sorry about the haitus...I'm back

I must first apologize to those who actually read this blog...it's been WAY too long. My deepest apologies go to those who use this as a form of procrastination. Really, you don't deserve such a lack of new material with which you can avoid doing what really needs to be done... I'll make it up to you, ok?

So since there has been too much that has happened over the last two months for me to really make sense of it in paragraph form, I'll do one of the things I do best: make lists. J C'mon you can't say you're surprised. I'll at least try make it all relatively coherent, ok?

1) I was lucky enough to have attended many concerts in the last two months, involving Ivri (twice), Rita (twice), Daniel Solomon and Rami Kleinstein. It is a little insane that I saw Ivri twice in one week after wanting to see a concert of his for at least three years. Then Rita…wow. Rita. She really outdid herself this time. The show, called One, was incredible. Truly amazing. And I'm not exaggerating. I've never seen such insanely awesome acrobatics and dancing and music and lighting and EVERYTHING all together. I am so happy I got to go twice, although the second time was a little bit disappointing in the sense that I planned to go with Ravit and she and Ishay had decided not to come to Israel given the current situation…

2) The situation. The war, if you will. It's definitely not a pleasant situation. Reading the news is sort of like punching yourself in the stomach, but you do it anyway because I've never believed that ignorance is bliss when it comes to this stuff. That being said, Tel Aviv has stayed true to its somewhat random, self-entertaining charisma, and we haven't felt too much change. Perhaps it was just a matter of everyone going from watching the Mundial on TV to watching the news. And to be honest I'm not sure which one caused more dramatic reactions. Sad, but that's just the facts. I've felt a lot of things given this situation: fear, anger, disappointment, resentment, but mostly just sadness. I feel that Israel is justified in her actions despite disliking the results. I wish there were not families dying in Lebanon, but I don't believe that it is our job to protect them. We must protect ourselves. And while this is not a situation I would wish upon any country, here in Israel at least I feel like people are doing all they can to help one another – inviting strangers that live in the north to come live with them, etc – and at the end of the day there's definitely a sense of "mi casa es su casa" in situations such as these. And they don't think twice…it's just an obvious course of events. At the very least it's nice that this sense of closeness and caring emanates from such a scary situation.

3) I've now been in Israel for a year and celebrated as such with my friend Leora (who also celebrated her one year in Israel anniversary) and a bunch of our friends at this bar called Blend in Tel Aviv. It was a really great night and I felt like it was exactly what I needed given a crazy week at work and the stress of watching and reading the news all the time. Plus, after a year of so many things, it was great to just relax and sort of enjoy the present. Seriously this year has been so full in so many respects and yet flew by faster than I think any other year of my life. It hasn't all been great, and I have definitely had my tough moments, but overall I am generally extremely happy and appreciative of how great things have worked out for me here in Israel and wouldn't have it any other way. In any case, there are pictures from Thursday night (courtesy of Miri's camera) that will follow in a separate post (since that's just easier). Check those out.

4) I officially have a reserved (but not totally set in stone) ticket to visit the States in Sept/Oct. I am going to visit for the holidays which will be really great and lots of fun. I kind of can't believe it will have been a year since I was there, and yet I'm sure I'll have some good quality culture shock to remind me just how America works these days… it's a little bittersweet in the sense that there are some friends that I won't necessarily get to see since they are moving elsewhere or have moved elsewhere (not that I can talk since I have put the Atlantic ocean between us…), but I will have some quality time with my family which I can't wait for. I'll even bring with me the DVD of Rita's concert so that my sister can at least get a taste of what she wasn't able to see with her own eyes…

What else can I say… I'm sure a lot more has happened along the way, but that's all I can think of at the moment. I'll do my best not to disappear from the world like I did for the last couple months. Between craziness at work and dating this boy for a while and then breaking up with said boy and Amitai being here and then leaving and then Ravit and Ishay not being able to come after all, and friends and family here that I love and get to see quite often and all the rest of the awesome things that happen here… well, I know, my excuses aren't really good enough, but they are my excuses nevertheless.

I hope all of you out there are doing well and are enjoying life as you should be.