Postal Strike

I'm wiped. Between this nasty cold and the absolutely miserable heat of Tel Aviv, I'm tired. Last night, I went to bed at a decent hour and ended up waking up at 6:00 a.m. not able to breath. My cold had managed to clog up my sinuses and I was trying to sleep while breathing through my mouth. Lord knows what that must have sounded like! Either way, I was feeling lousy and couldn't get back to sleep. So, I turned on my computer and managed to chat up on some IM conversations with a couple of folks back home. I called over to the boyz in the James Tower and caught up a bit with Ari too, which was nice since I don't remember the last time I spoke to him. Melissa suggested that I take 2 Advil and I did, hoping that the muscle relaxant would have ease the tension in my shoulders, and by 7:30 I was back asleep.

Buggy called to wake me at 9:30 but I wasn't moving, so I wished him good luck on another final presentation, rolled over and went back to bed. El Jeffe called to wake me up at 11:00 a.m. and this time, well, I got myself out of bed and into the shower. Feeling a bit better after the shower, I quickly got dressed and ran to the bank before it closed. I deposited the money I got from Bar Ilan (reimbursed for part of my tuition this year) and then headed down to the SuperPharm on Gordon and Dizengoff to pick up some more tissues (I went through an entire box in a span of 2 hours yesterday).

At this point, as I was walking back to my apartment with my stuff, El Jeffe called about lunch. Since he was driving, I was more than happy to tag along and we went to Cafe Joe on Bograshov for some chow. Now, you know when you have a cold you just really don't have an appetite? Combine that with oppressive heat and I really didn't think I would want any food. But, as soon as the waitress put the plate of tuna salad in front of me, I realized that I was absolutely starving. We tucked in and before long we were both finished and ready to get back. El Jeffe dropped me off at the corner and then drove back to his apartment so he could get back to work.

I got back home, switched into my heavy duty sneakers, called Buggy to say hello, chatted with Mom in the States and then grabbed the bag of invitations and began the long walk to the Post Office. Imagine my SHOCK to discover that the post office was closed. Fortunately, Buggy called just then and I read the letter posted on the door. It looks like these people are on strike - again. Lord knows why they are striking, but they just are. Since there were two big post office boxes in front of the building, I made the executive decision to just put all the stamped envelopes into the boxes and prayed that the strike would end soon so that my Israeli invitations would go out before people left for vacation.

I decided to stop by Boris and Maya's on my way back to the apartment because I literally have one onion and 4 shallots in my vegetable supply. Since that's really not enough for me, I had to replenish my fruit and vegetable stock for the rest of the week.

People, for 48 shekel, which is around $12, I purchased:
1 head of cauliflower (for beautiful roasting)
2 lemons (for dressings)
10 mini plums (for a quick snack)
6 vine ripened tomatoes (great for Israeli salad)
2 HUGE grapefruits (Vitamin C to help fight this cold)
2 red peppers (perfect for taking to school as snack)
5 nectarines (low glycemic index for pre-breakfast fruit)
9 cucumbers (for great Israeli salad)

While there are a lot of things in this country that's significantly more expensive than in the States, fruits and vegetables are so much cheaper and in some cases much better! I'm missing blueberries though, and need to start my list of things I want to eat when I'm back in New York. Fake crab for crab salad and blueberries are topping the list!

And that brings us to:

Crave of the Day I miss summer BBQ's in New York, the ones back in the day when my Dad would put on his skivvies and knee socks and grill over charcol underneath the front porch. We would set up a table on the porch and after a long day at summer camp, come home with hamburgers and hot dogs with slices of watermellon for dessert. What I miss, besides the nostalgia of it all, is the corn on the cob with a pat of melted margarine sliding down. I love corn of the cob right off the grill, although I don't like the husk it myself, I like seeing the grill marks on the corn itself as the way the margarine drips around the kernels to make it shine. With a little shake of the salt, it's a perfect side dish to the hamburgers!