An Update, Since It's Been A While

Well, it's amazing how quickly the days of lack of communication can add up. It's been a while. Sort of like a diet or a new hobby, taking a few days off of blogging can quickly turn into weeks. But I don't believe in starting over, just in picking up where I left off and recommitting. So, here goes.

I have been sick many of these last few weeks, which does give me somewhat of a good excuse for not blogging. First a stomach flu, and now bronchitis. I feel like I have been sick far more days than not since arriving in Israel. I've been told that it is actually quite normal, and that many people who move to Israel are sick a lot the first year. Too bad I'm only here a year, then. Hopefully the adjustment and first year back in the States won't be a similar experience. The good thing is my time here is my time, and if I need to rest and do nothing I have that luxury. I've been trying real hard not to get Rachel sick, as she has been in the throws of final exams and will be heading to the States in a few days to see her family and attend a Wexner conference. Okay, I'll take that as a good transition.

Rachel has finished final exams as of today and has completed 1/10 of her rabbinic education. She has assigned the 5 letters in the word "RABBI" to her 5 years of school. Since she is now half way through her first year she has earned the status of "r." And trust me folks, she has earned it. Rachel worked really, really hard this semester and has achieved a lot. It was a huge change to go from full time work doing something she loved and was great at to being a full time student and not knowing too much about it all before starting. I'm extremely proud of her. She is going to do amazing things in her career and will impact people's lives and communities in stellar ways.

I just realized that with Rachel being finished with 1/10 of her graduate education, I too am 1/10 finished with my rebetsin-in-training education. How am I doing you might ask? Well, I stopped making Rachel's lunch about a month or two after starting, I have resorted to spot cleaning and refuse to mop the floors (they're just going to get dirty again), there is a weekly standoff over who will do the dishes (we don't have a dishwasher) and I slack when it comes to cooking dinner. But I can redeem myself. I do all of the laundry, keep the toilet in tip top shape for us and guests, go to the shuk and grocery store, run other errands (I'm looking around the apartment right now trying to think of other things to tell you) and, um, other things as needed. But chores and errands won't be what this rebetsin is about. I try really hard to be an active member in Rachel's community, to support her and her colleagues in their ambitions, celebrate Shabbat and holidays with everyone, share parts of my personal life with her community to raise awareness of important issues and to connect spouses and families with these future rabbis, cantors and educators. Rachel may have to run out for lunch more often than she'd like in the future, and we may find ourselves saying "gosh the floors got dirty today when the kids were playing" far too many times when we welcome guests into our home, but I will always be there in body, mind and spirit when she and her congregants and community need me. That, my friends, is a promise.

So when I'm not sick and miserable or playing rebetsin, I spend a lot of time at Crossroads Center as a volunteer social worker and librarian. I help run the Moadon on Wednesday nights, which is 4 hours when the TV is off and the kids can only do email on the computers (no youtube or other videos). So they are at a loss, and we help engage them, usually in card games, conversation, music, art and cooking. I also am working on creating a library for the center. They used to have one, and they have tons of great books. I have been working with some great kids to sort through all of the books, categorize them and enter them on a spreadsheet and then label them and put them on the shelves. It's a slow and tedious project that would sometimes go a lot faster if the kids weren't helping, but that's not what it's about, and as the shelves start to fill up we are all able to take pride in this project. A lot of the kids do love to read. I hope to start a book group and get at least one book read before I leave Jerusalem. If I can have a well ordered and user friendly library system in place for Crossroads before I leave I will be very, very happy, and so will they. Once the library is organized, I will have library hours 2 or 3 times a week, which is basically just an excuse to create another opportunity for the Center to engage the kids in meaningful conversation. The Crossroads Center http://crossroadsjerusalem.org/ is a truly amazing place with educated, talented and experienced staff, and the Executive Director has done remarkable things with it. If you're ever looking for a worthy place to make a tax deductible donation, please consider Crossroads. It's very gratifying work for me. The kids are great and are full of potential. I have made some very meaningful relationships and with my mamosh way of connecting with the kids I have made a real difference (this was told to me by a social worker -- nice to know I have a purpose there).

I have created many healing opportunities for myself here in Jerusalem which keep me busy in a really good way. I try to find the time and inspiration to paint, and I'm in the very early stages of teaching myself to play guitar, a dream I've had for many years. I do a great deal of walking but always forget that I usually have my camera with me. I need to take a lot more pictures and videos before I leave. We have reached the point where we need to start doing all of the things we have said "we'll do that before we leave" about, as time is surprisingly ticking away rather quickly. I'm trying to locate firewood right now for our great little wood burning stove, and I have enlisted the help and interest of others in making a pulley system so that we can pull bags up from the ground instead of schlepping them up 5 flights which can be very difficult at times. Whoever rents this apartment after us would greatly benefit from this.

"Visiting hours" have begun for us. We got to spend time with a friend from Washington, DC a few weeks ago, and Rachel's cousin is in the country right now on a Birthright trip. In less than a month my Mom and her best friend will be here followed by Rachel's parents and then my sister and hopefully my Dad. Other friends are considering making the trip, so we have a lot of company headed our way which is exciting. Rachel and I plan to go to Turkey with my mom and her friend while they are here and hopefully to Petra with Rachel's parents. We wanted to go to Cairo towards the end of Rachel's break but it is too expensive, so we may just end up staying in a posh cabin in the Galilee at some point which is fine by me. We are headed to St. Petersburg, Russia for Pesach to help lead sedars in progressive communities that do not have a rabbi. We've heard it's an amazing city and are very excited about this opportunity.

We've had no choice but to start talking about what we are doing when we leave Israel. We have a few weeks between leaving Israel and arriving in Washington, DC that will be busily spent in Cincinnati, Barboursville and Athens, trying to see family and friends and prepare for the move to LA before we go to WDC for 6 weeks where Rachel will be running the Machon Kaplan program for the Religious Action Center, a social justice and politics program for Jewish college students from around the country. I have no plans other than to spend lots of time with the people that I love, so if you have any part-time job ideas for me, please pass them along. At some point during those 6 weeks we will head out to LA for a quick trip to try and hopefully buy a condo or small home or rent an apartment if the buying thing doesn't happen. When we are finished in WDC we will have to start making our way west pretty quickly so that we have time to get settled before Rachel begins school. We're thinking about buying one of our cars at least (we'll need 2, gulp, in LA as we did in DC) and towing it behind a U-Haul, making the cross country trip we've always wanted to make. Once we're settled we'll have someone fly out with the cats, and our family will finally be reunited. I have decided not to start graduate school in the fall. I was planning to get my MSW from USC but have decided that it is not right for me at this time and very well may never be. I have a huge interest in becoming an acupuncturist rather than a social work therapist, and I will explore that option once I am in LA. Regardless of what I end up deciding and doing, I do not want to commit to any schools right away and simply want to get out west, hopefully find a really cool and interesting and better paying job and just work, which is something I really do enjoy, much more so than being a student. A steady income will help our future plans become more of a reality.

Well folks, I think I've updated you on a lot and can't really think of much more to say right now except that starting today, for 3 full days, Israel will be a good 50% dumber than its normal decent intellect due to the mere fact that W has come for a visit. Sure wish we had Comedy Central. And on that note, consider this a new commitment to the blog, so you'll hopefully hear from me again sooner rather than later. I have yet to tell you all about my Christmas in Israel experience where I on the spur of the moment walked with a group of German Lutheran pilgrims from a church in the Old City of Jerusalem to Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. It was an interesting and powerful experience, one that I have yet to be able to articulate, thus my not sharing it with you yet. I'm working on it, though, so stay tuned.

A happy, healthy and joyous New Year to you all.