shuv holechet b'rothschild...

pretty much every day i walk down Rothschild in Petach-Tikva to the bus stop where i take the #51 to Tel Aviv (to work). For the most part I just take what comes first: a bus or a shared taxi since the price is the same and until a couple days ago I didn't have a monthly pass (only good on buses). Then, yesterday morning, I am sitting at work (at which I arrived by bus), and I hear from Riki and then read the news that a young-adult Palestinian man boarded one of these route #51 shared taxis (which are supposidly the "safer option") and started attacking the passengers with a knife.

now, most of you know me well enough to realize that as hard as it is to keep everything in context, I do my best when it comes to these things. In my head I know that the circumstances that drive a culture of people to reach such disgusting and repulsive human behaviors must be beyond awful. At the same time it's moments like this when I think that people are just crazy and that there's no reasoning behind it that can comfort you and make you rationalize the seemingly irrational.

Ahhh...I don't really want to write about this anymore. I just want to say that I am happy I am safe and I will NOT discontinue riding shared taxis or buses or any other form of transportation. I will wake up and walk down Rothschild to my bus station and make my way to work. I will do whatever I can to live life exactly the way I want to until the minute that it's taken from me. It's too short regardless of the craziness of other people, and I'm not about to hand over whatever time I do have just because it's not safe. Nothing's safe. Life isn't safe. And being bored out of your mind from not doing anything because it isn't "safe" isn't living either.

Ok, enough of that. onto GOOD NEWS. My mom is coming on March 19th!!! This year's birthday will most definitely involve a party so that I can invite everyone I love in this country to come celebrate and enjoy my mom being there to celebrate with me :-) Twenty-four may not be such a big year, but i think it will be a fun one for me. Plus, Riki, Oren and Neta all have birthdays around the same time so a big party would be more than appropriate, right? right.

Otherwise, the apt. search continues. I saw a pretty cute place yesterday near tzomet Dizengoff and Gordon (very close to both the beach and my grandmother). we'll see what happens with that.

Yalla, time to get back to work. Just thought I would write a bit to catch up with the world, etc. Hmm, now (thanks to the title of this entry) I'm in the mood for some Miri Mesika :-)