When the Cranes Dance

I glanced at my watch as I parked my car almost two blocks from my door. Twelve forty two. Looking up I noticed the shrinking moon, smiling down at me. Two cranes stood tall, reaching for the moon, not moving. They stood still in the darkness of the night. Two cranes, which earlier this evening danced gracefully together, turning together in perfect symmetry with the golden sun setting behind them.

The pavement was silver from the rain that had fallen not long ago. I love the rain. It makes everything feel more romantic. I started to cross the street, stepping over puddles. I took the long way home. I always do when it's night time. Something about walking along the main road makes me feel safer than taking the shortcut between the buildings. I don't mind walking twice as much as long as I don't have to walk in the dark alleys alone, terrified of every noise, jumping when a cat comes by, always watching over my shoulder to make sure I'm really safe.

It started to drizzle as I reached the entrance of my apartment building. Pulling out my keys, I managed to make it into the building still dry. The rain has been picking up and now it's coming down hard, pounding against the windows. I watch as the drops hit the glass, as they drizzle down. I enjoy being at home, heater turned on, hot soup on the stove top. An unexplained feeling of happiness starts deep in my stomach, spreading to my whole body. I'm happy and I'm smiling. I love it when it rains.

The Touching Call of a Jail Bird

My grandparents have been married for the past 63 years. Having been married so long, they had always discussed that when one of them was "no longer capable of wiping their own butt" (their words, not mine), they would both take a hefty handful of sleeping pills, share a bottle of good wine and go to sleep in each others' arms, leaving the world behind them.

My grandfather is 87 years old. While he's still sharp as a tack, my grandmother, at 82, is not so lucky. Just over three years ago, she started showing signs of Alzheimer's. At first it was little things... But then it got worse. At first, they hid it from the family. Then, when it became too much, my grandfather took things into his own Parkinson trembling hands.He wrote his sons a good bye email, which arrived much too fast. Both he and my grandmother were saved.

She spent the last three years in a retirement home, forgetting who we are, closing herself off from the outside world. She's stopped talking and visiting her has become extremely difficult for me.

My grandfather, who was held responsible, has spent the last three years in prison for attempted murder. I stayed by him through out the entire time, visiting him, trying to make the time pass as easily as possible. But nothing I could do or say could keep him from staying obsessed with my grandmother. He'd call her multiple times a day, checking up on her. He'd talk about how he wants to take care of her when he gets released, never an eye witness to how bad she's been deteriorating.

Yesterday, 2 years, 11 months and 7 days after he was originally imprisoned, he was supposed to be released. Unfortunately, his heart has been causing problems and the stress of his impending release probably didn't help much. A few days ago, he was hospitalized in poor health. Thankfully, he was still released from the prison system, although he remains hospitalized.

Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from Oded, who said he's been sharing a prison room with my grandfather for the last year. Oded called me to see how my grandfather has been doing and to make sure he was released from prison. This person, whom I've never met, called me because he's heard about me and knew I cared about my grandfather and frequently came to visit him. He told me how much my grandfather talked about my grandmother. No big surprise here. Like I said, my grandfather is obsessed with my grandmother. But what touched me is that my grandfather had also talked about me, too. Furthermore, I was touched by the fact that Oded cared enough about my grandfather to find my number and call me up to inquire about a man he'll probably never see again...

Sheldon

Howard Wolowitz: You're giving me a couch cushion?
Sheldon Cooper: No, the cushion is merely symbolic. I'm giving you my spot on the couch.
Sheldon Cooper: But you love that spot.
Howard Wolowitz: No. I love my mother. My feelings for my spot are much greater. It is the singular location in space around which revolves my entire universe. And now it's yours.

[last lines]

Howard Wolowitz: I gotta tell you, Sheldon, I understand why you chose this spot. I mean: the temperature is good but there's no draft, I can see the television but I can still talk th...
Sheldon Cooper: I changed my mind; get out of my spot!
Penny: How long?
Leonard Hofstadter: Ninety-four seconds.

 

On Friday morning we opened our hearts, our home and our couch to Sheldon Cooper, cat. At about two and a half years old, he's a large, beautiful long haired cat that we adopted from the "Cat Lovers Association" in Haifa. We brought him home and spoiled him with the largest scratching post we could find, lots of toys, a deluxe litter box and Royal Canine cat food. Only the best for my ball of fur. 

It's been less than a week since Sheldon joined us and we're learning to live together. He has yet to learn how to use his litter box, but I'm patient. I took him to the vet who looked him over and gave him his shots as well as some ear drops for the mites that cause him to scratch his ears incessantly. She said that with his appearance, large size and easy going demeanor, he's probably got a lot of Maine Coon in him.  

The thing that amazes me most is how much love I have for the little guy. Like I said, he's been with us for just a few days, yet I am absolutely crazy about him. I love him and just want to hold him, pet him, play with him and guard him from the outside world. I could spend hours just lying on the floor next to him, listening to him purr as I pet him. 

Tell me this isn't the most adorable cat you've ever seen... :)

"Wow, that's really retro!"

They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat. This time, it's humentashen, or triangle shaped cookies with various fruit fillings in them. Unfortunately, whenever I bite into one of these cookies, despite what the box may say, it seems my cookie is always filled with poppy seeds. Yuck. Bad cookies aside, this is probably one of my favorite holidays, mostly because you're supposed to get dressed up and drink 'till you're tipsy. Gotta love tradition!

Ok, so Purim isn't coming until Sunday, but as many of my coworkers will be out of the office on Sunday, spending the day with their kids, who will be off of school for the holiday, we've decided that we'll be celebrating today. Come to work in costume, bring a gift basket for the grab bag.

Grab bag gift - check.
Costume... eh... Busy as I've been lately, I haven't had time to put anything really grand together, but I did want to do something. So, last night, ten minutes before the fabric stores closed, I frantically searched for inspiration among bolts of polyester fabrics in hideous patterns. I pinterested "adult costumes" and came across some interesting ideas. Now I just needed to narrow them down to things I could pull together in a few hours or less, especially if I was planning on sleeping...
I saw a great Gameboy dress which made me smile in nostalgia for my childhood back in the 90's. I quickly purchased grey fabric and headed home. (Ok, I stopped at the gym first...) Within three hours I'd created a respectable looking costume and honestly felt that it looked good. Tired, but satisfied, I joined hubby in bed for a few hours of shut eye before work this morning.

Today, dressed in my Gameboy dress, colorful stockings depicting cassettes and other 80's and 90's stuff and All Star shoes, I drank my coffee in our office's kitchen. People started coming in, some in costume, some not. A few of them thought I was a calculator... or some kind of a console controller... Very few actually recognized what I was right off the bat and a few had that "ah" moment after I told them... Then Dean, our new QA guy says to me, "Wow, that's really retro! That was ages ago!" I was four when Gameboy was released and old enough to have actually had one. And at 28, I'm not that old... I'm one of the younger people at this office!!! When did I become old and retro?! :)

That said, it was still a great day and I had fun, even if most people didn't recognize what I was... Their loss.

The Perfect Divorce

I got married in August of last summer. It was a beautiful, small wedding at a local restaurant that hubby and I really like, with a few select friends and family members and no clergy. I wore flowers in my hair and we danced the night away.
I'm getting carried away... This post isn't about my wedding, or my marriage.

I, like hubby and millions of others, am from a broken home. My parents divorced when I was ten and we've been raised primarily by my mother. My father was an anecdote through much of my teenage years. These past few years, we've grown closer, mostly due to Skype and cheap long distance rates. We talk on the phone almost daily.
Amazingly, through all these years and despite the ocean between them, my parents have grown closer, remembering and rekindling their friendship. Despite the fact that their marriage may have not worked out for the best, "till death do us part" and all that, they are still the friends they were years ago. And they share two kids and years of history.

This morning I picked my dad up from the airport. He's on a two week visit to Israel and it's great to see him. And while most people wouldn't come near their ex-es with a stick, my dad's first stop is my mom's house (and the falafel place down the street from her!). We just got back home from a wonderful dinner at a restaurant together - the four of us - my mom, dad, brother and myself. They laughed and bantered throughout dinner, joking about how many years they'd be married if... (31) and how many years they've been divorced (18). As we were about to order coffee and dessert my mom asks my dad what flavor ice cream. "37 years of marriage and you still have to ask?!" he teased her.
"Nu...(c'mon!) Aren't you going to put sugar in your coffee?" she asks as he takes a sip sans sugar.
"No. No more sugar in my coffee."
"See, things change." she retaliates.
"Not ice cream. Chocolate. Always chocolate." He replies with a laugh.

As we sat at that table for over three hours, laughing, joking and talking, at one point my brother turned to me and said, "We may not have been given a good example of a happy, successful marriage, but we sure learned how to do the divorce right!" Grrr... gotta love my brother. Hit the nail on the head. Seriously, with today's divorce rates, while I wish everyone a truly happy marriage, if that doesn't work out, I can at least wish you a wonderful divorce - just like my parents'!

The 2cm Dilema

You thought that... I didn't say it... 

But, anyway. Remember that about a month and a bit, we moved into a new apartment? Well, it's really starting to become a home, except for one not so tiny issue we still can't get around. Our washing machine, which we meticulously measured to make sure it would fit in the bathroom, won't fit through the door of the bathroom. Because we obviously didn't notice how narrow the door is. So, for the past month and a half we've had our washing machine sit in the middle of our living room, barely 2 centimeters wider than our bathroom doorway. All of this while the pile of laundry continues to grow and we're nearing the end of our pile of socks and underwear... 

At first, we tried to remove the bulky door. Ok, 4 cm less but we still needed to lose a bit more. We removed the pipes coming out of the back of the washing machine and gave it another try. Then we tried tilting it on it's side and bringing it in on a slight angle. I couldn't help but remember the episode of "Friends" in which Ross and Rachel take their new couch home, climbing up the stairs as Ross yells "Pivot! Pivot!" That's kinda what this felt like. Only heavier than a couch. 

Almost three hours of frustration and we finally returned the washing machine to the living room. We're down to two options - cutting part of the door frame or buying a new machine. I'm partial to the second option so in the meantime I've advertised ours, hoping at least to make up some of the cost of a new machine. 

In the spirit of learning from our mistakes, I've learned that it isn't enough to measure that a piece of furniture fits into a spot - you've also got to make sure you can fit it through the doorway! And with life too short to make all the mistakes on our own, I encourage you to learn from mine... 

Adventures in Cooking - Fried Rice Without Rice

It seems like everyone these days is on some sort of dietary craze - be it for the weight loss, the health benefits or just because they are curious to try something new out.

Hubby and I are both hi-tech workers, meaning that we spend most of our day on our butt and lunch is usually take out from one of many local greasy spoons or cafeterias in the area. Not the best diet. So, at home, at least, I try to get us to eat a bit healthier. Last night's dinner was quite successful and much better received than I expected. Also, cheap, quick and really easy to make.

Rice was replaced by thinly grated cauliflower. I bought a medium sized head and chopped it up in my Swizz Pro. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Swizz Pro, it's basically a mini, hand operated blender. Probably one the best purchases I've ever made. It's only got three pieces - the bowl, the blade and the lid - so it's really easy to clean, store and use.

Anyway, one head finely chopped cauliflower, some diced up veggies - I used a bell pepper, zucchini, an onion and two carrots. Add a sausage for some protein, soy sauce to taste and you've got yourself a really good meal in no time.

I tossed the cauliflower separately from the veggies, although if I wanted to skimp on doing dishes, I could have done it all in one large wok. If you do decide to do this in one pan, I'd leave the cauliflower for last, as it cooked super fast due to it's large surface area to volume ratio.

The dish was surprisingly well received by hubby, who helped himself to seconds. I was happily surprised as he's usually big on carbs and doesn't consider something a satisfying meal without it. This will definitely be gracing our palates again!