Norman Mailer and new neighborhoods

I was very sad to read that Norman Mailer died, I really like his writing. I found a book of short stories, completely weathered and old, at Halper's Book store on Allenby street in Tel Aviv last summer, and loved it! Granted, every page practically fell out as I was leafing through, but I found that if I was careful I was able to keep it in tact. I spent a fantastic day, back in the Summer of 1999, at Norman Mailer's Hampton's house. It was beautiful, exactly what you would expect a beach house to look like. With gravel instead of pavement on the long driverway from the street to the home, and plenty of white and blue and wood inside. The back terrace and pool though, was absolutely breath taking. I was there for a client event, and the front yard sported a huge white tent. A number of celebrities, Hamptons socialites and writers were in attendance, and I represented my client as best as I could, and then myself and my supervisor drove through town to pick up some salt water taffy and head back to Manhattan. There were only a couple of minutes when I looked around and said to myself, "oh my lord, I'm at Norman Mailer's Hamptons house". It was a little awe inspiring, much better than any Puffy white party could ever be. Rest in Peace Norman, I'll miss your work but I'll never forget that summer day at your lovely home.

Yesterday was a lot of fun! Buggy and I slept in a bit and then we ran some errands. I went back to the ENT at the Wolfson Center and he told me that my vertigo is caused by calcium deposits that came loose in my inner ear. Yuck! The only way to treat that is with physiotherapy and not I have to find someone who will do exercises with me to fix the issue. Annoying but necessary.

After the Wolfson Center, Buggy and I drove to Bayit Vegan to look at the location for his final government project. He is designing a spectacular, groundbreaking and extremely unique Kindergarten, for a location on the main street in Bayit Vegan. I came along as photographer, so we could take pictures of the house that would be demolished in lieu of this kindergarten. It was weird for me to be back in Bayit Vegan, a neighborhood full of really, really religious people who walk around in either yeshiva uniforms of with their hair covered/long sleeves/long shirts. I felt uncomfortable wearing my jeans, and hoped that no one from Michlalalah would either walk or drive by. While I have no problem, religiously, wearing jeans and not covering my hair, I also believe in being respectful of others people's beliefs. Which is why, I always wear the appropriate garb while going to religious neighborhoods. I told Buggy that the next time we come to the neighorhood, I will at least put on a skirt. Personally, I'd like to go back to Michlalah to show Buggy the school that meant so much to be as a seminary student. I have only the fondest of memories and would like to share with him the reasons why.

After we took pictures, we came back to the apartment and Buggy and I had some leftover pumpkin soup before he went off to work at the office. Since last night was a really late night for us, I relaxed a little and just read and watched some TV.

Yesterday was Buggy's brother's 25th birthday and we went out to dinner, the immediate family, to this great restaurant called Pini BaChatzer (I think that means Pini in the Courtyard but not 100% sure of the translation) which is located between Derech Hevron and Derech Beit Lechem in a dirt pit that you would think was a junk yard but really it's hiding two restaurants and a club. We got to dinner at 10:00 p.m. and Buggy and I were pretty hungry and I had left 12 points for dinner! (Weight Watchers points are really annoying!). Anyway, Buggy kinda warned me of the menu, but I was still surprised at their appetizer list. They serve a lot of sweetbreads, spinal chord, oxtail sauce, etc. That's not really my thing, although a lot of people really like those types of delicacies. I don't like my meat raw, or part of a body part that I'm not really used to eating. So, I passed on the appetizers and order the filet minyan - medium to well done. Well, I know that's not the way to eat meat, but I must have my meat cooked through. Buggy, as you already know, loves his meat rare so he got the filet minyan rare. But first, a couple people braved the appetizers and there was plenty of beef carpacio and pea soup to go around. The restaurant brings a lot of great little salatim to the table, and I fell in the love with the lentil salad. The dressing was so refreshing, it was fantastic. And, their breads look like jelly donuts, and they smelled so great but I resisted the urge to eat one. Eventhough, I kept asking Buggy if I could just smell his, because the scent was incredible. The rest of our party polished off the bread, so you can understand just how good it was! Buggy's brother-in-law ordered little mini fish for his appetizer, and well, they were served as mini fish. I kept waiting for that Ozzy Osborne moment, where he would put the head in his mouth and take a big bite, but I was sadly disappointed when he simply cut and removed the heads to his salad plate. That could have been a lot of fun.

Oh, and before I get to the mains, I have to complain about the drinks. Pini BaChatzer is really NOT a drink place. The bartender tried very hard to accommodate me, but he had no idea what I was talking about when I asked for an extra dirty Ketel One martini. Granted, he at least heard of Ketel One (although they don't stock it) but we had a whole discussion about what extra dirty means. I told him, it meant olive juice, and he was confused. He thought I meant olive oil and I said no, it's the juice of the olives. He made a face like that was the nastiest thing I could want - as if spinal chord is better - and so I just dropped it and let him made me a drink with Midori sour mix. It was flourescent yellowish/greenish and made with some mellon juice, and was very sweet and tasty. I made sure it wasn't too weak though, sometimes you need a shot of courage in a glass to make it through an evening with your new family,

Well, finally, the mains came out and it was a veritable poupou plattter of beef barely cooked. My MIL got the sirloin rare, Buggy got his filet rare, Buggy's brother got his entrecote rare, and Buggy's sister got her filet medium. Buggy's brother's girlfriend ordered the liver with mashed potatoes and I give her props, I can stomach chopped liver but cannot actually cut through a whole liver looking the way it did while it was inside a chicken. Well, Buggy's sister's dinner hadn't arrived yet and just as I cut into my first piece of meat and noticed it was a bit too red for my taste, did the waiter come by to tell me that they made a mistake with my food. Mine was still cooking, and I was eating my SIL's. Phew! I was happy it was hers because I didn't want to send it back to cook longer, and so I waited for my meal to finish cooking.

That's when the waiter brought me a little sample of the Beef Cheek Stew. He set it down in front of me and told me that it was chickpeas and beef cheek, while indicating with his hand his own mouth and cheek area. I thanked him for bringing it to me and, as soon as he left, passed it around the table. Sorry, but I don't like to eat any part of the cow's face. If that means that I am common, so be it, but this common girl just says no to cheeks and tongues. My MIL asked which cheek he was referring to and I was confused for a minute, until I realized she was referring to the cow's ass. Yeah, that would have been worse, so I was happy the beef cheek was on the other side of the table. Meanwhile, my FIL absolutely LOVED it and he helped polish off the plate. The waiter came by and asked if I didn't like the beef cheek, and I smiled and told him that I just wanted to share the wealth with the rest of the family. Buggy didn't understand why I did that, he thought that I should have just told the guy the truth that I wasn't into beef cheek, but my food was still in kitchen. I never piss off wait staff at restaurants, especially anyone who can do anything unsavory to my food before it's brought to the table. So, I'm always polite and enthusiastic and kind, and pray that no one ever spits or pisses, or WORSE, in my food.

Well, the drink has at this point really worked its way through my system, and my normal filter is off kilter and the next thing I know, I've inadvertantly insulted my SIL. Then, to add insult to injury, I explore the insult further through a discussion. Buggy was laughing the whole way through, and that's when I realized I was done for the evening. Fortunately, no one wanted dessert (not even the birthday boy), so we got the bill and left. Meanwhile, I had only eaten a quarter of my meal thinking there was going to be a birthday cake for dessert. I felt gyped! So, I told Buggy that we are going to have his brother over and I'm going to bake him a birthday cake so I can at least have a piece! I mean, why else do you think I went to the party? A birthday party should ALWAYS come with cake, preferably cake that has lots of yummy frosting too! I'm all about the frosting.

I got home and had no problem falling asleep and today is going to be a relaxing day. I did some yelling at Bar Ilan this morning because I discovered that as a Minhal Hastudentim student, I only had to pay 500 shekel when I registered instead of the 3200 shekel they asked me to pay. Hearing about that really pissed me off. Also, Minhal Hastudentim told me that if I don't get my grades into them by December, I'm not going to be financially covered since they close the budget. Well, I'm still waiting on 3 grades (2 for no reason whatsoever) and so I had to be a bit firm about that since I can't afford to pay for school out of pocket.

And now I'm just doing some work and some writing. We have a new cleaning person here today, Monique, who is very sweet and nice but I'm nervous that she's not doing such a good job. She has spent 2 hours cleaning 3 rooms and I only pay her for 3 hours and need her to do my living room/dining room and kitchen! Hopefully she'll be here soon cause I got 1 hour to go before I have to tell her to leave.

OK, I'm off to inspect the apartment! Come back later for some Product of the Day

Got Celery?

My friend Eta sent me an e-mail foward with "inspirational artwork" and this was one of them. I love it, so I thought I'd share with everyone.

I cannot find American celery in this country and it's so unbelievably frustrating. At this point, I think we're having 6 people for Friday night dinner, and I want to make my Aunt's bread pudding and I need celery for that. Worse comes to worse, I'll just buy a lot more of the "regular" celery and use that, but I'd really prefer the American kind. See, the difference in celery is as follows:



I'm used to big, beautiful, robust celery. The ones you can fill with peanut butter and chomp on as a good, nutritious snack. Where one stalk of celery is enough for most onion/celery stir frys.

But, here in Israel, what they sell is this: celery root



And I can't fill this with peanut butter! Plus, I have to buy at least 2 of these to equal 1 cup of finely chopped celery for my onion/celery stir fry. Now, it's not the end of the world to do it this way, it's just more annoying. Especially when it comes to making chicken soup. A lot of Israelis put the celery leaves into the chicken soup, in addition to the stalks. But, I miss having a nice piece of cooked celery in my chicken soup sometimes, so I always ask my fruit and vegetable store if they carry the American kind.

I called them yesterday and walked over two days ago to see if they had any, and of course they were out. Since I want to do a lot of my cooking for Shabbos today and tomorrow, it seems like I'm going to have to suck it up and just use what they sell here in this country. It shouldn't be too bad - hopefully.

It was stinkin hot the past two days and I was so happy to wake up this morning to an 8 degree drop in temperature. It's gloriously crisp and cool outside today and, once I get myself out of bed, I'm going to make me some diet hot chocolate that I brought from New York. I went looking for some more in Jerusalem the other day, and I hit the Moshava on Emek Refaim and all I could find was Hershey's hot chocolate. It had more than 400 calories a package. I put it back on the shelf and walked away, it was hard, but I walked away.

Buggy is B"H much, much better than the other day. He stayed home from school yesterday because his back was a bit stiff and he wanted to do a lot of his work from home, which was good. He got a lot accomplished, as did I. I decided to do some of the things I've been putting off for a while now. I made my appointment with the American Consulate in East Jerusalem to change my name on my passport and then I printed out all the forms that I need to bring with me. Fortunately, we're going to go to the appointment after we get back from London, so hopefully all will work out and I won't be without my American passport for too long.

Since yesterday was election day in the USA, I also registered online as an official overseas voter. Woohoo! Now, they will be sending me the ballot in the big election - which I predict will be between Rudy and Hillary. And if I could, I would start a group of Jerusalem Anglos for Rudy! I sincerely hope Big Rudy will be the next President of the United States of America.

I guess y'all know who I'm voting for next year :)

All I have to do now is mail in the forms to the election office in Queens, New York, and I should be good to go.

I also found 2 more thank you notes that I missed and so I quickly wrote those out, filled in the addresses and dropped them off at the post office. I then made my way to Falcon, the Supermarket on Derech Beit Lechem that has a really great meat and poultry counter, and proceeded to have the funniest conversation in broken Hebrew and English with the man behind the counter.

Me: I need to order three turkeys. I know that my Mother in law already called to give you the heads up that I was going to be ordering them, so I need one turkey for Thursday and another 2 for November 21st.
Mr. Falcon: OK, you need turkey for mama?
Me: Ummm, sure. It can be in my mother in law's name, no problem. But I need the other two to be big enough to feed 24 people. ok?
Mr. Falcon: OK, no problem. You tell me name and I write down.
Me: Sure. My name is HolylandHipster Buggy and we need 2 turkeys for November 21st
Mr. Falcon: OK no problem.
Me: Are you sure 2 turkeys will be enough for 24 people?
Mr. Falcon: Oh yeah, yeah. It will be good. We call those that you want Nekayvah (which is Hebrew for female). No problem. All good. All good. No problem.

Some lady is standing by and smirking as we banter. I thank Mr. Falcon and continue shopping. 5 Minutes later, Mr. Falcon starts calling my name.
Mr. Falcon: Holylandhipster, when does your Mama want her turkey? November 21st - right?
Me: No, no, my mama wants her turkey on Thursday. This Thurdsay
Mr. Falcon: Oh, okay
Me: And the other two turkeys are for November 21st
Mr. Falcon: ok, ok, now I understand.

At this point, I am seriously concerned that I'll be going to Falcon on Thursday (at 10:00, which is when he said it would be ready for pick up) and there won't be any turkey for me. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to make chicken if that happens. Next time, I bring Buggy and he speaks to everyone in Hebrew. Much, much simpler.

I did some work for a client yesterday morning, and then I spent the rest of the day just thinking about Thanksgiving. I called Aunt Amy and she gave me some great tips on how to make the dinner, and she told me a some funny stories about her own first Thanksgiving. And how, that first year as a married woman, she went out and bought a completely cooked turkey and served it to her guests as if she made it herself. People, if I could find a completely cooked turkey in this country - on Thanksgiving day no less - believe me, I would probably do the same.

I also spoke to Cousin Neil last night, who caught me up on some UWS gossip, which was fun but extremely lacking in information. Cousin Neil, I've discovered, is not exactly the person to talk to when I need some UWS gossip. I know who to call and I'm thinking I'll give her a buzz in a few hours just to catch up. Hehehe, I know, I know, I'm a bad Jew - but this girl needs some gossip.

Today is going to be very quiet. Buggy was up early and went to school for his 9:40 a.m. meeting with his final project advisor. I got up with him to make him some breakfast and then left all of the dishes in the sink and crawled back to bed before he could even get out the door. I'm tired, so I like trying to catch up on some sleep when the bed is empty. It's not easy being a light sleeper married to a snorer. That, and the kids downstairs wake up screaming every single morning at 5:30 a.m. and I feel like they're in the room with us. They are that loud. I can't wait until my family comes to visit - they too will be up at 5:30 a.m. with our neighbors!

Today, I'm going to make the bread pudding and the pecan pie for Shabbos. Buggy promised to take me to the supermarket so I can do my big Thanksgiving shopping, which I really want to do before we leave for London. Since we get back from London really early on Monday morning, I want all the stuff in the house so I can cook from Monday evening straight until Thursday before our guests arrive! I also have to go to my green grocer to see about that American celery, for the bread pudding, and then I'm hoping to do some writing on my thesis project.

I'm finally ready to get back to my thesis project and I've been doing a lot of thinking about my stories. I really think I have a good handle on what I'm writing for my third story in the collection, while I also have to continue editing my previous two stories. I have 2 written, 1 in the works, and at least 8 to go. Wish me luck people! Oh, and happy writing!
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Product of the Day




My apartment is pretty nasty and, since we're hoping to have company for Friday night dinner, I need to get moving on cleaning this place up. I don't bother washing my kitchen floor until after I finish cooking, but everything else could use a good scrub. I'm seriously missing Windex and wish the folks over at SC Johnson would start importing some to this Country. For a year now, I've been using the Israeli brand of glass cleaner and its been leaving streaks all over the place. I don't like that at all. Plus, I have a really hard time getting off the toothpaste splatters from our bathroom mirror, and that just grosses me out a bit, so I went searching the other day for stronger glass cleaner. I actually found 409 glass and surface cleaner at Falcon and I was jubilant with the find. It's not my beloved Windex, but at least it's a step up from the Israeli brand. Today, I'm going to clean all of our glass tables, windows and mirrors with the 409. Here's hoping it won't be streaky!

Home Bound

I'm stuck in the house today, and tomorrow, and so I'm trying to keep myself busy. I have plenty to do, a long list actually, but absolutely no desire to do any of it. I think I would rather spend my time curled up on the couch watching the Food Network and the CNN coverage of the California wildfires. B"H tonight is yoga, at least I'll get some air and exercise before the day is done. It's terrible about the California wildfires too. I was just telling Buggy how I wanted to to San Diego because I'd heard it was just so beautiful. I just hope the fires stop soon, before more homes are demolished.

So, yesterday was quite a morning for me at Bank Hapoalim. I spent an hour and a half doing 3 little things. First of all, the guard told me to take a number when I walked in, and when I went to the machine I specified all three things I needed to do. And, sure enough, I got three different numbers. I waited on the A line first, cause that one was moving really quickly. When it was my turn, the woman looked at my stack of checks and yelled at me for being in the wrong line. I had dollar checks from the States and only 1 woman in the ENTIRE branch deals with that.

Well, guess what, that woman (Aviva was her name) was in the middle of opened up a new account for someone and I needed to wait until she was done. Did I mention that it was almost lunch time? After cooling my heels for 30 minutes, she was finally ready for me and started freaking out when she saw my checks. Apparently, you can't just deposit American checks at any branch of your bank in this country. No, you need to do it at YOUR branch. Well, she had to call over to the other branch to get permission and was she pissed. The woman could not and would not sit in her chair, she was stamping stuff and throwing papers around and at one point I thought she was going to toss the stapler at me too! Well, I just took the mute tactic and sat and stared at her. The problem was that the other branch wasn't answering the phone, so she couldn't do my transaction without them. She kept telling me they weren't answering and I just stared at her. She actually got through once but then got disgusted when they put her on hold so she threw the phone down and started again. Finally, she had enough, and since I wasn't budging she actually dialed the number and then handed me the phone and told me to wait until someone picked up. She left her desk and went about her business. I have to tell you, but if I was a bank manager, I would have fired her ass for that. I could have easily played around with the computer when she walked away, and her keys were right there in plain sight too, I could have gotten into her locked box and no one would have been the wiser.

Finally, somneone on the other line picked up and Aviva ripped them a new one for making her hold. She was also eating a puffed pastry of some sort while she was screaming, so I enjoyed a pleasant phyllo dough shower of spit laced crumbs. And still, I just stared at her while she did what she needed to do. Finally, she finished and was able to enter the checks into the system. I thanked her and then told her that I needed to change my address on my other bank account. Again, she got herself into a rage because apparently, you need to ask permission from the Tel Aviv branch before you decide to move out of the City and change your address. So, she handed me a pen, photocopyed my credit card and Teudat Zehut, and had me write a letter in Hebrew requesting an address change. I have no doubt that it will not work as my written Hebrew is pretty terrible and I'm pretty sure I forgot to include Jerusalem in the address.

Then, when I told Aviva I had to pick up our new credit cards, she looked like she wanted to strangle me. The branch at this point was closed for the day and she just wanted to finish her tea and get to her other work. She sent me to one woman, who spent 15 minutes looking through credit cards and yelling at other workers to leave her alone, before everyone realized that I had to go to a different department.

I walked over to the last woman I was to meet yesterday, and she yelled at me for not coming to her first as she could have taken care of ALL of my needs. Gotta love this Country. I left 2 hours after I had arrived and was pretty proud of my behavior, especially since I really was patient and calm while everyone else around me freaked out. I've discovered that if you're patient and calm, things go much smoother. No, if I was yelling at them nothing would have gone better and I would have just wasted my breath yelling.

I walked to the fruit and vegee place on Derech Beit Lechem and picked up some stuff for dinner and came home to start cooking. Buggy's old roommate was coming for dinner and staying for a bit to help Buggy with his homework assignment. I made them some fresh baked chicken cutlets, and a purple cabbage salad that was a little salty for my taste. We had some pineapple and passion fruit for dessert and, as we were digging into the slimy goo of the passion fruit, all hell broke out in the community center next door. They were holding some sort of meeting, not exactly sure what kind but we heard someone say "Ahavat Yisrael" so I'm guessing it was a political debate. I told Buggy all I wanted to do was pull up a chair on our balcony, pop some popcorn, and watch them go at it. I love a good boxing match! Too bad all the gloves were off..

After dinner, Buggy and his old roommate went to work and I started cleaning and washing dishes. It's amazing how much time I spend over the sink. My hands are starting to show signs of dishpan hands, so I think I'm going to invest in a pair of gloves. When the roommate left, Buggy and I watched a Law and Order he taped and then we fell into bed. With Tuesdays 6:45 a.m. wake up calls, I'm pretty wiped by the end of the day.

Today, we got to sleep in a little bit and then Buggy's Mom called to invite us to lunch on Shabbos. We said yes right away and then tried to get some more sleep before the alarm went off. Buggy had class this morning, so I quickly made him his brown bag breakfast and lunch, and then helped get him out the door before I went about my day. The locksmith was supposed to come at 10 but he never showed, and then the contractor came to fix the bathroom and I almost had a heart attack when I saw home much paint was littered on the floor. We threw all of the bathroom contents onto towels on our bed in the bedroom, and since this is a 2 day job, we'll have to move them someplace else tonight before we go to sleep.

Since I'm home, I'm going to spend the day organizing. I bought three pendaflex's and I'm going to start filing things away. One pendaflex will be Buggy's, one with be mine, and one will be ours. Those will include shared bills, wedding residuals, etc. Not too exciting, I know, but sometimes you have one of these days which turn out to be quick necessary.

Can't wait till yoga tonight! I wonder how much further I'll get on my headstand!

Till tomorrow