a balloontwister’s aliya saga

Well, Its tuesday…. alot has happenned since the last blog. Been to NY, Israel back to Jersey and then back to Baltimore. I was only jet log friday night. Despite having an empty seat next to me… I wasn’t able to sleep that much on the flight home. Well, I got some sleep shabbos afternoon.. so I was ok for the rest of the weekend. Doovid made a birthday party / kiddush for me at his house. He made the kugals and approximately 20 people showed up. I was genuinely touched when dovid made a little speech talking about me. I was touched because when Dovid makes a compliment.. it means something. Dovid doesn’t mave a mean bone in his body. So when he talked about me being friendly and all… I really did take it to heart. That night I helped Yoni with his book report. One of the requirements is to make up a game. Yoni made a board game using PowerPoint. Wow, I knew he knew HOW to use powerpoint but at 10 he knows how to use graphics, add text….. Michal finished her book report several days earlier and got a 100…. (Penina just told me)

Moshe’s birthday was actually shabbos and we made a party for him in school. Penina’s friend made cupcakes and Penina bought a bag of marbles for the kids in Moshe’s class. I brought my stilts and balloons. A good time was had by almost all… as one of the first graders puked on the floor. Not sure if it was the balloons or the cupcakes.. Probably something else. That night we all went to Jerusalem for dinner and went to Rimon… the fleishig side. It is and always have been a solid meal. Steak was good. Wings. First time I’ve been there in several years.

Flight was uneventful and I still couldnt get an upgrade despite flying on my birthday. I also reached silver level in the MAtmid frequent flyer miles…. but sadly, no upgrade. The only thing I got from first class was some scotch, a friend of mine brought back a glass of single malt. Not a shot glass… but a tall glass half full. Trying not to act my age…I finished it. I got into baltimore after a 3 hour drive and the only effects of jet log was that I went to bed a bit earlier than usual. My travel habits is a topic of conversation at work. 90% of the consultants are not local, but no one goes as far away as Israel. It actually gives me a good excuse to be a bit “off” on mondays.

Today we had a team meeting. After the meeting they brought out 2 birthday cakes. One for me. SOmeone went to get a kosher cake and it actually was pretty good. So this makes the most celebrated birthday for me since my 13th. An ice cream cake in brooklyn. Cake and doovid;s kugals in Israel and A cake from goldberg’s in Baltimore. The only thing missing is a call from a certain cousin (don;t want to say lashon hara). Well, I complained that work was boring… now that comes back to bite me. There is a ton of work and deadlines creeping up so I have to get going and do some work.

Have a great day.

j