Approval

Yesterday was an incredibly productive day for us. It started off with an early morning when our cleaning lady came an hour earlier than she normally comes. I really like her, she's a Brazilian transplant who is studying to become a chemical engineer. She's cleaning apartments for extra money to pay for rent, school, etc. She showed up really really ill, a bad cold, and I tried to get her to go home and rest but she insisted on staying. And, for the first time since she started working with us, she did an amazing cleaning! Go figure.

After she left, I got down to business with my thesis proposal. I've been going back and forth, and back and forth with the powers that be and I just wanted this aspect of my thesis done. So, I did the necessary revisions, got the final approval from the powers that be, and decided to go to Bar Ilan today to personally hand in the document. I also needed to go to school to deal with this Minhal Hastudentim issue, which basically is a mess and I hope to g-d gets cleared up before the budget closes on December 15th. I had to physically come to school in order to request a transcript, which has majority of my grades from last year, that I will in turn submit to Minhal Hastudentim so they can pay for my courses this year. Since I already laid out the money for a semester that - as you all know I'm not having actually classes in - I want my money back. More on what happened at school today in a minute.

After I did some work, I took a quick cat nap and waited for Buggy to come home. Wednesday night, about one a month, we go do a big shopping and stock up on supplies. Since we're eaters, we had to replenish our supplies which dwindle quickly especially when I entertain. Since I pledged not to do any more entertaining until the end of the month - having my sister-in-law and Buggy's cousin over for dinner during Chanukah doesn't count as entertaining - I was hoping we could be a bit leaner this month. Well, we decided to try a different supermarket than the ones we normally go to, and we went to Rami Levi in Talipot. First of all, the place is really, really huge! I was extremely overwhelmed initially, and so I didn't do the best job in the beginning, but I got really into it towards the end of our shopping excursion. First of all, the fruits and vegetables were extremely cheap. It was 9 shekel a kilo (about 2.2 pounds) for artichokes, and we picked up 4 really nice ones. Of course, I always shop with a big list, and so Buggy and I split the list and went about our shopping. Now, I am making Marnina and Shulamit's meat and barley crock-pot soup for first course on Shabbos day, and I needed to get Flanken. No one, of course, knows how to say Flanken in Hebrew. Buggy didn't believe me that Flanken was even part of a cow - he thought I was talking about some strange animal he's not familiar with as Yiddish was a language never, ever spoken in his house. Another cultural difference between us - as a side point - is that I use yiddishisms quite a bit and he looks at me blankly. Who doesn't know what Zozah is? I told him it was "sauce" and he wondered why I just don't say sauce. I don't know - in my house - gravy/sauce is just Zozah.

I digress...Back to Rami Levi. Buggy had me call his Mom to ask about Flanken, who passed me on to a family friend who basically told me to ask for "Basar Rach for Chulent" or basically tough meat for the chulent. I sent Buggy to the meat guy while I hit the dairy section, and he came back with 1/2 a kilo of something. Hopefully, it will be the right thing and the soup will turn out ok. Now, the misconception with Rami Levi is that it's a cheaper supermarket. Wrong, wrong, wrong! I still managed to spend 850 shekel last night and granted, we got a lot of stuff, including expensive cleaning materials, but I marvel at how people in this country pay for groceries. On many anemic salaries, it must be very difficult feeding a growing family. Can you imagine what my food bills will look like once P"G we have kids? Fortunately, I don't need to worry about that tomorrow.

Today, we got another early start as our contractor came to fix the hot water boiler, which blew on us (and blew ALL of our electricity) Erev Shabbos. For 400 shekel, he fixed the necessary piece and then waited as we flipped back on the switch to the hot water boiler. I'm really hoping that this will fix the entire problem. After he left, we got ready and Buggy drove me to the Central Bus Station. I haven't been there in at least 2 months now, but it was so nice to be back and see that the place was ready with their Chanukah wares. There was a huge table of menorahs and candles and oil, it was amazing. All of the bakeries are churning out Sufganiot (jelly donuts) and people are walking around with wrapped gifts. I can't believe Tuesday night P"G will be the first night of Chanukah, and my second here in Israel! I really need to learn how to make potato latkes!

The ride out to Bar Ilan was uneventful, I did a bit of work brainstorming for a potential client, and then I went to the English department to drop off my thesis proposal. Yonatan was on campus and we met up, which was great as I really needed his help getting my transcript. Turns out, the woman who was supposed to collect my thesis proposal was not in the office. I ended up making another copy and leaving it for her on her desk. I hope on Sunday it's still there when she gets back to work. Afterwards, Yonatan and I went to the administration building to deal with my transcript issue and it was confusing - my Hebrew is decent but I just didn't understand this woman. For some reason, the 30 shekel I paid entitled me to 4 copies which I asked she send to my apartment. I wanted her to send it directly to Minhal Hastudentim, but it looks like I'm going to have to do a Tel Aviv day sometime next week to deal with that too. Hopefully my TA friends will be around and I will be able to at least get together will my friends so the trip isn't all about dropping off a form. And then, 25 minutes after arriving on campus, I was done with what I needed to do. Yonatan and I grabbed a quick bite and then I was back on the bus heading to Jerusalem. Buggy picked me up and I was starving - I didn't eat lunch with Yonatan cause I knew Buggy was waiting for me to eat - and so we went to Al Dente for some good Italian. Well, I actually think they changed chefs - or the one I'm used to just wasn't there - because the food was disappointing. Buggy liked his ravioli though, so it was worthwhile.

I'm hoping not to cook so much tomorrow as we're eating out at Buggy's parents tomorrow night. It would be great if I can get a quick walk in in the morning, so I can get some exercise. It was sad that the walking I did today at school was the most physical excursion I've done in weeks! I'm feeling like a bit, lumpy, couch potato so I need to get my butt in gear and soon! Anyway, I'm also leaving all of my Shabbos lunch cooking for tomorrow, but I'm hoping not to have to make too much. As a treat for Buggy, I got us lamb chops so I'm making my Aunt Amy's skillet lamb chop and spanish rice for lunch, and I'm making Marnina and Shulamit's soup for first course, roasting some cauliflower and also trying my hand at my sister-in-law's "Full" recipe, which is a French/Algerian origin. I'm thinking the marinade includes garlic, olive oil, paprika, salt and pepper but I need to get in touch with her to get the real deal. Hopefully, it will turn out great and Buggy will really, really enjoy lunch!

Product of the Day

Oxo Good Grips mixing bowls are the product of the day. I have no mixing bowls and I am in dire need of the Oxo ones! First of all, I believe that Oxo products are just great, great quality products. And, when it comes down to it, I just have nothing to use to make any of the foods I'm preparing. These days, I use salad bowls as a substitute and now my salad bowls have turned grungy and oily from all of the varying ingredients I use to make - well - whatever. Anyway, if anyone reading this can tell me if I can get the Oxo mixing bowls somewhere in Jerusalem, that would be great! Otherwise, the folks over at Oxo, please, please import some more of your amazing kitchen products!

Baffled in Baka

Just call me baffled in Baka, cause what happened this morning and over the past few days makes absolutely no sense to me at all. I guess I should fill you in on our cleaning lady saga. So, our cleaning lady is Buggy's family cleaning lady. We inherited a slot in her weekly schedule when Buggy's brother and his family moved to London after the wedding. Well, our cleaning lady has always been very thorough, very good, cleaner. However, after cleaning for us once back in September, she stopped because of Ramadan. She never called us. Didn't return our calls either. And for an entire month, I had no idea where she was and when she was coming back. It was very frustrating as our apartment can get a little grimy and I'm not so familiar with the sponga stick.

Well, here's where things get interesting. She finally returned to us last week, at our usual time, and then when it came time for me to pay her and I asked for 10 shekel change, she informed me that she raised the price from 140 shekel to 150 shekel. Well, I was absolutely shocked because when she came to work with us, she told me her price was 140 shekel, which is 20 shekel more than she charges the rest of Buggy's family. We assumed she did this because we were a new couple, and she could raise the prices before she came to work with us, and so I swallowed whatever unhappiness I was with the price and let her continue because she was very good and also trustworthy.

So, back to last week, and me asking her where the inflation came from. She said it was just something she decided to do across the board. I asked if she was going to implement the same policy with my in-laws and sister-in-law, and she insisted she was, so I paid her. And then, I told Buggy to please fire her because I was so annoyed with her tactics. I felt like she was taking advantage, and that she saw me as some "wealthy American" so she could price gouge us.

However, before Buggy could tell her that we didn't want her to come anymore, she worked with my sister-in-law and informed my brother-in-law that she no longer wanted to work with us. She claimed the reason was because I asked her to sweep the front walk by the apartment (it gets filthy and we don't have a vaad baayit, so we need to clean the stairs and walkway ourselves). I was shocked because she never mentioned to me that she didn't want to clean that area and perhaps, had I known, I wouldn't have asked her to do it. No matter. I was livid at this point. I couldn't believe what was happening. Here she was dumping US? WTF?

I spent the week picking fights with my husband because the situation really angered me. She embarressed me in front of my in-laws, because she dumped us and made it seem like I treated her badly. So, I was upset because I was really embarressed. And, I was hurt because my in-laws didn't really seem to care about how she treated us. They just basicalled said it wasn't a good fit, and moved on. I guess I had unrealistic expectations. Here I thought, the whole family would rally around us because this woman was clearly crazy, and everyone would just dump her for treating us badly. Instead, they just continued on as if nothing had happened. I kept thinking that my own family would have certainly dumped her if this happened, and the comparisons abounded in my head and just fueled my anger.

Yesterday, my anger really drew to a head and Buggy and I had an explosive fight. Doors slammed, I stormed out, it was an absolute disaster. I ended up on a bench on Derech Beit Lechem with a pack of cigarettes, just trying to relax. Marriage is not hard, it's communicating within the marriage that's difficult. I finished running my errands, I stormed out because I was in the middle of buying food for Shabbos not because I was pissed, and I got back to the apartment and we talked things through. That's really good. At least we're able to talk things through, even if we have a lot of miscommunications. I decided to just get over the cleaning lady situation and move on, and Buggy seemed relieved. We went about the rest of our evening, which I'll write about in a minute, and then came home and went to sleep.

This Morning, Buggy gets an SMS from his Mom at 7:20 saying that our cleaning lady was going to show up today. He didn't wake me, a good thing, and he just ignored it and went back to bed. Sure enough, our doorbell rang at 8:00 a.m. and there she was, waiting for us. Buggy told me that I had to talk to her and I just said, hells no. Tell her to go away. Well, Buggy is much nicer than me. Much, much nicer than me. And, he tried to explain what happened. He mentioned what she had told our brother-in-law, and she denied saying it in the first place. Then, Buggy basically said that we were sleeping and we weren't interested in having her clean the apartment. I mean, I wielded the sponga stick myself yesterday so the apartment is clean for Shabbos! Buggy called his Mom, who said she actually wanted her to come to her apartment today to clean and that she was going to come and pick her up. The cleaning lady said she would wait in front of the house for my MIL. And then, before Buggy came back into the apartment, she asked if she was still coming to us next week at 1:00 p.m.

Let her come. I relish the opportunity to tell her, very nicely, that I don't work with price gougers and I can't afford 150 shekel a week. Honestly. We cannot afford it! That's 600 shekel a month! Which translates into $150 a month. Multiple that by 12 and, well, that's a nice chunk of change I cannot afford to part with since BOTH of us are full time students. Well, at least Buggy is, lord knows what is going on with Bar Ilan. I'm soo fed up at this point. And, since we both just booked tickets to London in 2 weeks, I just know that that's the week school is going to start for me and I'll be all aggravated because they ruined our vacation.

But, I digress. B"H, things with me and Buggy are better. Today is a brand new day, a new morning, a new chapter in our lives. Hopefully, we will be learning from our experiences and try to communicate better with each other. I am really much to blame for our fighting as I have an explosive temper some times, so my goal for this year is to try to reign that in as much as possible.

Last night, we drove to Tel Aviv so I could wrap things up with my old landlord. She had my mail from August with her, and it was much less than I had initially thought. But, it was so nice to be back in Tel Aviv and to recognize my old neighborhood. We actually had to go back to my old apartment because there was more mail waiting for me there, and now I have to figure out why the post office isn't forwarding my mail like they are supposed to. After the apartment, we drove to Buggy's Aunt near HaBimah and had dinner with her. She made a really nice bean soup, which was very healthy and extremely filling, and we spent a few hours there. We drove back to Jerusalem after Midnight and I fell into bed.

But, before I went to sleep, I called to speak to my almost 3 year old niece in Cleveland who arrived at a milestone yesterday! For the first time, she put on a pair of socks all by herself. I can't believe the nieces and nephews are growing up so fast! And I love talking to her! She is so coherent and fun, pretty soon we'll be having intellectual conversations!

Well, it's already 9:00 and I should probably go and start cooking for Shabbos. Fortunately, we are only eating here tonight and eating out at Buggy's parents on Shabbos day. That should be good as I could really use the walk on Shabbos. It's all uphill from here on Saturday, but the beauty is the downhill trek after a nice lunch. I'm making new stuff for dinner tonight, even trying this broccoli soup recipe I found in one of the cookbooks I have in the house (I've got 3, this one is from Suzanne Sommers). I'm also trying this chicken curry recipe, which should be spicy and fun, and then just going tried and true with a kugel.

PS. Anyone watch CNN's documentary, Planet in Peril? I watched the first night and it really was frigtening to see some of the awful things going on in China! If you watched last night, please send me an e-mail! I want to know what they said about the melting polar ice caps. Plus, before HOT drops CNN, it was nice to watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper one last time. Can you believe it? HOT is dropping CNN for Al Jazeera in English.

No words people, no words.

Shabbat Shalom!

Staving off Dracula

Oh, have I been enjoying myself in the kitchen! With 74 days to go until the BIG DAY, I had to buckle down and get my eating under control. That meant that, after classes this morning/early afternoon, I hit the AM PM on Dizingoff and stocked my refridgerator. I bought tuna and salmon fillets and beef and chicken cutlets for grilling, garlic cloves for roasting, frozen berry's for breakfast smoothies and cans of chick peas for Hummus.

Yup, I am going to make hummus with absolutely NO oil. The hummus will be extremely tangy because of the inordinate amount of lemon juice, but it's going to be a nutritious and healthier alternative to the fatening options out on the market these days. I told Buggy I would bring him some to taste, warning him in advance that he really might not like it as much as the other hummus he loves, but he is really excited about my experimentation.

After I got back from Supersol, I cut off the heads of the garlic and roasted them at 180C for 45 minutes. They came out nice and soft and spreadable. I used two cloves on grilled beef for dinner. Delicious! My breath is so rank, Dracula would drop dead a few blocks from my apartment. Good thing I'm not seeing Buggy until Friday, cause he definitely does not want to kiss me now!

Anyway, it's really hot in Tel Aviv today. There is a Sharav, which is a heatwave. And, in Tel Aviv, that means the humidity is so thick that it's difficult to breath. After a great morning Jewish American Literature and Philosophy (another amazing lesson with Professor Harvey!), Tobye dropped me off at the train station and I walked back to my apartment. By the time I got in, I had criss-cross shaped sweat stains across my back from my knapsac and not even a deoderant made strong enough for a babboon could have kept me dry! Yup, that t-shirt went straight into my laundry bag and fortunately, tomorrow is laundry day!

So, last night, I had a late night date with my plumber. Once again, and it's third times a charm, I went to wash up and I opened the cabinet underneath my sink and there it was people. A flood. And once again, I was pulling out all of my stuff and praying that the water hadn't completely ruined my entire makeup case. It was soaked through and my powders, well, let's just say that they're not powder anymore. So, it was almost midnight and I called the plumber and told him to come ASAP. He told me to just shut off the water and he would eventually get to it. Well, nothing I turned shut off the water and so he got dressed and he came over to figure it out. Turns out, when he was here the other day to get the pebble out of my hot water line, he never reconnected my pipes correctly and they were leaking....ALL DAY LONG!

I am sooo happy that I'm moving out at the end of July. I'm looking forward to leaving this money pit behind!

So, tomorrow is gearing up to be a busy day for me. I have to do laundry in the morning and then I have a Dr.'s appointment in Herzliya Pituach around 3:30 in the afternoon. I guess going to the beach is out, since I'll be busy during all prime sun hours. Anyway, I have a story due on Tuesday and I need to really get to work on it since I'm facing the business end of a hard deadline and I can't miss this one! It's going to be my very last story of the year!

Ok - Grey's Anatomy is on and I'm off to watch it!

Crave of the Day is the Knock Out cookies and cream ice cream bars. All I wanted this afternoon, after my hike home, was a refreshingly sweet cookie treat! Instead, I settled down with a bowl full of watermellon and got the better end of the deal - or at least, that's what I hope my scale will say in the morning.

Pebbles, Post Office and Prank Callers

Can you believe that I'm getting prank phone calls on my VOIP line? If the perv hadn't called at 3:30 a.m., multiple times mind you, I would have found it a lot more amusing. But alas, once I realized what was going on (and it was too nasty sounding to even recap here) I screamed and hung up. I left the phone go to VM and turned over to go back to sleep before I really woke out of my dream.

My cell phone rang at a decent hour and it was Micah, the plumber, would was letting me know he was on his way. Since I officially gave notice yesterday (hooray for me!!), I decided I should probably fix any problems so that my landlord doesn't blame me and make me pay for fixing. Basically, for well over a month, I didn't have hot water in the sink in my bathroom. But, since this is Tel Aviv in the summertime, it didn't bother me. I was more than happy washing my face and brushing my teeth with the cold water, especially since it was pretty hot outside. Well, Micah spent three HOURS in my bathroom this morning and finally removed a teeny, tiny pebble. Folks, it was so small, that when I went to look for it to take a picture for my blog I couldn't find where I left it! Anyway, all was fixed, and I was finally able to get out of the apartment.

I took a couple of wedding invitations to the post office to figure out how much it's going to cost to mail them out here in Israel. As usual, I spoke in English, since I really didn't want to bother with my broken Hebrew. Well, the teller's manager came out of the back when she heard that I wanted to purchase 220 stamps (a large sum of money) and told the teller to try to convince me to upgrade 10 agurot to get the higher postage so that the invitations would arrive a day later. She was goading her into trying to sell me, and she was looking at me through slitted eyes that it was so funny. I love when I can understand when people talk about me! It's super fun. Anyway, I didn't need to spend the extra money cause I have plenty of time before I need to mail out the invitations. I bought what I needed and then went about the rest of my business.

I had to hit the Superfarm to get a new eye drop perscription. My eye Dr. doesn't like how dry my eyes are here in Israel and so he upgraded me to a stronger drop. He also told me that I must get out of contact lenses earlier because it's not good for my eyes to wear them all day long. I'm going to try to wear glasses more often and see what happens. Anyway, I also had to upgrade my deoderant. I don't know if it's that I'm using the wrong brand, or if it's the heat in this country, but I am not happy with my deoderant. It's not a smelling issue but an aesthetic one, in that I tend to get pit stains. Now, I know countless of fashion bloggers talk about this issues and most attribute it to the tightness of ones t-shirt, but it's still not attractive. And, unless I plan on wearing a black t-shirt or tank top for the rest of the summer, something has GOT to be done. I've heard that Botox helps, in that it freezes the sweat glands, but I don't know if I'll have time to do all the Botox treatments before the wedding. For now, I'm switching brands and hoping it will help. And, if you're in class with me, don't be surprised if I stop raising my hands.

After picking up my new purchases, I went to the store and finally gave in to what I should have bought months ago. Yup people, I bought a new scale. And now, my cactus room has become the scale room as I've put it in the middle of the living room. From now until I move, I will be strict about my diet and that includes a rigorous regiment of exercise, water drinking and better eating habits!

Which leads to my Crave of the Day feature and it's a good one! I have a hankering for the Snyder of Hanover's Restaurant style Corn Tortilla Chips with a big ol' bowl of salsa to dip it into! Yummy! I think I'm going to eat my steamed string beans instead.

5 shekels to heaven

I'm such a nerd. On Wednesday afternoon, I stopped in the hardware store across the street from my apartment and picked up a few things for my kitchen. With 8 people joining us for Friday night dinner, I knew this Friday night's dinner had to be special! Especially since, I think this past weekend was my last big meal I'm making in my Tel Aviv apartment.

Thursday was an early morning for me, I had a tremendous amount of work to do for the meal on Friday night! First, I went to the Supersol to pick up the remaining ingredients. And then, I got to work on cooking. I made the cranberry crunch for dessert (or the Apple Brown Betty as Ari called it), the macaroni and meat and the shallot and onion quinoa. After that, I jumped into the shower, and ran to catch the bus to Jerusalem. Buggy and I had some errands to run and the nutritionist to meet with. I have no idea how it happened, but I lost 2 pounds. I certainly wasn't trying - can you imagine what would happen if I tried? Buggy put on the 2 pounds I lost, but all is not hopeless! We have an entire month to lose more weight. After the nutritionist, we went to the only kosher Indian restaurant in Jerusalem to celebrate the fact that I lost weight (I know, I know, so counterproductive but very romantic and yummy!). We shared a few courses and then Buggy took me to the bus station to get the last bus back to Tel Aviv.

I was wiped when I got home but managed to put together my Friday to-do list and get to bed. After catching a few Z's, I woke up early again and ran to buy the fruit. And then, I spent an enjoyable 30 minutes just balling my mellons. It was so much fun, and much easier then cutting through everything! I then made the Israeli salad and the corn salad, the spinach chicken, the mushroom tartlet and the cauliflower kugel. I grilled the chicken cutlets for the wraps Buggy and I had for lunch on Shabbat and then I got to work on cleaning the apartment. By the time Buggy got here, the dinner was done and I had to clean the toilet and set the table. Buggy helped me and then, well, I picked a fight and made him crazy for no reason at all. He was a little out of it and accidentally set the Shabbat clock incorrectly. By the time everyone sat down to dinner, around 9:15 p.m. Friday night, the lights suddenly went out. Since one of my friends isn't observant, he got up and put on another set of lights, and at least we weren't eating in the darkness.

Well, I wracked my brain for a good appetizer and managed to settle on something I thought would be fun and nutritious. I managed to succeed in both regards! I steamed 3 bags of edemame and made a dipping sauce, which everyone put into little soy sauce bowls I picked up across the street. People filled up on salatim, challah and the edemame and then I got nervous that no one would eat the rest of my dinner. Well, I shouldn't have worried because with 6 guys at the meal, eating was not a problem. And, we all got our drink on! Ari and Jon practically finished my Scotch while Buggy and Eliav made dents in my beer. Gayle, El Jeffe and Nechama enjoyed the red and white wines while I made myself some Malibu and Diet Coke. People finally cleared out after Midnight and, after Buggy helped me wash and dry, I passed out and slept almost till Noon!

Shabbat day was very relaxing, and Buggy and I just hung out, ate, read and chilled. It was perfect. Saturday night we went to the beach and had dinner at the new Kosher Sandwhich place near Gordon beach. Actually, Buggy had a sandwhich and I had some ice cream.

Today was another busy day. I woke up early and Buggy drove me to my eye Dr.'s appointment in Modiin. We got there a full 45 minutes earlier than expected and so we had a long wait in the waiting room. After my appointment, we drove back to Jerusalem and I stuffed invitations while my dialated eyes shrunk back to normal. Once I was able to see without wincing, Buggy drove me back to the bus station and I was once again on my way to Tel Aviv. I needed the fresh air after the ride and so I walked back to my apartment. And that's when I discovered that they are ripping up the street in front of my apartment YET AGAIN! They literally just finishing fixing and repaving the street, I have no idea what could have happened that they have to rip it all up again. The worst is that now they are working well into the night, and I'm nervous that I won't be able to sleep tonight with all the noise. It sounds like I'm sleeping on top of a construction site.

So, I'm almost finished with wedding preparations. Tonight, I ordered the benchers and mincha/maariv's for the wedding. Yea! I was just so happy to cross that task off of my list! And now that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is on TV, I'm just relaxing before I call it a night. It's going to be difficult not seeing Buggy this week, but I'm really looking forward to spending Shabbos together again!



Craving of the Day is Entenmann's Crumb Donut! Which now has 0 Trans Fat! I would like my honeymoon suite to be stocked with a box of these babies after the wedding!

At the Carwash...

These building in Bayit Vegan is what Buggy refers to as the eyesore of Jerusalem. I wish I had a picture of this during the day, these buildings are absolutely bizarre. And you can just imagine how much it costs to live in the row of connecting apartments up top. With the views of Jerusalem, I'm sure we're talking well over a million.

So, I spent majority of Thursday and Friday in the kitchen and running errands. I went to three different supermarkets looking for salsa so I could make the taco salad for El Jeffe's meal. Then, it was back to my apartment to grill the tuna for the tuna salad nicoise, roast the vegetables, steam the string beans, roast the potatoes, make the sesame teriyaki and barbecue chicken and make sure the apartment was clean and ready for Shabbat before Buggy came from Jerusalem. By the time Buggy finally walked through the door, I was pretty much done with everything and absolutely wiped. He was hungry so I told him to help himself to anything in the fridge. I went to my bedroom to put away some of the clothing that I had laid out on the bed and Buggy followed me, chomping on a pickle. I asked him where he got the pickle, and he told me the container on the top of my fridge. I grimaced. And told him that those were the pickles that fell on the floor that I never got around to throwing out. He looked at me like I had two heads and then started ticking down the food-related "issues" I've caused him since the beginning of our courtship.

First, it was the laxative chocolates. He forgave me for that because I ate them too and was sick right along with him. Then it was the whole wheat pasta, which I told him he's going to have to get used to cause I'm saying goodbye to white pasta. After that, it was the Fiber One chicken that apparently had him really sick to his stomach. And now, I was feeding him dirty pickles!

I explained that the pickles fell out of the fridge late one night and rather than leave them to rot and smell up my garbage, I put them back in the container and made a mental note to throw them out the following day. Umm, so I just forgot to throw them out.

Anyway, we watched some Harry Potter Goblet of Fire before it was time for Shabbat. The meal at El Jeffe's was so nice, it was just really great being able to talk to new people and drink with friends. Buggy walked me home and I was tettering on my flip-flops from all the Glenfiddich. The next day, I slept in and then Buggy came by for kiddish/lunch. It was the first time I've made a zucchini bread since the famous Zucchini Bread Incident of 1996, and I was really nervous. Buggy loved it! And, as he read some more of his book, I whistled a happy tune and made the tuna salad nicoise dressing. It was good except I dried out the tuna. Otherwise, I assembled everything so nicely, even Chef Rob would have been proud! We finished lunch and spent the rest of the day relaxing and reading. I did some reading for class next week and Buggy plowed through the rest of the newest Lord of the Rings novels.

Saturday night, we decided to go to Buggy's friends in Givat Zeev for Melavah Malka and a movie. Since I made so many apple cinnamon muffins (the low-calorie ones his nutritionist gave me the recipe for), I brought over 6 fresh ones and we took the Harry Potter movie. For some reason though, by the time we got there, I was absolutely exhausted. We ended up only staying for a few hours and watching half of the movie, because Buggy and I continued on to his parents house in Jerusalem.

We unpacked quickly, washed up, and then went to our separate bedrooms. Unfortunately, my bedroom came equipped with my very own mosquito! Man, these Jerusalem mosquito's are absolutely relentless. I padded into Buggy's bedroom to wake him up at 9:00 and show him all of my bites, but he begged me for a few more hours of sleep, and so I took his DVD player and watched the rest of Harry Potter.

Buggy left me for about an hour to attend his third Shiur Chatan - I still haven't started Kallah classes - and I just hung out and surfed the net. He picked me up around 1:00 and that's when the marathon of errands began. We went over to the Malcha Mall so Buggy could wash him car, and the dust in the air started to suffocate me. I was having some trouble breathing, so Buggy put the air on in the car and let me sit and breath while we went through the car wash. We went inside the mall and just ran a few errands, including getting Buggy a new wallet (his broke) and grabbing a bite to eat. Since Buggy has so much work due for school tomorrow, he dropped me off early at the Tachanah and I was able to get on the 4:30 p.m. bus back to Tel Aviv. Unfortunately for me, I had the Israeli version of a Big Gulp of Diet Coke at lunch and my bladder started hurting before we even hit the Ayalon highway.

We pulled into the Arlozorov station and I was doing the dance in my chair, desperate to get out and get moving...to the nearest bathroom. Unfortunately for me, my apartment is a good 40 minute walk from the Arlozorov bus station. I don't think I've ever done that walk as fast but somehow, I made it back to the apartment in time.

It's already 11:30 p.m. and I'm contemplating making the apple pie for Shavuot now. I'm excited about tomorrow, I have to do laundry desperately (I'm down to 1 pair of Granny panties) and I'm going to make Buggy a low-fat, low-calorie cheese cake for Shavuot. Also, my friend Bracha is in town and Buggy and I got tickets to her sold-out performance at the Tel Aviv Museaum on Thursday night! I cannot wait to see her! I haven;t seen her since before we got engaged, and she is such a brilliant violinist, I know the concert is going to be spectacular!

Song of the day is anything off of the Arctic Monkey's Favorite Worst Nightmare CD.

Sushi and Yom Yerushalayim

So, I moderate the responses to my blog because sometimes people write things that are just plain dumb. Someone posted on my most recent post - describing my situation in Israel - that I should "quit whining and get a life". Hmm, I just wish the person who wrote that would have the eggs to identify themselves. Saying something like that under the veil of anonymity is so cowardly, I would have had tremendous respect for the person with that very same comment who at least owned up to it.

Moving on...

Slightly Mad tagged me the other day and so I wanted to take this time to respond to the tag. Unfortunately, I don't really know any of the other blogs I read, so I can't pay the tag forward and so the buck's gonna stop here. Anyway, the tag is to list out the five favorite places I like to it in my location. But, since I shuttle back and forth between New York, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, I'm going to list my 5 favorite sushi restaurants.

1) Sushi Samba 7 - By far my favorite sushi restaurant in Manhattan. Located on 7th Avenue South right below Christopher Street (convenient to the 1,9 trains), I started going here way before Samantha had a date at this locale on one infamous Sex and the City episode. It's all in the spicyness of the sushi, and put a jalapeno with my spicy tuna roll and I'm in heaven. Couple my sushi with the Emerald Forest drink - which is loaded with rum and is green people - and it's a fantastic night out at a botte in Gotham. In the summer, the restaurant is packed with people who like to be seen and people to see. Book reservations way in advance and try to get a table on the roof deck, it's worth it.

2) Choshi - This little known sushi restaurant on Irving Street, across the way from Friends of a Farmer (a well known brunch place that is absolutely packed on Sundays in the summer), I am always shocked at how consistently good the sushi is. Freshness if key, and every time I went for a pre-drinks dinner at the corner shop, I was impressed with the sushi quality. Also, their sake collection is vast and, if you like cold sake, they have some incredible plum flavored brands that are perfect with edemame and an avocado/tuna roll.

3) Yoko Ono - Located near the Bursa, this is by far my favorite restaurant in Tel Aviv! Forget the fact that Buggy and I had our second date here, the sushi is terrific, the prices are reasonable and the ambiance is great. It's a perfect romantic spot for an intimate dinner, and also casual enough for an evening with the girls. The wait staff is really friendly, and the wait is practically non-existent. I highly recommend their sorbet for dessert too, because there is nothing better than washing down some great sushi with a nice passionfruit sorbet.

4) Sushi Running - Ok, ok, technically this is not in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or New York but the Herziliya sushi restaurant was surprisingly good! Located away from the hotel strip, these restaurant features the conveyer belt bar, where the sushi chefs put out plates of varied sushis for patrons to grab at will. This is a lot of fun if you're in the mood to play "guess what we're eating". But, if you want something a bit more formal, there is both an outdoor and indoor eating area. The menu was vast and they had some interesting appetitzers. I personally love sushi that comes with some tempura, but did not find that on their menu. Nevertheless, I was able to mix and match and basically create my own inside out roll, which was great!

5) Yama - Back down on Irving in Manhattan, Yama is the restaurant where the food really does live up to the reputation. Located off the beaten path, you have to really look for the sign of you might walk right past it, the cramped quarters gives way to an intimate dinner atmosphere where people are gorging themselves on sushi and sashimi. The sushi here had such smooth rice that it almost dripped down my throat like liquid, which was a pretty incredible sensation. Since the down-downtown Yama tends to get overcrowded, with lines out the door, I recommend skipping the sceney spot for this locale, where the sushi is just as good if not better.

Today was Yom Yerushalayim and somehow, Buggy and I ended up in Jerusalem not once but twice! I have never seen the flag parade before, although I think I did participate in it during my year in Israel. I don't remember much from 1995 - it was a while ago - but I do remember marching with friends from the Tachanah down towards the Old City, through the Arab shuk and to the Kotel with hundreds and hundreds of people. It was such an amazing experience, I wish I could remember more of it. Anyway, Buggy and I made it through the thousands of high school students gathering at Gan Saccer with their flags and back to his folks house to get ready for tonight's party. We had a family function in Beit Shemesh that we had to get ready for, and it was nice and wet. Apparently, it poured in Jerusalem for a few hours. They even reported some spots of hail in the area! Buggy and I had a gorgeous, sunny day in Tel Aviv. Sadly, his car is still covered in the dust from the dust storm and the woman at the gas station remarked that his car looked terrible. Meanwhile, everyone else driving around in Jerusalem looked like they just had their cars washed at the car wash. I promised Buggy we'd go to the mall to get his car washed.

The drive to Beit Shemesh was nice and quick and we were only 45 minutes late to the party. Then I did something stupid, Buggy got mad, we had words, and I apologized. I then spent the rest of the evening feeling bad about what I did, and so I offered to drive back to Jerusalem with Buggy so we could discuss and work things out. He dropped me off at the Central Bus Station around 10:15 and I was soon batteling a throng of pre-and-post-peubescent kids trying to make it back to Tel Aviv. At one point on the crowded bus (the kids were sitting in the aisles that's how crowded the bus was!), I felt like this crotchety old man who had no patience for the chattering and singing of these little kids. I don't know how that happened, I used to have so much patience. I really need to work on that.

Anyway, tomorrow will be back to the government with the rest of my Aliyah issues. I'm saving the fight with Maccabi though until Buggy can come with me. I want to make sure someone who is fluent in Hebrew is on my side during what is bound to be a hell of a fight.

Layla Tov and Chag Sameach!

Some Kind of Wonderful

Buggy admitted to me, the other day, that he has never seen some of the classic movies of the 1980's and 1990's. It started off innocently, him asking me about the song St. Elmo's Fire. When I responded about the movie, I drew a blank stare. I immediately fired off the rest of the Brat Pack pcictures: Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club, The Outsiders, Red Dawn, etc. I threw in some classic John Cusack films too: Say Anything and Better off Dead ("I want my two dollars!") and still I got nothing. Weird Science? Nope. Some Kind of Wonderful? Nu-ah.

D'ya know John Hughes?

Who?

Oy - I know what Buggy is getting as a present in the Yichud room, a DVD collection of classic John Hughes movies. I guess that's what happens when you grow up watching Jordanian TV!

And speaking of John Hughes movies, I came across the following blurb in yesterday's New York Daily News Rush & Molloy gossip column.



And the Tribeca Film Festival award for least-pampered auteur goes to ... Mary Stuart Masterson. "Isn't that pretty," "The Cake Eaters" director said to her publicist when she received a rosy cocktail at the film's premiere party at Star Lounge. Then, to the flack, "You don't have to hold it for me. You're not my tray.

Now that is a celebrity who is clearly a human being. Go Watts!

Today has been a quiet day. I made an executive decision this morning to skip school, especially with the student strike now going on day 25. I wasn't feeling all that great when I woke up this morning, and since the e-mail chain from my classmates weren't very encouraging, I decided to take a pass. It's not like I have nothing to do! I've never been this busy in my entire life.

First, I had to go to the ATM and take out money to pay Itai my half of the bills this month. Of course, it's a ridiculously high amount of money but I have no choice, I have to pay it. Then, I made my way over to Supersol to pick up some food for the week and through Shabbos. Buggy is coming to Tel Aviv for the weekend, and so I planned the menu. Since it's supposed to be nice and warm this weekend, I want to keep the meals light. I'm going with a saucy chicken on Friday night, some orzo, a cauliflower and corn kugel and some string beans in lemon vinagrette. For lunch, I'm going to make the lacquered salmon from the new cookbook Mom bought me back in January, an edemame salad, a pasta salad, a garden salad and whatever leftover kugels and chicken we have from Friday night. With some fruit and sorbet for dessert. we should be all set for the weekend.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I got a call from my "caseworker" at the Ministry of Absorption and I have to come down at 8:30 a.m. to meet with her! Why I have to get the really early morning appointments, I do not know, but I'm going to suck it up and drag my lazy bones out of bed. As soon as I get the ball rolling with her - which will hopefully translate in some money getting added to my bank account, I'm going to head over to the Ministry of Insurance where I will hopefully be able to work out my health insurance issues. That needs to get taken care of ASAP, cause Maccabi is taking a huge bite out of my bank account each month! By the time that's all taken care of, it will probably be way past noon, and I have writing and cooking to do tomorrow night. Thursday will be another bright and early day as I have to go to Jerusalem to deal with some banking issues and we must go to Meah Shearim to order Benchers and Mincha/Maariv's for the wedding. It's getting a little ridiculous already!

As for the rest of my day today, I'm going to start working on my next story which is due out in class in 2 weeks, and I have to write a new business proposal. Here's hoping everyone is taking it easy in the Tel Aviv heat!

Independence Day Blues

I've got the Yom Haaztmaut blues. It's actually a real condition that strikes the inhabitants of Israel after Independence Day celebrations have long gone, and it's supposed to last a few days. I'm hoping to get out of the duldrums by tomorrow, cause it's going to be a really busy weekend!

Let's backtrack a bit to Shabbos. Friday night was very nice, we ended up hosting 9 all together, and the food and conversation was very lively. I was able to crash by 1:00, after all the washing, and managed to wake up in time for shul. In fact, we got to shul during Shacharit, which was shocking since I don't think I've made it to davening that early in a very long time. Buggy got an aliyah, which was very nice and made him happy, and then we had a nice lunch. We decided to lay low on Saturday night since Shabbos ends so late, and we ended up renting a movie from Hot VOD (Pirates of the Carribean II) and turning in for the night. On Sunday morning, Buggy came back for breakfast and as we were sitting at the table, I heard the man calling. Now, this man has yelled outside of my window at various times in the mornings, saying the same thing over and over again. I thought he was calling his dog, and that what I couldn't decifer was a Hebrew name for the dog. So, there we were enjoying breakfast and the man starts shouting. I say to Buggy, "That guy is out there every day yelling for his damn dog. You'd think he would put him on a leash or something."

Buggy choked on her juice, and started laughing and coughing at the same time. Then he told me how much he loves me, which made me feel nice. Then he told me how cute I am, which made me feel even nicer. And then he told me that the man was not calling his dog but was actually yelling in Yiddish "Alte Zochen" which means old stuff. The guy was driving around the neighborhood in a pushcart with old crap on it, screaming in Yiddish for people to come and check out his wares.

Buggy thought this was the cutest thing even and has managed to tell almost every member of his family - and some of his friends - the story. Whatever, I don't feel the least bit dumb. OK, maybe a little stupid. But at least it was Yiddish and not Hebrew.

I got even though. I told Buggy we're getting a dog, and we're calling him "alte zochen". I'm serious too.

So, Buggy finally got on the road on Sunday and I was left to work, and boy did I have my work cut out for me. I had a story due on Tuesday night, and had barely begun! So, I got to work and wrote, and wrote, and wrote for hours on end. I finally got to a decent point in the story when I got stuck, and as usual, it was with an ending. So, I let it sit for the night and then woke up early on Monday to finish.

Now, Sunday night was Yom Hazikaron, which is really a sad holiday here in Israel. The siren ran at 8:00 p.m., and I stood silently in my apartment and then watched the Tekes (ceremony) on TV. There is no regular programming on Yom HaZikaron and instead, many channels show documentaries about fallen soldiers. I went to bed sad, and woke up feeling the heaviness of the country. Many stores are closed on Yom HaZikaron and the streets are pretty empty, a bit of a similar feeling like Yom Kippur but without the kids on bikes. At 11:00 a.m., the second siren sounded and I stood silently again and thought about the thousands of family members heading to military cemetaries throughout the country to pay tribute to their fallen loved one.

I got on a bus around 12:30 p.m. and headed to Jerusalem, to spend the rest of the day with Buggy and his family. We ended up doing some errands, and stopping by the apartment to put up new Mezuzot for when we move in after the wedding. Then, we went to Chovivei for the Yom HaZikaron/Yom Haaztmaut ceremony. It was very moving, they read out the names and stories of the shul members who lost loved ones in the various wars. Buggy's Great-Uncle, whom his father is named after, was one of the Lamed Heh and they honored his memory during the ceremony. And then, at sundown, the mood of the people changed from subdued to jubilant! We say Hallel with a Bracha and we sang the Hatikvah loudly. The children ran around with Israeli flags and shul set up a big Kiddish outside. Buggy and I went to his Aunt and Uncle's house for a barbecue, but we got there too late for the food. We ended up watching some of the Har Herzel ceremonies, including some incredible dance and singing routines, on the TV.

And then my stomach started growling as the scent of every Israeli barbecuing meat started filling the air. So, Buggy called around and found us another barbecue. We went to the apartment in Katamon where the spread was incredible, complete with kabobs and steak and grilled chicken. I overdid it on the meat, which kept me up and in the bathroom during the wee hours of the morning, but not before Buggy and I got a fabulous view of the fireworks. It was great, and I couldn't believe there was a full day in store for us!

The next morning, after I made sure my stomach was a bit better, Buggy and I went to visit his Great Uncle in the nursing home. It was a pretty depressing place, but Buggy's Uncle was very nice and I managed to hold my own with the conversation. After we wished him a Chag Sameach, we went to Buggy's apartment to get the meat out of his freezer and made our way to his best friend's apartment in Givat Zeev.

This settlement is absolutely gorgeous and even more beautiful in the daytime! We met Chanan and Naama's newest addition to the family, and we gave Hadas the present we bought her (an adorable pink bathrobe with her name on it in Aqua, and a hood that looks like a bears head). Three other couples, with their children, joined us for the barbecue and everyone chipped in to get the food ready! No one sat down and waited, everyone did something. Chanan and Buggy took care of firing up the grill, myself, Naama, her father and another one of the husbands got to work on the salads. Two of the other women prepared the meat and chicken, while Naama's mother put the baby back to sleep. Then, with the children helping, we all set the table and left one of the husbands to take care of the grill. At some point during the lunch, one of the husbands remarked that it was adorable Buggy and I still held hands, and that we should enjoy the moment now because it wouldn't last very long.

Is that what kids do to couples?

After we pigged out on more meat and chicken, Buggy and I headed back to his parents to rest before I had to catch another bus back to Tel Aviv. I should have stayed over because it took me over 2 hours to get home! It was the worst traffic I've ever been in! Now I know this never would have happened to my Dad, who would have started his grilling at 9:00 a.m. and had everyone back home before Noon! Oh well, we now know what to expect for next year. Hopefully, that won't include traveling between cities during Independence Day rush hour. I got home, checked some e-mails, and then crashed. I don't need to look at meat for a while.

This morning, I was thrilled that the student strike was still on because I had to finish my story. I spent the morning writing, in my pajamas, until the piece was in good enough shape to send out to the class. Still filling blue though, I got dressed and went for an hour and a half walk. This time, I decided to go to a place I haven't explored since moving to this City. That's right, I went to Kikar Hamidinah, which is Tel Aviv's version of Rodeo Drive.

It's huge and has some pretty decent stores. I felt right at home at Ralph Lauren, until the annoying saleswoman shadowed me throughout the store. Granted, I wasn't dressed in designer duds but I certainly wasn't going to steal anything either. As I walked along, I felt something tickle my bra. Thinking that maybe I was sweating from the walk - it IS hot outside, although the humidity is still at bare - I kept on going. When I went to the Cook Store though, I felt the tickle moving around to the other side of the bra and that's when I realized there was something moving underneath my shirt. Now, I couldn't exactly remove my shirt in the store, and fortunately, the little ladybug managed to crawl up my chest and around my neck so I could pluck her off me and flick her away.

That was about an hour and a half into the excursion and so I decided to come back home. It's good that I got the exercise in, and even better that I was able to do the walk at all. While in Jerusalem, I managed to get 5 mosquito bites. Three of which happen to be my foot! Two are on the bottom of my feet, on the soles, and one is on my big toe. Since Buggy and I are going on a hike on Friday with some of his friends, I wanted to make sure I could actually walk. Fortunately, I'm able to grin and bear it. Here's hoping the hike is pretty tame!

I have a new business conference call now, so I'm signing off! Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather in both Israel and the US.

Israeli Plumbers Crack & The Bat of Tel Aviv

The saga of the apartment that's falling apart (or was never built correctly, whatever you want to call it) continues. It's getting to the point where I feel like I'm cracking up (just kidding, was trying to use the pun...). And this morning, I woke up at 7:45 a.m. to let in the plumber so that I can look at his crack for an hour as he fixed yet one more problem in the apartment.

A fitting end to the past 62 hours.

It all started as soon as I lit Shabbos candles on Friday night. Buggy and I had a really, really nice afternoon together on Friday. As soon as he got here, we called his Aunt Nomi who lives in Tel Aviv, and we took a cab over to her side of the neighborhood to meet for coffee. It was nice getting to know his Aunt, who I've only met once at the family Chanukah party back in December. She is really a nice woman, and extremely interesting to talk to, and we both really enjoyed ourselves. As the rain started to fall, we hopped into a cab and got back to the apartment so Buggy could make his famous onion soup. I helped of course! I prepared all of the ingredients in an assembly line next to the pot so that we could put them in when it was time.



This is what the soup looks like this morning straight from the freezer. A little fatty on top from the oil but once you heat it up it's really, really yummy! I told Buggy that since soup ain't my forte, it will B"H be his responsibility once we're married. He was so proud that the soup tasted so good that I think he's going to rise to the occasion in the future.

So, after the soup was up, we had literally 30 minutes to both get ready for Shabbos. I lit Shabbos candles with one minute to spare and then, as Buggy was getting ready to go to shul for Mincha/Maariv, I went into the bathroom to pull out the box of tissues I bought for Shabbos. I opened the cabinet under the sink and picked up the box, and felt something wet. I crouched down and saw this absolute pool of water all over the cabint. I think I muttered something that I can't repeat here (actually, I'm lying, I know that I screamed an obscenity because Buggy came running to the bathroom to see what happened) and then I had a little fit as I pulled out the entire contents of the cabinet.

So, here's the long and short of it: there was a leak in the pipe so that clean water was dripping underneath the sink. I have no idea how long this leak has been here because of the following photo:



This folks is a bag that contains 8 boxes of cardboard applicator tampons and sanitary napkins.

They are ALL fully absorbed at this point.

Obviously, I will not be able to use them in the future. But, had they not been there, I probably would have discovered the leak a few days ago instead of RIGHT AFTER SHABBOS STARTED.

Buggy brought me some bags and I loaded the contents of my bathroom into them. I then tucked these bags into the corner of my living room and hoped that my Shabbos company wouldn't notice that they were there.



The big concern for me is that my blow dryer and hot iron were resting on top of the soaked boxes of tampons and I have no idea if they were really wet. I'm letting them dry out in the meantime before I attempt to plug them in and test them out. Which means that yes, I'm going curly for the next few days.

Anyway, I'm a bit passive aggressive and I decided to leave the soaking wet tampon/pad bag in the hall between mine and Itai's apartment. It didn't do anything but at least it made me feel a bit better that it was stinking up the hall. In fact, when Shabbos ended and I called the landlord to let her know of yet ANOTHER snafu, he came in to check it out and told me that something I cooked had a rank smell.

Buggy had to excuse himself and went into the bedroom to laugh. He told me that my cooking smells amazing and the stanky scent were the wet tampons in the hallway.

Maybe my passive aggressiveness worked!

Anyway, I did not have a pleasant conversation with my landlord. I told her I wanted to be reimbursed for the damages that were caused in this latest "flood" and that includes a $150 hot iron that I brought from the States. She got all pissy with me and said we first needed to coordinate on the plumber and then we could discuss damages.

Fine. That's defnitely the right way to placate me.

Unfortunately, I couldn't spend my Sunday sitting in the apartment waiting for the plumber. I had an eye Dr.'s appointment in Modiin in the morning and then Buggy and I had to go to Jerusalem to do some more wedding errands like picking out our wedding bands (rings, not orchestra), picking up benchers, getting Buggy a birthday present (April 11th!!) and meeting with parents to review the content of the invitation. So, my landlord said that I would have to call the plumber directly and work out my schedule with him. I asked her, since this was yet ANOTHER apartment inconvenience, if she could come to the apartment and stay with the plumber.

She said: What, me sit all day in your flat and wait for the plumber? No, never.

OK, fine. I had nothing else in the bathroom that could be ruined and I couldn't rearrange my schedule for Sunday so I took the phone number and made the call on Sunday afternoon to coordinate with the plumber.

Meanwhile, Itai came into the apartment to check out the leak and told his Aunt (my landlord in case you haven't been following) that it wasn't such a big deal. That the rhythm wasn't that intense and it could wait a few days. This is what my landlord claimed he told her. I was not there when he said this to her because he took my phone into the bathroom to have a chat.

So, yesterday, when I went to call the plumber to have him come to the apartment he told me that he was told it wasn't an emergency and he would try to work something out with me. I asked if he could come on Sunday night and he told me that he was unavailable. I asked him if he could come then on Monday morning and he said he was busy all day Monday. So I asked him if he could come on Monday night and he said we'll see and that he'll call me.

Now, I have experience with the workers who call you. They call you when they're 5 minutes away from your place and ask if they can come over. Now, I didn't want to be held hostage in my apartment all day long so I asked him to give me a 3 hour window so I could make myself available. He didn't want to do that. So, we hung up without setting a time and I called Lea back.

She said to me that she told him it wasn't a big deal or anything because Itai told her that it wasn't so much water.

Really? Hmm, okay. That's news to me. I've been waking up every 4 hours in the middle of the night to empty a full pan of water into my shower so that I won't have a huge flood! The water dripped with or without the tap being on too so not using the sink doesn't help matters at all.

But fine, if that's how my landlord wants to play it, what can I do? Right? I'm at her mercy and she knows it.

But she said she would call the plumber and try to set a time and would get back to me.

At which point, I called Itai and asked him why he told her that it wasn't such a big deal. Did he not see the damage in the hall? Would he like that to happen in his apartment? So, he started in on this long, drawn out lecture about how they are working really hard to accommodate me but things happen in a new apartment. He talked on, and on, and on and now I know why he's a lawyer. He can just talk the other side to freaking death! I stopped talking and just let him drone on and on because I know that it doesn't pay to talk, he won't listen, and it's just a waste of my time.

But this was the real clincher here, the reason why I've never been so pissed in my entire life. He told me that he overheard me telling Buggy that I want Lea to be responsible for the damages. He told me, that if I read my contract carefully, his Aunt is NOT responsible for any of the damages. He gave me some ridiculous example of if I left my diamond ring in the bathroom and there was a flood and the ring was damaged, his Aunt wouldn't be responsible. And, the only reason why he offered to reimburse me for the shit storm from two weeks ago is because it's out of the goodness of his heart and he felt bad about that. He also didn't even take the 91 shekel from his Aunt for the cost of cleaning up my apartment by the cleaning lady because he knows just how hard she is trying to work with me to make this apartment better.

What a guy huh?

He cited an example of his own living situation a few months ago where, if something was broken, his landlord took his sweet time getting around to fixing it. So let me get this straight. If it was someone else's apartment, I would still have a river of waste flowing through my place AND my sink would be leaking? Is this really how it works in this country? Cause, if that's really true, that's a tremendous crime.

When he made yet another comment about how, aside from the incident a few weeks ago, this apartment has been wonderful I ended the conversation. Let him be a revisionist if he wants to, I've been blogging every single incident and have a written account of all of the problems in this place. I hope to just move out and be done with them but I'm armed with plenty of ammunition if they want things to get ugly.

I was on such an anti-Israel low yesterday it was really depressing. Buggy worked very hard to make me feel better as he, a Sabra, feels responsible for how shabbily his people are treating me. I told him that he can't feel that way because I don't make comparisons or generalities. Its just been very hard since I moved here and it's really depressing to hate Israeli people. I would have prefered to be that naive woman living in the States who dreamt of moving to a wonderful Israel where the people are amazing and the land feels like my true home.

Never in a million years did I think I would be wishing for my old landlords, a sweet non-Jewish Polish man and his son, who were menches the entire four and a half years of my previous rental experience.

I think, at the end of my year here, I'm going to blog about how I really feel told Israel and her people. I don't want to start it up because today is a new day, and I'd prefer having a fresh start in the morning.

I took the 8:30 p.m. bus back to Tel Aviv last night and, as I waited for the 61 to bring me closer to the apartment, I saw the bat of Tel Aviv. He flies around the Arlozorov bus station and, if you don't look closely, you'd think it was just a bird. But, in the light from the streetlamp, I was able to make out his wings.

It was scary and exhilirating at the same time. I haven't seen a bat in years, not since my days at sleep away camp. It was kinda cool.

Since I'm awake, I've decided to spend my morning working on the draft of my thesis proposal and catching up on the reading for class tomorrow. I have to re-read a few stories in James Joyce's Dubliners and apparently there is a 32 page short story waiting in my inbox from one of my colleagues.

I hope it's a quick years cause otherwise, it's going to be a long afternoon.

PS. George and Izzie on Grey's Anatomy? Seriously? Seriously!