surely you remember the ritual of putting on a face.
the cream, the base, the make-up, the powder.
the rubbing of eyeshadow onto the finger then the eyelid
the spitting into the mascara so the brush
will take it up the black stone, the brushing of the lashes,
then the liner to outline the new brightness of the eyes.
and the lipstick, put on with pursed lips
the touch-up for the day – the guarantee
together with the perfume
for a perfect day.
august 28, 2021 – putting on a face Read Post »
last month, when things were safer in Tel Aviv, i bought tickets for a friend and us for the opera of Romeo and Juliet, slated for this afternoon. The article in the Jerusalem Post had really hyped it up and I didn’t read it very carefully because I go all hyped about the fact that Romeo and Juliet are both women. So Bellini’s opera is in itself a stylized, artificial piece, something like a series of staged portraits, and despite the Lesbian pretension, the world in which they exist forbids everything but strict patriarchy and family feuds. In our world today all rules are open, where anything can happen at any given moment, this opera had absolutely no relevance.
And yet, it was not that mistake that drove me to leave my friend at the break. It was the crowding and misbehavior of the audience. Maybe it was because we were way up on the top, the peanut gallery, but there were no seats free, every other person was wearing a mask, and there was a lot of waving, coughing, kissing, and even dropping of bottles.
So I sat there – double-masked – watching two alleged Lesbians sing to each other without showing any affection to each other – and wishing I hadn’t had lunch because it was coming up. And it the break, I scooted out – never looking back.
Nili will never talk to me again.
And it will be a long time before I go to an opera again..
I must add that Orit, who came with us when Ezi backed out, said immediately as we left – that as the stylized pistol battles were going on, she couldn’t stop thinking of Afghanistan, and what were these girls all singing about. Certainly not life. Juliet in Bellini’s opera is self imprisoned. The concept of honor itself, she said, is a prison. And as we discussed this on the way to the parking lot, we began to move back to the real issues in the world.
august 27, 2021 – tel aviv’s Romeo – wherefore art thou? Read Post »
Because she had a clipped ear, we knew she had been neutered by the municipal animal control unit. And because she had a hanging empty belly we knew she had been neutered when she was pregnant. And because she was so small and battered and the other cats wouldn’t let her eat if we tried to feed her, we started keeping watch over her when we brought out food, and when that didn’t work, we encouraged her to come up to eat in our place. So for the past year and a half, she comes in twice a day for food – and sometimes sticks around to rub herself on the furniture. She grew up to be enormous. She doesn’t let us touch her, and this is her way to connect. But when we came back from a few days away, I saw blood under her tail, and then we could see she had been entered violently. Then we saw the bald spot on the back of her neck, where some cat had bit into her – as he held her down and entered her.
Even a neutered cat, or a neutral nation, can be attacked – especially when all order has been lost.
august 26, 2021 – cat rape Read Post »
After 3 days of feeling sick to my stomach, I suddenly developed a longing for manti, those Turkish dumplings my nephew from Istanbul introduced me to many times. And so we found ourselves at Maris (the link is here).
We didn’t find Manti, but the food was marvelous, and we overdosed on coffee and dessert, the names of which I cannot repeat.
With all the terrifying unknowns in our lives – the Isis variant, the Corona variants, the weather madness – appetite for good food remains a wonderful escape. May all the refugees of the world, all the displaced peoples, all the sick and recovering folk, may all of us continue to have an appetite for wonderful food, and may we all be able to enjoy it!
This lunch was particularly enjoyable to us because we had managed to solve some of the more nasty electronic problems that have plagued us for weeks. Some examples – half my email disappeared before I saw them, and I don’t know which half; no messages arrived on my phone; the overflowing sewer under my window hasn’t been fixed for weeks – but tomorrow… i could go on forever…
august 26, 2021 – maris turkish restaurant Read Post »
Okay, I don’t need it yet, but when I get a note from the health clinic that I am eligible for delivery because I’m over 75. Wow. I get into the health clinic website, ask the doctor for my medications, and then ask for them to be delivered to my home. If this works, I will need it someday soon.
But normally I would want to go to the doctor to find out if I actually need these medications, and I’d want to hear from the pharmacist if there is something I need to know about these medications.
And anyway I think they made a mistake on the quantities and gave me much more than my usual dose. Let’s see when it gets here…
august 25, 2021 – medication delivery Read Post »
Since I’m connected to the Daniel Amichai Rowing Center, and among other things we work on sponsoring a number of paralympic champions, I celebrate this day of the opening of the Paralympics in Tokyo. But I never knew until just now who started the paralympic games. Check out the article linked here about Ludwig Guttmann here that really piqued my curiosity, and now I have to know more about the amazing doctor.
august 24, 2021 – paralympics Read Post »
With the last heatwaves, even we can’t bear being home all the time despite the ideal conditions. All the crowds, we heard on the radio, were at the shopping malls where no testing or green passes were required. So we picked up the grandchildren in Tel Aviv in the morning and drove to the Natural History museum where they give quick-results corona tests, required to get into museums and pools. Unfortunately, after 20 minutes waiting in a very slow-moving line, the single technician announced that the system was down. So we went home for an early lunch, and came back over an hour later, where the same technician was dealing with a much shorter line. The system was back up. But what we didn’t know was that we had to scan a code, fill out forms for each child, and get a code. And that’s when I discovered that my phone stopped getting messages for some strange reason. I went back to the line, and when my turn came, told the technician my problem. He stopped testing, looked up the data for me, and sent me the test code to my email. Unfortunately, my email also suddenly went haywire. I went back, and this time and cut through the line to the technician, who once again, stopped everything, and took Ezi’s number. Eventually we got our negative results, and cut across the street to the Anu museum.
I want to point out that the single technician who worked with remarkable patience, professionalism, and devotion was a very young Arab man. I didn’t think to ask his name, but he deserves special recognition for taking such good care of so many children, interrupting his long hours of testing only with repeated warnings to the people to observe social distance.
We were not in a peak mood for this museum. This deserves another entry.
august 24, 2021 – where the crowds are Read Post »
HOW I LOST YET ANOTHER FRIEND
“I won’t have anything to do with that vaccine,”
she complains, “Not just because I trust in freedom,
but you know I won’t put any substance in my body
that hasn’t been tested and approved.”
We are both old ladies. I don’t respond
with the same rapidity as days gone by,
and think first about how I used to admire
her wild way of being alive,
the liberty and ease of her ways.
And then I recall that at my age
I’m allowed to be rude,
And look down at my lap and say,
“What about all those guys you screwed?”
august 23, 2021 – anti-vaccines or “how i lost another friend” Read Post »
