August 2004 Archives

Today is my only sister's birthday. I was looking through my pictures, and I found other pictures of her, but when I saw this one I sorta' got stuck.

It's not a particularly stunning picture, though Rae is definitely stunning in it!

But I see this kind of picture and it just makes me ache for home. Of course, "home" is a rather relative term. My home is in Israel. I have no permanent residence in the States. Other than my parents house - according to my driver's license. It's sort of weird to see my childhood address on my husband's license, too!

But I do miss it. It's quickly becoming time for a visit back to the families....

So, yesterday I got an email saying I had received a package and that it was waiting for me in the mailroom. Now, small to medium size packages (anything in an envelope - as large as envelopes can get) will be delivered to your desk.

I have not been expecting a package, so I was a bit surprised.

I went done to the mailroom, and here was this big box waiting for me - as stated, from an unexpected sender.

Some of our friends came on pilgrimage back in May, I think. She works with Mary Kay, so I asked her if she'd bring me a particular make-up item I like and could not find the equivalent of here.

She kindly brought it and I thanked her, of course, explaining that make-up was pretty expensive here (ever pay $12 for clear nail polish!?!), and that in general there isn't much selection either.

It's for me to doing some ruminating.

Actually, I do it a lot. You just don't always see it, but it's 9:30 on a Friday night and Mark has some work to do, so I'm here at the computer with some free time. Of course, now he's done... so I'll do it later.

This is Sjona (and me).

Sjona is the Spanish Translator for the Universal House of Justice (my employer as well).

Today is Sjona's last day at work.

I am going to miss her very, very, very, very much. Mucho...

This is at Krisia's farewell party. I missed it, and I have pictures of the two of us together, but they're not this good. Krisia has an amazing voice. She sounds like Tracy Chapman. Especially when she's singing Ms. Chapman's songs :-)

Oh, and Lindsay's another good friend. She's leaving, too. She's an actress from Alaska.

My dear friend, Krisia, posted a link to my blog on her's.

Now I feel obligated to have something here, in case someone actually clicks on it!

So. Here I am. I suppose I may have been more interesting in the past, so feel free to rifle through the records of my life for the past year. Just, please, don't expect me to actually see your comment on something from April. I'm anal, so I'll probably go searching (I can see whenever someone posts a comment), but I usually only look for comments in the current or most recent month.

Welcome and happy reading.

Hey, why don't I tell you how I know Krisia.

Krisia is an absolutely stunning woman [in every way imaginable] who was serving at the Baha'i World Centre with me. She worked in the gardens. Have you seen pictures of the beautiful Baha'i gardens in Israel? Well, she was part of what made them beautiful. We really got to know each other when she became my Ruhi book 2 tutor. She's the most amazing tutor I've ever had. People have said it's their least favorite book - I can't imagine it! With Krisia, everything was wonderful. She started teaching me how to play the guitar. She cooked chocolate fondue for us. We went to Hamat Gader together (hot springs). She single-handedly fed the World Centre at the Arts & Crafts Show in February, and managed to have time to sing at the cafe while she was doing it. She knits. Mark has a beautiful hat she made. She rocks and I really miss her, but I love that I can still be a part of her life and that she can still make me laugh so hard. She has moved to Spain to open up a cafe there. I can't wait to visit her and have some of her scrumptious food!

I almost forgot about this entry...

I threw the title onto my blog, left it as a 'draft', and nearly forgot about it.

Any ideas about what these two words mean? I will reveal the true meanings in a few days.

This was the title (at least roughly) of a talk I attended last week.

It was phenomenal. Of course, the man speaking happened to have been one of my most favorite orators. He probably could have talked about toilet paper and I would have found it to be life-changing.

The first talk I attended by him was probably about 6 months ago, and it helped clarify for me my decision to return to the States after our time in Israel. Now for some of you, that may be shocking because perhaps you assumed that was what I'd do all along. However, it wasn't clear to me. I did want to return to the States, but I couldn't justify why that was so important to me. Not that reasons such as:

I want to be close to family when I have children (not to mention close to a health care system I at least vaguely know how to deal with) are not valid.

There's a lot of bashing of the US that goes on these days - sort of a world sport. One point he made was that America's problems are just that. America's problems. Whew - what a load off. I'm so sick and tired of feeling guilty or ashamed about being American. Oh yeah, he also made the point that no one should feel ashamed of where they come from. Good point.

There are 6 rolls of toilet paper on the back of one of the toilet's here at work.

Violetta and I have struggled to understand this situation for some time now.

Because, you see, despite the fact that there is a plethora of toilet paper rolls to choose from, not a single one has managed to make its way to the toilet paper dispenser. Not one. Why?

Now, I could accept that occasionally someone uses up the current toilet paper roll and forgot to replace it. However, this is a near daily occurrence for both Violetta and myself [to encounter an empty dispenser].

What's going on here?

I can't think of anything to say.

I swear I wanted to put something up on my blog, but my mind is a blank.

It's so blank it's embarrassing.

Enh, well, you get the idea.