shabbating it

i just had the most relaxing 24 hours. my roommate went to tel aviv for shabbat and i was here, all aloooone. well, except for my laundry, which has been keeping me company since 4 pm on friday (the last load is presently in the dryer). AHHHHH IM NEVER DOING LAUNDRY AGAIN! ok i have a feeling that isn't true. i like clean clothes. however, for my next laundry escapades i really wanna find some dryer sheets. i cannot find them ANYWHERE! what's a girl gotta do to get some bounce around here? seriously.

so this was the first shabbat i've had by myself in the new apartment. since virtually everything's closed on shabbat here, there's not much to do - especially when you're living in an apartment full of religious girls who you happen to like and respect (which i did, very much so, therefore i did not use my computer, talk on the phone, shower, cook, etc...)... so, for the most part, i observed shabbat fully while in the apartment - and most saturdays if i needed to get some work done, i'd walk around the corner to my office, and work (and use the microwave and toaster and fridge and telephone.. if only the office had a shower...) i did this on many occassions, except there was that one time when i walked up one saturday and heard the alarm going off and apparently scared off the burglars who had just broken in. they didn't take anything, shockingly, since my digital camera was like, out in plain sight... so maybe i really did scare them away... but the alarm scared me away - i called my boss and got the hell outta there. the fact we were one of 8 break-ins in rechavia that night is pretty scary. cats crawled through the broken glass door and took over our office. THAT was scary, too. the chairs were DISGUSTINGLY covered in cat hair the next day. EW. i never went back to the office on shabbat after that.

so, back to the present. this shabbat, i did laundry. i showered. i blow-dried my hair. i did more laundry. i listened to music. i spent a while playing around on my computer. i caught up on some work. i COOKED! on shabbat. i cannot explain how nice it is to feel comfortable in a place of my "own." not that i didn't feel at home at the other apt., but i was always really cautious/overtly paranoid that i might offend someone, leading to roommate tension or broken friendships or them throwing me back out on da street. i loved that apartment. and there was something really special about keeping shabbat. really. it was challenging, but i really enjoyed it. however, i don't think fully observing shabbat is for me. at least not right now. or maybe ever.

anyway, when you aren't "subletting" or worried about breaking rules, it's a really comforting feeling. this morning, err, afternoonish, i ALMOST felt israeli cause i made such a delicious breakfast. i made an omelette and used our brand new cheese grater (actually i think i got a little grater-happy... it was my first time.. yeah. i just wrote that.) and the deliciously almost-american tasting MILD cheddar cheese that i got from the cheese man at the shuk. the first time i asked if they had cheddar, and the man was like, "no. i do not hev sheddar today. but for you, for you with the pretty eyes, i hev sheddar." spare me. please. anyway, i was really excited to get familiar tasting sheddar. with my omelette, i cut up some red bell peppers, cucumber and carrot, and had some hummus and pita AND juice AND fruit. israeli style, right? i really felt proud. you have no idea.


laundry's done. YESSSSSSSSSS

happy earth day, children of israel

http://killergreenideas.com/
http://www.earthday.net/
"What is the use of a house
if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"
Henry David Thoreau
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfully committed citizens can change
the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead

yesterday

yesterday i went to tel aviv to reunite with a long lost bbyo friend, hilla. i took the sheirut with my friendly roommate jon and when we reached the bus station we went our separate ways. i then got on a city bus (sorry dad), bus 5, to get to dizengof center. arriving at dizengof center was a bit eerie, since i walked in, took one look around the mall, realized it's the mall i'd been to with birthright, and knew my way around far better than i know the back of my hand. who knows the back of their hand, anyway? whatever. i visit a mall once, i know it for life. sick. it's just a thing i've always had.

ok, so i was going to meet hilla at castro, which is a trendy clothing store and i figured i'd do some browsing since they have GREAT accessories. this castro is different than all others, as it's 3 stories (women, men, kids) and is absolutely beautiful! it kinda reminds me of express actually, a lot. so i'm browsing... of course a little t-shirt catches my eye and i fall in lust. i pick it up, decide to try it on and before i know it, lust turns into love. clothes in israel are pretty gosh darn expensive. i mean it probably doesn't seem like much, but this little black shirt cost 125 shekel, which is like $30ish. i have a shopping problem. i LOVE buying stuff, but generally ONLY if it's on sale. this is to rationalize with myself that it's okay to buy something cause if i'd paid full price for it, i'd be out way more money.. soooo if it costs more than $20, i generally walk away. if i'm still thinking about the item a week later, i'll go back to the store, and if they have my size, i try it on again and see how i feel. if they don't have my size, then i know we just weren't meant to be. sigh. i have such serious issues. anyway... back to castro. sadly, i knew what i had to do and folded up the precious lil tshirt and moved onto the shoes. 

hilla calls and we embrace in the middle of the store. she says "you look the exact same!" and i'm like... so do you.. and then we leave and go on our way. 

we head toward the arts and crafts fair, which is every tuesday and friday morning in tel aviv. as we walk, we're talking and catching up, and all of a sudden some girl goes, heyyyy! and i look closely and am thinking, gee, this face looks awfully familiar. then i pick up a bit of hebrew and hear hilla say, lachazor meeshell? m'bbg? and i realize DAMN it's INBAR! i went to iltc with this girl, too, she was in my dorm, hadn't seen her in 8 years, either... Inbar is very tall and has a perfect figure and pretty blue eyes, and at iltc she had really short hair and seemed very attitudey.. i was kinda scared to talk to her back then. anyway, now she's got really long hair and is in med school and as hilla said, "she's just one of those perfect people.. she's supersmart, but she's like a barbie doll." I could not belieeeeeve we ran into her!   

we keep walking. i tell hilla i really want to decorate my apt. and she's like oooh i know a place. it's at the shuk here, you can get pictures/art for the walls so cheap! they're like 5 for 50 shekel. and i'm like, PERFECT! then she asks me about where i've been living, and before i can explain the whole subletting story, another girl stops hilla and says HEY! and hilla's like omg. and i look at this girl, who's with her mom, and immediately i'm like holy shit.. it's Inbal.. another girl from my dorm at iltc that year. so weird. if i hadn't been with hilla, there's no way i would've recognized these girls... crrrazy!!

then we go to the shuk.. it's a lot like jerusalem but i feel like it's a tad (not much, but a tiny, tiny, tiny bit) more organized. 

oh jerusalem.

if i don’t have a working stove/oven/kitchen by this evening, april 13, there will be seriously massive hell to pay. are you listening claire? michel? david? everyone involved? passover is difficult year after year. but passover without a kitchen? HA. like, it’s proposterous. unfathomable. undoable. impossible. I was hoping it’d be the kind of impossible like in the Cinderella musical where the precious lil fairy godmother does her thing and impossible things are happening evvvvv…vvvvvvv…….rrrryyyyy dayyyyyyyyyy.
the appliances actually came six days ago, well, by that, i mean all the appliances except the fridge. they had no idea we’d ordered a fridge. how were they supposed to know we’d ordered a fridge when it was clearly marked on the delivery sheet? nothing is easy here. by now, it’s to the point where generally i’ll just laugh when stuff like this happens because it’s so typical here. but it’s PASSOVER and i COOK thankyouverymuch. HOW can you make a kugel or cheesecake or matzah meal pancakes or matza brei or matza pizza without ANY FRIDGE to keep your ingredients in or any oven or stove to cook them in/on? somebody please, please, please help Last night I went back to Casa de Yael and Tali (and now Ayala)… I sort of was planning on sneaking in, putting my stuff down, running to the store and then having a romantic reunion with the oven I used all of thrice in 2 months (if you know me, you know this is in no way even CLOSE to close to remotely near normal), or maybe the stove (which i actually used quite a bit, i eat a shitload of omelettes here. gotta get that PROTINE). Anyway, the washer, dryer, oven and stove have been sitting in boxes for almost a week, because the delivery people don’t install them because that would just make too much sense, ya know? and apparently there is some law that we are not allowed to install them / insurance liability or something. but, our go-to girl for the apartment said we could hook up the oven ourselves. my dear roommate left me all alone the other day, so i attempted to pick up the oven out of the box and in turn felt like a weak, weak loser and on top of it, i somehow cut my thumb really deeply - in three different places. well, three and a half actually, all like, worse than papercuts. i dont think it was from the box though, i honestly think it was from part of the oven. hopefully my tetanus vaccine is still rocking. OW. mother of G-D.
moving right along… sorry, this is quite the rant here…