text:
the weather report
…I mean, it's all right, everything's fine. It's Saturday so I am allowed to eat anything and not work or exercise (but I miss the orderliness of working days, so I will at least go running tonight). For company I have a man taking a four-hour nap and two rats trying to fold into each other in the world's most compact rat ball. I fill a glass with cereal (not the healthy kind, the kind with chocolate in it, but it's whole and high in fiber anyway) and don't notice it crunching away. I miss writing, but when I start, I miss the point. I like the font however, so I continue.
…It's all right, we're good, we're on an upward trend, we're teaching ourselves good habits. Not on Saturdays, obviously, on Saturdays we are allowed anything. Even though that makes it so much harder to make peace with the fact that on Sundays we aren't. What Sundays are, they are penance for the excess of the weekend. There is always something unpleasant to do on a Sunday: work, chores, or bi-weekly grocery shopping where they haven't yet restocked the vegetable aisle.
…Still, I'm managing, and even the anxiety is not that bad these days. Not that I have nothing to be anxious about or that when I don't have anything, that I don't invent things to be anxious about. You know how someone may accidentally hurt your feelings, then apologize, and you forgive them, but the hurt remains somewhere, like indistinct heartburn? The same happens to me when I think of money, even when there's enough, and exercise, even when I've been very good.
…Is it true that when a love affair (such an old-fashioned word in this hegemony of 'relationships') ends, it takes something away with it? The end of my marriage took away my ability to make good Turkish coffee. So what, we have a coffee machine now. The next affair took away my ability to believe my own worth as reflected in the eyes of the other. Through no fault of anyone's, or so I choose to believe. This current one brought that back anyway. No luck with the coffee though.
…I wish I were the kind of person that goes to botanical gardens with a sketchbook. Or the kind of person with a theatre membership. Or a limited-intelligence mall-dressing suburb-dwelling ambitionless pre-planned-life-executing kind of person. Some kind of a happier human being, the kind that doesn't feel restless and brimming with sadness when it really is perfectly all right.
this girl is on fire
We are living through apocalyptic times. No, I am not exaggerating. The fires and boiling lava of the Gehenna have risen to swallow up the Holy City of Jerusalem. Next thing to be expected, synoptically, is for fire to rain from the skies. Perhaps we are Gomorrah 2.0. There is plenty of evidence that would support that theory.
We are mired in most of the deadly sins: greed (the prices on fans are through the roof), wrath (in this heat, you hate anyone who gets close to you), envy (just think how nice it must be for those bastards in Iceland this time of the year), and sloth (sweating through the few garments that we are forced by common decency to wear). There is little to no gluttony and lust though, because the thought of eating or being lustful in this heat causes light nausea.
For some time now, getting into the car has been a ritual where the brave driver dives inside to open all doors and start the AC, and then launches himself out again to avoid full body burns from the pure dragon's-breath heat spewing from the vents for the first several minutes. We thought the car's thermometer was broken when it started reporting temperatures approaching and passing 40 degrees Celsius, but alas, it is functioning well and true to the appalling reality. The fact that we feel like we are right inside the engine of a spaceship launching from the planet supports the figures on the cruel little screen.
Last night, I went jogging. Why not, I thought, it is dark outside and the heat must have subsided, right? 100 percent correct. It had subsided by almost a dozen degrees, reaching a meager 32. If I were a deranged eco-fiend, I would have brought a (recyclable, biodegradable cardboard) bucket with me to collect my own sweat, and it would have been enough for a post-run shower followed by the most disgusting cup of tea ever. As it was, I was forced to use up about a quarter of the Earth's remaining water supply to cool off after the nightmare that is healthy exercise in this weather.
The unprecedented heatwave is driving everyone crazy. Did I say crazy? I meant insane, clinically brain-dead, totally, fully, completely batshit. Who said 'exaggeration' again? No, this here is scientific truth. The little Facebook groups meant for people to trade their little belongings and share valuable advice on where to buy the best lightbulbs in the city have spontaneously transformed into Hyde-parkish arenas of free speech, producing such pearls as "Speaking of extremism, how about our Mayor! You call these streets clean!? I call this a disgrace!" I call bullshit, but who ever asked me.
In short, if you haven't gathered so yet, it is somewhat warmish in our corner of the woods, and every aspect of life is boiling. If you are a true friend, send help: a ton of Ben&Jerry's, a ticket to Iceland, or perhaps one of those ridiculous Japanese air-conditioned jackets which look as though someone took a bicycle pump to your torso but are rumored to actually work against heat. Frankly, I no longer fear ridicule when faced with the very real possibility of my body melting like the Wicked Witch of the Mediterranean.
P.S. How funny is it that the last post on here was about the cold? Ah, cold, how unappreciated you were in your time.
a tad chilly
So it's winter in Jerusalem. That means that it's chilly outside and my apartment has Gone Cold.
It's so cold that the goosebumps have become permanent. I now have dragon skin.
It's so cold that I can't peel off the blanket long enough to put on more clothes.
It's so cold that I have to add a jacket when I come in, not when I go out.
It's so cold that for polite company I'd need two padded bras one on top of the other.
It's so cold that I only know my toes are freezing by seeing that they're blue, haven't felt them in days.
It's so cold that I begin every workout wearing layers and only take them off half an hour in.
It's so cold that I go to bed fully dressed because the covers are too icy to the touch.
It's so cold that I can almost see what little breath comes through my perma-stuffed nose.
It's so cold that I take 30 minute showers because I can't bring myself to switch off the scalding water.
It's so cold that food is refrigerated both in and out of the fridge.
It's so cold that fruit become less ripe if left alone for a while.
It's so cold that my tea gets undrinkable less than halfway down the mug.
It's so cold that my heart is turning to ice and I'm about to steal Christmas.
It's so cold that I'm about to go outside to warm up a little bit. If I can get myself to take off the PJs, robe and blanket so as to dress. I've been known to leave the house wearing PJs disguised as real clothes for this precise reason. All this because we live in Such a Hot Country that built-in heating is simply unnecessary, so houses come without it. Blame it on the warm effing Mediterranean climate.
post about my life to scroll past quickly
Most people know that I am sort of hyperactive when it comes to work; I tend to have multiple projects going on and enjoy it. I am normally very quick in completing assignments and good at managing myself in terms of deadlines and spreading my workload to have a healthy and varied flow that includes different activities and leaves time over for general life-living.
However, once in a while there will be periods (lasting days or weeks or even months) when I am unable to do anything. Throughout the day, I'll just stare at the computer, intermittently falling asleep, or read if I'm lucky (not always an option for oftentimes the ability to concentrate on any written text longer than two pages is the first to go), or cry and berate myself for not focusing. I do exercise, because it's become a reflex, and because my guilt complex also known as my self-denigration drive is stronger than a hurricane. Other than that, nothing: no learning, no socializing, no practicing music, no work, no work, no work. Being pathetic and needy is very high on my list of behaviors to avoid, yet it becomes prevalent when I turn to my loved ones begging them to find me a solution which I know doesn't exist. Explaining to anyone who will listen what a lowlife I have become, how worthless, useless, brainless and etc.-less, is another tendency of which I am both guilty and less than proud.
How fitting then, that such a period should come on just when I started an exciting new job that demands, among other things, high levels of concentration and self-discipline working at home. There is a fair amount of hours that need to be clocked in, and punching in to stare blankly at the screen or the ceiling hardly seems like something the people responsible for bringing me up would approve of. Apparently, I fail even at being a proper layabout, one that wouldn't hesitate to press that green button and feel that as long as rent is taken care of, producing zero results is a minor concern.
Rent, incidentally, is one of the reasons I can't just submit to this wave of dullness and wait for it to subside, as it usually, eventually, to some degree at least, does. There is nothing to fall back on. My reputation and my enormous Egyptian pyramid of Maslowian needs rely solely on my own performance as a human being. No longer a kid or a married woman, I live alone and have to deal with these attacks alone. And it must be said that there's very little fun in this shit.
trouble in paradise? find another paradise
See, I don't get love.
Really, how does it happen? People run into each other and say: "Look, here's a person I don't know from Adam, s/he looks promising, let me now invest inordinate amounts of time and energy into simultaneously learning everything there is to know about him/her and impressing him/her enough that s/he will want to learn everything about me, except not everything because there are some things I'd really much rather remained private, so in the presence of this person I will pretend those things do not exist and will generally do my best to be not me but some other person, one I mathematically predict s/he will enjoy more than the real, reality-TV-watching, over-the-stove-eating, online-shopping-for-pretty-sneakers-although-I-never-really-go-running me."
Isn't that how it usually starts? And then once that initial stage of all-round awkwardness and frantic exchange of body fluids is over, it is time to gradually reintroduce the previously suppressed personality, because really, who can keep up the charade, what with all the being neat and helpful and kind and made-up and, brrr, cheerful all the time, not to mention never picking your nose or having an upset stomach. And you say to yourself: "Look, I'm sure that now that we're so in love s/he will understand. S/he probably also has things I've yet to find out, right? I mean, we both had that bad shrimp, s/he would really need an iron stomach— Besides, I'm adorable as I am, isn't that what s/he always says?"
Well yes, it is what s/he always says, because in his or her eyes "as you are" is the persona you've worked so hard to build up. And s/he will most likely be unpleasantly surprised once it turns out that in fact it is against your core beliefs to wash the dishes ever and that you actually prefer sleeping wearing your grayish-white tube socks and nothing else. You sexy beast you. Not only that, but the gradual reveal of the disgusting slob you actually are will cause a mirror reaction whereby s/he will say to him- or herself: "Look, s/he must really love me if s/he trusts me enough to let go this much in front of me. The least I can do to express my love is to do the same." And then they let their leg hair grow out and soon you find out you've actually been living with a child-murdering Zionist grizzly bear who doesn't share the remote. (Am I up to date with my examples? I have been living mostly alone for a while, but I seem to remember that remotes, toilet lids and infant-hating Zionism are key irritants in most average relationships.)
After a while, once you've both adjusted to each other's "delightful quirks" and have learned that a passive-agressive note on the fridge works better than yelling, especially combined with a couple hours' icy treatment, i.e., you've ironed out the creases in the relationship and are now convinced that you are deeply in love (when you speak to your friends you might proud-humbly mention how you love your Zionist bear "despite the, you know, little things which are so minor I don't notice them anyway") – that's when it turns out that there had, in fact, been some sort of a resentment brewing under the surface, or that the bear feels that s/he hasn't really found him- or herself and needs some time alone to consider it, or it's you that one day find yourself so physically uncomfortable with that tiny minor thing you don't even notice that you can't really share a space with the bear anymore.
Then, you break up. It hurts like the fucking end of the universe, you feel like someone punched you in the gut, you cry and howl and throw things and eat and/or drink bad things, and you feel like you'll die alone and wish that day would come already, for chrissakes, get it over with, what do you have to live for anyway, et cetera et cetera, until one day some person catches your eye and you know absolutely nothing about him or her and you go: "Look, here's a person I could devote the rest of my life learning everything about." And you go back on the diet.
See why I don't get it?
how to be sad and alienate people (with your death wish)
What is it like being depressed? Nobody really asked me, but I feel like writing this down might be therapeutic (and also a nice change from staring into the screen and turning the water on the stove on and off because I can't decide whether I want to make tomorrow's lunch or not).
Being depressed is walking the street on a wonderful, cream-clouded, fresh and overall exhilarating Saturday afternoon, the kind of day that floods you with appreciation of its beauty— and feeling that the wave of emotion rolling in contains, alongside the expected joy and love for the city you live in, immense loneliness and a sense of devastation. For no reason. Despite the wonderful friend walking next to you and the fact that every passer-by wishes you a happy Sabbath.
It is spending almost a decade laughing, crying, learning and growing with someone you love more than anyone has ever loved even their own mother— and one day just deciding it's over. Because you are thinking in absolutes, and if something is not working perfectly, it's absolutely bad and not worth fighting for or working on. And once you've lived through that, and built a friendship with the person who used to be the air in your lungs, and found somebody new and amazing to be tentatively, but truly happy with— you wake up at night suffocating from exhausting dreams, wanting to run off to the jungle and die there, alone and promptly.
It is looking in the mirror, trying on a new hat or a cute shirt— and realizing that you are the ugliest thing you have ever seen, with an ass that leaves the room a full two minutes after you do, flab everywhere, a face that can only be fixed by a head transplant, which incidentally would also take care of your unimaginably horrible hair, and problematic teeth the likes of which you'd not wish on Hitler himself. Although he'd probably deserve them.
It is sitting at home of a night, eating instant mashed potatoes with mustard, because everything else requires cooking (not that there's much else, because you haven't been paying attention to supplies), and leaving the house to buy something is unthinkable— and you don't really care about the taste that much anyway, it's just that there seems to be a dull throb of emptiness within you, so it is perhaps a good idea to place something in it.
It is starting the day with sunshine, ice cream and general hilarity, continuing it with some healthy work and learning new things you care deeply about— and then coming home and despite all your genuine previous excitement all you can remember is nothing and grayness, and you can only cry, and even that barely. Four hours and countless old show episodes later, you haven't moved from the spot, you're wearing what you came home in, there's an untouched mug of ice-cold tea next to you, you are foggy and have three hours of sleep left.
It is meeting a good old friend outside, hugging them happily, asking a hundred questions and insisting they call or come by— and then flipping the phone when the call comes in, making the sound go away while the phone just keeps on ringing. When they ask, you will of course say you didn't see the call, because telling them you couldn't find it in you to talk to them seems inappropriate.
It is tornado mood swings and a difference of eons between the way you are outside, among people, and the way you're with yourself. And on a challenging day there will not be so much of a difference, because you will be among people and your camouflage will fall off and shatter on the floor, and you will not be able to conceal your desire to be away— at which point everyone in the social situation you happen to be in will be aghast and believe (with good reason) that you are a very unpleasant and sociopathic individual with whom they'd rather not deal. Or, worse, they'll try to cheer you up.
It is catching yourself, time and time again, wishing you weren't here, weren't now, weren't you or just weren't alive. It is wanting to be alone when you're with your loved ones and aching for their presence when it is impossible. It is the lack of motivation to do even those things that used to be the highlight of your days, and the paralyzing inability to make even the simplest choice (strawberry or vanilla? left or right? who knows? who cares?). It is continuing to live with dirt and messes despite hating everything that is not clean. It is sabotaging yourself in every way possible. It is consciously and at all times being self-deprecating and sarcastic and praying for a piano to fall from the skies and smash you every time someone tells you, sagely (always sagely), that sarcasm is bad for you and not a real solution.
It is asking, again and again, why me and how is this fair, and answering, again and again: because you are worthless and you hurt people and you deserve this and nothing but this.
'try the new hangouts'
leave yourself hanging
all of these hangups
all of these blinding,
maddening rages
worrying silence
failing and falling and
following signs
never on purpose
never on time
never in order
and not really mine
if i'm sleepless at night
doesn't mean i'm awake
i'm faking it faking it
dance at my wake
what you say when there is too much to say
I should be writing and I am writing writing writing writing all the time non-stop, go go go in my head, heart racing with nowhere to get to. Repeating myself rambling gasping for air falling over falling in falling head over heels—
The speed of my thoughts has no name not the speed of light not the speed of water not the speed of a million butterflies all dying at the same time, and certainly not a speed that I can type at. It is all too sudden, too quick, too soon and too much. There is no way to write these things down, but I try because I should be writing— and not writing-erasing-writing, really writing—
What else is left to us after all after the consolation of pouring it all out, releasing the burden or burdening someone else with it (a privilege we pay dearly for and our dears do as well). Nothing will ever compare to writing because even comparing is writing, everything is writing letters dots commas dashes on a page digital or real or all in my head. It is all in my head, this is how it works, a knife pushed with an open palm that cuts everything it encounters, cuts up reality life blood vessels paper, cuts so sharp there is no bleeding at least not for a while. This is how it works or doesn't work, works its power over me and I try to work out the work that has gone into all of this, all of me, all of you—
Creating this world, not a mean feat, not by a far cry, and nothing I have am can wish is a match to it, there is no reply, I have no answer to that immense all-encompassing question or challenge that was posed to me on the day the world was created. Nothing I can say do write live breathe or die is even a ghost of an answer and if so why say write live breathe or even die?
this is how we go a-hunting
Sometimes life can start seeming pretty lifeless, an automated performance of an oiled and synced robotic routine. When that happens, I have no choice but to set out looking for some new life to replenish my supply. I look everywhere.
Can my life be on the bottom of a coffee cup? I drink them all thoroughly, empty them, bottoms- them -up, making sure, a drop of vanilla milk for the sweetness and scent in which life certainly can be found.
Life may be hidden in the early morning hours, when it is still dark and nobody knows yet, nobody can see, nobody is there to sap out my liveliness, just the cold, pink sunrise and the bags of vegetables and bread tied to the doorknobs of yet-unopened restaurants.
It might be in the colorful identical dresses of the more exotic museum-goers, who stand around marveling, camera hands outstretched while we all self-importantly working-ant our way around them. In fact, my own camera hand holds some life of its own, and it is important when I am searching for life to take pictures of everything as clues to examine at leisure, trying to build up a true portrait of that life that I need to find.
Or perhaps my life is stretched on the line between the sun and the shade, such lines being hard and bright and few in the scorching summer; in the winter, might it be the same line, only going the other way, trying to catch some of those warming rays? Surprisingly, there is life to be found in fog. I open my eyes and open them again (the recipe for doing magic from I don't remember which book) and step into the refreshing unknown, feeling more hopeful for it, because surely somewhere in all this invisibility there must be an untapped source of life for me.
My search continues on paper pages, handwriting crooked, atrophied in all these clickety-type years (I type faster than I write, but with more mistakes), hand surprised, following the pen-nib like a child follows its parent or teacher. Of course, my life could be between any two book pages, so I read feverishly, rifling through page after page on the bus, at night, at work, and there may be some life in my prided ability to read walking without ever hitting a lamppost.
Music has life, naturally, but keeps it mostly in the back room: the worried scattered notes of brass tucked behind a Klezmatics record, the bass weighing down Regina Spector's high pitch, the sound of a singer taking a breath, the sudden hush between two songs when you look up and hear birds singing or buses rushing down the street or someone's very good answer to who knows what question. There's more life in humming than in singing proper sometimes, or singing in a group, melting into others' voices, unsure whether the tune that is pouring into my throat is arriving from them or from within me.
Some of my life is stored securely in language: there will never be a shortage of life in the rivulets of English vocabulary, the delicate humor of verbs nouning and nouns verbed. Syntax is full of life and even puns are rife with it, or maybe rather the satisfaction of recognizing one. Synonyms and alliteration have me resuscitated, rejuvenated, revitalized, and alive anew.
The search for life is best done alone, in the privacy of my own mind, because being with other people is fueled with this scarce and valuable resource and demands much of it. Animals, however, have plenty of life and are usually willing to share, so working or playing with them helps in the struggle to refill the ever-emptying tank.
After a few days of such searching, hunting, scavenging for life and liveliness, I am ready to continue. I know, however, that this will not last forever, not even for long, and soon it will be time to search again.
it is all made of people
It is exactly six months since we came here. There is a document saying so. I wake up at six to go to work. The others are asleep, looking soft and vulnerable, stripped of the defense and pretense of daytime. I step out into the morning, which is slightly misty around the edges as though it, too, hasn't exactly woken up yet.
Against all odds and previous experience, the coffee shop at the train stop is open for business. I order a small latte and receive a large one instead from the inattentive barista who is chatting with her coworkers setting up trays of cookies as the train comes in to the station and pulls away. The next one is in nine minutes, the price of a large latte is the same as a small, and I am in the final throes of Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys, so I sit down to wait without saying anything to anyone.
On the train a guy stumbles and steps on a girl's foot, hard. Surprisingly, she hisses through her teeth, lifting her foot to peer at it, as though she suspects a visible injury, and goes on to hop and limp around, muttering, for the best part of the next stop, looking very insulted. This honest reaction is very refreshing, though not, I suppose, to the hapless perpetrator, who looks quite bewildered.
The path from the station to work is deserted save for an elderly couple walking briskly in the opposite direction. As they pass me, I hear a snippet of their conversation in Russian: "…these dolls which they put in the shop windows where there are marriageable lasses…" says the man with a content smile. A smell of pines pervades the air, and I stop to sniff one. A welcome improvement on the previous week, it is not very hot, nor too humid. So far, at least.
I unlock the caravan, switch on all the lights, set the A/C to twenty degrees, wash some grapes, put on Franz Ferdinand and settle into my chair. There is nobody here. It is very odd to be alone, something that doesn't happen to me much these days, something unusual for these parts where everyone is rather up in everyone else's business. I have finished the book and am now once again considering writing one of my own, but then come to my senses. At twenty-six now, it seems I am either much too old, or entirely too young to start.
i want, in no particular order
To be in Paris, Venice, Vilnius, Europe Europe Europe;
To not have read the Chrestomanci books or to find something as good;
Real good cake;
Hotel bedsheets;
A couple dozen graphic novels;
To not be gainfully employed and not be bothered;
A house with a garden and a view of the sea and a puppy;
To be pretty;
All new clothes;
Great Allen-esque movies I've not yet seen, with all my favorite actors;
To not be missing out;
All new gadgets;
For the house to always be clean;
To not ever feel guilt and self-loathing;
To have a certain problem solved forever;
New books to translate;
A huge decorating budget or at least a small decorating budget;
A bike;
A break.
water woes
Remember the quest in My Family and Other Animals for a house with a bathtub on Corfu? Greeks didn't seem to value baths as much as the British. Indeed, it is difficult to match the Briton's love for baths; he even draws one up for his dishes.
In Lithuania, we are not, admittedly, such dedicated bathers. We do, for the most part, have tubs and use them one way or another, but my theory is that we're more of a running water nation. After all, our greatest treasure are our rivers. They flow majestically through the country, fed by countless playful brooks, filling thousands of beautiful interconnected lakes, and finally pouring into the sea. Most of our towns are built on them. Coming from a city which is based on rivers in more ways than one (physically, as there are two of them, and metaphysically, as our entire mythology is steeped in riverwater), I am used to an abundance of water and a water-based geography.
In Israel, such an aquaphile as myself comes to feel like a disillusioned new bride or a Michelin-level gourmet at a McDonald's drive-thru: "Is that all?" The country, plain and simple, does not cater for water-based indulgences. There is not enough water for that. The bathrooms are built in a very utilitarian fashion, and showers become brief and to the point, no foreplay, no cool-off; the ecological habit of turning the tap off while brushing teeth or lathering up the dishes becomes newly relevant. My favorite morning ritual of running hot water over my hands for five solid minutes while I get focused has been canceled due to technical reasons.
All this is quite natural and comes across as the way of the land, just another difference to get used to. The disappointment is exacerbated, however, by the endless rain we married into by moving here. This year is exceptionally wet. We even had snow for two straight nights, which by now has been washed off by rain from all but two places in Jerusalem: the sofa on our porch and the painstakingly built tent on the neighbors'. Having spent most of the day being doused with miserable rain water, I tend to switch back to Lithuania-mode, which dictates that I head straight for that long luxurious hot shower. Alas, no such privilege.
On days like this, I just want to hire a Spiro to drive me around this drenched yet also arid island until I find that hygienically-endowed house I dream of.
report to shore
Sometimes I feel as though we're on a ship. Where it is sailing, might never become evident, but this weather especially encourages such a line of thought. We live on the top floor of one of the taller buildings in this old neighborhood; the penultimate, our neighbor says, because he's half a floor up from us, but if this is a ship, then his level is simply the masthead. He flies the Jolly Roger on his porch and could pass for a British pirate but for his kippa. Or Admiral Boom, blast his gizzard. The wind is howling in our skylights, and it blows in premature darkness, the grey kind, even before the pre-Sabbath siren. Somewhere close by people are singing, the tune rising up and mixing in the pouring rain, and this ship resembles Noah's Ark, because we just might be washed away by all this, man and beast, over the waves of the red tiled roofs, together with the garbage and houseplants littering these densely inhabited sidestreets.
I am reading (finally, finally), greedily devouring words and pictures, in the safety of my bed, my blanket, my hippo-eared robe. Can't focus entirely on the book, however, the mind flooding as it is with images swarming in from the outside. This is a land of images. Everything here is a story, cinematic, charismatic, graphic, so very visual. If only I could draw properly.
My illustrated stories would feature the two Orthodox priests in floor-length black robes and rocker ponytails, chattering in excited Greek over spatulas and baking pans at Ikea. The bride and party entering the same Ikea through the checkout stands, perhaps to film an entertaining wedding video. The black-and-white-wearing Orthodox Jew holding his wife's purse while she slides down the handrail, instead of taking the stairs down to Bezalel street, and shouts up to him delightedly. The mist devouring the city and adding an air of mystery to the already deeply mythological views of the hills; perhaps our mist up here is somebody in the valley's clouds, we say, as we walk on our mist-surrounded, contextless path.
Would that I could draw, I could show you how the colors of this city transform themselves and gleam with a new brightness in the endless rain, and how some of the religious men turn into pathetically touching mushrooms with cellophane baggies wrapped around their precious hats against moisture; how a young soldier with an iPod, a minute ago involved in a discussion about fuckable girls in Tel Aviv with his boorish mates now sits away from them on the train and asks every woman coming in whether she wants his seat, and how widely the cafeteria girl smiles at the sight of my dashing blond colleague.
I would portray the brilliance of Jaffa St. in the morning, the damp ground and the train rails glistening underfoot, the sun blinding so that the street seems to disappear as it goes downhill; the market, always a quest, sellers swirling around like dervishes, shouting, shouting, calling for gods know what, though seemingly just for buyers; the surreal experience of working, joking, catching colds, and sipping coffee in a place where others come in flocks to be shaken by some of the deepest emotion and most devastating sadness possible; of the countless improbable meetings and fortuitous coincidences— in short, life as it is here, and it is very different from life elsewhere.
I don't think I can draw, however. As my experiments progress, dear diary, you will be the first to know.
all roads lead to this
Sometimes a journey can last a lifetime. Our journey to Jerusalem did. And it also lasted a year. And also six weeks. And also ten days. And also 24 hours.
We had been talking for years about moving here. On and off, we kept wondering why most of our friends are here, and we aren't. Why we insist on inflicting the harsh Eastern European climate on ourselves. Why we live in a city where A. has nothing to entice and challenge him. Why we keep visiting here, but never stay.
A year ago exactly, at the end of January 2011, as we were riding the bus from Eilat to Jerusalem having just crossed the Egyptian border, with the intention of grabbing our things from a friend's house and running to the airport to go home, we suddenly made a pact we would put an end to this. A year from now, we vowed, we would move here for good. We started telling everyone we knew, to make it impossible to go back on the decision. We started our preparations… no, that we didn't do. This we put off. Instead, we traveled. Just talking about the move was enough, just prefacing most of our future tense sentences with "when we move," or "while we're still here". We had a chance to secure visas here in August, then in November, but neither worked out.
Six weeks ago A. had to go to Russia. Things had become critical there, and his presence was needed. There were also the visa troubles to attend to, and that, too, pushed him to the country he was trying, almost, to denounce. It transpired that he had to stay there for an entire month. I went out there for the latter half of it to share this time, and together amid the snow, we said our thorough goodbyes to our friends, which did not bring as much pain as it could have. Soon, thought we, we would never have to see snow again. And soon enough our loved ones would come visit.
Ten days ago we were finally in Vilnius again. There was a daunting task ahead of us: we hadn't begun our packing, and nothing was to be left in the apartment we were leasing out. Not to mention that we still had no visa. The anticipated frantic scramble led me to escalating hysteria before even the first carton was opened to pile books inside. The house I had accustomed myself to seeing as my refuge, my shelter, was now at a late stage of a decaying disease which was robbing it of its personality, its ourness. Our pictures were removed, and empty frames gaped at me from the walls with embarrassing woodenness. Every meeting with every friend or relative reeked of finality. I had my goodbye roda at capoeira class and did not tear up, though I had fully expected to. This was it. It was snowing non-stop, and I felt as if my heart's city was cleansing itself of me, covering itself up after our prolonged amorous encounter. We took a train to freezing Minsk and after a measured amount of humiliation returned the same day with passports bearing Israeli visas.
On Wednesday, our physical journey began. We loaded all of our possessions into a minivan. The cat was trembling in his plastic confinement, driven into shock by the tribulations he sensed were ahead. A good eight hours later, we were in a dingy room on the outskirts of Minsk. I dealt with the unreal reality by immersing myself in work. After four hours of sleep we continued on the next leg of the trip, which was the scariest flight I'd ever experienced because it was obviously the scariest thing the cat had ever experienced. On the plane, I read John Green's new novel, The Fault In Our Stars. By landing-time, the cat was screaming and foaming at the mouth, he had soiled himself and left a deep gash in my hand in his attempt to flee, and I was suddenly crying, either because of the book, his suffering, or the realization that only then began to dawn, that we had left home for good.
Ironically, Welcome Home was the motto of the afternoon. Having cleaned up the poor beast, we were carted to an old and homemade-looking absorption center, where we were cooed over, given coffee, and handed our first papers and some cash. Then followed a cab ride with fellow new Jerusalemites, one of them a slightly jaded-sounding American poet, another – a red-cheeked turtle. Finally, the journey was over. All of them were. It was suddenly clear that the journey, for me, was an end in itself. All of the emotional, physical, and financial investment had led to this point in time, and nothing else. It came as a surprise that after moving here, we also had to live here.
I am sipping hot water now, wrapped in someone's warm poncho, wearing untied shoes, in a red armchair in the corner of a friend's house. I spent the morning working on stylist interviews and Turkish Jewish music, while A. was out and people were playing vaguely French tunes on an accordion and the battered organ downstairs. There is work to do and our own apartment to find. There are places to go and people to meet. The cat is fine. Winter's bleak sunshine is filling the yard. It is exceptionally cold. It is shabbat.
someone else's pain.
i so wish it were mine, not yours.
i so wish i could wrap you up like those babies (in the netherlands long ago) who had their heads padded against the threats and bruises of the harsh world around.
you are the strongest and the gentlest one. you are a tree, but also a blade of grass in the wind.
and oh, there is a wind.
when you are hurting, the world feels out of place. why are there babies? why are there dirty jokes? or clean jokes, for that matter? why are there christmas sales and whipped cream toppings?
i wish i could take it away.
i wish i could make you whole.
i wish we could go back in time.
you will live through the pain. but i wish i could do it for you.
things i do while working
– download movies
– watch them
– hold the cat
– have gallons of tea
– snack
– watch Frasier
– read Twitter
– log what I've eaten on my phone
– listen to audiobooks
– listen to music
– learn capoeira songs
– hum
– look at Facebook (loop)
– check and answer emails
– tick off things on my daily plan
– worry
– rearrange things
– wash dishes
– do little tasks from other assignments
– this list
– look at job listings (in various cities)
– look at apartment listings (in various cities)
– call people
– burn candles and play with the wax
– browse Goodreads
– read blogs
This list is by no means exhaustive. These are all things I do simultaneously with different parts of my job. Employee of the year prize, please.
honest plane notes about my racism and uzbekistan
I find a closed space full of Uzbek people difficult to tolerate, as was repeatedly proven on trains and planes this week. Another startling discovery is that I am similarly averse to closed spaces full of Indians. This is because (a) I am a notoriously xenophobic European, or (b) I can't stand it when people speak loudly and interminably to each other when they're too close to me and I am trying to sleep. The correct answer, for those who find it difficult to follow, is (b).
This point was established by a girl and older man at Tashkent's train station where we were spending the night on metal chairs and had unwisely left a gap between us, in which the girl unscrupulously plopped down and proceeded to chatter in what sounded like a succession of the same highly irritating syllables to her husband/father/unspecified male liaison until I raised my head groggily from my backpack-in-lap sleep arrangement, which caused her to say cheerfully "Oh sorry, miss, I must have woken you!" – then turn right back to her conversation.
The point was driven home further by the four Muslim Indians we shared a compartment with on the way to Samarkand, who kept speaking about Allah in patronizing, sermon-like voices, and one of whom was prone to talking loudly for 40 to 90-minute stretches at a time. ("Young man, are you Muslim? Christian? Tourist? There are Muslim historic sites where we're going, I thought you might like to know," was their only communiqué to us save for offering crisps and "Hello, miss" when we ran into them at said historic site later in the day.)
It was stamped and finalized by the man sitting behind us on the plane home, who for the entire time of boarding kept telling each and every passenger that the plane was not full, so everyone should sit anywhere free, which I took to be a technique to insure a neighbor-free flight, until someone did sit down next to him despite several hints to the effect of underbooking, which turned him round, ostensibly, and he spent the best part of the flight talking to his neighbor loudly in a grating voice while I was operating on very few hours of sleep and being kicked regularly in the small of the back by the neighbor and leaned on by the guy in front.
Not to mention the constant line-cutting and the train rides where we were subjected to televisions blaring Uzbek and Russian series at full volume. Maybe I only take these things so hard when I'm sleep-deprived and experiencing invasions of my physical and sensory personal space. However, there is no explaining away the fact that I did not find life in Uzbekistan comfortable in many ways. It became increasingly obvious that while I may not be a xenophobic European, I certainly am a pampered European who likes her streets paved and lit, and solves any and all problems via Visa cards and internet. Where neither option is available, I am flummoxed.
No amount of beautiful architecture interspersed with picturesque quarters can help me brave the old town of Bukhara at night after a day of rain, for my hipster-European sneakers are ill-suited to sliding in the mud and trying to avoid winding mid-street aryks (irrigation ditches). Food that induces cramps and constant awareness of my entire digestive tract, added to the fact that not a single man and only about a third of the local women look attractive*, plus hordes of small children who turn into beggars at the sight of foreigners, chirping "hilow" and "bonzhor", and once even following us for two blocks begging in a droning monotone and stroking our arms in a disturbing manner, and I'm sure you'll be asking how I managed to enjoy any of the trip.
The answer to that lies in the terrain of impressionistic prose, to which I lean when writing about the better things in life (hence, incidentally, the lack of report about Venice; perhaps when I'm there again and not so stunned by the universal beauty of it that I can find something to complain about in the beginning). Most of the things I liked, however, go back to the same: all of it being so very unusual and different.
The insular organization of the cities (slum –> expansive stone square, home to three towering madāris –> slum known as "the old mahala", i.e. "the old quarter" –> another religious complex –> etc.) is not what I'm used to in my more frequent destinations, where narrow, inbred character and architectural polish are distributed evenly throughout most streets. Not that the slums do not encroach on the immaculate palaces. They establish themselves in the shape of souvenir stalls, punctuating the yard of every mosque and madrasah, as well as their immediate environs. Small wonder, as tourists rarely venture into the slums themselves, prefering the ancient and monumental to the living and breathing.
The life experience is also as different as can be. Twice, a friend and I wandered to a chaikhana with the rather urgent purpose of working each on our respective assignment, and found ourselves instead chugging endless cups of tea, talking and leaning back on the bench, affected by the blissful slow atmosphere of the place, the view of the pond framed by magnificent buildings, and the twang of rubābs from the speakers in the trees overhead. Countless times we bought things or stayed and admired things, or listened to stories we otherwise wouldn't have, lured in by the Arabian Nights accents and inflections of the locals and turns of phrase like "do not go away, a present for you" after buying a dress, or "half-price for you now, the evening bazaar" (at 5 pm, because at 6 it's dark and everything closes). In our Soviet childhoods, everything to do with Aladdin and Harun al-Rashid was spoken with the same lilt and set against the same white, sandy, and blue backdrop. I find this very hard to resist, so I listen, gaze, and buy away.
In Uzbekistan, one is constantly amazed at how much can be built from very little. This goes for the food, which, while disagreeing with me and being largely meat-based, is nonetheless varied and interesting, comprised though it is of vegetables, rice, and the ubiquitous flatbread. This goes also for the local handicrafts, most woven or embroidered, mere fabrics and thread blossoming in delicate, intricate, colorful designs which made me stare. I saw an Afghan carpet resembling Native American ones, the pattern only a sparse set of chevron stripes and arrows, but I would have paid dearly for it, such was the aesthetic impact. Luckily, it was in a museum, not a shop, and I didn't see any knock-offs, though I did look.
The list of other things which impressed me is very long, comprising such things as the strikingly welcoming style of communication at all hours of the day and night, the matter-of-fact kindness, the homes and communal buildings and their surprising similarity, the divine fruit and nuts, the abundance of kittens, the Jewish community, which like everywhere else has merged entirely with its surroundings, adopting all the prominent traits of the local culture and becoming an interesting local blend of Uzbek-faced Jewish people called either variations of Rovshan and Alisher or something deeply archaic and Biblical, who typically consider a medieval poetry recital a wedding reception kind of entertainment on a par with singing and dancing, and night-time readings in Jewish texts led by one of the most charming, most charismatic geniuses I've met.
I do not, however, have enough pages left in this notebook, the plane is very shaky (I doubt I'll be able to read my handwriting after), and the gabber behind me has (temporarily?) shut up, so that's a sorely needed opportunity to catch up on the work I was in no mood to do in Bukhara.
P.S. When I got up to stretch my legs after writing this, I saw that the young man who'd been leaning on me the entire time was whiling away the time by drawing impeccably even patterns of arches and minarets in his notebook. The unfathomable aesthetic sense of these people! One's only left to wonder why they dress in pleather, velour, and rhinestone-studded jersey all the time.
*Credit where credit is due: the 1/3 of the women who are beautiful, are so in a stunning, uncompromising way.
scattered thoughts ten years later
On 09/11/2001 I woke up feeling extremely worried. It was the day of the first class in a course for hotline volunteers. How terrifying that this was ten years ago. It was on the very cusp of my adult life. I was starting tenth grade, and was technically younger than the required 16, but had been accepted nonetheless, and was now facing a class in a new place with a roomful of strangers who would, in all likelihood, be older than me. A set of circumstances to cause anxiety in a fussy teen concerned with first impressions, if ever there was one.
As I was getting ready to go, something caught my eye on the TV. It was footage of a plane flying directly into a very tall building. I had no idea what the building was, but I was knowledgeable enough in aerodynamics to know that this was not supposed to be happening. The footage repeated several times, slowed down to give me a chance to study every detail of the fuzzy picture. There were clouds of dust billowing from the building. It was folding into itself. I was being late.
It transpired, however, that I was one of the first to arrive. We sat on chairs arranged in a circle in the attic that would go on to house us, with our bonding, learning, and frustrations, two nights a week, rain or shine, for over a year (and then another year for me, five years later, when I had to repeat the course, having abandoned the hotline in favor of 10th grade exams, and then returned, tired of regretting that choice). We knew none of that yet. We were feeling awkward: two, then three, four people who knew nothing about each other, sitting around waiting. The only common topic we could find was what we had all seen on TV that morning, some having watched more than others.
So we sat there for half an hour, talking about the plane crashing into the building. Some knew more about the event than I did, but I think at that time nobody knew for sure. We thought perhaps war was about to break out. We speculated on whether this had been done on purpose or not. The older members of our incomplete circle explained some things, but I, conscious of being the youngest and wishing to appear clever (my perpetual goal as a teen), did not ask many questions, choosing to pronounce important-sounding opinions instead.
What I learned only weeks later was that one of the people in that circle, a young man who went on to be a good friend of mine, a crush even, was in fact studying to be a firefighter. He was learning all the skills which did not help the men and women who perished saving lives on 09/11, and he was doing it at a school which was, as I discovered, a bus stop away from my parents' home. He went to the U.S. later for a work and travel program, saying he was sick of fighting fires. I do not know what became of him. I am not sure why this feels important and symbolic, but it does.
The world is small. It is very small and full of coincidences and connections. There is also much evil in the world. That in itself is not frightening. It is as it should be, perhaps. What is frightening, though, is the links that run through everything and everyone, and connect the evil to the good with ties which are impossible to sever. You never know, never can know, who and what will tip the scale that final little bit for the good to pull irreparable evil after it. This is what is scariest to me about 09/11, and I understood or contemplated none of it ten years ago.
tweeting my reading
As readers go, I am rather naive. I've been trained in reading critically, analytically, but when it comes to reading for pleasure, my reactions are purely emotional and border on childlike. A single tweet would be enough to convey them. Like these recent reads:
"Montag just burned Beatty and I'm scared." — Fahrenheit 451
"Intriguing. Disturbing. Intriguing. Very disturbing! Long." — The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore
"Make Adrian live, make him live, oh no!" — Overqualified
"Jessica Wakefield is a bitch and needs to be slapped." — Double Love (Sweet Valley High)
"There is no hope for anyone anywhere and everyone will die." — The Fixer
"Unfair unfair unfair UNFAAAAIR!" — Vernon God Little
"Unfair unfair unfair UNFAIR RACISTS!" — Arthur and George
"Seriously? In these conditions, you found it possible to invite yourself to their house?" — The Bookseller of Kabul
"How can the author bear them not finding out?" — The Bastard of Istanbul
And so on. In a way these can be said to be the purest and most honest recommendations I can provide for these books, sharing not the product of my intellectual processing, but the actual impact they have on wherever feelings come from — my gut, probably — and can be expected to have on others.
hurdle taken
After a combination of complaining online and driving myself up the wall again and again a hundred times like a crazed chihuahua, I did a handstand!! Six, in fact. And I'm fairly sure the next one will take fewer attempts. I'm so stoked!
the giving tree and the taking wretch
Shel Silverstein was, of course, one of my favourites growing up. Today I read Brainpicking say this about The Giving Tree:
The duality of its interpretations – one seeing it as the poetic story of unconditional love between a boy and his tree, and the other as the darkly faithless portrait of a selfish boy who keeps on taking from a tree that keeps on giving – illustrates some of the longest-running debates of moral philosophy: Is there such a thing as true altruism, and are human beings innately kind and selfless or innately unscrupulous and selfish? (We choose to side – and live – with the former.)
What do you think? I'm afraid I have to subscribe to the latter notion—not of humanity in general, but of this story—, although I generally believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt (and often chide A. for being prone to jumping to a pessimistic conclusion). But in this case I really cannot make a case for the boy. This kind of "user mentality" is repugnant. There is no way for me to see past the boy driving the tree further and further down with his passive-aggressive demands.
The greatest danger of reading this book as the story of a selfless tree which rejoices in giving, therefore, is that with this idea comes a justification of the boy's behaviour, interpreting it, I guess, as gratitude and acceptance of the tree's benevolence. This is too much of a price to pay for teaching a child that giving is necessary and enjoyable, which message is, in my view, of lesser priority than that of not abusing kindness and practising gratitude and humility.
If ever I have a child, I believe I will read this book with him, and the character I will emphasize shall not be the mono-dimensional, unequivocally good if overly submissive tree. It will be that of the manipulative ingrate who learns at an early age to emotionally bully kinder people into giving him whatever he wants at great cost to themselves. My message will be both Do Not Be That Boy and Do Not Be That Tree—never let anyone do you such an injustice.
dead men walking
I've come up with, I think, a great pearl of wisdom for a superstitious yet weirdly open-minded folk. It goes like this:
Never tell a dead person they're dead. They may freak out and there's no knowing what'll happen.
Unfortunately, this is an equally great idea for one of those morbid zombie apocalypse novels which have been proliferating like particularly disgusting germs lately. Except that in such a novel the second sentence should read, "they may freak out and we know all too well what'll happen."
we are what we google
Just now while brushing my teeth I thought: it's remarkable how many questions I ask the internet these days. There tend to be quite many questions in my life in general, and I am the sort of person who, when faced with a question, needs to find out the answer tout de suite lest I am to suffer horrible cramps of information deprivation. So why isn't there a service which would remember Google queries, so you could pull up your day in questions?
From what I remember, I started today with several variations on the query "icons move on reboot samsung". When my phone is rebooted or even connected to the computer and then disconnected from it, all my application icons shuffle around and destroy my carefully thought out placement. Answer: this is normal, nothing can be done except installing an outside launcher. I did and disliked it, so for now the icons are in disarray and I'm trying to tame my OCD tendencies. The next query was "wi fi error android", because I realized the previous research was costing me lots of money on 3g, as my wi-fi was off and wouldn't turn back on for some reason. (Yes, I go on line using my phone as soon as I open my eyes in the morning.) Answer: this is not normal but usual, nothing can be done except rebooting the phone (and having all the icons move around).
Later, already at work, I googled "djembe laffe" to see what the rhythm I'm about to learn in a three-day workshop sounded like. It appears that laffe or lafè is better known as "kurubi". One of the results for that was this. Then I checked "she's a boy i knew" to see whether it was a good film. I ended up seeing it, and it was very good and led me to my next query: "glamorous lesbians", because I realized that though there are all kinds of people in the world and surely some of them are lesbians who follow the latest in fashion and wear high heels and shimmering make-up, I have never seen such a one, and even though in all probability she'd look like any other glamorous lady, I still wanted to. This was not a good idea. If any of you need a good query to find lesbian porn, this would be it.
Upon arrival home, I began googling again, first for "hula hooping tips", then "hula hoop calories" and finally "are unweighted hula hoops useful", because I have a new-to-me hoop and want to make sure it's helping my cause, which is the same reason for which earlier I googled "exercise app capoeira" to see if there was any application that would calculate the benefits from my vigorous two-hour workouts if the workouts were not running or cycling (apparently not, what is this obsession with mile-based exercise?, but I discovered a 1989 video with conditioning exercises to improve capoeira technique, which may come in handy).
After clearing things up with the hoop and doing a 20-minute impression of a chicken with St. Vitus Dance, by the end of which I'd like to believe I finally learned to apply the tips yielded by all that research, I googled "שיר השירים" (Song of Songs) to find the Hebrew text for verse 1:17, because someone wants to tattoo these words on her body and doesn't speak Hebrew, and you may think I know the Bible by heart but I don't, and why would you assume such a thing? The answer, by the way, is: קרות בתינו ארזים רחיטנו ברותים.
Finally, I decided to write this post, and a flurry of queries ensued: "what I googled today" helped me find out that there is indeed no such application yet. "game everyone switches places" meant I was looking for a metaphor for my icons shuffling and could vaguely remember there was a children's game like that. Although the answer, "train wreck", is technically suitable for the occasion, I decided to forgo the metaphor. "st. vitus dance" was to check that St. Vitus is indeed spelled this way. He is. And that's a good note to end on.
too long for twitter
From my notebook: I ask A. whether one is allowed to chase down a burglar on Shabbat and take one's stuff back. Take it back, probably, says A., but how you'd carry it back home, I don't know. You could sit on it until Shabbat ends though, he adds, and I picture him perched piously on top of a pile of valuables, placidly awaiting the end of Shabbat, like a grotesque yet dignified bird.
will grayson will grayson
I'm just through reading Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. This was my first Levithan and my last Green (nothing else is available until September). It wasn't as great as Green's Paper Towns, but it's hard to match what I think is his magnum opus to date. This one, however, was brilliant as well. Firstly, because the co-authors' styles merge well (due, probably, in part to some magic editing). And secondly, because it's a good story.
Sometimes I start a new book, and for the first few pages I just read the words, like gliding on the surface without a connection. And then all at once the surface seems to dip into a cliff, and my mind pans with it like a camera, following it into the sudden depth. I get tunnel vision, focused entirely on my reading. Lifting my eyes, I'm surprised it's daytime, because it feels as though all light has been dimmed except for whatever is enabling me to hoover the letters off the page. Reality has little to do with me, because the story has me in a grip so strong it's difficult to shake until the book ends.
I was reading Will Grayson Will Grayson at a very busy coffee shop today, sitting in an armchair in a corner. At some point, a group of teenagers came in, chattering noisily. They piled into my corner and took the other armchair, the sofa, the table, and even the floor next to me. All this did distract me, but only for a second. The magnetism of the story pulled me right back so powerfully, that with the girls laughing and screaming over each other and over my head, I was not even there to get annoyed or protective of my personal space.
The story of the two Will Graysons and of Tiny Cooper (who incidentally annoys the hell out of most readers, but I can't help but like Green's every character because they're just too human, not perfectly good or impeccably bad) was not the best story I've ever read. Nor did it have the best ending. But it was one of the most gripping stories I've encountered lately, and though it's true that I'm easily gripped, this is still saying something.
public service announcement
Everyone keeps asking whether Gmail or Facebook is down, so I've gathered several websites that can tell you for sure:
1. http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com
2. http://isitdown.us
3. http://www.downornot.com
4. http://downrightnow.com
ancient fun and games
Etgar Keret's Passover strip with Asaf Hanuka got me thinking: when Israel came out of Egypt, did their children continue to play Egyptian games? Was this frowned upon, like the games the adults played with Egyptian gods? Were the children, like the adults, clamoring to return to Egypt where they had devastatingly left all of their good toys?
And then I thought: what do we know about the games children played in Ancient Egypt? Surprisingly, it turns out we know a lot. There's an entire webpage describing their games. (Probably not just one, but this is the first one I found. I derive a strange satisfaction from the fact that this is an Israeli website.) It's a wonderful read. "Look, you have kicked me (?). My sides are tired."
it was sunny a week ago, snowed yesterday, rained today
After some time, one comes to personify the seasons. This is how the Greeks came to be the way they were, no doubt. There is no other way of explaining these illogical goings-on than by ascribing to them the same level of randomness as that of people's thinking.
It is entirely plausible that somewhere in the castle of the Season Father live his four teenage (for that is the randomest age of all) children, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. Plausible too: these are all names that have by now surely been given to more than a few unlucky babies in the Western Hemisphere by people too rich or idealistic to know better.
And now that we're already stereotyping, why not give the seasons characters. Summer shall be carefree, Fall bookish, Winter caustic, and Spring fickle.
Spring: Quit hogging the remote, Fall! I want to watch Desperate Housewives!
Fall: Go watch the TV in the kitchen, this documentary isn't finished yet.
Spring: You are such a bore. FATHER! FALL ISN'T SHARING THE REMOTE!
Booming Voice from the Study: Sort it out among yourselves, children.
Fall: There.
Spring: Why are you being such a jerk?
Winter: Because she has nothing better to do.
Spring: That's no excuse.
Summer: Isn't it your turn to go play with the humans, Spring?
Winter: No, it's mine. They'll be delighted, I'm sure.
Summer: You are delightful!
Winter: Yes, quite.
Spring: I thought this week it would be my turn already.
Fall: You went last week, didn't you.
Spring: So?
Fall: So you never get more than a week in the beginning.
Spring: Oh yeah? Who died and made you Father?
Summer: Don't be horrid!
Spring: Oh shut up. I'll be in my room, text me when Winter's had enough.
Winter: (makes a face) Don't get your hopes up. I adore the humans.
Spring: You jerk, if you don't like it, why don't you give them over?
Fall: Will you go argue somewhere else? I'm trying to watch this.
Summer: Yes, let's go play squash!
Winter: Fine. I'll just go make sure the humans have snow.
This perfectly credible scenario would explain the bizarre developments of late and the fact that we still can't take our bikes out of their mothballed stall and save on those outrageously expensive trolleybus tickets.
we haven't talked about this for a while
My legs hurt. All of them. From my creaking hip joints to my knees which cry out in pain whenever I sit down on a chair or get up, to my overstrained calves, to the toe I stubbed hard on the floor yesterday. It's all because of capoeira. Mind, this is not the post where I dramatically announce that I am giving up because it's too hard. There's no going back after I got those fancy new sweatpants the other day. However, it is too hard. The classes leave me battered and hurting in places I thought could only hurt if I joined the army. During class, I'm hardly ever not dizzy or gasping for air. Well, maybe during the final stretch, where I'm standing on the edge of the roda immobilized with fear of going in and actually putting what I've been practising to some real use.
The most important thing I have learned so far is not to push myself or to discover my limitations and learn to circumvent them. What I've learned is that I am very, very weak, and very, very soft, and capable of very, very little physically. And also, I have discovered anew the thing that this one woman on this one blog put so extremely well:
There are so many ways of saying it (plump, heavy, chubby, overweight, curvy, huggable, geared for childbirth even), but why bother? I feel like Fatty McLarderson, and every time I come to class I'm reminded of every single extra kilogram or centimetre that I'm lugging around on my stupid childbearing hips, because I need to lift all of it up in the air or swing it around, or do push ups with it. Even if I could only do three push ups a month ago, and can do twenty now. Even if some of those initial centimetres are gone. Even if my form in the basic movements has improved, and sometimes when the instructor comes up to us as we're practising in pairs, it's not me he is coming to talk to. Even if I've introduced strict rules of exercising every day of the week, and only break them every so often (I'll do some of it as soon as I'm done writing, I swear). I'm still somewhere in the vicinity of square one.
I'm only writing this post, which is very much in the style of this blog two years ago, and much less appropriate now, to remind myself where I stand (incidentally, that headstand has been evading me ever since I bragged about it). To remember that I will go on, and I will practice, and I will see a doctor about those knees, and I will drag myself to the other end of town four times a week for class, but there's a solid chance I'll never be good at it.
There was an entire blog post in my head when I opened this window. But instead of posting it, I'd like to post this poem by Cavafy:
Waiting for the Barbarians
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn't anything going on in the senate?
Why are the senators sitting there without legislating?
Because the barbarians are coming today.
What's the point of senators making laws now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting enthroned at the city's main gate,
in state, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor's waiting to receive their leader.
He's even got a scroll to give him,
loaded with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don't our distinguished orators turn up as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home lost in thought?
Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven't come.
And some of our men just in from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.
Now what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
Those people were a kind of solution.
Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
Things like that dazzle the barbarians. Why would anyone write anything else after this has been written?


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Photo: SEC2016 Fall SEC Academic Honor Roll 49 days agoA total of 1,029 student-athletes were named to the 2016 Fall SEC Academic Honor Roll.
Photo: Florida AthleticsSEC student-athletes earn AVCA honors 104 days agoPlayers from Florida, Kentucky, Missouri and Alabama have been honored by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
Photo: Alabama AthleticsSEC lands two on CoSIDA Academic All-America Team 110 days agoTwo student-athletes from the Southeastern Conference were named to the 2016 CoSIDA Academic All-America® Division I Volleyball Team.
Photo: Kentucky Athletics25 from SEC named to 2016 AVCA All-Region teams 112 days agoSeveral players from the SEC were named to the 2016 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-Region Teams.
Photo: Texas A&M Athletics2016 SEC Volleyball Community Service Team announced 118 days agoThe Community Service Team looks to highlight an athlete from each school who gives back to their community in superior service efforts.
Photo: Alabama AthleticsWeek 14: Volleyball Players of the Week 121 days agoSEC Volleyball Players of the Week have been named for Week 14 of the 2016 season.

subset: commoncrawl


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Otherworldly desire and paranormal action reach new heights in the final installment of The Soulkeepers. As Sophia St. James moves Heaven and Hell to claim her destiny, questions are answered, secrets are revealed—and immortal love is tested.
After finally becoming a powerful Spirit Walker, Sophia St. James is shocked to discover that her conjured identical twin, Ka—along with her soul—have been dragged down to Hell by the relentless Demon Knight Dante. Sophia tries to hide the crisis, but there is little hope of keeping any secrets from her red-hot Guardian Angel. Growing suspicious, Michael has been making plans of his own that will bind him and Sophia together forever.
But Sophia is plagued with evil visions through Ka's experiences in Hell. She is terrified that Dante will discover he has taken the wrong Sophia. Desperate to return to her original state before she withers away and dies, she risks everything to go where Michael can't follow. To bring back Ka and save her own soul, Sophia must now enter the gates of Hell.
Praise for Unforgiven "Incredibly sweet and sultry . . . I love Lori Adams's writing."—TJ Loves to Read "With tons of action, hot romance and characters you can't help but love and love to hate, Unforgiven is a definite must-read that I would highly recommend to any fans of paranormal romance."—The Avid Book Collector (five stars)
"Lori knows how to pack the excitement, conflict, and romance all into one."—Jess Time to Read . . .
"I know you would all get as much enjoyment out of it as I did. This book of course gets five very sweet kisses from me."—Sassy Moms Say Read Romance
Praise for The Soulkeepers "In a clash between heaven and hell, no one raises the heat like Spirit Walker Sophia and her Guardian Angel, Michael."—Cecy Robson, award-winning author of the Weird Girls series
"As romantic as it is addictive, with witty writing, an action-packed plot, and a face-fanning romance all in one, The Soulkeepers is quickly becoming one of my favorite paranormal series."—Cassie Mae, author of The Real Thing
"If you are looking for an amazing and unique paranormal romance that never has a dull moment, has an intense love triangle, fabulous characters, and a captivating, action-filled plot, then look no further than this highly addictive series."—The Avid Book Collector
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Praying As a Team – June 14, 2015
Jennifer's posts June 25th, 2015I really love baseball, and have discovered that my favorite baseball of all is Little League in all its forms, from kindergarten t-ball to player-pitch, when skills begin to develop and grow. There just is nothing better! As my grandkids have progressed through the levels, one of the most interesting parts has been watching the development of team play.
When they first start off in t-ball at about age 5, and the ball is hit off the tee, every single player, usually from both teams, runs to wherever the ball lands and has a discussion about what to do with it. It is one of the funniest things I've ever seen – all these earnest little baseball players, with gloves as big as they are, running to the ball. Of course, that means there is no one on base to catch the ball and get anyone out. There are lots of home runs in t-ball! Players also have a limited grasp of the rules and structure of the game, and tend to have very short attention spans. So, in t-ball you may see bases run in no particular order, or an outfielder who wanders off to chase a butterfly.
Now my oldest grandson is playing more "real" baseball. This is his first year of player-pitched ball, and everyone is VERY serious. They march up to bat with serious "game faces" on, and the pitchers stare down the hitters. They are also really learning to play together as a team. In a recent game, I saw them execute a perfect double play, one of the most exciting plays in baseball. Done right, it is truly a thing of beauty. You can see the Royals do this here. In order for this to work, everyone involved has to work together in perfectly orchestrated teamwork. Each player has to be where he needs to be at that moment, and also be aware of the exact location of his teammates and the runners. It requires concentration and shutting out distractions like the noise of the crowd or those butterflies!
We talk about prayer as a very personal and individual experience, and it is. But there is also great power and experience of the presence of God in praying together with other believers. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus promises that, "where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." If you do not routinely pray with someone else, this week why not explore this kind of prayer? Gather friends or family members and spend time in God's presence. Try to also be aware and attentive to each person in the room, focusing on this time of prayer and shutting out everything else.
If you need a "game plan" for your time of praying together, choose ahead of time who will begin and who will finish the time of prayer and how each person in the circle will let the next person know when they are through praying. (A common way is to squeeze the hand of the next person). One good framework for praying together is to use the A.C.T.S. method:
Adoration – each person present shares a prayer of adoration, telling God what he means to you, and end by praying this scripture together out loud: Let my whole being bless the Lord/Lord my God, how fantastic you are!/You are clothed in glory and grandeur!" – Psalm 104:1
Confession – this can be done out loud, or silently, with the leader allowing time and then leading the group to pray out loud, "Lord hear our prayer." Before moving on to prayers of Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving – each person present offers up a prayer of thanksgiving to God. After the last person, the group can pray together, "Lord hear our prayer."
Supplication – each person present can offer up a different prayer request, or if the group is focused on one prayer need, can pray for just the one topic. Again, at the end, the group may pray together, "Lord, hear our prayer."
If you like, you can end your time of prayer by reciting the Lord's Prayer.
In your time together, I pray your "team" will experience the power and beauty of God's presence, and feel more closely connected.
–Jennifer Creagar, Resurrection Prayer Ministry


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BRIEF-E.L.F. Beauty Inc announces proposed secondary public offering of common stock
* E.L.F. Beauty, Inc announces proposed secondary public offering of common stock
* Portuguese yields top 8 percent
* Cost of insuring Portuguese debt against default soars
* Sell-off spreads to Italian, Spanish and Irish markets
By Ana Nicolaci da Costa
LONDON, July 3 Portuguese borrowing costs surged on Wednesday as rising political tension in the bailed-out country prompted investors to dump riskier assets on concerns the euro zone debt crisis could be set to flare again.
The resignation of two key ministers, including Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar who was the architect of its austerity programme, tipped Portugal into a crisis that could derail its plan to exit its bailout next year.
Portuguese bond yields surged to levels near which it was forced to seek international aid two years ago. The sell-off spread to other riskier markets like Italian and Spanish debt and European equities.
Short-dated borrowing costs rose faster than longer-dated ones and the cost of insuring Portuguese debt against default soared, suggesting growing concern about Lisbon's ability to service its debt.
"This could quickly bring Portugal into a situation where there will have to be decisions about whether there is another extension of the support programme," Elwin de Groot, senior market economist at Rabobank said.
"It will also bring back discussion on whether the ECB has any interest in trying to prevent further increases in Portuguese yields and whether or not it will be willing to do so."
Ten-year Portuguese government bond yields surged to 8.2 percent - their highest since November 2012, while two-year yields jumped 185 basis points to 5.47 percent.
Spanish, Italian and Irish borrowing costs also rose sharply but stayed below 5 percent. Ten-year Spanish yields rose 14 bps to 4.71 percent and the Italian equivalent jumped 13 bps to 4.54 percent.
Analysts remained relatively sanguine about the long-term impact of Portugal's political crisis on the region at large, arguing even a change in government - if it came to that - was unlikely to derail Portugal from its austerity path. They also said Spain and Italy were relatively insulated by the European Central Bank's conditional bond-buying promise.
"The risk for a dramatic change in economic policy is very limited," Patrick Jacq, European rate strategist at BNP Paribas said. "I don't think that this will lead to significant, persistent strong pressures on peripherals and back to a crisis situation."
But higher borrowing costs for longer could hurt Portugal's chances of exiting its bailout without further support and could make markets more prone to testing the ECB's resolve.
Bond markets have stabilised over the past year after the ECB backstop brought borrowing costs across peripheral markets down sharply, but the programme has never been activated.
As the political crisis in Portugal unfolds, analysts say the way euro zone officials deal with the latest flare-up in the currency bloc could be key to whether contagion spreads or is contained.
Against this backdrop, investors will scour ECB President Mario Draghi's news conference after a monetary policy meeting on Thursday for reassurances that the ECB has the region's back.
"Portugal looks very wobbly ... we think there is a highly increased (chance) of second bailout being required," one trader said. "High-beta periphery is back in focus. Presumably this means the ECB is going to be dovish tomorrow."


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Search by Keyword, Part Number, SKU, UPC
The TRAVELCUBE is designed for convenient portable and economical surge protection. Small and powerful, the TRAVELCUBE features 540 joules and carries $10K of insurance as well as a lifetime product warranty. Throw it in a briefcase or purse and have quality surge protection wherever you need it - hotel room, dorm, client office - anywhere!


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Iron-loving elements tell stories of Earth's history
Four and a half billion years prior, after Earth's red hot birth, the baby planet started to profoundly reshape itself, isolating into particular layers. Metals — for the most part iron with a touch of nickel — fell toward the middle to frame a center. The developing center additionally vacuumed up other metallic components, for example, platinum, iridium and gold.
When the center completed the process of framing, around 30 million years after the fact, it had sequestered more than 98 percent of these valuable components. The external layers of the planet — the mantle and the outside layer — had scarcely any platinum and gold left. That is the reason these metals are so uncommon today.
Fights have been battled, and wars won, over the draw of sparkling valuable metals, which have since quite a while ago symbolized power and impact. In any case, for researchers, the uncommon metals' bait is less about their sparkling magnificence than about the intense stories they can tell about how the Earth, the moon and other planetary bodies shaped and advanced.
By breaking down uncommon primordial materials, scientists are revealing geochemical fingerprints that have survived basically unaltered over billions of years. These fingerprints permit researchers to contrast Earth shakes and moon shakes and test thoughts regarding whether mammoth shooting stars once tidied the inward nearby planetary group with extraterrestrial platinum and gold. Such research can help researchers figure out how volatiles, for example, water may have spread, abandoning a few universes water-rich and others very dry.
These investigations, inspired by a developing valuation for what such uncommon metals uncover about Earth's history, are currently conceivable on account of new expository methods. "They give us a window into a wide range of procedures that we need to comprehend," says Richard Walker, a geochemist at the University of Maryland in College Park.


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Lewmar Galvanised Claw Anchor 44 lbs. (for boats 40-50 ft)
* Oversize item
Due to the large size or weight of this item it is considered oversize and does not qualify for free shipping offers.
Shipping by freight carrier may be required. Click here for more information.
Product Details
Technical Description
Lewmar Galvanised Claw Anchor 44 lb (for boats 40-50 ft) is based on anchors used to secure oil rigs in the North Sea.
The Claw anchor is constructed of high-grade steel cast in a single
piece. It sets effortlessly, holds in a variety of seabeds and stows
easily on the bow roller of most boats.
Also ideal for twin installations.
Part Number: 057901
Selection Guide
Claw Anchor Selection Guide |
Part Number: | 057920 |


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Thursday, December 08, 2005
Happy Birthday Lucy!
I want to wish Lucy a very happy 40th birthday! She is leaving today for a weekend getaway with her handsome hubby Rene, and she deserves it!
Lucy, I hope you have a wonderful time, enjoy the pampering your hubby showers on you! It might be your birthday, but I am sure you are his greatest gift! :c)
Wishing you much happiness in the coming year!
1 comment:
- Lucy said...
Just before leaving I check your blog. And now with a BIG smile on my face. Thank you!!!!
You are a treat to have as my friend !!!! I wish we live closer to each other. I know we would be two chickens!!! - 11:25 AM EST
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Additional Phone Numbers
- (407) 542-6665
- (407) 542-3993
Additional Email Addresses
- firstname.lastname@example.com
- firstname.lastname@example.com
BBB File Opened: 10/17/2006
Business Started: 10/24/2004
Business Started Locally: 10/24/2004
Business Incorporated: 10/24/2004 in FL
Business Management
- Mrs. Cathy L Wright, President
Contact Information
- Ms. Shawnda Potts, Office Manager
Business Category
- Tree Service
- Tree Service - Pruning
- Stump Removal & Grinding
- Stump Grinding
Products & Services
This company offers tree trimming, removals, stump grinding non-invasive cabling and bracing. Certified Arborist consulting.NR
Out of Business
According to information in BBB files, this company is no longer in business. If you have an unresolved dispute with this company you may wish to seek legal advice.BBB Reason for Ratings
Licensing information is provided in the BBB Business Profiles to inform the public about industries that may require professional licensing, bonding, or registration. Better Business Bureau encourages you to check with the appropriate agency to be certain any requirements are currently being met.
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BBB promotes truth in advertising by contacting advertisers whose claims conflict with the BBB Code of Advertising. These claims come to our attention from our internal review of advertising, consumer complaints and competitor challenges. BBB asks advertisers to substantiate their claims, change ads to make offers more clear to consumers, and remove misleading or deceptive statements.
Government Actions
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BBB reports on a business's bankruptcy as long as the business remains in bankruptcy.
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1966 Wantagh Ave Wantagh, NY 11793 (800) 649-3739
Can't find the item you are looking for using the search and browse tools above? Click Here to view a wider selection that includes items we can special-order for you.
Let the world know you're there and add some whimsy to your bike with Evo's Curved Pipe Horn. The long pipe of this trumpet-style horn generates a deep-pitch sound that's sure to get you noticed.


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Houses for Rent in Allerton, IL
3 Listings Found |
Land for Development in Homer, Illinois. Asking price: 89,000 USD. More Details and Features: river, riverfront, lot, sittee,... $89,000
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I'm getting rolling on planning an ebook version of the Preparing on $40 a Week series--expanded entries, more detail, some budget friendly DIY projects and a other few additions. There are a few entries that I plan to revisit, and one of those is the entry on the $40 Survival Knife.
My recommendation was a Mora Bushcraft Triflex, which is an excellent knife in many ways. It's awesomely sharp, excellent slicer, whittler and carver, easily resharpened, with a comfortable grip and serviceable sheath. It does, admittedly lack some durability - the thinner blade steel and partial length tang mean that it won't stand up to some of the abuse that a more ruggedly built knife might. Don't get me wrong - it will stand up to some hard use, and Moras have long been a favorite among survival instructors because, well, they just plain work.
That all said, I wanted to take a look at some of the other solid knives in the $40 price range, to see if I can better hone in on an ideal choice given the budget. The Mora Bushcraft may win in the end, but another knife might, too.
I'm planning on picking up 3 knives for the showdown, currently they are:


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I have been looking at different tablets. There are lots of options, but I keep coming back to the Ipad. My question is should I get the Ipad or the Ipad2? I don't think I will use the camera, so that isn't a big deal. Also, when there is an update to the software it is the same for both the ipad and ipad2 correct? So, is there much of a difference between the two and is the ipad2 much faster than the first version? Thanks.
I was in the exact position as you about a month ago and decided to go with a refurb iPad 1 from apple. I wasn't to sure how much I was going to use it so in order to save a few bucks I went this route. The 2 is quicker, thinner and lighter with a camera. So far I'm more than happy and saved a few bucks on top of it.
Is that smart cover important to you? If so, you are limited to the version 2. Consider, too, that the "camera" can be used with video chat functions. Make sure that this is not important to you.
When I decided to get an extra iPad (already had iPad 1), I decided to get an iPad 2. I figured firmware upgrades might go longer with iPad 2 than 1. I did get my husband an iPad 1 at clearance price ($200 off), though. What he uses it for is so basic, firmware upgrades won't matter. iPad 2 is faster, though iPad 1 is no slouch. If you resell gadgets when you upgrade, you'll get more for a later model, I'm guessing. I don't resell, but I'd consider that if I did.
At this point I'd suggest the ipad 2. While the first generation is fine and can be bought for less money, the developers are starting to take advantage of the increased RAM and speed of the 2. On older apps you probably would never notice a difference between the 2 devices. If you just plan on checking email and some light web browsing the first generation is a steal at the price. I have a Galaxy Tab with a camera and rarely use the camera. Support Our Troops!!! This post was Tapatalk approved Sent from this Galaxy
Unless you are under immediate money constraints it is almost always better to buy the more up to date model. If for no other reason, it will remain compatible with new software longer. The way things have been working with the iPhone, the iPad 2 should be upgradable to the latest iOS version for at least one year past the iPad 1. That means at least one year more of use before you'll be forced to buy a newer model to get the latest updates. It's not all that different from computers. You buy cheap when you have to. When you can afford it you buy a good current model, because in the long run that is the cheaper option. It lasts longer, runs up to date software longer, and you live longer due to the reduced stress. Well, maybe not the last.


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Dog Walkers in Kiln, MS
Book a dog walker to give your dog a 30-minute walk around your neighborhood.
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Wondering what you should be paying for a walk? Check out our standard dog walking rates for a comparison.


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We specialize in creating beautiful, designer wedding invitations and stationery at affordable prices.
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Your Wedding besides being one of the happiest days in your life, it is a reflection of your style and personality so let us help you make it as unique and special as you are.
Contact us today to see what we can offer you.


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Nike Women's V-Neck Legend Short Sleeve Tee
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Nike V-Neck Legend Short-Sleeve Tee 2.0 Women's Training Short-Sleeve T-Shirt delivers the performance-ready feel of sweat-wicking fabric. Its feminine silhouette combines a V-neck design with a regular fit, optimizing flattering comfort.
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