holidays as far as the eye can see

Well, can you believe it? ANOTHER school holiday.

There are barely 20 days left in the school year, and the kids have yet another day off. In a couple of weeks, it'll be Shavuot, with even more holidays (including for adults, so that's alright.)

Today it's "Lag B'Omer" which is an actual date in the Jewish calendar, like saying "4th of July". Being the stubborn Squarepeg that I am, I still, after all these years, can't tell you why the whole country acts like pyromaniacs once a year, about halfway between Pesach and Shavuot. But if you really want to know -- here: Ask Yenta. Like Christmas, it's got some religious origin, but has become a very pagan "holiday" -- not the kind where the banks and stores close and the religious don't ride in cars, but still enough to keep kids home from school. Or, I should say, at the mall. (Yeah, that's where my little teeny is now, not that I have any complaints. It's so QUIET at home. mmmm)

For the past week, kids everywhere have been collecting bits of discarded wood from wherever, and lugging them home in (I assume) stolen shopping carts. Last night, the air everywhere was filled with the funk of forty thousand years as bonfires blazed in vacant lots all over the country.

Naturally, it's a good opportunity to cook hamburgers and roast marshmallows too.

From the time I got home from work, around 7:30 pm, my eyes were burning and I was irritated by the stench from which there was no escape. There's a huge lot so close to our building that we could see the fires from our window -- at least 10 groups were in that area, without even being very close to each other.

My daughter went to her class's medurah (bonfire) only at 9:30 pm and didn't call us to pick her up until midnite. I love that she's finally at an age where she doesn't need me to accompany her to all these events, but not yet out so late that I have to stay up later than I want to waiting for her to get home. That will end very soon, I guess, probably even by next year. Blink, and we'll be on to the next stage.