Suds, Sacrifices and Sickness

DSCN1226
Originally uploaded by holylandhipster.

Tonight, I watched sunset from the slats of my bedroom window, curled in a fetal position, where I had been for the past 15 hours. More on why later.

Observation: The sky over Tel Aviv, at sunset, turned a milky white as if preparing to weep snow. Being Israel, I half expected a miracle to occur and snow to blanket the area. As the time ticked on, the sky turned from milky white, to ashy grey, to darker grey tinged with army green. The image of Kansas during a pending tornado came to mind and I braced for G-d's wrath to come roaring down Allenby street in an ominous, billowing funnel aimed at taking out the stripclub at the corner. When nothing happened, I closed my eyes and simply rolled onto my back and waited for the ink to spill and for the sky to be completely covered in darkness. And only when all that was left were the purple rays of the fluorescent light from the hotel across the street shining through the slats, painting prison stripes on my cocooned figure wrapped tightly in my blanket, did I finally get up and say Hamavdil.

My second Shabbos in Tel Aviv is over.

The internet was down on Friday so I wasn't able to blog about my day. I started off by spending 2 1/2 hours at the laundromat up the block from my apartment (see photo for visualization). Another scorcher, and the only other customer was a 30ish man with a surfers built. He didn't speak Hebrew or English, and so we communicated comically using sign language. He signed for me to get my bag off of his machine so he could load the dryer, and I mimed for him to remove his sneakers from the second dryer so I could load my wash. He was finished before all my stuff even got into the dryer, and I was left to babysit my clothing in the airconditionless kiosk. I think I lost at least 2 pints of water while waiting for my laundry to be done.

As soon as I got everything back to my apartment, I hit the road again to take care of some very important business. I joined the gym on Ben Yehuda street. I walked back up there, sweating but not as much as I had been during the past few days, and met with Golan. Eran, who I had met with earlier in the week, was off. Golan spoke English and used to live in Los Angeles, where he worked out with the "stars", and I listened politely as he name-dropped. After signing up, and dealing with American Express to ensure that the large downpayment was in fact from me as opposed to someone who could have potentially stolen my card, Golan took me down to the training room floor to set up an appointment. At Pure, they offer you a free personal training session to set up a training routine. Now, I'm hoping to sign up with some one-on-one weekly training, as my experiences with Victoria the past four years have really paid off, but for now this will do. I met with Yehuda, who struggled to explain what exactly would happen during our meeting next week. Before we can begin, however, I have to have a "physical" with the gym's Dr., to make sure that I'm healthy enough to work out. That should be interesting. I think he's only going to take my pulse and listen to me breathe, but if he looks anything like Yehuda, I'll be fine with anything else he wants to do too (haha, sorry Dad!!!!).

I headed back down to my apartment to grab a quick catnap before meeting Jeff at shul. Since I knew the Friday night disco will be loud, and chances are I wouldn't be sleeping much, I was hoping the nap would help.

And of course I overslept. And, instead of getting up and hitting the shower to get ready before Shabbos started, I called the States to talk to my parents, and my Grandmother, and the Dude. I miss The Dude a lot, so I spoke to him longer then I should have, and that left me with very little time to get ready and walk back up to shul.

Which leads me to the state of my appearance when I got to shul. I have never sweated this much in my entire life. Not when I worked out with Victoria, not when I took boxing with Craig and Tony, not even when I walked the 35+ blocks from my office to my apartment during the 2003 NYC Blackout. Never. I looked like a drowned dog, bangs matted to my forehead, eyebrows tearing sweat droplets that were precariously close to stinging my eyes. Whoever said women "glow" instead of sweated never, ever, lived in Tel Aviv.

But even with all the sweating, someone still came over and introduced herself to me. We didn't get to chat very long, but it was really sweet of her to move across the room, open the chair next to mine, and say hello. At that very moment, it was really appreciated.

Of course, the walking wasn't done, as we headed towards our meal. I felt like a rat in a maze, following the guys blindly and trying desperately to get my barings (bearings sp?). The meal itself was really lovely. And, at this point, I am going to leave it at that. I'm making a conscious effort not to write about the people I meet who I am hoping to interact with on a day-to-day basis, and leave the blog to chronicle some of the other people/places/things I meet/see/do. That, and because I told Jef that I blog, and I don't need him reading about himself on these pages.

So, for all of my friends/family members, expect a detailed e-mail about Friday night.

What I will say about the meal, besides the fact that it was really lovely, is that I had a glass of wine with dinner. And that is why I spent the past 15 hours in bed. Between being allergic to wine (red wine sends me praying to the porcelin god, while white wine makes me nauseous and hurting with a migraine) and the fact that I was severly dehydrated when I got home, I spent the day sleeping fitfully, trying to drink water, and reading. Now, as my Father is reading this, I know he is shaking his head and wondering why I even had the wine to begin with. I thought about that this afternoon. Now, I passed when they offered me a sip from Kiddush, but then I spied my reflection in the bathroom mirror while going to wash for Hamotzei, and I knew if I didn't have a glass of wine to relax me I would have been self-conscious about my appearance all meal. I'm pretty self confident in general, but even I have my limits.

So anyway, it worked and I had a great time at dinner. In retrospect, the past 15 hours of pain were worth it. I'm just going to make sure I don't make it a habit.

Since I've arrived I've started and finished two books, one that was required reading for school, and the other that was a recommendation from a friend. I started Runaway by Alice Munro right before sunset this afternoon, and it's turning out ok.

So that, in a nutshell, was a brief look into the past 48 hours. I'm going to hit the showers and take some Advil before meeting Ari.

Shavuah Tov!