i read Keats’ “The Eve of St. Agnes” last night, since today is the saint’s day, and the last verse made me cry. Being able to transcend life through love – especially in these difficult times – is such a romantic concept. precisely because it is impossible in real life. that’s why we have cellphones…
january 21, 2021 – St. Agnes eve Read Post »
No one could hope for a more fun vaccination than we had. At the entrance to the site we got asked – very quickly – if we had fever, have been abroad, had a sense of taste, and as we were getting used to saying no, switched to positive questions like “do you have an appointment? are you here for the vaccine? …Ha! fooled you! Just checking to see if you were paying attention…” Then they brought us together to a very cheery nurse – a heavy-set, braided, black man, who picked up on my strange sense of humor and realized that humor relaxes the muscles. We joked about our respective ages, our health, our reactions… and …we were out… cut our waiting time short and off to bed. To watch the departure of Trump from the white house.
what a delight – to keep switching channels and hearing the antithetical takes of CNN and FOX on the political games people play….
january 20, 2021 – vaccine and inauguration Read Post »
one of the few things I argue with my husband about is the fact that he doesn’t record his family history, especially the stories of his grandfather, Arpad Gut. Many of the buildings and bridges and water towers he built in Israel and Hungary are well known, but nothing has ever been written about the Kazinczy Street Synagogue in Budapest. Arpad built this synagogue in 1913 – before the war – and it was one of the last things he built in the city before he was sent to the Front as an engineer, wound up in a Prisoner of War camp in Kajkstan and walked home after the war. Once home in Budapest he was uninvited (as a Jew) to the opening of a building he built just before the war, and decided to move to Israel. The synagogue, to my mind, has great symbolic value to the history of the Jews in Europe in the story I want Ezi to write.
of course he doesn’t read my blog, so he won’t be influenced by my plea…
january 19, 2021 – The Kazinczy Street Synagogue Read Post »
First thing in the morning we will be getting our second vaccine. Because I seem to react to everything with force, I’m not planning any activity. But I will be glued to CNN and FOX, my eyes on the football bags.
Israeli politics is much less dramatic. We were not even told that all our info has been shared with Pfizer. If the whole debate in the US in recent years has been about the right to privacy, we aren’t in the discussion.
january 19, 2021 – tomorrow – inauguration Read Post »
The Israel Association of Writers in English has been incredibly active this year, keeping their writers not only sane, but inspired as well. The latest innovation is the newsletter, AChord – but there have been numerous and varied zoom evenings, two journals, and much encouragement. check out not only the journal, but also the site of the organization itself.
January 18, 2021 – iawe newsletter Read Post »
Here in Israel we have no idea what the political parties will be running in the coming, untimely, election. As a member of the Labor party (I know, it sounds ridiculous but I’ve been a member since I was 10) I keep getting polls about who i would chose for the head of the party. And the possibilities keep changing. What if Ehud Barak decides to come back? So many enemies, so many supporters.
And of course, what difference will it make? Will the government alter in any way? At the moment even our medical decisions are so strongly influenced by blocks in the government, is it possible to create a government that treats the plague objectively, practically? At the moment – after two weeks of ‘lockdown’ the numbers continue to remain steady – because no one believes the government – and do their best to get around the laws. We need faith, trust, honesty, and we can’t pull together to beat this virus until we get it.
The same is true for the US of course.
So will Biden change the atmosphere? I think so. There is such a mess that any order will improve the outlook.
january 18, 2021 – politics: everything up in the air Read Post »
After a night of fever and chills, I call my doctor who is holding office hours. He gives me instructions to let him into my account, orders a prescription to the pharmacy and now I can, if i have to, can get the prescription delivered. And in this way, I can avoid the hospital nightmare of last spring.
january 18, 2021 – medical attention Read Post »
the only shop I’ve been in for almost a year is the butcher shop (It’s probably not true – we bought some chairs last summer as I recall). But anyway I needed some bread – and although I usually just order everything from the supermarket, we had to get money from the cash machine and the bakery was next door. But it has been so long, I couldn’t figure out how to order the bread, and I wound up asking the guy behind the counter to choose what kind and then where I should pay. I can’t believe how difficult it was for me to maneuver a simple purchase. But maybe I’ve just got my UTI back again.
The bread, by the way, was pretty indifferent. And sliced too thin. And cost too much.
january 17, 2021 – bread Read Post »
