Thus flew by the days of Hanukah 2006, in which squarepeg was happily abandoned by the noisy squarepeg family:
Friday 15/12: (wheels up 2pm)-read newspaper on balcony -ate sandwich -read a bit on internet
-watched 7 episodes of commander-in-chief (CIC)
-ate popcorn, drank coke
-ate almost whole bag of cashews--must eat better tomorrow
-worried about them not arriving at hotel (until phone call at 1am)
Saturday 16/12 (sunny, but cold windy day)-got up at 10, drank lemon juice, made coffee but ruined it by making it too weak, must drink good coffee later
-put in a dark laundry
-phoned london at 11am, they were already just barely awake
-am thinking about: writing, reading, going to gym, going to tiv taam (food store open on saturday), going to look at waves on the beach--good day for that, but i'm lazy to drive
-went to tiv taam but the lines were too long, just got my 6 shekel refund (an overcharge which I'd been hoarding for a month till I returned there) and went to the bakery, bought a cheesecake which didn't turn out to be all that good, but i ate half of it
-took stuff down to machsan (storage room), then tidied machsan and organized the stuff i want to take to esra (charity shop); found old albums in cupboard and brought 3 up to look at later; also brought up winter jackets -kept thinking about going to gym, but didn't. i'll go tomorrow morning for sure-cooked a big box of fresh spinach and added pine nuts and parmesan. yummy. -made pesto.
-watched movie, "strangers with candy" -- it sucked.
-wrote a blog post -- yes! most important thing except for gym. must write more, a la kashua (
sayed kashua, who writes a column 'about nothing' in haaretz every friday--I love him).
-made a baked potato and ate it with sour cream. must get more potatoes tomorrow, to make latkes and eat more sour cream. i'm going to put on 2 kilos while they're away, i can see.
-watched movie, "conversations with other women" -- was interesting; had to watch parts of it again after getting that they were actually each other's first marriage.
Sunday 17/12 (taking a day off --sweeet)-started day at 7:15 with dulcet grinding of a million decibels of gardener's hedge-trimmer or leaf-blower or whatever that thing that should be outlawed is called. thought i might have a headache from yesterday's excesses, but i was fine.
-lemon juice, coffee, a little cereal, and out to the gym and errands: esra (charity shop), blockbuster to return movies and take the last disc of CIC; meatland for frozen strawbs and bluebs, and home to eat yogurt & blueberries & granola
-read on balcony
-ate too much pasta with spinach, still bloated after 4 hours
-dental hygienist appt at 2:30 and groceries-read newsp on balcony
-went for GREAT reflexology appt at 7:20, did some shopping before and after: 2 breads from artisan bakery; two zip-up sweatshirts, one turq for ms and one navy for mr, boots for me: camel-colored suede, no heel, with fur lining (on sale!), package of dvd's for burning, and folders for our spanish class loose pages
-ate tuna and avocado and pesto and tomatoes on toast, and had a beer :)) -talked to london-- they're having a great time.
-did spanish homework
-watched final 3 episodes of CIC -- how sad that it was cancelled--now i'll never know if jim became VP and if mac won the next election.
monday 18/12-woke up at 6:15 to sound of cat throwing up (office rug), had trouble getting back to sleep, but then slept till 8:15
-wearing new boots today :)
-worked from 10:30-17:00
-for lunch, went out alone to get italian food and ate in office -- delicious ravioli with cream sauce-got home, ate a shitload of cheesecake with strawberries and home-made whipped cream -took smokey to get stitches out (she was spayed 10 days ago); poor puss was shaved up the wazoo; lovely to kiss her bare belly, though-ate scrambled eggs and studied spanish until late.
tuesday 19/12-got up at 9
-worked from 11-17:15 (my own personal holiday-exploitation hours)
-came home, made latkes
-old friend arrived at 19:00, we ate latkes and sour cream, I showed him albums of yesteryear, we went to herzliya mall and bowled one game. He's in a league and has his own ball and shoes, while I never bowl. My first turn, I got a strike and then got 3 more throughout the game! He was giving me pointers that were really helping, like "follow through by bringing your thumb up to your ear." Sounds hilarious, but it works! Meanwhile, he was getting worried cause I was kicking his ass by turn 5, and there was a major ego issue involved; luckily I started to suck (without intending to) and he won by 156-130. That would have been very bad if I beat him first time out. He brought me home at 21:30.
-It's 22:30 and I'm still bloated from all the latkes. I've been feeling like this possibly every night at bedtime since my holiday began. Must go to gym tomorrow!!
wednesday 20/12-crap, didn't go to gym--again. got up tired, ended the day tired, just couldn't manage it. slept badly because of stupid overeating.
-threw out the last 1/4 of the cheesecake; that was an OD situation that didn't need to go on.
-got to work about 10:15, stayed till 18:00, but took a veeeerrrrry long lunch, nearly 2 hours, with old friend I used to work with and then met regularly in the UI office 4 years ago when we were both hopelessly unemployed after the bubble burst. I treated, cause she's unemployed again, and I like her. Gave her lots of moral support; I've been there, and it is BAD.
-got home and made broccoli soup with onions and garlic and a bit of milk and wine. it was yummy. hopefully i'll sleep better tonight by not pigging out.
-while I ate my soup, I watched a show on tv I've never seen, "Hotel Babylon" -- which made me cry! it was a sad thing about illegal immigrants working in the hotel.
-now it's 21:00. I'm going to bed early, and read a while. since they left, I have done NO reading. it's criminal. wow, tomorrow's already thursday (oh yeah, short wk because of day off on sunday).
woo-hoo! was thinking about going somewhere for the weekend (i.e. friday night) with friend from work. but today felt so tired i didn't think i could. maybe we'll do it after they return. why waste the nice weekend alone at home with a quiet apt. and anyway, the weather forecast is for rain this wknd, so i don't want to travel if the weather's shitty.
-read an
article about eggnog, and got a craving; here's the super simple recipe (YUMMY):
1 fresh egg
1-2 teaspoons sugar
2 ounces rum, brandy, sherry, port, or whatever
8 ounces milk
Shake ingredients together and strain into tall glass. Garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg and whipped cream, if you've got it!!
thurs. dec. 21/06 (still no gym)-had tons of gas all night from broccoli soup -- guess I overdid it again--did NOT sleep well.
-thought I'd go to the gym in the morning and had my bag all ready by the door before I went to bed....but then thought better of a late arrival at work, due to an appt that I was supposed to have, but it was cancelled in the end anyway... no. of times i've been to the gym since they left: 1 -worked from 10-18:45 and traffic sucked as it has all week... must be all those hanukah holiday-ers leaving the nearby mall.
-couldn't face the gym, AGAIN, just wanted to go home and have some more eggnog and celebrate the weekend!
-stopped at blockb's and got 3 movies.
-what to eat for dinner? how about that corn on the cob that's been in the fridge for a week -- yeah, eat lightly for a change! I cooked the whole package and cut it all off the ears (cobs are ears, right?), saving most of it for corn fritters tomorrow.
-watched mediocre straight-to-dvd movie with great actors (ed harris and zooey deschanel) -- it was painful.
-went to sleep about 11:30
fri. dec. 22/06 (best day yet, until a nasty scalding with pasta water...)thanks to the cats who I couldn't bear to kick out of the bedroom last night, I woke up at 6am and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and just started accomplishing house-type things all day, the sort of things I've been putting off for two years.
I had arranged with a handyman to come do a few odd jobs, and he came at 9, but by then I'd already started cleaning out the 4 overflowing junk drawers in our entranceway, as well as the shelves that ms. s. has filled with her junk in the hallway. I cleaned cat-vomit spots on three rugs (now the spots are cleaner than the rest of the rug) and threw in a laundry.
- er, I thought about going to the gym ... later.
The handyman came, used his drill (the one tool I've never had) to hang pictures in the hallway outside the apt (to hide chipped-paint damage), install a couple of brackets for the cable box in the office (and the dvd to arrive imminently), and put higher holes for a shelf that hasn't been in use since we got a computer that was too tall for where the highest holes ended... all things i've been intending to do for ages, and never get around to because i'm always exhausted dealing with the demands of my "apartment mates". After a week without them constantly interrupting my train of thought, it was a cinch. I paid the guy 200 shekels for 45 minutes of work that also included adjusting my crooked kitchen cupboards that have been annoying me, and repairing a loose floor tile under the office chair. There was other stuff, but he didn't have time for any more.
After that, still on a roll, I went to the machsan and collected all the stuff I still hadn't taken to the charity store and really half emptied it--now we can open the door again! Major accomplishment. While cleaning out shelves in the apt., I finally took the gas masks--which we've had since the last iraqi scare (when was that? years ago)--down to the machsan, went to esra with a huge load, both back seat and trunk, then went to pick up repaired watch and the Friday newspaper.
-made corn fritters for lunch-- pretty good with sour cream and yogurt.
-at 2pm, decided to go to ace hardware to pick up a few more things I needed to be happy about where the apt is at now: handles for ms's big drawers, hooks for her room so everything doesn't need to be on the floor, more/bigger hooks for towels in both bathrooms, a phone jack/adsl filter for her room, since I found an old phone in the machsan she could be using.
And then i thought: why don't i get a drill, finally, and learn how to use it. I'm tired of paying somebody else to do those tiny jobs because i'm afraid of it! I found a lovely helpful salesman who sold me a black&decker drill on sale--very good deal--and taught me how to use it and sold me some bits to go with it. I was very excited at doing something I'd always found too daunting. Got home and started drilling holes! I made a few mistakes, but fortunately they're invisible! I couldn't figure out why the first two holes took SO long to drill-- then I realized I'd been drilling with the screwing-out direction! I also broke two bits trying to drill on an angle. OK, i get it! the drill bits are fragile! I was not as careful as I should have been, but I'm lucky I didn't drill a hole through my hand with the way I was working. The cats were in and out as I worked and I think they got a snootful of sawdust. Pinkey was sneezing at one point from inside the drawer on which I installed two beautiful new hardy handles. Then I hung ms s's new hooks, and hung all her hats and belts and doodads on it. Finally, I installed shelf supporters in the cupboard that has an irritating shelf that falls if you look sideways at it. It was never built properly, and now it's fixed! Another problem we've had for years that's solved. I call that a good day's work!
I was hungry and decided to make papardelle pasta (like big ribbons, two or three times the width of fettuccine). After 7 minutes, I took out a piece to taste it, and it was delicious. With that piece hanging from my mouth, I lifted the pot from the stove, and felt the pasta slipping from my lips. Without thinking (obviously), I tried to catch it somehow, and slopped scalding water on my belly and right hand, as well as the floor and the stove. I put the pot down quickly and ran to the bathroom to run cold water on the burns, and realized I'd need to strip off the bottom half of my clothes to stand in the tub to do that with the spray. When i touched my belly, a patch of skin the size of a dime (or a shekel) peeled off. Oh shit, second degree burn. As I ran water over my belly, my hand started to hurt too. I radiated to both, and I thought the hand was 90% better by the end of the evening, but my belly had a large red welt, plus two dime-sized blisters, one burst. Radiating to burns with the energy from your own fingers usually works very well, and I've healed many of my own burns in 10 minutes by simply focussing the energy of my fingertips on first-degree burns that might have blistered . This time, however, it was in an awkward spot, clothes were involved, and I didn't radiate long enough. I probably should have concentrated on it for half an hour, but I thought it was enough and I really wanted to eat. It's pretty hard to do both at the same time. Mistake. It's the worst burn of my life, with the possible exception of the time I picked up a hot burner grill to clean it, forgetting it had recently been used. That was bad, but I had other people there to radiate for me, and it healed fast.
sat. dec. 23/06cats woke me up at 6 again. i must kick them out tonite so i can get a good night's sleep.
finally got up around 8. it's a very rainy day, second saturday in a row not pleasant to be out (last week was sunny but extremely cold).
went to gym at 11...finally.
made a mushroom and feta omeletter for breakfast. friend from work called and she's coming over at 5 or 6. What should i do about food??? She's not much of a drinker, she told me. ...wonder if she'd like the eggnog? what about belgian waffles? I have strawberries and whipped cream. I could also make pasta with the pesto that's already made. salad for sure will work, and I should eat some too. maybe she'd like to watch the "united 93" movie that I have to return tomorrow.
-must read now...after i shower. 5pm-i'm tired and have heartburn, must eat salad.
A. is on her way.
A. arrived about 5:15 and brought cookies, chocolate though, which I'm not supposed to eat because of homeopathy this month. She wasn't hungry for real food, because she ate hamin for lunch. I made tea and we talked a bit. didn't touch the cookies, which looked REALLY good. After conversation flagged a bit, I suggested watching the movie, and she went for it. Had to call mr. s to explain which buttons to push on which remote to make the dvd work!
The movie was very stressful and made me cry.
She left right after, as she had to go out with some people, and then I ate a chocolate cookie!!!! (one week left to go in this very long month. lucky there's no christmas here, or i'd be pigging out even worse.) After she left, I made a big healthy salad and ate most of the leftover corn fritters, which weren't that great, but whatever.
Talked on the phone excessively to several people and went to bed at 23:30.
I did get to the gym today, but I still haven't done any reading!!! (except internet and newspaper). Why is that so hard to do? I thought I'd do more reading than anything while they were gone.
sun. dec. 24 (the final hurrah: a bang AND a whimper)Cats woke me up at 6 again--just didn't have the heart to expel them from the warm blanket of my bed. Couldn't fall asleep again, and got up at 8. It's a gorgeous sunny day for my last day of peace.
-cleaned litter and fixed (temporarily, with electrical tape) a slightly leaky pipe which I discovered accidentally under the bathroom sink. --lucky catch, actually. I only found it because I stupidly knocked things over inside that cupboard and when picking them up saw they were a bit damp. Pipe needs a new circular plastic part that is obviously disintegrating. I wonder how you go about replacing it -- guess I'll have to take it apart. (Little ms fixit.)
Even at 10:30 I hit absolutely awful traffic right at the edge of raanana, and it took half an hour to do the 5-min. drive to the next junction. Very annoying, but i was able to eat my yogurt-and-blueberries on the way, since I had an emergency spoon with me.
Got to work after 11, had a weekly meeting till 12, didn't even have time to get through all my email before going to lunch at 12:30.
At lunch, was over-indulging in the free foccacia when I bit on what I hoped wasn't a whole filling fallen out of a tooth. It wasn't a filling. It was actually a whole tooth-- my last remaining baby tooth that had refused to fall out at the appropriate time (age 11?) and that I'd hoped to die with (without dying young). This already happened with my other baby cuspid eight years ago, and I had to deal with orthodontia--braces-- for a year and a half, at a very unseemly age. This time, I thought, I ain't going that route again. I want an implant! In spite of the fact that my brother has just finished going through implant hell, I thought this would be easier than doing braces again. The thing is that the permanent, adult tooth is up there, just above where it's supposed to be, and simply needs to be pulled down with a wire-and-post, attached to braces, which takes about a year. Why didn't I take care of both of them at the same time, eight years ago? Good question. Let's just say it was one of those judgment calls that comes back to bite you in the ass. It's a bitter "I told you so" moment from your internalized mother.So there I was, sitting in a restaurant chomping on bread and salad, when I bit into this "stone". I pulled it out but didn't recognize it at first, and while peering at it, swalled the food in my mouth slowly and tongued around worriedly, hoping to find nothing broken, supposedly by this "stone". And then I felt the huge gap where my baby tooth had been resting, lo all these decades, and then I recognized the "stone" I was holding in my hand. And the adrenaline started pumping. The dreaded event had come to pass.
By chance, I had made a dentist appt for tomorrow morning to get something else checked out, and I phoned his office to see if they could take me now. They said they'd squeeze me in, in less than an hour. That was wonderful. The thought of being at work with this huge hole between my teeth just freaked me out, so I just went up, grabbed my things and left. Hours later, I feel like I acted hysterically, since there was a meeting at 2pm that it was not a good idea to miss, but I just couldn't cope with the situation at that moment. I went straight to the dentist, he received me immediately, and after looking at an xray informed me of my main options. He pretty quickly disabused me of the notion that an implant would be preferable to going through with the orthondontia again, by describing the long-drawn-out procedure that an implant entailed! (I won't go into it here.) And the cost: as much as a whole course of orthodontia. And at the end of it, you're left with an artificial tooth instead of your real one, which I have right there, waiting to be pulled down and do its job till the end of my days. No contest. So he took a mold for a temporary fake tooth to fill in my gap, which I'll get in two days. 500 shekels. And he sent me for a panoramic xray of my teeth (155 shekels), to show the oral surgeon and the orthodontist, whom I've now made appointments (200 shekels just for the consult) to see. A course of orthodontia, which we're about to undertake for ms. squarepeg as well, is upwards of 6,000 shekels. ka-ching. ka-ching. ka-ching. Breaking a tooth is an expensive proposition. I guess I'd better not retire yet.
As they say in these parts, "Kapara!"
Kapara is the ritual sacrifice of the chicken at Yom Kippur, meant (I think) to expiate sins and anger. When something bad happens that is tough but fixable, people of a certain origin like to say "Kapara" -- meaning, superstitiously, that this bad thing is a suffering/sacrifice you are willing to endure if it can prevent something worse happening. It's a philosophical choice that gives one a slight sense of power in the face of helplessness.
So with that, I wish you all to enjoy your blessings and learn from your travails. We're all in this together, and even when it sucks there's something to be gained from sharing the pain.
Sunny is survived by: Smokey, in one of her favorite spots, and Pinky (check out the nose), pretending to be a fat rabbit.
Sunny is survived by: Smokey, in one of her favorite spots, and Pinky (check out the nose), pretending to be a fat rabbit.
