Is Blogthings Psychic?

You Are The Empress

You represent the ideal female figure: beauty and nurturing. You bring security and harmony to many. At times, you are also a very sensual person. You are characterized by love, pleasure, and desire. Your fortune: You need to take some time to think about the role of commitment in your life. It's possible you need to commit more to others, or deal with how others have treated you. It is very important for you to support your friends and family right now, difficult as it may be. You may need to look at your relationship with your mother, or your relationships as a mother.

What Tarot Card Are You?

Lights, Camera, Action

Today was the photo shoot. There is prime real estate for whoever is interested in taking up temporary residency. Best suited for those who like to have the curtains drawn (and I do not mean in the Amelia Bedelia sense.) Graffiti will NOT be tolerated.

Studio apartment is fully insulated, partially furnished with a waterbed and well-stocked fridge and landlady is super nice (if not a wee bit neurotic.)

Growth

There are window boxes outside on the grate of our porch/bedroom shutters. When Mom was visiting we bought 2 of them, filled them with dirt and she planted the seeds. My green pinky toe is no match to her green thumb. Yesterday amidst the varying shades of green, I saw pink! One of the clinging plants has a bright pink flower. Very exciting. Thanks Mom.

The middle box is successfully sprouting greenery of all types. It was a going away gift from a friend and was pre-filled with a flowering succulent. Now it has small leafy plants that I cannot identify because I have no idea if I planted them or a bird brought them. There is one plant that I do recognize—a blade of grass. Mr. Hawaiian Shirt suggests that we call him “Blade” for short.

Blue and White

We celebrated 58 years young with the rest of the nation. As I looked up from the courtyard BBQ to the neighboring apartment buildings I saw many flags; small ones and large ones. Six-sided stars with a point at the top and one on its side. And the laundry that the families had on the line to dry…2 were blue loads and 2 were white.

Our colors.

Pure

Beethoven wrote in a letter, "Whoever tells a lie cannot be pure in heart - and only the pure in heart can make a good soup." So I got worried. Because around the same time that I read and internalized this quote, my soups were decidedly untasty. Today however, the tides have turned.

Today's chicken soup is: Chicken boiled in 8 qt. pot, frothy stuff removed. Added celery leaves, 2 parsnips (or parsley root?) and the parsley greens on top, 2 carrots, 6 cloves garlic sliced, 1 small leek sliced. Boil boil, no toil and no trouble. Yum.

Lighter

Well that last one WAS a little heavy I will admit.

All I have to say today is know a little; gain a bit of knowledge before you take the Dr.'s word; read up on it online; join a message group; emote because it is your God-given right; eat Fruity Pebbles or Oreos or lemon wafers but then stop because sugar can be evil.

Untitled

Disclaimer: I thought of this earlier, I cried, I ranted, but I still want to put it out there-

Four Letter Words:

IDEA
BLOB
GLOP
FEAR
GROW
TUBE
HOPE
CAN’T
MAKE
WOMB
LOVE

Labels

Usually the little things don't bother me, rather they pique my interest. I don't care what you wear after Labor Day. (You should have seen the ultragreen outfit I wore on Shabbat) The patterns that the elderly women mix, well it is just a matter of personal taste. Not mine, but someone's. But those pesky white labels on the soles of new shoes. Please oh please take them off!

Horizontal

After 2 full weeks of back pain and the theories on why it ails me: financial worries, holding on to something in the past, slept in a draft, and the advice: spend money and get better furniture, take painkillers, wrap a scarf around yourself to keep the area warm, I chuckle at some of the irony but then I quickly stop because that too causes me pain. I actually have a bit of cash in ye olde bank (mostly because I cannot get up and out to spend it) but a good office chair is not where I would like to invest my funds. I reflect on 2006 and think about letting go of those somethings of the "past" 3 months and then realize that "loss" doesn't necessarily mean gone.
I moved us to the warmer living room to avoid leaky windows, I sampled many painkillers (aspirin won), mentholated my sore back, and then wrapped it in a towel. My back is still out...with the jury.

And do you know what those U-shaped toilet mats are for? I thought they were to protect my feet from the cold tiled floor.

Bzzzz

Poppies and Hyssop and Savyonim and Thomasim!

It has been a glorious midday of wildflowers and buzzing things. I was glad to come out from under my rock to be with Nature and most importantly Friends.

The past 2 months have been challenging in so many ways I don't know where to begin. Suffice it to say the Healing is in full swing. And maybe capitalizing important words assists others' Understanding and Compassion.

Happy Groundhog Day and The MEME of 4

Four jobs I've had in my life:
1. Montessori facilitator
2. Rutgers University Catering/Beit Hillel waitress
3. Bodyworker (not an auto mechanic, rather healing arts)
4. Bartender

Four movies I could watch over and over:
1. Gigi
2. 50 First Dates
3. Groundhog Day
4. Groundhog Day

Four places I've lived:
1. Jerusalem
2. Cranford, NJ
3. New Brunswick, NJ
4. Yehud, Israel

Four TV Shows I Love to watch:
1. Numb3rs
2. Weeds
3. My name is Earl
4. Will and Grace

Four places I've been on vacation:
1. Bermuda and assorted Caribbean islands
2. France, Switzerland, Italy (same trip)
3. La Paz, Baja California
4. Latvia and Estonia

Four websites I visit daily:
1. www.i-am-bored.com
2. www.livnot.com
3. www.google.com
4. www.answers.com

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Indian food – especially the desserts
2. Pasta dish with Salsa Rosa
3. Whitefish salad and the fixin’s on an everything bagel
4. Peanut butter and Strawberry Jam on toast

Four places you'd rather be:
1. next to Mr. Hawaiian Shirt
2. in the kitchen preparing something yummy
3. with Mom sorting through the various items we have both acquired
4. occasionally watching TV, not at home of course, we don’t have one

Four books I'll read over and over again:
1. The Boxcar Children
2. Da Vinci Code
3. Ender’s Game
4. works by Peter Sis for the illustrations

I'd like to tag whomever wants to take on this MEME.

Reflections of WE

We had not planned ahead for the last few months of turbulence and trauma, but then, how can one plan?
We find that we revisit the details because the devil is there... but so is G-d.
We is one of the most important words I will ever know.
I love you, EW.

It must’ve been a boy…

who had wanted to be an astronaut, because it was lost in space and forgot to ask for directions. Truth is I feel grateful for the whole experience. I discovered so much about myself; body and soul.
Over the course of the last 5 days: I watched “free” cable TV albeit without a remote. I broke a 26 hour fast with a cup of hot sweet tea that tasted like nectar of the gods. I cried while listening to my soulful journey MP3 with shuffle option. I originally burned the 187 song compilation for my September trip to the US but at the time of its creation I had no idea of just how valuable the mix would be a few months later. I pondered. I sobbed. I prayed. I dreamt. Hallucinations, meditations, revelations…
But most importantly, I learned more Hebrew in those 5 days than in my 5 years of living here. And that is only a slight exaggeration.

Thank you Devra, for being my sister.

Thank you Abba and Mom Wanetik, for understanding the gravity of the situation and then giving up quality Ezra time.
Thank you Mom, for being available at any and all times of the day and night to talk, share, and ask me if you could call me back so I would save money on the long distance.
Thank you to the ‘patient’ ones on the outside, who called and offered support and allowed the story to unfold in its own time.
Thank you Shira, for your inquisitive mind, your cheery disposition and your bubbly laughter.
Thank you Tina and Sarah, for your lyrics and melodies that could not have been more appropriate.

Thank you Judy Brodt, for giving me Aliza’s number.
Thank you Geula, for calling me back and then checking in again later that night.
Thank you Lisa and Alex, for allowing me to have a normal evening at home in the middle of a most surreal week.

Thank you Purple Parrot, for your cuddles, our momentary SMS misunderstanding and at the moment of clarity, dropping everything and coming to visit.
Thank you Len, for providing me with valuable information on pharmaceuticals.
Thank you Yonah, for asking minimal questions and trusting me when I said that the work will all get done.
Thank you Dad, for your practicality and optimism.
Thank you J.R., for being Joe.
Thank you Grandma, for passing on your quick recovery genes.

Thank you Erica, for the markers (that btw all work beautifully) and the designs for me to color.
Thank you Ari, for the pudding.
Thank you Shalom Leib, for reclaiming your most prized material possession out of our living room.
Thank you Gestetner family, for preparing and cooking yummy Shabbat food for Ezra and me.

Thank you Liz, for being the spiritual healer that you are.
Thank you Alys and Jeremy, for getting married in NJ so that I can recuperate with cable on a comfortable couch in T.A. with Bernard.

Thank you Rebecca, for listening to all the details by phone.
Thank you to the doctors, surgeons, nurses and all other staff at Maccabi and Bikur Cholim hospital.
Thank you Sharon W., for making us an orange welcome home soup and garlic bread.

And of course thank you Ezra, for knowing from my first smile that I would be his wife.

Thank you all for your prayers, your friendship, and your love.
It takes a village to raise a child and a community to help send a spirit back to its source with peace, love and light.

Don't Mess with my Toos-toos

toos-toos - moped, scooter, generally for intracity use only

Those who drive on mopeds seem to think that they own the road; but then again, everyone here thinks that.
The toos-toos drivers are known to weave in and out of traffic, ride on the dividing line, and generally not follow any of the safety rules. Yesterday I saw one "go through a red light," by way of the islands, crossing 4 lanes of traffic, just before the light turned green. We, who drive defensively, have had 2 run-ins with mopeds; both of which were them running into us!

Anew

A new start.

We are moving at the end of the week, down two floors across the hall. There will not be as much sunlight or the spectacular view of the sun setting but we will be okay. There will not be fourth-floor weather reports in which I see snow flurries outside the window, knowing that by the time they descend 2 floors they will have become rain. This too is okay. There will not be intense negative energy or the smell of sewage from an exposed pipe or a "skylight" that is really a crack in the wall of the enclosed porch. Those details will not be missed.

I look forward to new beginnings and hope that my readership will visit us soon in #33.

Music MEME

The rules:

1. Turn on your mp3 player.
2. Hit shuffle.
3. Put the first fifteen songs that come up in a post. No matter how embarassing. No cheating!

I made an mp3 for my recent trip to the US entitled Rachel's journey. Here are the MEME results:

1. You Learn -Alanis Morissette
2. Once in a Lifetime - from the World Music Mix
3. Sweet Jane - Velvet Underground
4. Relaxation Spa Treatment- from the Wired CD (Wired Magazine)
5. Rain - Corrs
6. Your Song - Elton John
7. Right Through You - Alanis Morissette
8. The Memory of Trees - Enya
9. not the same- Ben Folds Five
10. Boadicea - Enya
11. Corner of the Sky (Pippin) - Jackson 5
12. fred jones Part 2 -Ben Folds Five
13. Into the Great Wide Open - Tom Petty and the HB
14. Im Ze Ha Sof - David Broza
15. One's Man Dream - Yanni

She is NOT Daisy

I found some not so helpful hints on 18Tricks2TeachUrBody, (whose link is now MIA, but that may be for the best.) It said that if I have to use the bathroom really badly, I should think about sex to alleviate the pressure. More specifically they recommended I think about Jessica Simpson. Now, not only do I have to urge to micturate, I also feel like throwing up.

Classic Moments in Shoedom Part 1

This morning on the bus the driver was playing a classical music CD. What a refreshing change from news I only generally understand and the same music "hits" played over and over again.

On the way home on the bus I thought of shoes I have owned. The painting bolted to the outer walls of the construction site on King George and the women who crossed the street wearing the skater sneakers inspired this stream of consciousness. I remember shopping for shoes with my Grandma at Buster Brown for each new school year. I recall giving away sturdy brown shoes to my friend Karen because I simply did not like them. Having owned many pairs over the past 25+ years (there were shoeless years too!), I feel grateful.

The MEME

7 Things I Can Do:
Procrastinate.
Cartweels.
Make challah (traditional Sabbath bread) and other breads/dough/pasta from scratch.
Mid-week crossword puzzles from the NYTimes.
Be efficient in my work, both time and production.
Spell.
Trouser Friendly Kisses.

7 Things I Can't Do (Can't is a strong contraction, don't or won't is preferred):
Don't :
Brush my hair.
Mop the floors.
Sing the traditional Ashkenazi Shalom Aleichem and Eishet Chayil on Friday nights. (The Wanetik Way pamphlet will be available soon)
Won't:
Take ANY medications unless I absolutely have to.
Throw trash on the ground especially when there is a garbage container 2 steps away!
Can't:
Drive a stick shift car.
Believe I should be shopping at the market now and instead find myself sitting here writing this MEME!

7 Things I Constantly Say:
I love you.
Sure/Okay.
No problem.
I love you.
When's Maariv? (Summer of 2003)
No Mom, I have a good calling plan and there is no need to call me back.
I love you.


7 Things I'd like to do in my Lifetime:
Have children.
Get my p'tor (exemption) from Hebrew and thus my MA in Religious Studies.
Buy a living space- apartment, house, etc.
Have a successful Healing Practice.
Write a few children's books and earn some money at it.
Make an artistic photo wedding album of our wedding!
Sew a T-Shirt Quilt.

Passing it on...

The Guinea Fowl and the Skirt

You may have heard that we were in South Africa for the wedding of friends. 'Twas true. We have returned.
and now a few words about international trade and how one never needs to leave home...

I bought a bordeaux (bordo) skirt in Capetown only to discover that it was manufactured in Bat Yam.
I bought a small model of a guinea fowl (the national bird and NOT Jerusalem Revealed's favorite) from a native artist only to find the same one decorating the window display of the bead store on the main street.

Though I have not yet conducted price comparisons, the skirt is probably cheaper over there and the same for the speckled fowl.

Stop by for your sample nougat and rooibos tea while supplies last.