the singable blog

Ingredients: 100% Song Lyrics (each song separated from the next by a "/")

Directions: Sing all content (clearly it's more fun that way)

Good morning, good morning,

Going to work - don't want to go/ everybody's working for the weekend./

And I said hey, what's going on?/ I read the news today oh, boy. /Everybody wants to rule the world. /It's the terror of knowing what this world is about, watching some good friends screaming let me out!/ War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing./ Freedom is seldom found by beating someone to the ground./ It's the end of the world as we know it./ That's when you have to tell me, hey... this kind of trouble's only just begun. So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change.

It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away./ Summertime, and the livin' is easy./ It's a nice day to start again, it's a nice day for a white wedding/ It's such a fine and natural sight, everybody's dancin' in the moonlight./ Summer days driftin' away, but oh those summer nights./ Here in these deep city lights, girl could get lost tonight./

Oh, I've been thinking a lot today./ When it's all mixed up, better break it down./ And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table, no one can find the rewind button now./Sometimes I feel my insides are heavy as heaven must be on the sky./ I think that I think too hard and I don't give enough credit to my heart./ I don't want to be anything other than what I've been trying to be lately. It's a mean town but I don't care - try and steal this - can't steal happiness./ At worst I feel bad for a while/ But then I just smile, I go ahead and smile./

These are the last words I have to say, that's why this took so long to write, there will be other words some other day, but that's the story of my life./

Why do all good things come to end?

treat yourself well... enough with all this guilt!

Just a short post on how I think it is essential that people stop feeling guilty about treating themselves well. People always seem to need excuses to buy themselves things they like if they aren't completely 'necessary' and if they don't provide an excuse, being good to oneself in various forms is seen as somehow "outside the box" or not completely normal behavior. You don't need to get a bonus, feel like crap, have a birthday, breakup with someone, or any other reason in the world to say, ok, now I can treat myself to something I like and make myself happy.

When did self-worth and treating ourselves well go out of style?

And I'm not talking about ego here. When we speak of ourselves and give ourselves compliments above and beyond treating ourselves well, it is inherently a result of some lack of self-esteem, or need to justify our actions. Much like feeling guilty or making excuses for treating ourselves well.

It's also not about pity or feeling sorry for ourselves. It's true, sometimes a chocolate break on a rough day can turn it all around... but you also don't need to wait for a bad day to say, hey, some ice cream would make me really happy right now. period.

I am hardly above this flaw, and in fact I am posting about it because I think it is important to realize that most of us out there have work to do in this regard. Not everyone can "spoil" themselves with material goods, and sometimes we do just to show others where we stand in the hierarchy of society... but if you have it to spend... and it will make you genuinely happy... why the need to justify it? If you tell me it makes you happy, I promise I will believe you.

In short, I've made a New Year's resolution of sorts to stop justifying, both to myself and everyone around me, things that I know make me happy and that I can afford (financially, physically, mentally) to give to myself. I hope others choose to do the same. At the end of the day, we're better for everyone (ourselves included) when we're happy AND, beyond everything else...

we're worth it.

back to life...back to reality

so i could tell you about the rest of my trip in the States, and random commentary about my life upon returning to Israel...but that's not that exciting and i'd much rather do something i've been meaning to do for a while: create a little music quiz for my readers. I got the idea from quizzes that are already out there and people know about and figured i would rather just come up with one of my own and see how people do. i think mine will probably be easier than ones you've seen before, but that's ok, you'll just feel smart and cool for knowing the answers and that's always a good thing. ok, so here we go:

again, the rules are as such:
1) do not, under any circumstance, google the lyrics!! the point is fun. and if you don't know, you don't know. you can of course decide to not submit and then you can google all you want...
2) submitting responses can be either in email form (for those who know my email, which i assume is true of everyone who reads this anyway) or posting.
3) lyrics are from all different parts of songs -- the more random the song, the more likely i'll be to include something from a chorus rather than a verse
4) the person who gets them all right will get something pleasant. i haven't decided what that is yet, but what do you care, it's always fun to win things.

ok, here they are, in no particular order...

1) And I’ve been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
“I’m fine baby, how are you?”

2) Everybody is livin' it up
All the fellas keep lookin' at us
Cause me and my girls, On the floor like what
While the DJ keeps on spinnin' the cut

3) You sleep, too deep, one week is another world
Big mouth, big mouth, drop out, drop out
You get what you deserve
You're stange, insane, one thing you can never change

4) Help me to decide
Help me make the most
Of freedom and of pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever

5) Theres judy garland taking buddha by the hand
And then these seven little men get up to dance
They say confucius does his crossword with a pen
Im still the angel to the girl who hates to sin

6) Take away my trouble, take away my grief
Take away my heartache, in the night like a thief

7) I'm not ashamed to come and plead to you baby
If pleadin' keeps you from walkin' out that door

8) I leave you with your misery
A friend who won’t betray
I pull you from your tower
I take away your pain

9) This is the book I never read
These are the words I never said
This is the path I'll never tread
These are the dreams I'll dream instead
This is the joy that's seldom spread

10) Tougher than diamonds, rich like cream
Stronger and harder than a bad girls dream

11) Remember seeing moons rebirth
Rains made mirrors of the earth
The sun was just yellow energy

12) Now why would I ever stop doing this
With others makin' records that just don’t hit
I toured around the world from London to The Bay

13) To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny
Won't you tell me is that healthy, baby?

14) Lie back and fast asleep
If you could see what I could see
Drip drop a lovely dream

15) Well, there's a piece of Maria in every song that I sing
And the price of a memory is the memory of the sorrow it brings

16) Listen to the banjo wind
A sad song drifting low
Listen to the tears roll
Down my face as she turns to go

17) But I got a dalmatian and I can still get high
I can play the guitar like a mother f***in' riot

18) 'Cos she's watching him with those eyes
And she's lovin' him with that body
I just know it
And he's holding her in his arms
Late, late at night

19) You don't know how long i have wanted to touch your lips and hold you tight
You don't know how long I have waited
and I was going to tell you tonight

20) Now it's like I'm fatal, It's all on the table and baby you hold the cards,
and you got the magic and I gotta have it,
I don't want the pieces I want every single part


Ok, that's good enough for now. I don't think this is really such a random sampling, it's just what i could think of at the moment. but like i said. good enough :-P Happy figuring it out!

"because you never know when you might need a wedding dress"

Just another quotable quote by our lovely Tiferet... of course she did mean it sarcastically -- but it did result out a quite amusing conversation about selling tuxes and wedding dresses...

enzywayz...speaking of ENZYWAYZ...I get to see Nili tomorrow :-) It's been about two years or so I think...maybe more? crazy.

It's definitely visiting season, Amitai is here for a month (although his habit of counting days and saying it's going by too quickly is kind of contagious, unfortunately) and my sister is coming in mid July and random people who I haven't seen in forever are also going to be in the country at some point in the next two months. I actually put it all on my outlook calendar at work to keep track :-P

que mas? it's becoming summer here...i.e. hot. It's nice, but just takes some getting used to in the beginning... it's the era of showers, as I like to say, where you're not used to the fact that you're going to sweat all day no matter what you do, so you just want to shower to feel clean for a little while. At least the evenings cool off quite a bit and it's really nice to walk around at night in a t-shirt -- perfect temperature :-)

i can't say that there's too much in terms of news in my life, but things are overall going really well. I had my first true Shavuot experience (it's not one that i "got around to celebrating" in the states...) which was great. It was also my grandmother's 94th birthday (i know! wow!) and so we went to Mevasseret to celebrate and I got to hang out with all my cousins on my dad's side which was nice. It's funny because I'm pretty much in the middle with that side of my family - my first cousins are all married with kids, and their kids are young but not THAT young (between the ages of 5-20) - but it's nice and in general it's great to see my grandmother so happy to be with all of her grandkids and great grandkids. So yes, I ate way too many cheese-based foods and such for Shavuot as is expected...and had a long weekend (ALWAYS appreciated). now I'm just thinking to myself...when's my next day off? nahh, it's ok. Overall, work is good. But I do sometimes wish it was like the kibbutz where I could finish up around 4pm and get to the beach for the last couple hours of sun... it's only after the fact that people TRULY realize how spoiled they were with something. I remember appreciating at the time, but probably not as much as I should have.

ok, enough rambling for now.
ciao.

a little story: "and then there was one"

First, there were many, and we were all on the kibbutz together and had a lovely old time playing in the sun and "learning Hebrew" and folding laundry.

And then many months passed and everyone moved away from the kibbutz, many returning home to their respective countries. There were just a few of us left in Israel, traveling and starting our lives. Those few were of course still talking, still hanging out the kibbutz, only very slowly realizing that it was all ending...

And then this weekend, there were three. We ate with my family, bummed around Tel Aviv, and even had one last hurrah with a bunch of our Mexican buddies from the kibbutz who are now working in the city. But at the end of the weekend, it was time for one more to embrace in goodbye hugs. Tears were shed (too many too count) and hands waved heartfelt goodbyes.

And then there were two. They walked outside, did their best to dry their tears and then let walking around the city do it's magic. After a couple days of sharing memories, creating new ones, and appreciating the present tense, they too said "l'hitraot" and went their separate ways.

And then there was one.
*************************
only now does it really feel like this 6 month kibbutz experience is really over. and what can I say... just like i learned from YPI when I was 13...

Don't cry because it's over...smile because it happened.

Brokeback Mountain

Last night I went to see Brokeback Mountain with Leora and some of her buddies... I have a hard time calling the experience "fun" because the movie is just really "wow" in a sad way that silently knocks the wind out of you. I'm not sure if it was my mood going into the movie or what, but since we walked out of there, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Something about certain expressions on their faces keeps reappearing in my mind. I usually remember the way people smile and laugh and show love, and here the emotions i remember most from the movie are so many things at once that it's hard to articulate.

anyway...i don't know where i'm going with this. but perhaps you'll see the movie and have your own opinions to share with me.

i'm not in the mood to do very much today. i'm going to visit my grandmother and my aunt later today in Tel Aviv, but i feel like just lying in bed and reading, really. just one of those kind of moods i guess...

the choices we make

this morning i woke up and went about my morning routine (not that i really have one but whatever). and last night before Eyal left to go out and then sleep at Gali's, I told him i would catch a ride to tel aviv with him if that's cool, whenever he left to go to the university.

the following things all had to happen a certain way for the last to happen:
1) Eyal was running late and we only left Petach Tikva around 11

2) he said he would drop me off at the University train station, which is fine because i can get pretty much southbound train to Tel Aviv Hashalom - Azrieli

3) when I got there i debated taking a bus instead, but decided on the train since it would be faster i thought

4) I missed a southbound train that left by like two minutes and had to sit and wait for about twenty more minutes for the next one -- not that many trains run in the middle of the day as it turns out :-P

5) I was sitting on the bench and when the train arrived i was kind of close to one door and a little further from one -- but the further one was more in the direction i would need getting off, so i walked down and got on there.

6) I look to my right and almost walk down the stairs to sit on the lower level but decided, no, i'll go to my left and sit in the little area near the door since i am going to get off in like 4 minutes.

7) I look to my left and who is sitting there with her three bags: IRIS!

I was like...HI!!!!! we both were soo surprised and so happy to see each other that we just started hugging and crying like crazy women. yes, we had just seen each other yesterday and we will see each other again on Friday. But there was something about the randomness and loveliness of that moment that we knew would would just never happen again.

she had had a less than wonderful morning and it was one of the first good things that happened to her that day.

this is just one more thing that proves to me that the world/energy works in mysterious but somehow necessary ways. things alwasy just seem to happen the way you need them to but could never plan out.

ok. that's my random comment.

people don't walk enough

in the last month or so i've done a lot more walking (around tel aviv mostly) and it's become quite apparent that a) people don't walk without a particular destination enough and b) it's a really great way to people watch and get a sense of a city in a short period of time.

maybe once i start working full time (insert hope and positive thoughts here so that this actually happens) i'll probably have less time to just enjoy wandering around the city, but it's been really awesome to just walk without a purpose and realize that i sort of know how to get places. plus it's been helping me connect various places that i was already familiar with but only a separate entities. i'm not yet at the point of being able to give directions everywhere, but i think that should i manage to keep "walking around the city" a part of my daily life, it's only a matter of time :-) being able to give directions is always the key to feeling like you actually live somewhere. i remember that being true both in boston as well as in Madrid.

anyway...that's my random comment of the day.

time to go shower and get a move on...