Lehitraot!

I'm shutting down the blog. For some, this will be a disappointment. I apologize to that person - my sister - who reads the blog while eating her breakfast every morning. For others, it won't even be a blip on your life. But basically, censorship has forced my hand and it's time to close up shop.

I've truly enjoyed sharing my life this past year and a half with the blog, it's been an experience that I can now say has been well documented. I'm proud of myself for sticking to it for so long - a feat for someone who tends to start projects, get bored, and move on. Buggy and I will miss sharing our lives with you all - but it's for the best. If you're a friend/family member, feel free to get in touch the old fashioned way (via e-mail or phone) whenever you want an update about us. If you're just a random reader, thank you for coming to this site. I hope you were entertained.

With that, Buggy and I would like to wish everyone a Chag Sameach!

Lehitraot (Goodbye) from Jerusalem.

HolylandHipster

Visit from a Lone Star

President Bush is planning on riding into Jerusalem on a white horse to save the Middle East. Reports by media in Israel, and this morning's article in the Jerusalem Post implies that El Presidente is coming for a 2 day trip starting January 10, 2008. Well, Buggy and I are going to try to make it a LOOONG weekend away from Jerusalem when Prez Bush is in town. We'll be locking up out liquor too, just in case, and hopefully finding a nice weekend getaway that won't break the bank. Hmmm, maybe Switzerland? We'll see.

Happy First Day of Chanukah to everyone! Buggy and I attended the family Chanukah party last night and, all I can say is that it's much better than last year. This time, instead of calling me fat, his Aunt told me that I looked so skinny that I could eat all of the potato latkes she won't be eating since she's on a diet. I told her I gained 10 pounds since the wedding and am back to wearing my fat pants, but thanked her for telling me that I looked so nice.

Other highlights included a fantastic roast beef, a major announcement from my sister-in-law about her pregnancy (she announced that she was pregnant) and lots of tears that didn't come from either myself or Buggy. Speaking of Buggy, he was so disappointed this year with the gifts that I feel pretty terrible. Now that he's no longer flying solo, we get "our" presents as opposed to "his" and "hers" gifts. Which makes sense that this year we got 2 bathmats and bath towels, 3 hand towels for when we wash, 2 beautiful rose candles, body cream/perfume and 2 mini-silver spoons to match our silver salt and pepper pots.

Two things about the gifts I want to highlight:

1) This year, Buggy's Aunt didn't give him hand cream. For the past 5 years or so, his Aunt gave him hand cream. I was there last year when she presented him for foot cream, actually, and was pretty shocked by the gift. Of course, he gave it to me and I did use it and enjoyed it, but we get a big chuckle out of the present. Note to all Aunt's/Mother's and gift givers of the world - don't ever give a single male, or marriageable age, hand cream for Chanukah. It just send the wrong message....

2) Buggy's sister got everyone CD's this Chanukah and we were fortunate enough to receive Sting's Hit's that no one has ever heard of and Cat Steven's Remembered. Now, Buggy and I are music snobs. I admit it, I'm not nice when it comes to music, I have very, very distinct taste. In fact, I would never listen to either Sting or Cat Stevens. Buggy, of course, is the same as me when it comes to music (one of the first things we discovered about each other and one of the major reasons we went out on a second date. The man loved The Killers, it was Bashert!). Anyway, I really appreciated the gift because it was a nice present, but what the heck was I going to do with it? Well, Buggy's Aunt got a Bob Dylan CD and she has loads of Dylan and truthfully, I only have a handful of songs from iTunes so I wanted to trade for the Dylan. Buggy's Aunt liked Cat Stevens and a trade was made, but not without slightly offending Buggy's sister (mind you, she SAID we could trade CD's if we didn't like what we got). I ask you folks - why did we get the crappy music selection? Buggy's brother got Led Zepplin (another great pic for us), his Aunt got Bob Dylan, his Mother got Mika (which wouldn't be good for us but it showed that at least his sister put thought into the present since my MIL loves pop music), and we got the CD's you find in the bargain basket at checkout. I kid you not, this gift showed not thought or forsight on his sister's part. Now, I got them two really nice children photo albums and I have to say, I put plenty of thought into the gift. I also spent 84 shekel on her gift, 75 shekel on the present for her daughter - and Gaby and I merited two CD's that roughly cost 25 shekel. Where is the love? It's ok, I learn my lesson once. Next year, she gets scotch tape for Chanukah.

Well, I've been up since 6:30 a.m. and it's amazing that I've got some energy. Buggy has his BIG presentation today and he was a nervous wreck when I woke him this morning. Fortunately, he was able to get up and out of the apartment by 7:10 a.m., with both breakfast and lunch and a Chai to drink. I waited for Avi to come and then we went next door to our neighbors to check out the two leaks in their apartments. First, according to Avi, the living leaks are actually not leaks at all but the water that leaked a few months ago drying in their apartment. The worse we'll have to do is paint the wall because of the damage, but he doesn't think there's any new water damage and if there is, it's not coming from our apartment. That was a big relief. The second leak is HUGE and it's in their kitchen but, fortunately, the only way it could be coming from our apartment is it our Mamad had water in it and was dripping. Avi pointed out that, based on where their kitchen is, the water is actually coming from our next door neighbor's apartment. Avi showed us that our neighbor recently had work done (he did, I remember) and they installed a section of the rood pointing downward as opposed to pointing upward. So, all of the rain and even the dew that collects onto that roof is pouring directly into the roof of our neighbor's kitchen. So, Avi suggested they contact the neighbors to let us know. We also encouraged them to get another opinion, in case they weren't comfortable with what Avi said, and they were just going to have their Kablan called Avi to discuss some of the other options. In the meantime, we're waiting for the next big rain to see if it's from our apartment or leaking from the second balcony. The good news is that, based on the current water damage, it doesn't appear to be anything leaking from our bathroom. That really, really made me feel better.

So now, I'm trying to figure out what we're doing for dinner tonight. Buggy has been so stressed lately because of school that I want to do something nice. I think I'm going to bake him some latke's for dinner, so I have to go to the fruit and vegetable store to pick up some necessary ingredients. We're also almost out of toilet paper and paper towels, so I need to pick that up too, and I think I'm going to make some chicken for dinner so I'm going to go to Falcon to get some meat.

Well, my Heroes video is almost done loading so I'm off to watch an episode before getting on with my day. Hope everyone is having a Chag Sameach!

National Cookie Day!

December 4th is literally my favorite day of the year. Not because this year the date happens to coincide with the beginning of Chanukah, but because it's National Cookie Day! Oh yeah - Buggy and I both harbor the cookie monster within (admit it, you know you do too!) and so, I began prepare for this fabulous holiday by baking! For the first time in my entire adult life, I actually made my Aunt Irene's (TZ"L) cookies and they were just as good as I remembered!

While sifting the flour, baking powder and salt together, I remembered this one summer I had gotten kicked out of summer camp (long story, not worth retelling the reason why in this blog) and I had about 6 weeks left until school started and nothing to do with my days. Since my parents worked, and my siblings were all either away at sleep away or day camp, my days were long stretches of boring. Well, my Grandmother and Aunt Irene both chipped in to help me out and one day I would spend fruit and vegetable shopping with my Grandmother at Kissena Farms. That's where I learnt how to pick good grapes (my Grandmother would pop them into her mouth to make sure they were sweet) and how to tell if a grapefruit was ripe. While, Aunt Irene, would take me over to her house and we would either go errand shopping together on Main Street or we would go to the house and bake! I'll never forget the afternoon we baked her cookies (she let me add chocolate chips even though you really don't need them!) and she let me eat a whole bunch (I was always dieting so cookies were a big NO NO in my house). Aunt Irene was really cool though, and I missed her a lot while baking cookies for Buggy. Anyway, I'm going to bake another batch tonight and bring it over to the Chanukah party.

Yesterday, I was a bit down, but I felt a lot better when I went into town to run some errands. I had to hit the bank to change my name and address since my Teudat Zehut has been changed. Afterwards, I just walked around a bit and looked into shops and stores. Everyone has some sort of Chanukah decoration out in their storefronts, and I was just getting so excited by the holidays that I practically skipped the rest of the way to Buggy's office. He was the only one still there, so I popped over to a computer and lent him moral support as he finished his project. We left around 8:00 p.m. and then I started dinner. We had a nice, balanced and nutritious meal of grilled salmon, brown rice with soy sauce, and three bean salad. Oh yeah, I did it, I actually served us three bean salad! We're way passed not eating certain food items that might be deemed offensive since we live in such close proximity. Anyway, it worked out great, and we were able to watch the latest episode of CSI New York before going to bed.

We had an early night, which was great because Tuesdays are our early mornings, and I had some interesting dreams that included a baby rhino and a dalmation puppy on a remote Island in the Pacific. Anyway, I must have had some sort of dream that Buggy was falling because I woke up - around 3:30 a.m., and lunged at him to make sure he wasn't falling off the bed. Of course, that woke him with a start and he was a little surprised with my sudden, early morning, lunge-to-safe-his-life moment and we had a good little chuckle. He started telling me he was having weird dreams, but since it was so early in the morning, decided to save the retelling until the alarm went off. So, we both went back to bed and I was up before the alarm went off at 6:50 a.m.

Buggy left for school around 7:30 with a tuna melt for breakfast, a deli sandwich for lunch and a whole bunch of goodies for snack (including an apple because it's true that an apple a day really DOES keep the Dr. away) and I, of course, went back to sleep. Four blissful hours later, I was up and on the move because I have so much to do today! First, I had to wrap my Mother-in-law's Chanukah present and, of course, I can't really wrap anything. So, I struggled for about 30 minutes to wrap the two boxes of trivets we bought her, and well, I just hope she doesn't notice the jagged lines or the sloppy tape jobs. We were way past due for a laundry run, and so I put up a colors wash and then got to work on the kitchen. I had to wash up and wipe down the counters and that just led me to my broom and, before I knew it, I was sweeping the whole place. Mind you, our cleaning lady comes tomorrow, but I prefer she not have to clean in a pig sty.

As soon as I sat down to update the blog, though, the doorbell rang and I thought it was the package I've been waiting for. Buggy's getting a delivery today, so I'm home until they come, and for some reason the intercom wasn't working. So, I slipped on my slippers and raced downstairs to find our lovely neighbor leaving us a note. Apparently, she has two leaks into her apartment that she fears is coming from our apartment and now that it's spreading she felt she should let us know. Well, since we're going to have to pay for any damage, I got on the phone and called our contractor ASAP and made an appointment for him to see the leaks at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. I guess tomorrow is going to be another early day for me, but I really hope we get this fixed and soon! She was really sweet about it though, and invited us over for Shabbos lunch of vegetarian Chulent. I told her I had to get back to her after I spoke with Buggy, but we'll probably go since we have no other plans and it would be nice to get to know our neighbors!

OK - I'm off to do some cookie baking in honor of Chanukah and National Cookie Day! Chag Sameach everyone; enjoy the start of this fabulous Festival of Lights!

Product of the Day



Oxo makes three sizes of cookie scoopers and I could really use the medium sized one for Aunt Irene's famous cookies. Since I'm supposed to drop them in 1/4 to 1/2 spoonfuls at a time, what I've been using ends up being a bit insufficient and I get cookies of all different shapes and sizes! With the Oxo cookie scooper, it would be perfectly shaped cookies every time!

Defeated

I'm tired. I'm so tired of fighting the system that I'm done, I've given up, I'm waving the white flag. Yesterday, I got a letter from Maccabi saying that my health insurance has been cancelled. Apparently, Bituach Liumi (the National Insurance Agency) no longer recognizes that I made Aliyah and therefore, all health insurance privileges have been revoked. Now, I could understand that this happens to someone who doesn't pay their bills. But folks, I literally got a bill from Bituach Liumi the other day and we paid it immediately. I even have all the codes to prove that I paid my bills. So, what the hell went wrong?

First, we called Maccabi and the person on the phone said that he didn't know the answer because that information wasn't available to him on "his system". When pressed, he claimed that Maccabi has many systems and all are not accessible to everyone, and my situation was on someone else's system in the Aggrippas office. Well, we had to wait until today to call the Aggrippas Maccabi phone number and ask about the situation. They looked into it and told us that it was a Bituach Liumi problem. So, Buggy called Bituach Liumi to ask what's up and they said "they're looking into it". They didn't tell him when they would get back to him, they didn't allude to the fact that anything was even wrong to begin with. They didn't even tell him when we can expect the problem to be fixed. And so, I am no longer covered by health insurance and therefore cannot go to any Dr.'s. Well, I wish I would have known this before I made an appointment for December 16th - I guess let's just hope this situation is completely resolved in the interim.

But, I'm just defeated at this point. I'm tired of fighting every single thing in this Country. I'm getting it from school, I get it from all the of the government agencies, I get it from my bank and the contractor and anyone and everyone. I'm fighting to get my license and I've been doing that since October. It seems like the only one I'm not fighting with is Buggy, and all I can say is B"H for that. I'm even fighting myself to get out of bed these days, today was particularly rough. Buggy had to be up and out of the apartment early, so for his sake I got up and made him lunch and breakfast. I waited in the living room until he was finished davening and then, as soon as he walked out the door, I went back to my bed. I tried to go back to sleep, but it didn't come, and so I started writing instead. Fortunately, I wrote about 5 pages of a new story and so at least I felt accomplished, but it still didn't make getting out of bed later on any easier.

The thought of raising children in this Country absolutely frightens me and, with no way of opting out, I wonder what I can do to make things better?

The storm clouds are rolling in and the apartment is quite cold. I'm too miserable to turn on the heat and so I just put on another sweatshirt and try to get warm. The only task I left myself to do today is work on a spreadsheet of expenses that my Father requested early this morning. I'm biding my time - there's at least another 10 hours to my day and I don't want to do things all at once. At least I still have to make dinner, that's something else I can do with myself.

I wish I knew why it's so hard to live here. I just don't understand why these organizations are just completely ass-backwards. Well, at least I have an appointment at 4:00 p.m. so I have no choice but to get out of the house. I also have to go to town to deal with yet another bank issue. If life keeps going this way I'm either going to end up doing one of three things:

1) Hitting the bottle
2) Start Smoking again/develop a dependence on my Valium
3) Develop an ulcer

Fortunately, tomorrow is the first night of Chanukah and we have Buggy's big family Chanukah gift exchange evening. Hopefully the presents will be good. Well, at least I have that to look forward to...

Earthquakes!

OK, so this morning there was the fourth earthquake in Israel in 2 weeks. Buggy and I heard that the ground started to rumble and move around 9:40 a.m., and we both were up and didn't even feel a thing. Now, some dooms dayers are predicting that "the big one is on its way" and that's just the last thing I need to even think about. Oh, and this picture is not from here in Jerusalem but from Indonesia after an earthquake that was more than 6.0 on the Richter square. Today's earthquake measured in at 4.0. I've lived through a couple of New York earthquakes in my life, and I only really remember one that woke me up on a Friday night and left a big crack in the pavement outside of our Shul. I don't know what year it was, probably sometime in the late 80's or very early 90's. Anyway, my point is that I'd like to keep it that way - I'm one of those people who doesn't need to experience certain things in life just to say that I've "been there, done that". I'm content never having to live through a big earthquake - it's why I never settled in California folks.

So, Buggy and I had a BIG busy and productive morning. We got up early and drove the car to the Mosach (garage) to get some things fixed. Buggy's back blinker wasn't working and the car needed other servicing, so we left it with the grease men and hiked it back home. It was a very nice, long walk through Talpiot and the weather was beautiful, sunny with grey clouds rushing towards us. I warned Buggy that it looked like rain was coming, but he was certain that we would make it home okay, and then we decided to stop off at the Hadar Mall to pick up the last of our Chanukah presents. At first, Buggy wasn't excited about our options, but then we found a Bug. The Bug store is a place you can go to get your computer serviced (although, I don't think they work with Macs, just PC's), buy computer and Playstation games and other cool electronics. We decided to get his brother a plastic keyboard that would work with his laptop, and his Dad a pair of rechargable batteries that you charge through the computer's USB port. I also picked up some wrapping paper so I can wrap his Mother's gift, and then we decided it was time to head back home for some brunch. Of course, we weren't too surprised to see the rain pouring down! Buggy had this great rainjacket, which was smart of him to take before we left the house, and I only had a sweatshirt with a hood. So, we waited for the raindrops to slow down and then walked the rest of the way home. We didn't get too wet and I made us a nice, big and warm brunch to chase away the chill.

Shabbos was very nice and relaxing. We ate Friday night dinner at Buggy's parents and I even made it to shul for Maariv and Kabalat Shabbos! We went to Chovevei but decided to daven upstairs, which was nice and smooth - no speeches - just the way I like it. Dinner was great and then Buggy and I walked back home. Right before we crossed the train tracks into Baka, though, we heard this loud BOOM. I looked at Buggy and asked him what he thought that could be, and he said that I really didn't want to know. And then, we heard the sirens. This being Jerusalem, we both assumed terrorist attack and all I wanted to do was rush home and crawl into bed. Buggy assured me that it was far away and that I had nothing to worry about, but I didn't want to take any chances. I just wanted to be home. Well, we spent the rest of Shabbos close to the apartment and lunch was very comforting. The soup turned out really, really great - as did the lamb chops - and then we just slept Shabbos away. After Havdala, we both went online looking for news about what could have happened but didn't find anything. That was a little bit of a relief.

Saturday night was quiet, we stayed at home and just relaxed and caught up on some TV. Today, we both have some work to do. For me, I have to write a new business proposal and Buggy needs to work on a big project that's due on Wednesday. Good thing we don't have to be outside - it's cold, grey and raining. Who said rain in Israel isn't a blessing?

Product of the Day

Patagonia makes quality rain gear! I moved to this country with the ugliest, most impractical rain coat ever and - of course - I never wear it. While we were in the States, actually the day after our wedding, we went to the Patagonia on the Upper West Side and bought Buggy his rain jacket. It's amazing - he absolutely loves it - and it really does protect from "the elements" and the rain! Perhaps I'll pick on up during the after-Christmas sales! Either way, if you're planning on visiting Jerusalem in the next few months, bring rain gear - winter has finally arrived!