Details, Details

This evening, I removed a stack of glasses from my cabinet. I separated the top one from the one below it, and put the other two back in the cabinet. About five minutes later, we heard a shattering noise. When I reopened the cabinet, there was one glass, with the shattered remnants of the glass that had been above it settled in its bottom and clinging around the upper edges in a way that was still vaguely drinking-glass shaped. The shards looked like the kind you get when a car window breaks, and for a few minutes afterward, just like with the car window (yes, a car window once broke on me - safety glass is very cool), we could hear the glass crackling. Later, when I cleaned all of the glass off the shelf, I discovered that shards of glass had landed in the top glass of another stack of three glasses (remember, the broken one was in a stack of two when it broke) - which means that not only did it shatter, it shattered with enough force to send glass flying upward! It is a very good thing that cabinet door was closed.

I took pictures, but I don't know how to post them here.

It was a rather intriguing experience.

In Israel, people don't plan ahead as much as they do in America. They go with the flow, and plans change with impressive frequency. This means you end up having all sorts of experiences you didn't plan on having - and sometimes, they are rather pleasant surprises.

Last night, I had plans to get together with boroparkpyro and another friend (if she has an LJ, I don't know it) for dinner. In the end, the second friend could not join us - but instead, maric23 joined in for one more visit before I head back home - and also five of boroparkpyro's friends, all in for a wedding today.

It turns out, the eight of us (well, for a while it was eight, but one left before we headed out to dinner, so then it was seven) had an amazing time. There was about an hour of hanging out down at the bottom of Agrippas Street, and then we went to this Italian restaurant that maric23 knew of. The food was okay - good, but not enough of it, really.

But the food was not the fun part.

The fun part was that all of us (I hope all of us) had such a wonderful time. It was a fairly random assortment of people - five who knew each other, true, but then there was me, who only knew one member of that group - and knew of a second but hadn't met him - and maric23 who only knew me.

And yet, we were chatting away almost at once, about everything from archaeology to Firefly. (maric23 and I were pleasantly surprised to hear sen_ichi_rei call her dessert "shiny"!) We had such a good time, we felt a need to take a group photo - see maric23's blog for that.

It was really great to meet everyone, and the fun part is, every one of us has a livejournal. Unfortunately, I didn't quite remember all of them... Of course, I already know mine and boroparkpyro and maric23, but I also met alanscottevil, who, buy some odd stroke of happenstance is related rather closely to boroparkpyro - but don't tell anyone I said that - and whose name I heard many times growing up from orisnori - so it was exciting to finally meet him in person. I also met... let's see if I get the names right... sen_ichi_rei, attackpenguin and one or two others whose user names I am missing.

So if someone wants to fill in the ones I don't have...

Anyway, it was so much more fun that I ever could have expected. A big thank you to all of you for being a part of a fabulous penultimate night in Jerusalem (well, penultimate for this trip - I hope to spend many more nights in Jerusalem in years to come, of course).

I hope all of you who came in for the wedding have a wonderful time.

It's such an amazing feeling to meet a group of people and mesh with them almost instantly - mesh so well, I think, that any stranger who walked by would have thought that each of us had known every one of the others for a long time, not just a matter of hours.

That's what I thought the van parked in Chinatown said. It's much more interesting than what the van actually said - "demolition and carting" - and it also shows how tired I was on Friday.

As for what I was doing in Chinatown in the first place - well, that is a happy thing - I finally got my last paycheck for the summer. Now, if only I could get my first paycheck for my current job... that would make me very happy.

In other news, I started wandering around to the new schools on my caseload. I was sitting in an office looking at documents in one of them when a person walked in and introduced herself as a speech teacher. She looked at me for a moment and said something along the lines of, "you look familiar, but you're in the wrong context. What's your name." I told her. Then she asked, "were you AN's roommate?" "Yes. How do you know her?" "I live with her now."

And did I mention that all three speech teachers in that particular school are Jewish? They showed me the one kosher place in the neighborhood - a falafel place, which also sells sushi. Does every single kosher place sell sushi now? It didn't quite match the other foods there - all very Israeli. Made me think of the article in the Times this week (last week?) in the dining section about how Chinese food gets mixed with all sorts of other cuisines - including Kosher. Of course, Sushi is Japanese, but never mind...

On a different note, it's strange enough when I realize people my age are married. Even stranger to meet someone around my age who is divorced.

Today, in honor of Independence Day, I did something incredibly American - I shopped. For many hours.

AF and I began our adventures on the Upper West Side with a failed visit to Ann Taylor - which was closed - and a more successful visit to Staples, where I bought chalk - in case the school doesn't have any tomorrow. (Did I mention I begin my new job tomorrow?)

Then we headed down to Loehmanns (or however it is spelled) where we spent... was it four hours? That store has that effect. After trying on tons of clothing, I managed to purchase an entire two skirts.

After a quick lunch at J-2, AF and I parted ways, and that was where my adventure truly began - with a trip to Conway, where I bought four skirts, at least one of which I knew I was going to return (I bought two in different colors and need to make a decision which one to keep). I was satisfied with the knowledge that I have 30 days to decide.

Then I got to H+M - and discovered that I had lost the receipt.

This was a bad thing.

At first, I didn't panic. After all, my gut was telling me all was not lost - or rather, that the receipt was not lost. If it had truly been irretrievable, I would have had that icky, sinking feeling in my aforementioned gut. The kind that means, react how you want - it's not getting found. Say goodbye to whatever it is that is missing. (Incidentally, I get that same feeling when I have forgotten to pack something like my toothbrush - or when I have made a particularly bad decision.) This time, there was a noticeable absence of such a feeling in my gut.

I still panicked. At first, I was calm. I looked around the dressing room at H+M, shook out all of my purchases, then searched the store... then, I started to ignore the absence of the sinking feeling in my gut, and began to panic. A frantic walk back to Conway followed, in which I turned over every stray paper on the pavement, and wondered if my receipt hadn't decided to float over to the East River to watch the Fireworks.

Then I got to Conway, and, in a total panic, began to ask people what I could do - would I still be able to at least get store credit - no, just an exchange. Could they print me another receipt? Of course not. (Macy's, by the way, can apparently do this if you have paid by credit card. But not Conway.) So I was freaking out in a big way. Of all the receipts - this one was one I knew I would need again.

In desperation, I searched the floor by the cash register - where I had stuck the receipt in my shopping bag specifically so that I would not lose it. The bag was even stapled shut - not that this had stopped the receipt from falling out, it seems...

I stumbled toward the exit, incredibly upset, still searching the floor - but no longer expecting to find anything - and then, about ten feet from the door - and not even the door I originally exited through, there was a piece of paper. I turned it over - and I was very happy and relieved.

Then I went to Macy's.

Last night, M took me out for my birthday/graduation to La Creperie. The food was good; the dessert was excellent. (of course, the company was great as well...) I had sea bass, and I ate everything on my plate. Including a fishbone. Though that one took a while to swallow - it was stuck in my throat for a few rather annoying minutes. So that was also a new experience. For dessert, we both had crepes. They got my order confused, which means they managed to read my mind. Instead of peach and whipped cream, I got peach, ice cream and raspberry sauce. It was wonderful. And the peaches made my tongue tingle - like the way my tongue tingles when I drink fizzy wine. And it did the same to M's tongue, so there was something interesting about those peaches.

Anyway, it was great. But M and I both agreed it works better as a dessert place. It's much more cost-effective to eat dinner elsewhere.

And today, I auditioned to work for Kaplan - I practically swore, many years back, that I would not work there on principal. But they pay well, and I actually stand a chance of getting a job. The audition went well. A five minute how-to lesson - well, she let them go for six, and I just barely finished. Mine was on how to remember names. One person did one on how to bake a cake in a dorm. Apparently, cake mixes work in the microwave if you cook them for 30 times how long it takes to heat up bread - about 3-6 minutes, it seems, depending on the microwave.

Who knew?

One application she didn't think of: really great for when Shabbat is approaching way too quickly. I shall have to give it a try some time.

This afternoon, I got a headache. I took advil - no help. So I took a nap. Woke up an hour later. Felt better. Then I got out of bed. And there was the headache. So what did I do? I went and took another nap. This time, it worked.

After the second nap, it was down to Old Navy - last day for me to get 20% off with my card. I had a fun subway ride down to 34th st. I was on the local train with a bunch of Tsofim - Israeli scouts. Some were wearing their shirts - that's how I know. Plus, it was this big bunch of people talking in Hebrew - but not in an annoying way. In a hanging out sort of way. And there was English too. But I understood the Hebrew. And Y will be pleased - or perhaps jealous - to note that they were singing Hadag Nachash as well - the sticker song. I was so tempted to say something, but I didn't.

And while I am posting, I just want to share that I had a wonderful weekend visiting N in Long Beach with AF and M. I rode the LIRR for the second time in my life - and it was much less eventful than last time - when I went to visit AB's family, and the train schedule got all messed up and we ended up on the wrong train. I also rode the LIRR for the third time - because we took it back to the city also on Saturday night.

The weekend included such interesting moments as ten straight minutes of uncontrollable laughter on my part - I really have no idea how that happened. It hurt. But it was also rather funny - which, of course, just made me laugh harder - AB, would that be metalaughter? But that just shows how good a time we had. And there were three walks on the boardwalk, which was almost on the way to shul (a block out of our way) and gorgeous weather. And we ate lunch on the terrace. And we heard a report on the radio about how a terrorist's computer had been found, and all the data was easy to access on it because he didn't encrypt it or whatever, and so the newscaster urged everyone listening to remember to protect the data on their computers. Then she said something like, "but if you're a terrorist, remember that this advice is coming from a woman who is also an infidel." Or something like that (those of you who were there can feel free to correct me.)

There were also numerous other interesting and entertaining moments, including a failed culinary experiment - avocado soup. We experimented further while sitting at the table, and found ways to make it... edible, but then we all gave up and poured it down the sink. On the flipside, dessert was a smashing success and a wonderful team effort, involving AF's brownies - heated up, my fruit salad - which took a forever to make, N's parve ice cream, and M's dessert wine. So that was wonderful.

In general, it was a fun weekend, and I'd say more, but I need to go to sleep now...