Majority of my readers are celebrating the second day of Succot right now, but for all those living here in Israel, it's Chol Hamoed. I have been looking forward to celebrating one day of the Chag for years, having celebrated two when I was a seminary girl back in the day. So, what do you think I did on Saturday night when I had all these options opened to me? (remember the post from Thursday, when I listed them? If not, go back now and take a look).
Well, I spent my Saturday night at home, looking for lice.
So, let me give you some context before I continue with this post.
Shabbat/Yom Tov was very nice and chock full of children! When all three of the Novick men are together, they have (g-d bless them) 14 children! And somewhere between the Ethopian children who came aroud Succah hopping, and the kids who were there for the siyum that was held for Tzvi because he (at age 6 folks) finished Masechet Succah with his father, and the neighborhood children who came over to play, I was exposed to lice. In this country, where lice sadly is rampant, this shouldn't have shocked me. But, nonetheless, it was very surprising and really bad memories from elementary school came flooding back. I had this immediate image of my little sister sitting at the kitchen table, her hair in pigtails (and she has very thick, black hair) and my Dad sitting there going through every single strand of hair with a fine tooth comb. I remember the year my Mom said it was enough with the lice (our school had a real problem that year) and she took us to Main Street to the beauty parlor and I went from having long hair to a Dorothy-Hamill like bowl haircut. It solved the lice problem for me but I looked awful with short hair, and have since hid every single photo of myself from that year.
So, as you can imagine, my fear of lice is pretty significant. I spent the half an hour waiting for the train scratching and on the phone with my friend Tamara from school. She has two children, so she knew exactly what to tell me to do. I got home and didn't unpack or go anywhere near my bed. I grabbed my wallet and ran out to the drugstore and walked up and down the aisles looking for all the lice- related products. I was told to buy this one "amazing" metal lice comb. It's called the Assy 2000 (seriously folks, I wish I was making this up, but there are the marquee products for lice issues in this country!) and I couldn't find it anywhere. I finally asked one of the sales people and she said I had to go and ask for it at the pharmacy.
Talk about shame. Sometimes there are products you just want to pick up off the shelf and then not look into the registers eyes when you have to pay. That's what I was hoping to do but NO I had to go wait on this huge line by the pharmacy and ask for the lice comb. And he showed me three different options before I found the Assy 2000 and bought that one. I also bought some Vitamin C and cold medicine because I was also exposed to MULTIPLE colds this weekend and I really do not want to get sick with my friends and parents on their way.
So, I head on back to my apartment with my lice comb in hand and the directions to get into a shower, shampoo and heavy condition before going through my hair with this lice comb. I did and didn't see anything. Didn't mean anything to me. So, I layered on the heavy conditioner and tried to sarran wrap my head for about an hour. That's what I heard you're supposed to do to suffocate any lice you might have. Ummm, I couldn't get the saran wrap to stay on my conditioned head so I ended up dumping the saran wrap and just wrapping my head into a big towl.
Now folks, it's already 1:30 in the morning by the time I'm up to this part. I still had to sit for an hour and then rinse out the conditioner. I didn't get to bed until 3:00 am but the good news is that I'm all caught up on this season of Weeds (thanks WeirdScientists on YouTube!).
So, long story short, I think I'm pretty much lice free. Thank g-d, cause it wouldn't have been good if I found anything at all.
I of course slept in this morning since I was up so late and got a wake up call from my gym. They were calling to see how come I haven't been at the gym. I laughed. I was at the gym on Wednesday when my trainer totally worked me to the bone. So I said, I've been to the gym in the past week. She got all angry and said I had to make sure I gave my name at the front desk. So, I told her that I didn give my name at the front desk and it's not really my problem if they couldn't find it in the computer.
Another big difference in terms of Tel Aviv vs. New York. In NYC, if you don't show up at the gym, no one will ever care. They are more than happy to take your money and have you never work out at all. In Tel Aviv, they care if you don't come to the gym (and folks, I'm already paid up for the YEAR! Plus, I can't cancel my membership either).
Very interesting. I guess at Pure they actually want you to come and use their facilities. I was planning on hitting the gym today anyway.
OK, so it's already 1:15 p.m. and the extent of my day thusfar has included benching Lulav and Esrog, catching up with Tamara, catching up on e-mails, eating breakfast, unpacking and picking out my outfit for today. I am now going to finish e-mailing, updating my blog, and then I'm going to head out on errands.
Oh, and here's my schedule for the next year:
Semester I
Mondays, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Poetry writing seminar
Tuesdays, 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - Writing Seminar with Bret Lott
4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. - Jewish Arts Seminar with Professor Michael Kramer (department head)
Wednesdays, 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Medieval Jewish Philosophy
Semester II
Tuesdays, 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - Writing Seminar with Professor Alan Hoffman
4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. - Jewish Arts Seminar with Professor Michael Kramer (department head)
Wednesdays, 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Medieval Jewish Philosophy
The first semester I'm not thrilled about, I was hoping to only go to school twice a week, but I really need to take the poetry course and it's only given on Mondays. So, for a few months, I'll be going to Ramat Gan three days a week and then after Febuary, only twice a week. Definitely manageable.
Today looks as follows:
Change some money and deposit into my bank account to pay for my health insurance, cell phone and internet bills, hit the gym, look at furniture and maybe catch a movie, do some laundry, pickup some more cooking items for my apartment and do some baking for my freezer (I need to test out my oven anyway).
Moadim Le'simcha! I'm so happy to be on vacation!
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