That Time That Phil Almost Got Run Over By A Camel

PART TWO!

When I showed this to my mom she seemed to be enjoying it... right up to the point where I said "Oh my fucking god." Then she looked at me and went "Nora!" Mom doesn't like cursing.

Gas Stations and Camels and Deserts, oh my!

This is from a few months ago, but so bizzare I had to share. This was within minutes of the first time I ever saw a desert in my whole life. I don't know how someone gets to be my age without ever experiences a desert, though I could understand how someone could go their whole life and never have the experience I had during this video.



Part Two- the Camel- coming up next!

Bubble weekend

A whole bunch of my bubble friends came to Brooklyn for a delish dinner (thank you Olive Vine Cafe!) and good times. It felt so natural to be all together in the same place again. As though we had never left our bubble bus to pursue real world activities again. As though we were in a dream land where bubbles never popped but just floated back to each other in bubble time...Alas, it was just a wonderful break to the real world. But during this fantasy evening I was able to, for the first time, ride a tandem bike. How fitting to realize a dream during such a fantastical night!
AND IT WAS EVERYTHING I DREAMED IT WOULD BE!
There is alot of trust one must put in their front driver, and it was nerve racking to ride without that kind of control, but it was also a kind of lovely. Perfect for a warm, springtime Brooklyn night.
These two amazing neighbors and I suggested we hit up Soda Bar afterward. We ordered a round of drinks but the booze must have gone to everyone's head. The bubbles were drifting off into various states of sleep, and so the night ended young. Dreams found their beginnings in the sleepy heads of my friends, and my tandem bike dream came true in the humble boro of Brooklyn.

Wake up my bubbles, gently, softly. I may just love you, a little bit.

Shabbat Brunch-o

Last Saturday I invited many of my peeps for my very first Shabbat. For those of y'all who don't know, the Jewish sabbath is from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. And there are all sorts of ways people choose to observe the sabbath, from not carrying keys, using money, or actively turning on lights to hanging out and getting piss drunk. And some people choose not to observe at all.
Since I just returned from an amazing trip to Israel, and love so many of the people from that trip, I decided to continue my ride on the enthusiasm train and host a Shabbat to gather my Birthright peeps with my non-Birthright peeps. Jews, Gentiles and us half-eys all ate the most delish bagels from Bergen Bagels (no really, you'll pee your pants, these bagels are boner inducing) and I made a fruit salad, cut up peppers for the hummus, pancakes were a plenty as were oj, grapefruit juice and mimosas. That's right this was a vegetarian event darlin! Mostly organic, and totally local. Wassap!? And all the vegans had plenty to choose from because that's how I like to do a thang.
Tara (pictured below; left) was the pancake master and made all sorts of amazing shaped pancakes. This was her crowning glory though, a dino shaped pancake. It was requested, I had no idea how to carry out such a demand, but Tara was allz like "I know everything pancake," and knocked it out of the park. The Jurassic park. She also made a star of David pancake,and just a normal star pancake. Because she knows everything pancake.
Hey peeps! Thanks for coming and making it the best brunch ever! And thanks Birthright for picking up the tab! I can't wait to have another one- so amazing!

Mine dogers

"Hey, everyone, gather round. Let me tell you about this land. It was once Syrian territory which the Syrians heavily mined. Once Israel won this land, they also decided to add their mines to the bunch. This has resulted in the area being one of the most heavily mined areas in the whole world. OKAY! Let's go hiking!"
That is more or less what our tour guide shared with us right before this amazing hike through Nahal Jilaboun in Northern Israel. Israel is full of "not in use, well not right now anyways" military stuff, like old bunkers and shacks, like the one above.
It never stopped being strange to see tags thrown up on the sides of buildings, but have them not be written in letters I can read.
The landscape was remarkable, but also remarkably much like the North East. In fact, us Nor-Easter's commented that we could be hiking through the Catskills and wouldn't be surprised.
This one area two of my fav's, Randy and Erica, are posing in, so reminded me of the little bamboo swampy areas in Fire Island, if you've ever been there. I half expected to see a deer wander by. It was nice and cool down in the valleys, covered by trees and a small river running through. Unlike the rocks-
where there was no relief from the intense sun. However it was from these spots that we could see the landscape unfurl beneath us and really appreciate the hike.
The diversity of the plants was the only hint that, honey, we ain't in New York anymore. I can guarantee that there are no cactus growing upstate.
Something we learned, and then were reminded about all though our trip- since it was an off season for us to be there it was on season for Israeli schools. Apparently we were exploring the land during "Israel Take Your School Kids on a Trip Week," and kept running into very enthusiastic kiddies also exploring their homeland. These ones in particular stopped me to ask if I was from America, and New York in general (how did they know, I was dressing French!?) and totally needed to take a photo with me. I happily agreed in return for a photo with them.

At this point you're probably curious about the hats. Hats, hats all around and not a drop to drink (?). According to every tour guide in Israel the sun will kill you in 40 minutes due to dehydration and heat stroke, unless, of course, you're wearing a hat and then you're totally 100% fine. That is why everyone has a hat on. Its not optional, its mandatory.
Here is a place that you can "leave your DNA" according to our lovely tour guide.
And so concludes our Northern Israel hike. Just wait to you see the desert!

OH! And since this is a blog about New York, not Israel- I just found out about this really cool run that you can do ON JFK's RUNWAY! Its this Sunday, and I'll be outta town, but I think its a really cool thing that everyone should do, because how often do you get to do something like this?!

Spring time, dress time!

What is better than wearing dresses every day? Probably not much (rock climbing, laying in the grass, dancing, picnicking, making out, bike riding... almost all of those things can be done in a dress) and now the weather is becoming more and more appropriate to be wearing a dress, and only a dress (and shoes!) and that makes me feel fancy. Fancy free! Spring time allergies make me feel like I have the flu, but that's another story.
Today I kinda sorta bought this dress, and I like it so much I'm sharing it with you, so I can spread my enthusiasm like my flu (its not a flu! You can't catch allergies, stupid). And keeping with the Israel theme, its Elli Tahari, and Israeli designer. BAM!

Israel oddities

This was the first vegetarian option available to me. It was this weird corn kernel patty with a smoked flavor, and then it was breaded. Its one of the grossest things I've ever put in my mouth. I put it immediately put it out of my mouth and into a napkin. And was never fooled again by any kibbutz's attempts at veggie friendly options.This man likes to take birds, put film canisters on their heads and flip them upside down to weigh them, which we all quite enjoyed watching. What he really does is capture birds, tag them, and set them free in order to collect data at a later point.
We met him on a trip to a nature preserve. One we had to tour in a bus, which made no sense and was kinda contradictory to, you know, a nature preserve. Our nutso tour guide kept talking about raptors, which also made no sense. We did keep a look out for dinosaurs, but saw none. They must have been lurking in the distance beyond.
There were alot of Jewish folk artists in Zefat. I'm not sure this is an oddity, but it is nice to know it exists.
Break in case of passover?
Why is there Matzoh in a box?
This cray cray man from Yemen made some really delish Yemenite food and yelled crazy things at us. It was kinda sorta love at first site.
See below, that one he's making. That one went in my stomach.

Unreal- but its real. Israel!

This looks like a hill side in Eurpoe, like Germany or Switzerland hey? But its in the Middle East, its in Israel. Cray cray.
I was lucky enough to get on a birthright trip to Israel, and the last two weeks of my life have included gallivanting around the Holy Land. The trip itself is nutty. We grabbed a plane super early in the morning and then after 10 hours of flying with very little sleep we arrived at 7AM in Israel. The only thing I wanted to do was take a nap, but that wasn't on the agenda. In fact we didn't get to lie down until almost 10pm. By that time I was awake for over 24 hours and feeling like crying. Like a little baby. Oh no! What had I gotten myself into!?

Really, it was a phenomenal trip, and I encourage anyone who can go on it to do so.
This is the city of Zefat, or Sefad, or Tsfat. They paint the doors, walls and windows blue to represent a piece of heaven which will keep the devil (?) and evil spirits away because it looks like heaven. It was a really beautiful "city", (I use this term loosely because New York is a city, Zefat is a village) the most picture-esque perhaps.
CATS! There are cats every where in Israel. Its at least three times as many as in Brooklyn. Kinda like Italy. I loved it! I loved it so much I kept petting them. And then one did not want to be pet. And it scratched me. And then I got a tetanus shot. Totes baller.

This guy was playing a mean guitar, and I asked him to keep playing because I thought it sounded very nice. It turned out he had just gotten engaged that day! He was playing for joy (presumably). As our group gathered and then traveled past the former-American guitar player he shouted at us "Don't worry! Not everyone who goes on birthright ends up looking like me!"
See that sign between Phil and I? Photo inspiration.

I'm having problems trying to organize my thoughts about this trip. It was two weeks of a total blur! Amazing, fantastic, and hopefully I can share more at a later post in a more comprehensive manner. My brains are still melting. I blame it on jetlag.