Joy and Pain

Bad, bad blogger am I! How could I have gone 5 whole days without updating? Sadly, my excuse is quite poor. I've been watching loads and loads of streaming TV off of Your TV Links. Which means, each time I sit down at this computer to do any work, or writing, or blog updating, I get waylaid by my TV programs. I know, I know, you're disappointed. I am disappointed in myself too, I should be much more disciplined.

OK, let's give you the quick rundown on my week, shall we?

Monday, New Year's Day, I spent the entire day in my PJ's, watching streaming TV, leaving the computer screen to walk to either the bathroom or the kitchen. Yup, it's the perfect day to be a couch potato! I also totally bonded with one of my nieces. We did a lot of chatting, or, as much chatting as a 21 month old can handle. It was really cute, we sang Old McDonald's and did a little virtual jumping around (me virtually, her really jumping) and she asked me to bring her home three doggies from Israel. So, at least now I know what to get for one of the kids before I leave here. Hopefully, she won't be disappointed with the presents.


Tuesday was the really big day for me. My second story was workshopped in class and, since Mom workshopped my story on Sunday, I was prepared for the worst. Surprisingly, the critique was very tame. For some reason, the good stuff was glossed over fairly quickly and then they picked a part what didn't work and what still needed to be worked on. Bret gave me some incredibly useful feedback, including areas he would like me to develop much more clearly, and I actually left the class uplifted. In the car to Jerusalem after Michael Kramer's class, Noam and I had a really interesting conversation in terms of the responsibility of an Orthodox Jewish writer to the community. Noam is great and I usually don't discuss class members in the blog, but I have tremendous respect for him. A Yale alumn, he is extremely well travelled and also a very giving individual (he's worked in the clean up after Hurricane Katrina and volunteered in South Africa). Anyway, when Noam talks, I listen.

Buggy picked me and Daniel up at Binyanei Haumah which is basically the Javitz Center of Jerusalem, and we dropped Daniel off near his home in Baka. I kept hearing rave reviews of this one meat restaurant, Joy, and have been hankering to check it out. So, Buggy made us some reservations, and we headed over. It was a painful experience, really, and I was so disappointed. Made me realize that I should listen to my parents much more carefully, they always say to expect the worst and hope for the best. I should have done that, otherwise I wouldn't have been as disappointed. So, we get there on time with our reservation and of course, they don't have a table for us. We finally asked to stop waiting outside in the cold and waited instead inside in the doorway (not much better). They finally sat us at a table for 4 until the table for 2 was ready and then they moved us, right before we were ready to order. Of course, we got the worst table in the house. The little, tiny, two seater in between the kitchen and the back terrace (so that the draft was freezing and eventually they gave up keeping the door closed at all) and the foot traffic out of the kitchen. So, that was a little annoying. We both ordered soups for starters and I got the lentil while Buggy got the onion. The lentil soup was so oversalted that I couldn't eat it. Literally, two spoonfuls and I couldn't choke it down. When they came back to clear the plates, I told the waitress that the soup was too salty and I couldn't eat it. Guess what, they charged me for the soup anyway. You would think, since I told them it wasn't good and I didn't eat it, that they would have been a little bit more interested in customer service and not charge me for what I didn't consume. But fine, moving on. I made the mistake of ordering the entrecote sandwhich, as I had images of Dougie's in my mind. If three tiny slices of beef on top of one tomato and some garlic sauce slapped between a soft bun (the only good part was that the bun was really good, but I didn't want to eat so much bread so I only ate half of the bread) is considered an entrecote sandwhich, and you want some meat with your bread, I wouldn't recommend this order. Plus, the meat was way overdone and I'm a gal who likes my meat well cooked. At this point, I'm freezing, disappointed with the meal and ready to head out. We never order dessert so we just asked for the check, plus, I had to catch the 11:15 bus back to Tel Aviv and it was getting late. They were very quick with the bill but then, to add insult to injury, the hostess came by as we were counting out money for the tip and asked if we could please hurry up because she would like to seat another customer. I'll admit, I was snippy in my response, and told her that we are going as quickly as we could. I thought about contacting the manager to complain but Buggy had a good point, saying that rather than wasting our breath complaining (we weren't asking for a refund), we're just never going back there again.

Amen!

Wednesday was a little tiring as I was up until 2:00 a.m. the night before. I didn't get back to my apartment until way past Midnight and, until I spoke to all the folks at home, checked my e-mails and just unwound, it was really late. I somehow made it to class though, and once again, participated and had an interesting conversation with Professor Harvey about Alive the Son of Awake, written by Ibn Tufayl, one of the most influential Islamic philosophers of the era. Afterwards, it was American Jewish Literature class by Professor Kramer and we spent the day focusing on the poet Emma Lazarus. You might be familiar with her, as she is the one who wrote the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty. I find it extremely cool that a Jewish poet's writing is at the base of what symbolizes a country of freedom and tolerance. After class, I managed to make the bus and headed home. Wednesday is always really exhausting for me so I was ready to fall into bed but then Lana texted about dinner. So, we headed to my favorite eatery in Tel Aviv, Pastafino, which is a pizza, pasta and salad place literally two blocks from my place. It's pretty good pizza for the kosher establishment and their salads are great, and everything is reasonably priced!

Yesterday was an extremely busy day! I made my way to the gym and got punished by Yehuda for over an hour. I also got there earlier than my training session so I could do cardio. Needless to say, it is not easy moving today. He really concentrated on the lower body with all the squats. My chest is killing too as he introduced me to all new chest exercises. First thing I did this morning was pop two Advil, otherwise, I don't think I could have made it out of the bed and into the bathroom. Anyway, after the gym, I raced home to hit the showers and pack. I had a Dr.'s appointment in Herzliya Pituach and then Tamara, her husband, and I were going to hear Bret speak at this cute little bookstore/restaurant called Tmol Shilshom in Jerusalem. It was nice to see a fluent English speaker and so my appointment wasn't as painful as expected. Unfortunately, she's sending me for some additional tests, and I have to get some blood work done next week. I hate when they draw blood, many people can't do it without brusing me big time. What can I say, I've got weird veins in my arms and unless you're extremely experienced, chances are I'm going to be hurtin next week!

Michael, Tamara and her husband, Merav, Daniel and his wife and baby, and Buggy and I represented my Creative Writing class last night. It was great listening to Bret read from his own works, he has a great reading voice, very soothing. Some of the questions asked afterwards though were really odd, including one man who wanted to know what Bret thought about Anti-Semitism, but on the whole it was a great experience. I am going to rave about the food too because my salad was awesome! I ordered The Lover and it was definitely worth it! Buggy got the fruit salad and it looked good. I think we're going to return there for subsequent events, definitely.

I slept until 10:00 a.m. today, how awesome is that? I don't remember the last time I got that much sleep, considering the fact that I crashed around 12:30. That's almost 10 hours of straight, uninterrupted sleep! Yet, I still feel like I can go back to bed and catch a few more Z's. Oh well, can't really do that today! I'm heading to Efrat for Shabbat and I haven't been there for a weekend since 1994! I have a feeling that the area has probably changed a bit since the last time I was there, so it will really be interesting to see the neighborhood.

Countdown till I come back to NYC is 20 days from today! I can't believe it, I am so excited! I keep thinking of new things I need to do when I'm back in town, and now my fear is that I won't be able to get it all done in time! Oh well, that should be the absolute worst of my problems folks.

Exciting news, I was finally officially accepted into the Creative Writing Program! I got the Masters acceptance letter on Wednesday this week, and now I'm registered and almost all of the administrative junk I've had to deal with is taken care of.

It's supposed to be stormy in Tel Aviv this weekend, not sure what it's like in NYC or Maryland but I hear it's cold, so I hope everyone is bundling up!

Literature of the day is The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, which is the poem at the base of The Statue of Liberty.

Shabbat Shalom!