Weird weekend in Tel Aviv...
It rained all Friday, even coming down torrentially some times, and hailing.
Around 22:00 Friday night I realized that we didn't have running water. I went downstairs to see what was going on and found that the main water line to the building had exploded and a river of water was gushing out into the back of the building.
I tried to call the apartment manager and he didn't pick up. I tried to see if any of the neighbors were up, only one answered the door and didn't really have any ideas.
I called the city and they said that it was a private problem, not a municipal one, and suggested that I call a plumber. Some friends came over and we eventually found the main water line to the building and were able to shut it off.
The water ran and ran for hours though. It's a real shame. I wonder what kind of bill is going to come from this...
Today, Saturday, in the afternoon, some psycho guy walked into our third floor apartment as I was shaving my head. He had his shirt around his head and whispered in English and refused to leave. He then asked me to leave instead. I tried to get him to leave but he went into the living room and locked himself inside.
I dialed 100 to get the police but the number kept ringing busy and hanging up on me. Nice to know they're there when you need them...
I was standing with my head half-shaved, with the living room door locked, with the front door of the house open, and didn't really know what to do.
A police officer came upstairs, I guess they'd been looking for the guy?? I pointed them in the direction of the room and they said that they were going to break down the door. Eventually they figured out a way to open it without tearing it down completely, which was good. They took the psycho dude out of the living room and out of our apartment.
We're going to be locking the doors, even when we're home....
I just saw "into the wild" which was an interesting movie. I didn't really connect with the parental angst story line but I did with the rest of it. Glad to have finally caught it.
Anyway... weird weekend!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
25 self observations
1. I was placed under the air conditioning vents when I was born and almost froze to death, the doctors said I'd always be sensitive to cold. I guess I am? not really...
2. There have been years of my life where I ate one type of food the majority of that period. At one point, it was pasta shells and tomato sauce, at one point it was super burritos, at one point it was burger king. I would eat the mentioned food more often than anything else by far.
3. I've since adopted slightly healthier eating habits but still have the ability to eat one thing over and over and over happily.
4. I used to be addicted to soft drinks, especially coca-cola. I would become irritable and physically uncomfortable without them. Somewhere around my teenage years I forced myself to learn how to drink water.
(Yes, I was a healthy child... mind and body.. err...)
5. I have played a game in my head (and sometimes with others) for years where 'if you were in hell, and hell would be eating *insert food* for all eternity which food would be optimal/acceptable/hellish etc?' super burritos for the win.
6A. Whenever the phone rings, even if it's someone I want to talk to, I always cringe a little. This is a real problem and seriously affects most of my relationships in life. I hate telephones. Sms me, email me, write me, fax me, anything but call me. It's not you, it's me. It's not me, it's the damn phone.
6B. Same goes for voicemail. Don't check it, hate it, don't do it to me.
7. I used to have one dominant language. If I spent a lot of time in Israel it would become Hebrew, when I was in the States it turned to English and would waiver back and forth until I was 16. Around then I taught myself to read and write in Hebrew and started listening to music in Hebrew intensively but was in the States for most of that period. Both languages then melded into one big language. I am fully bilingual in both and sometimes don't remember which language things happened in.
8. I think I look like a 12 year old when I shave and so I don't do it. I trim with a buzzer.
9. I really liked playing with my hair when it was long. There was this one cold wintery weekend in Boston where I played with it so much that half the hair on my head fell out. I freaked out and immediately stopped with the habit, but then for months regretted playing with it so much and would look at other people's hair to judge its thickness. Whenever I see men with long hair now, I always look to see how thick their hair is.
10. The lady at the passport office when I was three transliterated my name Amiti instead of the common and much more logical Amitai. It is still a problem. Most of my official documents therefore perpetuate her mistake. My name has been misspelled more often than spelled correctly. It's been any variation of Amiti/Amitai Wolt, Valt, Welte, Volt etc. Ideally, Amitai Wolt, though I think I want a new last name.
11. I have an internet addiction and have realized it a long time ago. The first and last things I do everyday is check the internet. I don't know if I could stop if I wanted to, not that I want to.
12. There are few things I like to do more in life than go hiking, though I always have a really hard time getting out there. I get really weird and insecure about going hiking and many times find lame excuses not to, but then once I'm out in nature, it's the glory hallelujah jubilee. I always have to fight my anti-social urge to excuse myself out of hiking trips. It's made a lot of people not want to go hiking with me anymore and has significantly reduced the times I've gone out, especially in the last year. I am aware of the problem but find it difficult to overcome.
13. I really want to keep bees. I fantasize about forgoing a traditional career path and becoming a cheese-maker, bee-keeper, vegetable grower instead. I'd make jams and breads and stuff and sell them. I would be very happy living a rural life.
14. My parents would always wait till the last minute to pay bills. There wasn't really a logic to it, they would just wait until the last possible second. I always hated that and now pay bills early. I get a ridiculous amount of satisfaction paying off the full balance of my credit cards every month ten days early.
15. I love very cold nights and big soft blankets.
16. I don't understand ball-oriented sports. I've never seen/played a ballsport I liked. I've tried to force myself at times and can respect why other people like ball sports, I just can't get into it. I was never even able to play ball sport games as video games.
17. There's a community blog about Davis Square (near Tufts where I went to college) that I have been following for years and years. I probably know more about Davis Square than most people who live there. I think the urban planner in me finds the way people interact with their environment fascinating and like to read about what people like and dislike about a place and how it evolves over time.
18. I used to love playing sim city, sim farm, the sims, etc. My favorite part of the Warcraft/Starcraft/Risk type games was not the fighting it was the building. When I look back at it, studying urban and regional planning makes sense, I've always like this kind of stuff.
19. I have a problem finishing things I like. There have been a lot of books that I've really enjoyed and then for some reason I put them down right before the end and have a hard time getting myself to finish them. This is also the case with Six Feet Under... I was so obsessed with the show that when the fifth and last season came out, I couldn't get myself to watch it because then it would be over. I still don't know what happens at the end and have avoided finding out for over four years. I've recently ordered the complete series on Amazon and will watch the whole thing when I get it.
20. Ever since 1994, I've flown on an airplane at least every two years, usually every year. After I moved to Tel Aviv (in Feb 2007) and before I went to India (in Oct 2008) was the longest I had been in one country continuously since I was 11 and I felt the wanderlust very intensely. I didn't plan on a month in Asia too long before I went, but as soon as I could, I seized my opportunity and flew. I think that I'll always feel the need to repeat the pattern I'm used to and fly somewhere or I will feel the anxiety of remaining in one place. This is okay with me because I plan to travel a lot more. It's one of the things I like to do most.
21. My first two years of college, I had the same roommate for two years. We shared two small cramped rooms and had to share bathrooms with 20 other people. Considering that we both had private rooms for most of our lives, that I had never known anyone from Chicago before, or anyone named Todd before, or that we had almost nothing in common, or that he didn't speak Hebrew and it was the first time I lived with someone who didn't and that I need a lot of alone time in general, it sounds like sharing a small room would have been hard... and it would have been, except that we got along so well the entire time. Other than maybe once in two years, there was never a time we argued about anything. I liked living with him the whole time.
22. I hate most reality tv and most tv in general. I do however really like watching the US version of "Biggest Loser" I think it really changes people's lives and gives them the power to win one of their biggest life challenges. I like watching how much the contestants change from week to week and then at the end how different their lives are.
23. I like people's names. If you have a name that I like, I am much more likely to like you and if you have a name I don't like, I have a really hard time with it. It's almost a game-stopper. I am superficial.
24. I've lived near oceans all of my life and don't know life otherwise, however I am much more of a mountain person than an ocean person. Hills, valleys, creeks, mountains, prairies do it for me. Lack of mountains in South Florida is one of the reasons why I wouldn't live there again.
25. Ever since my first visit to California I felt a weird connection to the land there. A lot of the plants and geology reminds me of Israel which is partly responsible, but I think it might be more than that. I could definitely see myself there for a few years at some point. I don't have any plans to leave Israel anytime soon, but if for some reason I had to leave, I would most likely head to California. I think its part of the reason I enjoyed John Steinbeck's "East of Eden" so much.
2. There have been years of my life where I ate one type of food the majority of that period. At one point, it was pasta shells and tomato sauce, at one point it was super burritos, at one point it was burger king. I would eat the mentioned food more often than anything else by far.
3. I've since adopted slightly healthier eating habits but still have the ability to eat one thing over and over and over happily.
4. I used to be addicted to soft drinks, especially coca-cola. I would become irritable and physically uncomfortable without them. Somewhere around my teenage years I forced myself to learn how to drink water.
(Yes, I was a healthy child... mind and body.. err...)
5. I have played a game in my head (and sometimes with others) for years where 'if you were in hell, and hell would be eating *insert food* for all eternity which food would be optimal/acceptable/hellish etc?' super burritos for the win.
6A. Whenever the phone rings, even if it's someone I want to talk to, I always cringe a little. This is a real problem and seriously affects most of my relationships in life. I hate telephones. Sms me, email me, write me, fax me, anything but call me. It's not you, it's me. It's not me, it's the damn phone.
6B. Same goes for voicemail. Don't check it, hate it, don't do it to me.
7. I used to have one dominant language. If I spent a lot of time in Israel it would become Hebrew, when I was in the States it turned to English and would waiver back and forth until I was 16. Around then I taught myself to read and write in Hebrew and started listening to music in Hebrew intensively but was in the States for most of that period. Both languages then melded into one big language. I am fully bilingual in both and sometimes don't remember which language things happened in.
8. I think I look like a 12 year old when I shave and so I don't do it. I trim with a buzzer.
9. I really liked playing with my hair when it was long. There was this one cold wintery weekend in Boston where I played with it so much that half the hair on my head fell out. I freaked out and immediately stopped with the habit, but then for months regretted playing with it so much and would look at other people's hair to judge its thickness. Whenever I see men with long hair now, I always look to see how thick their hair is.
10. The lady at the passport office when I was three transliterated my name Amiti instead of the common and much more logical Amitai. It is still a problem. Most of my official documents therefore perpetuate her mistake. My name has been misspelled more often than spelled correctly. It's been any variation of Amiti/Amitai Wolt, Valt, Welte, Volt etc. Ideally, Amitai Wolt, though I think I want a new last name.
11. I have an internet addiction and have realized it a long time ago. The first and last things I do everyday is check the internet. I don't know if I could stop if I wanted to, not that I want to.
12. There are few things I like to do more in life than go hiking, though I always have a really hard time getting out there. I get really weird and insecure about going hiking and many times find lame excuses not to, but then once I'm out in nature, it's the glory hallelujah jubilee. I always have to fight my anti-social urge to excuse myself out of hiking trips. It's made a lot of people not want to go hiking with me anymore and has significantly reduced the times I've gone out, especially in the last year. I am aware of the problem but find it difficult to overcome.
13. I really want to keep bees. I fantasize about forgoing a traditional career path and becoming a cheese-maker, bee-keeper, vegetable grower instead. I'd make jams and breads and stuff and sell them. I would be very happy living a rural life.
14. My parents would always wait till the last minute to pay bills. There wasn't really a logic to it, they would just wait until the last possible second. I always hated that and now pay bills early. I get a ridiculous amount of satisfaction paying off the full balance of my credit cards every month ten days early.
15. I love very cold nights and big soft blankets.
16. I don't understand ball-oriented sports. I've never seen/played a ballsport I liked. I've tried to force myself at times and can respect why other people like ball sports, I just can't get into it. I was never even able to play ball sport games as video games.
17. There's a community blog about Davis Square (near Tufts where I went to college) that I have been following for years and years. I probably know more about Davis Square than most people who live there. I think the urban planner in me finds the way people interact with their environment fascinating and like to read about what people like and dislike about a place and how it evolves over time.
18. I used to love playing sim city, sim farm, the sims, etc. My favorite part of the Warcraft/Starcraft/Risk type games was not the fighting it was the building. When I look back at it, studying urban and regional planning makes sense, I've always like this kind of stuff.
19. I have a problem finishing things I like. There have been a lot of books that I've really enjoyed and then for some reason I put them down right before the end and have a hard time getting myself to finish them. This is also the case with Six Feet Under... I was so obsessed with the show that when the fifth and last season came out, I couldn't get myself to watch it because then it would be over. I still don't know what happens at the end and have avoided finding out for over four years. I've recently ordered the complete series on Amazon and will watch the whole thing when I get it.
20. Ever since 1994, I've flown on an airplane at least every two years, usually every year. After I moved to Tel Aviv (in Feb 2007) and before I went to India (in Oct 2008) was the longest I had been in one country continuously since I was 11 and I felt the wanderlust very intensely. I didn't plan on a month in Asia too long before I went, but as soon as I could, I seized my opportunity and flew. I think that I'll always feel the need to repeat the pattern I'm used to and fly somewhere or I will feel the anxiety of remaining in one place. This is okay with me because I plan to travel a lot more. It's one of the things I like to do most.
21. My first two years of college, I had the same roommate for two years. We shared two small cramped rooms and had to share bathrooms with 20 other people. Considering that we both had private rooms for most of our lives, that I had never known anyone from Chicago before, or anyone named Todd before, or that we had almost nothing in common, or that he didn't speak Hebrew and it was the first time I lived with someone who didn't and that I need a lot of alone time in general, it sounds like sharing a small room would have been hard... and it would have been, except that we got along so well the entire time. Other than maybe once in two years, there was never a time we argued about anything. I liked living with him the whole time.
22. I hate most reality tv and most tv in general. I do however really like watching the US version of "Biggest Loser" I think it really changes people's lives and gives them the power to win one of their biggest life challenges. I like watching how much the contestants change from week to week and then at the end how different their lives are.
23. I like people's names. If you have a name that I like, I am much more likely to like you and if you have a name I don't like, I have a really hard time with it. It's almost a game-stopper. I am superficial.
24. I've lived near oceans all of my life and don't know life otherwise, however I am much more of a mountain person than an ocean person. Hills, valleys, creeks, mountains, prairies do it for me. Lack of mountains in South Florida is one of the reasons why I wouldn't live there again.
25. Ever since my first visit to California I felt a weird connection to the land there. A lot of the plants and geology reminds me of Israel which is partly responsible, but I think it might be more than that. I could definitely see myself there for a few years at some point. I don't have any plans to leave Israel anytime soon, but if for some reason I had to leave, I would most likely head to California. I think its part of the reason I enjoyed John Steinbeck's "East of Eden" so much.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
mensaje en una botella
Dearest Anna's Taqueira -
You are what I miss most about my time in Boston. I would come visit you most days while I lived in New England, sometimes twice. I visited you in Davis Square, I visited you in Brookline, I visited you in Porter Square, but mostly in Davis.
You were always so kind to me and offered me your delicious offerings.
After two years of almost-daily visits I left for 12 months and when I came back, your Davis Square associates remembered me and asked where I'd been! After a year! That meant a lot.
Today is a harder day than usual without you so I felt the need to write you a note. Though to be honest, most days without you are difficult, I think about you constantly.
It's been two years and six months since we've seen each other.
I hope we meet again soon. I'll be thinking about you in the meantime.
Love,
me
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