get the contents of my cart into the car and well, we parked on the wrong floor and there was no ramp access to the vehicle. So, that's right, I did what I thought was the smartest thing and I took the elevator one floor up and went down the winding parking garage street with the cart. And of course, gravity pulled and the weight of our food was pretty heavy, and I could barely hold on. I ended up going sideways at one point and prayed that I would bust into any of the cars. Finally, I got everything into the trunk and was feeling pretty good about myself until I realized that I now had to push the cart all the way up the big hill! I was huffing and puffing the whole way, but it was all good, another interesting afternoon in Jerusalem.
We're getting ready now to go to a BBQ at Buggy's friend's house in Beit Shemesh and tomorrow is going to be another fun filled day of thank you card writing, cooking for Rosh Hashana and errands.
Oh, and tomorrow is my army day. Wish me luck!
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