30 for 30 Winter Edition

I will be participating in Kendi's 30 for 30 blogger challenge.

• Thirty clothing items (including shoes) remixed into 30 outfits.
• No shopping for 30 days.

Not too hard, right? It started on February 1st, but I might exclude my traveling day just so I can wear some schlubby clothes.

Both A. and E. of Academichic participated as did Sara. Their experience was so inspirational, so I decided to try it out. It'll also challenge me to wear my existing items in interesting ways!

Sartorial Adventure!

Celebrating Abba: The Big Birthday

Yesterday was my father's birthday - the reason that I came to Seattle so secretly! Tonight we are having a big party at out house!

Mazal tov to my father!

A Return to Skiing

I hadn't been skiing for two years until my dear brother took me up to the mountains this week!
I whined, I complained, I skied like a bat out of hell!

Brother and Sister Scout, ready to go!

Shadow wants to come too!

My chauffeur! 

Check it out! Mountains!

Drivin' in the car!

Getting closer!

On the lift!

I was very much out of practice, but I enjoyed myself. I was absolutely freezing on the lift, but warm and toasty while moving around. My boots didn't quite fit correctly. They were too tight on my calves and shins. I have bruises now! I guess my legs have  changed since middle school!

The skiing was decent, the snow was wet but I enjoyed myself thoroughly! Both my brother and I got snow up out noses!

I had a great evening upon my return from snow sports adventures!

STARBUCKS?!?

My first visit to Starbucks after being in Israel.

The baristas helpfully informed me that if I feel a hankering for good ol' Starbuckian coffee while in Israel, I can just hop over to Amman. 

Jordan: Petra and Chai Lattes!

Return to Bellingham

I took my sister up to school on Monday. I stopped in Fairhaven at my favorite coffee place to buy the legendary pumpkin cookies. Seriously people. I have dreams about these cookies. Passionate dreams about cookies.

Lovely, rainy Fairhaven!

Lovely rainy Dos Padres! Yummy nachos can be found there!

YGirl avec le chai latte de Starbucks!

RAIN!

New Shoes Part 1

Check 'em out! Target's finest!

And the accompanying outfit:

I try...

I work really hard to be proud of my friends instead of jealous and build them up rather than undermine them.

Girls have the ability to tear each other down, and I think it's really ugly.

You know, making someone else feel ugly doesn't make you feel prettier. 

I try to celebrate how beautiful my friends are even when I'm feeling shitty.

Hello from Seattle!

Hey! This is just a quick little musing that I want to capture. I will post the details of my journey to Seattle in a later post.

It's strange being back in Seattle. Part of me feels like I have even been in Israel. Everything seems pretty natural and normal. I had a Chai, eat Chinese and Indian food, saw some friends, drove a car (haven't done that in about five months!).

But when I talk with people it feels like I have to give them a whole back story. I have to explain my use of Hebrew, my little jokes with precious E. and my new fixation with all things CT. I don't know if I am boring people or just that people don't know how to respond to: "Listen, if I wanted to plan a terrorist attack in central Manhattan, I would put explosives on...." and "The TSA would be wise to require their personnel to be as cheerful as a Starbucks barista due to the higher rates of effectiveness and general trust- and morale-building...."

I also didn't realize how uncomfortable I am around some people and that now I have to consciously compensate for passive-aggressive criticism when I around them. With my friends in Israel I receive praise for the good that I do, or when I look good and polite corrections or disagreements when we have a difference of opinion.

I miss my friends in Israel now!

I'm having some self-esteem issues too, so some morale-boosting is in order!

Wow, Finals are brutal.

I haven't been posting much because I don't really know what to post about my life right now.
It all just seems dreadfully dull. For example:

Today I procrastinated all day! I haven't done any of my reading but I did buy some yarn and walk around town with E!

In any case, yesterday we had our Adamsky final. This professor is my very favorite. He is jaw-droppingly smart and handsome. We all adore him! He emphasized that the final wasn't going to be difficult because the course is for our "intellectual pleasure." Apart from being an exceeding pleasurable experience (with lots of swooning on the part of at least 60% of the class), it was informative a interesting. E. and I agreed that we are both going to miss him and his course over our break. The final was fairly easy and the professor stopped by at the end, looking dashing and marvelous. He really is a pleasure.

E. and I walked back to the center with our friend Diana to have early dinner and then took the bus to the MAX BRENNER for our reward. We have been trying to reward ourselves for studying because our motivation has been so low. After that I had a drink with a new friend who is fascinating and very engaging. We talked about music and spirituality and my impressive procrastination!

Tonight I am going for dinner at a friend's house. She's an exchange student from India and is truly delightful! She makes wonderful curries too! Yummy!

Lesson of the Day

Do not go to the shuk (or Tel Aviv for that matter) on Fridays. There is a reason that school is on Friday. To stop YGirl from going to the shuk and shoving people out of her way in frustration.

Also:
Israelis don't have such a thing as "health code violations."

Shabbat Shalom, y'all!

Yaffo! Hummus!

Sweet J and I decided that we wanted authentic hummus so we got in a taxi and told the driver that we want good hummus in Yaffo. And off we went!

We ended up in Hummus Hajj - an Arab place. They waited on us hand and foot.
We had a salad and salatim (little tapas or mezze) and fresh pita and pickles etc. in addition to our hummus im bassar (hummus with meat). In this case the meat was sliced beef.

We walked back to the old city of Yaffo to catch a taxi back to Sweet J's place. I frantically photographed our surroundings as the sun was setting. Many of the buildings in Yaffo were painted, which is very different from the Israeli white stucco or Jerusalem stone.

Green House!

Yaffo also has lots of decorative tiling and wrought iron doors and window shutters.

Orange House!

Christmas tree posters! Also, this wall does look ominous, but there's only a basketball court on the other side.

It doesn't show up well, but there is a Pink House back there!

A view of Tel Aviv from Yaffo.

More tiles!

A Catholic church made of Jerusalem stone.

VICTORY! I finally found the place that I was looking for last time we were in Yaffo.

Nauseatingly Green House!

Almost at the square!

We got back to Sweet J's and then I gathered my things and returned home on the bus.

Sushi, Tel Aviv and Clubbing

There is a sushi chain here that is fairly reliable and I have been to a couple times.

I went there with Sweet J. before we went to a friend's birthday party.

Then we walked up to Sweet J's place to get ready for the party! I snapped some pictures on the way.

Eggplant graffiti.

Then we went to our friend's birthday party. The age limit of the club was 27. Ridiculous. I lied to get in and Jeremi had to get special permission. The music was good and we danced all night!

They had glasses filled with gummy candies on the tables! Yum!

Sweet J. had to save me from two creepy guys. One of them put his arm around me and tried to whisk me away! Thank goodness for J!

Resolved!

I don't usually make resolutions for the new year, I feel it's a little artificial to chose to start doing something at the beginning of the year rather than another time. In the past I have used my birthday as a starting point for resolutions, but I feel like I need to write these down now.

I will accept compliments when I received them without qualifying them.

I will be open to constructive criticism and bear in mind that it doesn't reflect on me as a person.

I will try to bridge the gap between knowing something and feeling something.

I will remind myself that jealousy should be replaced with appreciation.

2011, here I am.

Quote of the Day

"If you've got a marriage face, you do what you can with it."

-Adi, giving me dating advice.

SYLVESTER!!!

Happy Belated New Year!

In Israel we call it the Sylvester because we already have a new year (Rosh HaShannah).

I went over to a friend's house for dinner and then walked out with Diana to check on E. because she was feeling under the weather. Diana brought E. dinner! So sweet!

We preceded to have a ragingly crazy evening of putting together the paper Christmas tree that E.'s lovely parents sent her.

It got funnier and funnier.

Then a little serious.

Then: Happy E!

Happy Sylvester!

Lovely Roommate Date!

E. and I took each other to dinner last night as out Chrismukkah presents.

I put on my fancy pants:

And we piled into a taxi. The cab driver insisted that he knew the perfect place for excellent food in Herzliya and decided to drive us there. It turned out the place that we had been planning on going to anyway.

Sebastian

I had house-made pasta and E. had the fancy schnitzel. I had South African wine that smelled and tasted like guava and E. had a beer. The restaurant is staffed by the prettiest collection of beautiful people. It was lovely!

We moved on to Max Brenner for hot chocolate and chocolate pizza with Noam for dessert.

Ah-mazing!

Herzliya Pituach

I went for a very long walk across Herzliya Pituach, the fancier part of our city. It's on the beach and there is a high-tech sector. A lot of diplomats live there:

It's quite pretty.