The Land of Milk and Honey

"A land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey; a land where you may eat food without stint, where you will lack nothing."

--Deuteronomy 8:8-9

We've found an apartment in Tel Aviv! It is a great duplex with a rooftop living room that overlooks the sea and the city. It's located just five blocks from the Shuk Ha'carmel market (which is pictured, I think, on the cover of the adjacent book).

I like the looks of the apartment (judging from the photographs), though some of the ameneties seem meager (there is no dryer, nor microwave). Compared to some of the other places, it seems spacious, though. I suspect our budget would have gone a lot farther if we chose to live in the burbs near the Intel plant instead of in the center of the city. But isn't that the way with everything? Our house in the city proper of Portland is half the size of our friend's places in the burbs.

It's in a restored Bauhaus building, and has a sweeping view of the city. Mostly, I am excited about the neighborhood we are living. It seems just perfect. Am I too excited? Am I seeing things that aren't there? I googled the address and up came dozens of restaurants and shops.

But it's the market, the Carmel Market, that has most tickled me. From what I can tell, this marketplace, or Shuk, is about the same walking distance as the Portland Farmer's Market is from our house now. The Shuk, however, sells more than just produce. Having looked through photos on the internet, I have determined that I can buy almost anything I might need there, sundry-wise. As a result, I plan to pack a lot less.

We have two bedrooms, an office, two bathrooms, the living room (above) and an eat-in kitchen. As you can see there is a very large wrap-around deck that extends to the master bedroom.

There was one curiosity that I noticed as we looked through the photos and descriptions. The term "safe room" is used constantly for the spare bedroom. Why do they call it that, I wonder, there is no safe in there that I can see. Then it dawned on me, there are no windows. This is where you go if there is bombing.

So despite all of the pictures of ripe fruits and tanned, happy people, the specter of death is there. It's not that I feel like it won't be safe, I just that there is so much that Israelis (and Jews) have suffered through. The place seems to resonate with a kind of weary history.

So we are busy packing and getting ready. I bought a ton of travel books and maps (and the above Israeli cookbook). We are making plans to see friends before we leave. Hope we get around to seeing all of you! And if we don't, well, there is that 'safe' room that you can stay in if you want to come and visit!

Weekend Update

Every day I just feel better and better. Although today I woke up a little tired.

Last night we had some friends over to watch another friend who was appearing on the Food Network. If you don't know it already, I love having parties. I called my doctor and got the ok to have a couple of glasses of wine. So we opened up some great bottles and hung around eating and watching tv. Not your typical party, but still a lot of fun. I really think I overdid it though. I ended up prepping too much food, and cleaning up too much. By the end of the night, I was just aching. A little too much too soon. But we'll take it easy for the rest of the weekend.

We'll hit the library again this weekend. We've checked out so many great books for our trip. I am just getting around to buying a few off of Amazon. Just ordered Rick Steves Istanbul.

We are trying to think of which side trip we will take in December. I am sure I will still get fatigued easily, so we are thinking of taking an organzied tour with would not involve too much walking. I am thinking Greece! Right now, I am still thinking that we will spend Christmas in Bethlehem and New Year's in Eliat. We still have not received any word on what our 'official' holidays will be.

We have two trips next month. We are going to Phoenix for a wedding. And the next week, right before we leave for Israel, we will spend Thanksgiving with J.'s family in Sacramento.

Visa Comes through!

Jeff's work visa finally got approved over the weekend! Yes, over the weekend. Did you know that the official work-week there is Sunday though Thursday? TGI, um, T? TGIT! But from what I have a lot of things still open on Friday in Tel Aviv for us Goyim.

Anyway, back to the visa deal: now that he has a visa, everything starts moving quickly. We booked our plane tickets this morning and we leave in exactly 7 weeks and one day. Holy cow that's quick!

Getting the visa involved a huge amount of paperwork. Jeff had to submit photocopies of all of his degrees as well as a copy of our marriage licence. Finding all of this paperwork was the hard part. Thankfully, Jeff's degree from CMU is literally two feet by three feet, so I knew where that was! In the spare bedroom alongside everything that we won't ever hang up in our house. I knew our marriage certificate was in that photo album, but finding it was another story. When we did unearth it from the rubble that is storage, we had a nice time actually looking through the old album. I believe my hair was it's natural color! And J was so handsome in his tux! I still have the dress but don't think I can fit into it any more. We couldn't remember who some of the people in the pictures were. Old friends who were important enough then to invite to our wedding, whose names we don't even know now.

Enough reminiscing, I've got to get to work. Really all I have to do is:

1.) Heal
2.) Pack

That's it. And really, what do I need to pack? Just all of the stuff that I can't live without for four months. If it were up to you, what would you put in your suitcases? What can't you live without for four months? Or what would you bring to make another country feel like home? Hmm, wonder if there is bourbon there.

I've got to admit it's getting better...

...a little better all the time!

Well, it's been five days since I came home and every day is better than the day before. While I am still taking percosets, I am taking fewer of them. I am walking around and have been able to move enough to cook a simple dinner. Still in pain, but it's manageable.

Food has been unappealing until last night. I had cooked and put away a lot of good food before surgery, thinking that I would want something delicious and home made. But even my fantastic short ribs were unappealing. All of the comfort foods I usually crave did not do the trick this time. So mostly, this week I have been eating to heal. I have just been eating raw fruits and veggies and simple proteins in the interest of healing my body. Whole wheat toast to get my digestive system moving. Lots of water to rehydrate. Until last night. Last night I ate possibly the most satisfying thing I have ever eaten. A burger. A Carl's Jr. $6 bacon cheeseburger. With a glass of Safeway diet ginger ale. Just out of this world. Awesome. Yes, my friends, I am on the road to recovery. My appetite is back!

Jeff has been around all week and has been helping out immensely. Just him being here is great. He fetches me things and make the most minute adjustments on things (believe me, when you are in pain, minute adjustments matter). He goes back to work in the morning and it's a good thing because he is getting a little stir crazy. I can tell! But I will miss him being here and the talking we have had a chance to do. Though I haven't fallen, it's nice to know that there is someone there to catch you if you do.

He was cutting a peach up for me and I asked him if the peaches were okay (wondering if was taking him a long time because he was cutting off bad spots). He said that no, he had just never cut up a peach before and it was taking him some time to learn how to do it. Cute!

Every day, multiple times a day, someone sends an e-mail or leaves flowers or goody bags at the door or calls to say hello. I just want to tell all of you out there who sent me a goofy e-mails, and dropped off flowers and gifts, and sent cards that it really meant the world to me. It seemed like every time I got down, something would come from one of you. The outpouring of love from you guys has cheered me up to no end.

Enough of the wallow, it's time to be positive! We are six or seven weeks away from our trip. And I am so excited about it! Jeff has been practicing his Hebrew while he's at home. He says it's getting difficult. Oy! I better start. I got the whole '10 Minutes a Day' book, Jeff is doing Rosetta Stone. We are still waiting for visas. Relocation won't do anything until about a month before, but they have our specs.

Our good friends Ken and Sherri are going to be staying in our house while we are travelling (and while they remodel their house). I am so glad that things worked out because I will not worry at all while they are here. Jeff's sister just put us in touch with a friend who works in the US Consulate in Tel Aviv. Now that's a good connection to have! Another friend put me in touch with a real foodie who is from Israel and goes back nearly every year. This guy, who I have never met, sent me a five page e-mail filled with restaurant and market recommendations along with the cell phone numbers of his whole family there. What a mensch!

We rented You Don't Mess with the Zohan (a comedy about an Israeli terrorist who comes to America to be a hairdresser). There is a scene where he is walking though the streets Tel Aviv and ends up at the beach. It looks great! We are both so jazzed to see what our new home looks like. Until we watch the bonus features. It was filmed in Mexico :)! Anyway, the movie was hysterical (on percosets). I laughed so hard that it hurt (literally).

Other things that I highly recommend watching/reading while on drugs:

* Domino magazine. Nothing like day-dreaming about glorious rooms and shopping.

* Candace Bushnell's new book One Fifth Ave. Gossiply good.

* Van Wilder. Watched this on TV last night. Hysterical.

Not good: Vantage Point (movie), Cosmo (seriously, do women still read this crap)?, any of the news channels (no need to add anxiety to my list of symptoms).

Daytime TV really sucks, but I have been blessed with Law and Order re-runs. Now that I am cutting back on the drugs, it will be nice to have enough focus to get into some good books. I want to finish Kafka on the Shore. My book club meets next Friday and I hope to be strong enough to make it. We are reading Eventide, by Kent Haruf. Any other recommendations?

Home after surgery

I am home now, I am feeling okay, on pain medication and recouperating. Jeff's working from home and helping me. Like I said, I am on drugs, so please forgive the ramblings and mis-spellings.

Surgery did not go well, it was not routine. Dr. Collins called it "challenging". When they went in, they just could not see anything. There is a fatty apron (the omentum) that holds all of your organs in place. Mine had fused to my organs. Apparently, some time ago, some kind of trauma happened in my abdomen: I had a burst cyst, a burst appendix or a serious infection or something. So they had to go in and painstakingly lift the omentum by cutting away all of the scar tissue adhesions that had attatched it to my organs. After they were able to lift it up it was routine, and they were able to get all of the tumor and my utereus. They were able to leave my ovaries and tubes and cervix. Though the ovaries had a lot of adhesions on them so I may have to take some hormones to counter-act the shock they have been through.

What should have taken two hours took 5.

But they said that it was good that I had the surgery, because over time these adhesions would have only become more tenacious. Both surgeons said that they had never seen anything like it.

I am home now and feeling okay. I am taking massive amounts of ibuprofen for swelling and percosets for pain. This morning, I am trying to cut back on the percosets so that I can hopefully resume normal 'functioning' soon. I've got stacks of good magazines and Jeff is staying home to help. He is making me tea and toast right now and working from home for the rest of the week.

So because there was so much more cutting, the recovery will take longer, like 6 weeks. But they still do not think that it will interfere with our trip. I am all about the power of the positive right now.

*The big upside of the surgery was that I did not have the adverse reaction to the anesthesia that I did with the breast surgery that I had last year. Seriously, that nausea was what I was dreading the most didn't happen. I was never quesy!

Blogging

Blogging is very new to me. To tell the truth, it smacks of the kind of self-centeredness that I despise. But since so many things have been changing with the surgery and with our trip, it allows me to keep everyone updated without sending out a ton of e-mails. Everything is changing so quickly! Blogging will allow me to keep track of thoughts and ideas, and ask you all for advice. It will allow me to post photos of our travels (and tribulations)!

And speaking of photos, here's one of our dedicated dachshund Lucy, who is coming to Israel with us.

I was thinking the other day about walking the dog in Tel Aviv. I wonder what the streets will be like and if we will make new doggie friends just like we have here in Portland. The first question everyone asks is, 'what kind of dog is that'. I guess I will have to learn how to say תחש in Hebrew.

Will there be morning newspapers in Israel and will there be tea? Now that I think about it, I should not be looking for touches of home while I am away. The whole point of living in another country, which we have have wanted to do for years, is living in another country. But tea is light; I'll put a few boxes in my bag.

Surgery

In two weeks and one day I am having a laparascopic supracervical hysterectomy (LSH). I'll wait while you go google it. Back now? Okay here we go about that.

I have a large uterine fibroid tumor and now some recently discovered cervical cysts. So all of that, and the neighborhood that they have been living in, is being removed.

J. and I met with the surgeon last week. With the voice of an airline pilot he had me feeling both calm and reassured. The surgery should go easily, just 2 to 3 hours long. Just two days in the hospital, and supposedly some people go back to work in a couple of weeks.

That good feeling was erased with a trip to the pharmacy. If there is so little pain, why does my prescription for vicodin come in a bottle the size of a juice glass? I check the label...three refills? I am hoping that I won't be on drugs for a month. And then there is the 'bowel prep kit'. Needless to say I am not doing anything the day before the surgery! Thank God he also prescribed xanax because I need one after getting all of the other things filled!

There is exactly eight weeks between the surgery and when we leave for Israel.