jelly_bean

so i am realizing that i haven't written in quite awhile and a lot has been going on, i've been busy, hense why i haven't had the chance to write anything substantial. i have today and tomorrow off, so really, besides 2 papers i need to write (nothing major - one 1.5 page paper and one 6-800 word paper), i don't have an excuse. i am caught up w/ the shows i want to be caught up on (some that i started watching, fell too far behind so i will just wait til the summer when all shows go into hiatus). and i don't have all that much to do. right now, other than writing this, i am waiting for a show to load and listening to a really good mix cd i DL'ed on-line. it has a lot of the songs that are playing on the radio station in the US i like to listen to. though, whenever i hear weezer's "troublemaker" i always get it stuck in my head...it just has that kind of tune that just gets you everytime. oh well. looking at the mirror and my hair is sticking up - that's what i get for lying down w/ wet hair. i would care but i am just going running in the morning and i put my hair back in a bandana, and then i shower, so i am not too worried about that one. yea, i started running...well, running and walking. i have a route mapped out, it's about a total of 5K. right now, i can run about 1K of it, if i ran w/ some one, i would push further, but right now, i don't. but, i still walk the remainder of my route, so i always end up doing 5K. though, monday, when i went, i ended up doing 6K b/c i was so into my music (you'd be surprised how many times this happens to me actually) that i missed the turn and just kept walking. eventually, i realized and found the next road. so it was a bit of a longer walk. still doesn't kill me.

this mix is playing apocalyptica's "i don't care" (featuring adam gontier) and i love this song. it makes me angry for no real reason as i have no reason to be angry at this moment in time, i just really like this song. i also like mudvayne's "do what you do" which is another song that makes me angry for no reason. i think if i had reasons to be angry, these would be good songs to listen to. i mean, they are good songs in general, but if i was actually angry, these would be like anthems i think.

and i listened to a song about guitar hero by MC lars and that just made me giggle...a lot.

so anyway, let's catch up on the life of JB, shall we.

so the weekend of the 3rd i got to see joual. i went over thursday night and played hookie from school on friday. i have decided, every once in awhile, it is okay to play hookie. playing hookie is always good when done for the right reasons and seeing my boyfriend, i can't think of a better reason. friday we went to get his new phone and i got a bagel (knowing passover was less than a week away, i decided to get in all the bread i could, including a bagel. i am excited b/c now, they are opening a bagel place in raanana AND i's on my walk to work...mmmm...bagels....). but then we relaxed, i made my special chicken for dinner that he loves. it is a fried chicken recipe and it is made w/ good seasons italian dressing packets. i had my friend (get into that in a minute) bring me 2 boxes of the stuff when he came last week. soon, i am going to need to email some one to send me more...stat. my boy likes his chicken and i am limited on packets. i will have to find a substitute soon and fast. we also went to see "watchmen" friday night. i have to say that it was a really good movie. according to people, it stayed relatively close to the comic and all as well. i just thought the story was really very well told and it was intruiging until the end. my eyes were glued and i was doing that mouth half-open gaping thing joual likes to make fun of me for. though, there was a lot of blood and i get a tad bit squeemish but nothing serious. but we didn't get home til after 1am and by the time we went to sleep, it was well after 3am. saturday was my new birthday celebration (a week early). i have to say, it was probably the best birthday i have had in such a long time. it was amazing. i got to spend it w/ the one person i wanted to and the day was great. just amazing. we woke up late (or rather he did, i was up early but stayed in bed reading "rivethead" which is a really good book...kind of hunter s. thompson-esque). we went to mcdonald's for lunch. to some, this may seem weird, but to me, it's tradition and i love our little traditions that we have we then went to this mall that is open (only like aroma and toys r us are open in it) and joual got me my bday present - a brand spanking new mp3 player. it is awesome. it holds 8gig, plays movies and really, just what i needed. i like presents that serve purposes, that are things i need. i'm really not a materialistic person so i just want things that i have use for. this i needed b/c i walk everywhere and want music plus now i run, and i don't like going out w/out music. it was the perfect present b/c he knew what i needed, it's another way of knowing that i know he knows me. it's a good thing. the boy knows me inside out and backwards i have been using that thing all the time and when i went running w/ it...it was a good thing then i made dinner (i looove cooking for him b/c i love his face when he eats my food and tells me it's good - he appreciates it...it means so much to me) and we went to rabin square for tel aviv's 100th birthday celebration. it was really cool (at first) b/c there were fireworks, the israeli philharmonic orchestra was playing and there was this cool fire act. but then...then there was music on a loudspeaker. so, it went from an amazing concert to something along the lines of a highschool dance in the middle of the street. from soooo high to soooo low. we thought there were going to be concerts and stuff like that. nope. it was music on a loudspeaker. so we left. besides, i had to be up early b/c i had to be back in raanana for work 9am-5pm. went back to tel aviv after, we did our normal "night before joual goes back to base so we order burgers" thing and started watching "how to lose friends and alienate people." it seemed like a good movie but we were both sooo tired that it wasn't that funny. so we opted for tv instead. i fell asleep to tv.

he comes back next weekend. i am so excited. it's been 3 weeks and i miss him immensly. after this, is his course where he will be home just about every weekend. after the course, 2-3 more weeks and he is done. wow, i can't believe he will be done w/ the army. it is going to be so nice to be able to see him when we want to and not be restricted to a weekend here and there. though, i wonder how things will be like after, and i am sure that he does too. i don't think anything will really change though. i see only good things coming. well, i hope good things are coming..haha. we talked about how one weekend he is in the course to maybe spend it in a hotel in jerusalem for a weekend. i think that would be a lot of fun b/c he used to live there and i have no clue what is in jerusalem, how to get around jerusalem or really much of anything involving that town. give me tel aviv anyday, but jerusalem is completely foreign to me.

but yea, boyfriend home next weekend

i needs the time w/ the boyfriend.

3 weeks and i go into serious withdrawal.

i can't wait til he is done and we can be together more. it can only make things even more amazing

monday night i went to the airport to spend an alnighter waiting for my friend jordan to arrive. he is moving to this country. we've been friends for about 2 years now. he stayed w/ me 1.5 years ago when he extended his trip on birthright. now he is going to a kibbutz ulpan (classes to learn hebrew on a kibbutz) for 6 months and then he is going to be one of my roommates and will be going to the IDC. but his flight landed around 4:40am, and there are no buses/trains so i opted to stay all night. it was ehhh. i tried to do reading for school but didn't work so much. i started reading one of david sedaris' books, don't remember the title but it is great. i also tried to sleep but those damn chairs are so uncomfortable that i just (a week later) got over the cricks in my neck and my back from trying to get "comfortable." but those seats, horrible. i decided that when i am rich, i want to start something like a rent-a-bed in the airport so people waiting all night for a flight can rent a bed to lie down for a few hours waiting for a flight to get in. it makes sense, right? and i drank too much coffee. like more coffee than should be normally consumed. i couldn't sleep b/c the seats were too uncomfortable but i couldn't stay awake..it sucked. i think i passed out for about an hour but i felt like some one smashed a stick into the back of my neck b/c i was in not a good position.

rent-a-bed, i am telling you.

or get rid of the damn armrests so people can stretch out on a few seats. that would make things easy too.

next time, i am bringing a pillow.

i will too.

and bitches that be trying to steal it will find their arm taken off.

though i have to say that oneday, i just want to spend a few hours at the arrivals gate w/ a pad and a pen and just write about some of the crazy things i see when people come out. there was a flight coming in from rome and all these priests got off. i was wondering why until friday when my mom reminded me the old city would be packed w/ christians celebrating good friday, when it dawned on me. but the way they were dressed...it was interesting. there was a flight from addis ababa so i saw a lot of people coming off in traditional african clothing. i also saw weird things like this one woman wearing a "standing only" miniskirt and stiletto boots and i am wondering how the fuck some one travels in that. me, last time i was on a plane, i wore lose jeans, a tshirt and crocs. i aim for being comfortable. in a 12 hour flight from US to israel, i don't want to be uncomfortable. but really...some people are strange. and some of the luggage and boxes people came off w/. you wonder what the hell. i saw some one w/ a box of pots. who brings pots? but really, i think it could make for an interesting writing exercise - write all you can observe about people coming off the plane and then write a story about the events that led up to them getting on that plane - why they have what they have, where they came from, why they are dressed as such and so on and so forth as well as the reactions of the people waiting there for them. i saw people run and give huge flying hugs, people crying, i also saw a few times where the person picking them up didn't seem excited at all that they were back. those stories would intrigue me. but yea, i think it would be an interesting thing to do.

anyway, so jordan's flight landed at 4:40. but roughly 6:30am i started wondering where he was and then my 7am i really started to get worried. i figured maybe he didn't go in the end, that he didn't make his connection flight and blah blah blah. turns out, they lost his luggage. well, not lost, they knew where it was (chicago) but they didn't have it. they also told him that he would have it next day, wednesday...the first night of passover (the seder). so, yea, that was interesting b/c he had no clothes. he got a phone while we were at the airport and then we went back to my place where he is staying until sunday. we get back and then immediately head back out again b/c i want to run errands and then pass out (i had been up for 24+ hours at this point). so we exchanged money and a no commission place and i deposited my check. we went to the mall in raanana, had breakfast, he bought some stuff to tide him over and then we went back. passed out for a bit. then went into tel aviv to meet my friend ari and serefina for beer and pizza. it was a good time had by all. had aaaaamazing pizza at this hole-in-the-wall place in florentine and has now become my new favorite pizza place...ever. wednesday comes around and his stuff doesn't show up, so i am at work and jordan now has to run to the mall the day of the seder (the mall was a zoo) to get a shirt to wear to seder.

seder was amazing. it's my third year having it at miriam's (and probably not my last as my parents have already expressed a desire to go to tiberias next year for passover...have fun i said). the company was amazing, the food was good (her husband is an amazing cook) and it was a good time. as a previous post stated, i had more than the required 4 cups of wine and that was all good w/ me. her kids even performed the 10 plagues which was probably the cutest thing i ever saw. but it was just good. there was discussion during the seder, there were questions, there was a lot of laughing and there was just a lot of enjoying the company. i think that is what it is all about in the end. not just the seder, but the people that you have the seder w/. it is important to have a good time or else it is boring and you are bored and you get antsy and think of a good excuse to leave early (preferably right after dinner is served b/c you waited this long to get fed...might as well leave after). my first seder in israel was like that. i was w/ some family-friends of my parents, they all spoke hebrew and i had just gotten here so i didn't know so much, didn't really know the people and i was just bored and i wanted to leave. it wasn't fun, i didn't enjoy it and i just wanted to go home. now i love passover seders w/ miriam and her family.

her dad calls me his other daughter. it's really nice

my bday weekend, i trekked jordan up to maale adumim for my parents. he is a photographer and i figured he would be able to take some amazing pictures b/c sand dunes pretty much surround maale adumim (it is about 20K from the dead sea). b/c there were no buses to maale adumim running b/c the holiday was still going (though there was a bus from raanana to jlem), we had to take a taxi but the guy didn't know that givat shaul was still blocked off and we had to go a longer route. (during shabbat and holidays, very very orthodox towns like givat shaul and mea shearim actually block off the road to get in so no one drives through. people who drive/bike through are often victims of getting stones thrown at them and sometimes worse. when we went to the cutoff street, these religious people looked at the driver like "if you think it, you are a dead man." talk about being nice...not so much....) he found it amazing. we got there thursday night and he took a walk w/ my dad to understand the town a bit (he wanted to know about the settlements and whatnot). friday, my mom, jordan and i went into the old city b/c he wanted to go to the wall. on the way into "jerusalem proper" the bus was inspected. b/c of the holiday, security is on high alert so all cars and buses were being checked (making traffic suck). jordan was in awe, about to get out his license or something til i told him that they don't check everyone. but even streets in j'lem were blocked off if they went into arab villages. we get to the old city and it is packed. my mom took me to this store where she knows the owners and i fell in love w/ a ton of the stuff there. jordan is taking pictures of everything. we do the wall thing and then walk to machane yehuda (the shook - outdoor market) b/c my mom needed to pick things up. never ever ever ever will i go back there on a friday. i actually, at one point, started to feel claustrophobic...seriously. gah. not fun. though i got fresh mozzerella and strawberries that were bright red a cheap...it was good. but again, people, don't like people. too many damn people. now i know why my parents go on a tuesday, it can never be THAT packed on a tuesday. oy.

friday night was bbq-style shabbat dinner and saturday, being my bday and all, we had bbq'ed steaks and it was good.

the weekend was good.

the funniest part, my mom giving me a bracelet for my bday (i caved and said she could get me jewlery and i have to say, i like it - it's massivly funky and one of a kind by this artist, ayala bar. i love it...it's me) and telling me not to tell my dad (b/c it was relatively expensive) and my dad giving me 200nis and telling me not to tell my mom.

love my parents...haha.

and then they both telling me at one point (seperately) that by graduation, they will get me my external harddrive.

oh and my mom said she would get me a new chain for my magen david necklace.

though i like wearing my bubbie's (yiddish for grandma) heart necklace. she left it to me, so it means something special.

since sunday now, jordan's been in tel aviv w/ this friend he met. they were supposed to go to eilat today but b/c of the holiday, all hotels are booked. he will be back tomorrow night. tomorrow afternoon i am going to a bbq at miriam's place. i am excited. we can talk about the latest episode of lost (oh my god!) and talk about our possible business venture.

miriam and i decided to start looking into the possibility of opening a cupecake place in raanana. and when we have an idea, we are set on it. it is going to take a lot of work before we open a store (we have to see if it is even feasible) but it is something we want to do. so, our first step is to come up w/ 10-15 good cupecake recipes. normal cupcakes as well as more interesting one (red velvet cupcake anyone?) and then, once we come up w/ those, we check the market for cupcakes. have cupcake parties where we invite friends to try our creations and tell us if they are good or not and give us ideas for others. then we go about selling them on a small scale - like a friday table in the mall. and if that works, we look into how to go about opening a store. of course, there are numerous little steps in between, but that is the basic of it. she's got the business know-how and i have the kitchen background so we would be a good team. she wants to be her own boss and i love working in a kitche, i just hate doing it for others, but here, in this kitchen, i'd be incharge. that i could deal w/ so it will be a process. it might not even worked but we can at least try. my parents support me entirely on this decision as my mom knows how happy i can get when i am in the kitchen. joual supports me too b/c he also knows how happy i am when i am cooking. people ask him if i get tired of cooking for him and he tells them that i like being in the kitchen, which is true, it feels like my element. i might be getting an MA in conflict resolution and diplomacy but i always have this "thing" for being in the kitchen. i love it. i just hate working in the kitche for others b/c i feel constrained on what i can and can't do. joual sees how happy i am in the kitchen though. he puts on the music and then i am in my element. i enjoy cooking and he enjoys the fruits of that labor he just said that if i start this business, he can always get free cupcakes, i don't see a problem so much w/ that. i will always give my boy free cupcakes

but i could be a business owner in a year of so. how crazy is that? i like it.

who loves cupcakes?

what are some interesting cupcakes people would like to see made?

lately i've been tired. i think i am in just that mood right now where i desperately need a vacation. i had last week and this week off from school, but i've still been working 4 days a week (one day each week off b/c of passover) and running around that it doesn't feel like a vacation. w/ everyone going away somewhere these last few days, i am getting jealous and tired and i just want to go away for a week or something like everyone else. i get my mini weekend vacations when joual is home and i love those. that is my favorite way to spend the weekend. but i just need a few days away. joual reminds me that when he is done, we are going to go somewhere for a week - probably eilat. i have no problem taking a week off of work, school, whatever to be w/ him for a week. it will be amazing and it will be what we both need...especially him but me too. i just need a vacation like that and i can't wait for time to go by so it will be here soon. there is no one else i'd rather spend a week away w/. we both deserve to get away together and enjoy eachother's company. i can't wait to go away for a week w/ him. i will put all on hold to be w/ him.

he just called a minute ago and i don't think i stopped giggling the entire time we were on the phone.

it's just that good.

we are just that good.

i am completely and totally in love.

yea, i get mushy sometimes too

i have realized that i have some amazing friends right now and i think that this makes things good. i have realized lately, that when i want to do something, i can often find some one to do it w/ me. i am starting to feel the same kind of friendship that i have had in the states. i've missed that. i've missed my friends in the US but as this past bday has shown me, i think a lot of them have forgotten me. there is one that hurts the most as he is my closest friend, but what can i do. they have their life there and my life is here now. i am realizing this more and more w/ the friends i am making here and the connections i am losing back in the US. i have started to get to know more and more people and people i still have yet to meet (fish, that's directed toward you..hehe ) and it really makes me feel more that my life is here. everyone is slowly moving out of syracuse and just about no one is left there. the wedding would have been a good way to see everyone but i don' think i can come up w/ the cash and really, as things are showing me, i don't think if i came or not anymore it'd make a difference in life. some people you grow apart from and this i should know and now i do know and do realize. even w/ today's modern marvels of technology, if people don't want to keep in touch, they won't. emails and facebook are great if you make the effort...i stopped trying after realizing they stopped a long time ago. sad but true. and it was my bday that really showed me that.

more and more i am realizing that i belong here, in israel. my life is here - school, work, friends and this amazing boyfriend that i want to spend every minute i can w/. these are the things that make up my life and they are all here at this point. it's a weird realization to come to. for everything that bothers me about israel, it IS where my life is now.

and i have to say, my life doesn't suck so bad.

i have all that is listed above.

though, after getting a not so good grade from this bitch prof i hate w/ an undying passion, i am really going to have to do kickass this semester b/c she dropped my average....b/c she is a bitch. and i hate her. i am still waiting though for 2 more grades from fall semester and i don't think they will be bad so those should hopefully raise my average back up to like an 85 or so (it's at an 80 right now....stupid bitch prof.) i also think that i need at least an 85 average to get into summer semester, so i will have to do kickass.

i am sure i can.

i am not worried.

this semester isn't looking to be too tough. yea i have a few finals, but i am not so worried. at least not yet anyway..haha.

i need a fan in my room. one of those standing fans that move back and forth.

summer's comming...

summa
summa
summatime

though it's apparently supposed to rain thursday and friday.

thursday, after i get out of work at 11am, jordan and i are meeting ari at mike's place for happyhour pitchers of beer and stuffing our faces w/ food. it's post passover so we deserve it. so any of my fellow SG israel peeps in tel aviv thursday around 3'ish - please please come enjoy a beer or 5 w/ us at mike's

the more the merrier!!

good times will be had.

and i am pretty fucking awesome so i only surround myself w/ those who are pretty damn awesome as well.

well, w/ that long fucking blog, i am done.

if you got through all of it, well then, i am impressed and promise to update more often. these last few weeks have just been a bit much and i was just waiting for a good time to type something.

this seemed like a good time.

i was right.

now i am going to go back to my music, possibly my book and passout relatively early.

i want to wake up around 6am so i can go running at 6:30am while it's still cool out, come back, work on my papers and then go to the bbq

jordan comes back tomorrow night and i promised him shwarma.

though i think he's had already, it's been during passover so he hasn't been able to have it in pita or laffa

mmm..i'm hungry now.

i've been eating my weight in apples lately.

i like apples.

xoox

-JB