I'm Back

Sorry that I worried people there with my long absence. I really appreciated the emails and comments expressing concern. As you can see, I'm still alive, thanks be to the Lord.

I actually don't want to get into too many details about why I took a break from blogging. Suffice to say that it was a combination of two things. First, I've been feeling pretty "down" lately about some stuff, and didn't know how to address it in my blog, or whether to address it, or how I could pretend to be all happy when I wasn't. I realize that I don't "owe" you guys anything, certainly not to be "happy happy joy joy" all the time, but I do feel a responsibility to deliver the truth as I see it, and to keep blogging as if I was all OK, when I wasn't, just didn't feel right to me.

And then, just as I was starting to feel better about aforementioned "stuff," my mother got sick while in Boston, and was hospitalized. Since my father works in Ohio and my sister lives in California, it was a tough situation. So, I was in Boston for 10 days, keeping my mother company and making sure she got her meds on time, got her switched to a private room, etc. She's a lot better now, and in fact came home today (and my father is with her now), but it was a tough experience. Spending two Shabbatot in the hospital is so not fun. And now the jetlag is killing me. Last night I fell asleep at 4 am and woke up at 3 pm. I feel like the walking dead.

The good news is that prior to my trip, I took the plunge and bought a laptop. Please, no comments about how ridiculous it is that I, a freelance writer, did not already own one. I know, I know. I'd been planning to buy one in a few months, but with all this traveling, sped up the process. I'm now the proud owner of a Dell Inspiron 1150, with wireless internet. So I guess in a way I got a consolation prize in exchange for playing Florence Nightingale. Goodbye apartment, hello Cafe Faza!

The other good news is that I learned that my neighbor in Boston, Craig, is a tzaddik. He is the Ferris Bueller of the Bay State. A righteous dude. I cannot list all the ways that he made this trip 1000 percent easier and less stressful for me, because he is a modest tzaddik and would kill me. I exaggerate not when I say that without Craig, I would have lost my mind last week. Go check out his coffee site, or his home page, or hire his company to debug your computer, or check out his tutorial in deep frying a turkey. Or donate money to his non-profit organization. Tell him Chayyei Sarah sent you.

So, that's it. I'm back in Israel now, for 3 weeks. Then I head back to the USA again for my crazy long Passover vacation. Meanwhile I have a ton of assignments (thank God!), and a UYO seminar to plan for July (more about that later!), and errands to run (taxes, taxes), and of course now I have a 3-day Purim holiday because I'm lucky enough to live in Jerusalem. I'm hoping that Purim will work its magic on me and I'll feel more like myself again soon. But even if not, don't worry; bli neder, I'll keep blogging.

PS. Glamour. April issue. Page 58. Top left-hand corner.