Wanna see my latest cover feature?

Given that I had less than two weeks to work on this, I think it came out alright. (Click on "home" if necessary to get to the "In Search of Awe" issue. Link will last only a month.) The interviews were very interesting. Feel free to send praise and criticism to the Editor!

Pre-emptive move: Yes, I know that by linking to an article I've published, I am giving away my last name. For God's sake, I'm not an idiot. We go through this every time. Sheesh.

End-of-Week Summary

What Chayyei Sarah is . . .

Reading (in Hebrew)

Re-reading (in English)

Listening to on her birthday cassette player

Writing about

Still trying to process

Turning over and over in my mind, trying to decide what I think should be done

Applying to do in the mornings

Trying to do but having a hard time getting motivated - and not much time left!

Bunny Therapy

Step 1: Go to the pet store on Emek Refaim Street and pat the bunnies. Let the one which likes to lick anything that moves lick your hand. Watch the little kids who come in pat the bunnies. Watch one of the bunnies lie there very still and resigned, trying to sleep while Licker bunny licks his face. Watch the guinea pigs for a minute. Pat the bunnies some more.

Step 2: Go next door to the Steimatzsky bookstore and buy a copy of "Givat Vahtairsheep," the Hebrew translation of Richard Adams' classic epic novel, Watership Down, the English version of which is sitting on your shelf, tattered from multiple readings and very much loved.

Step 3: Take the book home, get into bed, skip to your favorite part, and start reading.

Welcome to everyone who is here via OddTodd.com!

I am so excited to be today's "Sunday's Blogger"! Thanks, tOdd!

Just to catch everyone up on who I am, my name is Sarah, I'm 33, and I moved two years ago from the USA to Jerusalem. I work as a freelance writer, mainly journalism. This blog is about my observations and adventures as an American in Israel, my dating (mis)adventures (see the post directly before this one . . . ), and a hodgepodge of political opinions, musings, interesting links, and news about my friends and family. Welcome! Please visit any time!

Every so often I'll sprinkle my posts with Hebrew words, which I often forget to translate, and references to Jewish culture which I may forget to explain . . . if there's anything you want me to decipher, just let me know in the comments section. I'll try to be better about explaining the confusing stuff.

(By the way, the title of my blog alludes to the verse in Genesis that says "And Sarah lived 100 years and 20 years and 7 years; these are the years of 'chayyei Sarah'" -- the life of Sarah" Get it? My blog? My life? Life of Sarah . . . Chayyei Sarah. OK. Whatever.)

By the way, even though I live in Israel, my life can be extraordinarily . . . ordinary. Seriously, whatever you see on the news, I'm not spending my life dodging bullets. If you want to see English-language Israeli blogs with more real-life incidences that are connected to news events, I recommend this blog (American living in the West Bank) and this one (Canadian in Tel Aviv; often goes to exciting places like Gaza and Jordan in her work as a reporter).Or check out my blogroll to the right ------->

Here's a list of links to my almost-world-famous series of posts about the singles' event from hell.

See my birthday wish list here.

Read "You Can't Get a Man With a Blog" here.

Please come again!

Un-Happy Tidings

R. is out. Gone. With the Wind. Over. Finished. Gamarnu.

And so the search continues . . . date after date, year after year.

Excuse me while I go finish a pint of ice cream and weep into an entire box of tissues, and then lie listlessly on my bed, watching the patterns created by the sunbeams on my wall.

Happy Happy Tidings!

Yay! My sister is expecting a new baby! I'm going to be a Doda times three! And finally I have permission to tell people and post it on my blog! Yay! (bli ayin hara, poo poo poo)

Mazal tov to my good friend and former roommate, Shoshana Levin (formerly of Atlanta and Los Angeles, currently of London, Ontario) on her engagement to Ben Kohen-Kadosh (formerly of Shiraz, Iran, currently of Brooklyn, New York). Yay!

Mazal tov to my old college buddies, Ezra Robison and Ziva Mann Robison (who also was my roommate, long ago in the days of the Music Suite) on the birth of Akiva Meir on September 11. Mazal tov also to big brother Elisha.

Mazal tov to "Chani" and "Moshe," the nice couple I met at the infamous Singles Shabbaton, on the birth of a baby girl a few weeks ago. It appears that after struggling with infertility for a while, Chani got pregnant sometime around the time of the Shabbaton. They tell me that they think our visit to the grave of Rabbi Akiva may have helped. I'm so glad to know that something good came out of that Shabbaton. Yay, miracle baby!

Absorption into Israeli Society . . . Step #3,569

After two years of renting, today I finally bought a washing machine! Slowly but surely, the appliances are adding up.

It's a Blomberg 1220. Holds 6 kilos of laundry, automatically weighs the clothes and uses water accordingly, and has all sorts of fancy-shmancy settings, including a time delay (ie, I can put my clothes in and then "tell" the machine to wait a certain number of hours before starting. Don't know when I'll use that, but whatever.) Three year warranty. Front-loading. Um, it's white.

Got it at "Best Buy" in Talpiot for 3390 NIS (about $750), after spending a few hours calling various stores and doing price and model comparisons (and convincing some sales people to lower their prices in order to beat the other guys . . . I'm ruthless that way). I don't know much about Blomberg, but since I do laundry only for myself, and therefore don't use the machine that much, I'm not so worried about it. Besides, though the Germans have their flaws (cough, cough), they happen to make very good washing machines in general.

Please do not tell me how much less washing machines cost in the United States, or how much less I would have paid if I'd called the store near your house. I don't want to know!

By the way, this is yet another example of why it was never worth it for me to pay too much attention to what my "rights" are as an immigrant, at least vis-a-vis appliances. Yeah, I'd get a break on customs if I imported an American washing machine . . . but if I am willing to pay for shipping, I may as well buy a machine here, especially since I don't need a mega-humongous American washer.

And, yeah, I'd get a break on buying a washing machine here, if I bought an Israeli washing machine . . . if Israel made washing machines . . .

So, the fact that in theory there is some sort of tax break on appliances for new immigrants, once again, does not apply to the specific needs and circumstances of Chayyei Sarah.

But anyhow . . . yay! I own a washing machine! And I'm paying for it like a real Israeli: in 24 installments on my credit card!

Next step, in, like, another two years: A dryer!

Birthday Update

It was a nice day. My best-friend-foreva, Yael, gave me a much-need TUPPERWARE QUICK CHEF!!! In which I can CHOP and even MINCE vegetables in the blink of an eye!!!! We tested it on an onion and the thing was in a million little pieces WITH NO TEARS in about 7 seconds! Thanks Yael!

Yael also took me out for dinner, which was very nice.

Thanks to Asher for offering to give me his old AM/FM radio/cassette player. Can't wait to use it!

Thanks to my reader, Jett, whom I don't know but he's sending me a present so I'm excited!

Thanks to Avi B., who didn't realize it was my birthday week, but yesterday came over to drop off a CD with the old Muppets Star Wars Special on it. Thanks Avi!

Thanks to the friends who sent me e-cards. So fun!

Thanks to the friends who called to wish me a happy birthday. I appreciate that you thought of me.

Listen, if no one is going to buy me that *NSYNC album, I might just get it for myself. ("It's tearin' up my heart when I'm with you! But when we are apart I feel it toooooooo. And no matter what I do I feel the paaaaaaiiiiiiin, with or withOUT you . . . . ")

I know this is catty but . . .

I feel a smug need to remind the world that I have never cast a vote for anyone whose last name is Bush.

[Will I get props from Dovie for this one? Because, you know, I live for that.]

How can I post about September 11?

When I have nothing new or insightful to say?

Just that it was a terrible, terrible day.

But September 12th was worse.

The 11th: Fear, confusion, disbelief.

The 12th: The day a black blanket settled on New York City. It was so, so quiet, and you could smell the smoke all the way on the Upper East Side.