goodbyes are like the bad taste of overly chewed gum

You know that it's going to run out of flavor and be unpleasant at the end, but the during part is great and definitely worth it.

My mom left for the airport a half hour ago. I won't lie, I started bawling my eyes out. Let's face it, I've never been good at goodbyes. It may even be at the top of the list of things I am not good at. I just have to look forward and a) realize that 6 months goes by like nothing these days b) that my aunt and cousins and sister and everyone will be here this summer which is REALLY close --- and like Gali said, even BEFORE all that, I get to move into my NEW APARTMENT!

We did have a really great time while she was here. We went to Sde Eliezar for the weekend two weekends ago and got a guided tour (courtesy of Dov and his brother Noam) of the area and nice places in Ramat haGolan, ate A LOT of good food, and just enjoyed being with the family. This past weekend we went to visit Miri and Ori in Tiv'on and a bunch of mom's friends from nursing school came over for dinner. The dinner itself was nothing less than exceptional, not that anyone found this surprising considering we were at Miri and Ori's house, and it was so fun and amusing to see my mom laugh it up about the "good ol' days" at Rothschild (nursing school). And now i have a face I will remember (i met most of these women last when i was 11 or younger) to go along with the names in the stories and phone calls I always hear about.

It's been birthday central around here -- Neta (15/3), me (26/3), Riki (29/3), Oren (2/4) so the atmosphere has been very celebratory and cake-filled. I received some great gifts including fun new sheets, a couple new books (including my first Israeli cookbook) and other such goodies. and that is all BESIDES the Superfarm/CVS my mom left for me, not to mention the towels and sheets and SHIRTS she brought and told me that whatever i wanted of all of it was here to stay. Basically, I am set for a good long time in terms of those things...now time to think about furniture!

Anyway...above are couple pictures from the visit -- our dinner of 16 people in the North when we stayed at Sde Eliezar, and Miri, Chen and my mom after brunch on Namal Tel Aviv -- the connection here is much slower than work so I'll upload pictures there later today perhaps.


More to come...