Whirlwind Wedding Weekend

There's a lot to write in today's blog so I warn folks reading to go to the bathroom now, as if embarking on a trip, so that you won't have to pull over and stop reading in the middle.

Let's rewind to Thursday, when I spent the morning shvitzing at the laundromat and doing pantomime theatre with a French woman who spoke no Hebrew or English. It was pretty funny, but we managed just fine and she was able to take care of her washer and dryer without a problem. I then went to Dizi at Dizengoff Center to meet Rachel and Oren, who are back from their trip to the States, to say hello and pick up the package of invitations my Mom sent with them. Thank g-d for Rachel, otherwise, we wouldn't have had enough invitations for Buggy's list! I hung out for at least an hour, just catching up and relaxing, before going back to my apartment to pack and get ready. Yuda sent a driver to pick me up and at 8:00 p.m., I was heading towards Jerusalem and Buggy!

Now, here is an example of shooting myself in the foot. For months now, Buggy has been telling me not to tip cab drivers in Israel. He said, unlike cab drivers in the States, you just don't tip. Yuda sent his friend Avi, who has driven me to Jerusalem a couple of times before. In fact, he was the driver who was taking me when the cab broke down right outside of Lod about 45 minutes before Shabbos. I didn't like how he behaved during that instance, but as long as he's a responsible driver I pretty much suck it up and just go with it. Well, when Avi pulled up in front of Buggy's parent's house, I asked him how much I owed him because I just didn't remember. He said, "last time you gave me 270 shekel, so that's what you owe me." Buggy was a little annoyed, because he knew that I had given a tip last time, and so I gave him that money but didn't appreciate that he told me to tip him. I wasn't annoyed for long though, because I was just so happy to see Buggy (it was a week!) that I didn't care.

We were pretty starving, so we hopped into the car and went to Ema's for dinner. The food was actually pretty good, I had a vegetable soup with kabob and Buggy (as usual) had the Pargiot. We got back to his parents place and then both crashed for the evening. Buggy woke up bright and early on Friday because he had a final presentation at school and I got up because I had an appointment for a blow out (or Fan as they call it in Hebrew) at the salon next door. With the heat and humidity, I knew there was no way I could tame my hair into submission by myself. And, since prices for blow outs are pretty reasonable in Israel, I decided to treat myself.

Chanan was the KING! My hair was so straight, it looks like I went and got the Japanese Hair Treatment to permanently straighten my hair. And, even in the terrible heat, my hair still stayed straight. Buggy got back from the final presentation early and together, we got ready for the wedding. We ended up arriving 30 minutes after the wedding officially began and were SHOCKED to see that we were one of the first people at the wedding.

FOLKS - if you are coming to our wedding in P"G a few weeks, please COME ON TIME! The Chupah will be on time! The badeken will be on time! I don't want to be sitting in the chair all by myself for an hour before people show up! That would be so sad :(

Anyway, there were between 600 and 700 people at this wedding, which was an insane number for me to comprehend. The cocktail hour was nice and then I missed the badeken because I had to go to the bathroom (lots of water folks in this heat!). The Chupah, though, was outside and with the weather hovering around 91F and the strong Jerusalem sun beating down I was cooking (I also was wearing ALL black!). Buggy and I escaped towards the bushes and tried to stand underneath. I felt the sweat dripping down my shirt and into my bra. It was gross. And yes, as usual, I cried after the ceremony. I am going to be such a mess at our wedding, oy! Buggy's Dad asked us to take a sip of the segulah wine, which was cooking underneath that Chupah, and then we joined the crowd inside for the meal.

When we got to our pre-assigned table, however, all the seats were taken. I was surprised, as I thought the table was a family table. Well, since Buggy's sister was in charge of seating arrangements, we consulted with her and discovered that people just sat down at our table randomly. They just took their food (it was buffet) and decided that our table looked good and sat down. Well, Buggy's sister was having none of that and she marched over and ordered everyone to get up and get out. Unfortunately, they had used all the utensils and ate all of the chocolate party favors that were left for us (the groom makes chocolates for a living). So, we waved over a bus boy and asked him to get us all new utensils. Since the hall was so huge and full of people, he got lost and went from table to table before he finally found the right one (30 minutes later).

Towards the middle of the dancing, I was getting really tired from the heat. Buggy and I bade everyone farewell and heading back to his parents house, where I prompty passed out from the heat. I woke up 30 minutes before Shabbos, which gave me just enough time to shower (again) and light candles.

Shabbos itself was very relaxing. Buggy and I were alone for the most part, with his brothers and neice floating in and out with friends for Kiddish and throughout the afternoon. We thought we would spend Saturday night with a movie and relaxing before our hectic weeks, but Buggy's parents decided it would be a good time to get the invitations ready.

I was up until 3:00 a.m. working on the invitations! His folks left me around 1:30 after we went through lists and stuffed envelopes with Aufruf and Sheva Brachot cards, and made sure addresses were correct and names were spelled right and the response cards had numbers. I spent the extra hour and a half licking stamps for all 200+ envelopes.

I know, I know - I saw that Seinfeld episode and no, I was not concerned. Buggy woke me bright eyed and bushy tailed on Sunday morning as he ran to get some work done in the office and I got ready for my meeting with Professor Hoffmann. Now, I had no idea where we were meeting. He mentioned Cafe Hillel but there are 3 in Jerusalem! I knew it wasn't the Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim though, because that was too far from his house. But, I wasn't sure and I didn't have a phone number to verify. I quickly sent an e-mail and prayed that Professor would see it before Sunday morning.

No Dice.

Buggy and I rationalized that he must mean the original Cafe Hillel on Hillel street, so I took my laptop, papers and my iPod and began the walk from Buggy's parents house to Cafe Hillel. I usually cut through by the Prime Minister's house, but there was a suspicious object and so I was stuck going around Achad HaAm and back up Keren HaYisod Street. Once I got to King George though, and past the Sheraton, the walk was primarily in the shade so it wasn't too bad. I got to the restaurant 20 minutes before my appointment and settled in to wait. In the meantime, I called someone from the class and asked her what she thought. She rationalized that since Professor H. lives in the Old City, he probably meants the Cafe Hillel on Jaffa. I had NO IDEA though where that was. First she said to go to the Village Green, but that just made me go huh? Then she said to go towards Kikar Tzion but again, I had no idea where that was!

She yelled that it was time for me to learn how to get around Jerusalem. I told her patience, I'm a Tel Avivian. I asked her about Kent and was able to figure out from there. I had the women behind the bar put my iced coffee into a to-go cup and with 10 minutes to go, sprinted through Ben Yehuda, past Kent, across the street and 2 blocks to Cafe Hillel. I made it in time and sure enough, there was Professor H. waiting for me.

I was, at this point, covered in sweat. The flies were gravitating towards me and once again, I felt like Pig Pen. I don't think I smelled though, so that's good, and the meeting went very well. 2 1/2 hours later, we parted ways and I sat outside to wait for Buggy to come pick me up for a quick lunch. But first, we stopped in at Mr. Meltzer's to pick up my Yichud Room present. I love the gift, but won't say what it was so that people can be surprised when I get it B"H at the wedding.

Afterwards, we walked back towards Hillel street and had a quick lunch at Burgers & Chicken. Not bad, I got my huge dose of protein and some vegees to boot. We went back to the office where Buggy finished working on a model for a final project this week and I helped with the pins and some glue. We got back to his parents place for a quick change of clothing, then headed out towards town for a quick bite to eat and then to the Mall to meet with him Chosson teacher. The meeting was nice, although it was a bit rough since he didn't speak any English, but we managed to make it through and Buggy was really happy. Afterwards, we got back to his parents house and again, both of us passed out. I haven't been going to bed before 2:00 a.m. since Thursday night and when I got up at 8:00 a.m. this morning I really felt the exhaustion.

Today, we were back at the Mall for my neurologist appointment. The good news is that she doesn't think my pseudotumor cerebri has come back. The bad news is that I still have vertigo and we need to figure out why. The next course of action it an ENT appointment. Hopefully, I won't have to do that until after the wedding. Afterwards, Buggy and I got breakfast at Cafe Neeman in the mall and I kept asking him for a cinnamon bun. He refused, as I warned him months ago that no matter how much I ask for it, he has to make sure I don't get it. Wedding lent is important! Well, after whining for a few minutesI told him that we left the wedding early and I didn't get dessert then and so I deserved it now. Finally fed up, I guess, he lifted his hand to order me a cinnamon bun and that's when I started laughing.

I was bluffing and poor Buggy folded.

Sans cinnamon bun, we went downstairs for some low-fat ice cream and frozen yogurt, and made our way to the garage in Talpiot to fix Buggy's tailight. Then, it was back to Buggy's parents place where I packed up and waited for Doron the driver to pick me up and bring me back to Tel Aviv.

At this point, I'm really dragging. I've got a lousy cold and I haven't slept for almost 4 days. All I wanted to do in the cab was fall asleep, but he wanted to chat so I talked the whole way back to my apartment. When I got here, everything looked status quo. The door I always close was closed, the apartment was hot from no ventilation, and my TV was still here. When I dropped my stuff in my bedroom and headed towards the kitchen to get a drink of water, however, I was shocked to see a piece of popcorn on the floor. I have a white mat in my kitchen floor, so it was camafloudged (sp) by the mat. That's odd! Popcorn isn't on the diet, I haven't had any popcorn in this apartment for months now, and I certainly didn't pop any before I left. I did some more digging and noticed another piece of popcorn underneath my AC in the living room.

WTF?

Then, when I went to turn on my AC, the remote control said 27C, when it was 21C when I left the apartment on Thursday night.

I don't know whose been sleeping in my bed, but it looks like someone has been in this apartment. I immediately called Itai and asked him about it, and he claimed that he never stepped foot into the apartment. He mentioned he "heard some noises" but thought it was from upstairs. He said it definitely wasn't him.

Bullshit!

He's the only one with keys to my apartment and I know for a fact that the neighbors have been complaining that my AC is making too much noise. I bet that Itai let himself into the apartment, while he was chowing down on some popcorn, and checked my AC. But, since contractually he is not allowed into my apartment without my permission first, he denyed that it happened to begin with.

So, I guess I have some popcorn eating ghost who likes to haunt my place and then jack up my AC so that hot air is blowing instead of cold air. I wish I had the nanny cam right now! I would set it up and count every time Itai let himself into my place without permission and then bust his ass for breaking the contract. What a jerk.

I'm so happy to be back in my apartment though, really, it's nice to have my own space and to be able to walk around in my underware and a t-shirt (hahaha, how's THAT for too much information?). Tomorrow, I have to go to the post office and mail my wedding invitations (to my Israel list) and go to the supermarket since I have absolutely no food in my apartment. Since I'm so tired, I think I'm going to just skip dinner tonight. It doesn't pay to hit the supermarket today, even though it's only 4:30 p.m. I also have got to get started on my short story for one of my final papers and I need to hand in to Professor Hoffmann a rewrite before I can get a grade in the class. That, and if I don't pick a date to move and get movers, I'm going to be in trouble!

Crave of the Day is pancakes & syrup. When I was little, my Mom would make us a huge pancake breakfast on Thanksgiving morning. We would eat around the big yellow kitchen table, pulled out from the radiator for someone else to sit at the other head, and scarf down our food so we could get back to the TV and the parade. The big breakfast helped tied us over until we got to Aunt Amy's for Thanksgiving dinner. And, as delicious as her turkey and side dishes were, nothing beats Mom's pancakes with Aunt Jemima's syrup! Yummy!