Changing Gears

Chchchchanges

This morning Gilad called me into his office. Usually it is a sign of good new: a new secret project, another bonus cheque, options...  I am not sure how to consider today's news. Right now it seems horrible, but I'm sure after the shock subsides I will look at this as an opportunity for change which could be positive (I'm really trying here...).

Gilad informed me that he is leaving the company. He was sure I knew, I should have, he had asked me to fix up his resume, he's been disappearing from the office every once in a while without saying where he was going, but I never thought to wonder why.  He said he's not sure where he's going yet, but told me that if he will have the option of taking me along he'd like to, which I guess is nice to hear.  The news wouldn't have been so bad if Udi wasn't planning on retiring within a month or two as well.  Once the two of them are gone, due to the rotten dynamics within the company, I really don't see myself staying here.   They have both backed me up completely over the last five years, I am not sure any replacement that will come would be able to do the same. 

I completely freaked out this morning when Gilad told me, I couldn't breath, I felt myself choking up with tears and had to go outside to get some air. Probably the worst thing is that since no official notice has been made yet, I can't really discuss it with anyone. I want the press release done with already, then I can try to look at it more calmly.  I know that every change can be for the better, it just depends on how one looks at it.  Maybe this is the kick in the butt I need to make some sort of a career change which I have been too scared to make.  I'm glad it's Thursday and I have the weekend to process this and think things out a little more rationally.

Ascending and Decending

This is pretty much what my past week has been like.  Full of ups and downs, both literally and figuratively.

I was very excited about Passover.  To begin with it was a whole week away from the office.  I was in a way happy about not doing a Seder this year, but once Rappy and Totem left me after our Passover dinner it was kind of a downer, I actually missed the big family affair more than I thought I would.

Then my break started off with a couple of really nice rides. Mostly enjoyed because of the company I kept during these rides.  I was on a total high, and then when they were over, I was down again.  I decided not to ride for a few days, hoping the down time will give me some time to focus on my art stuff, but I couldn't find the muse I required.

So Friday I decided to go for a ride in the Megido Forest.  The ride was defined as easygoing, 28kilometers in the shade.  The shady part was mostly true, the rest was all lies.  It wasn't easygoing at all, we just kept climbing and climbing and climbing, and when we finally found a descent, when we got to the bottom of it we discovered we took the wrong route and that we needed to climb back up again.  When we returned to the cars, the speedometer showed excactly 45kilometers.  It was fun though.  I got home and went to sleep until Saturday morning when I had the second installment of my Mountain Goats course. 

The second installment of the Mountain Goats course was all about descents and turns.  When we arrived on the Carmel mountain we were greeted by a swarm of mosquitos and a smiling Adam, an instuctor with the sweetest disposition.  We started our lessons with descending down rocks, it was easy enough, well easier that climbing them for sure.  Then we started practicing our turns.  We started with open turns at first and then we moved to the closed turns and the switchbacks.   Once again I started overthinking everything, which got me a little confused and frustrated, but Adam's a good teacher, so eventually I got it ok more or less.  Now I just need to practice a little more, though my body I think, has had a bit too much and is starting to scream it needs a bit of a rest which I think I am finally willing to give it, at least until next class, unless of course, someone tries to sell me some more crank before then, for the habit you see, it is too stong.

A Series of Art

Remember how excited I was about Inspire Me Thursday?  Well, I got inspired but then I got sidetracked. One of the challenges was think big so I decided to make a large piece of art on four separate canvases.  I totally abandoned my original plan for these pieces and decided to just set to work and see where it led me.  I didn't get around to finishing it on time and I wasn't so sure about the results.  Then there was the monochromatic challenge,which I totally had to skip because I just had no time or mood for. And then as if by design, the latest challenge was A Series of Art.  So it is a bit of cheating because it isn't brand new work, but since it was created for one of the callenges, I might as well use it now.

Now for the courage to actually post it on Inspire Me Thursday...

Mountain Goats Climb

I went to the first installment of my Mountain Goat course yesterday. We worked on climbing. As usual when theory is introduced into my life I get confussed, kind of like the first time present simple and present progressive were introduced into my life... All of a sudden it'a about technique (yay, I can do a proper willy now) and timing. The technique part I got down ok, however once timing is involved I find that I am overthinking everything.  Also I felt tired and we started rather late so the heat was affecting me. I did not do too gloriously in this class. Adam and Niel, our instructors told us that it takes 100 repetitions before one actually gets proficient at a technique and it becomes natural. So here's to 100 repetitions. I have two weeks to practice until our next class. I think the hardest thing is being very self conscious not only because I am overthinking stuff, but also because there are 10 sets of eyes watching my every move. I have a lot of travelling planned for the next couple of weeks, hopefully the terraine will allow me to practice a little.  Next class is all about the downhill, stuff I'm actually quite good at already, maybe I won't feel so self conscious then.

While I was at my course, my riding buddies were riding in Nachal Tze'elim and an accident happened, which has really shaken me and everyone else up. The group was riding on a shelf on the side of the canyon, and my friend Karin, somehow lost control and fell off the shelf and dropped down about twelve meters. She lost consciousness and 669, the Air Force's special rescue unit had to be called up with a chopper to take her to the hospital. Her dad was with her, and I can only imagine his shock at seeing his daughter plummet like that. The good news is that despite the very nasty fall, she only broke her nose (again) and arm, it could have ended up much worse. Everyone is really shaken up though, I don't know that we will be riding as a group in the near future. I get queezy every time I think about it.  I hope she has a quick recovery and that this experience won't keep her away from her bike for too long.

Day five and Josh has still not taken a shower. Ruthie confirmed to me yesterday, that he was the same at her house. I think today I will point blank take out a new towel and hand it to him with clear instructions as to where he will find the soap. I believe Ruthie owes me big time for this one. Though after all she has done for me over the years, I guess I shouldn't actually ask for debt repayment. The worse thing though, isn't that he doesn't shower, it's simply that a stranger's presence in one's home, is totally crippling, at least to me. I cannot clean or do my art, or just lay on the sofa with a good book and quiet music, without feeling uncomfortable, I feel like I've been sent to my room, only the person punishing me is me...Oh heck, it will all be over in a couple of days.  When I think of all the money I paid for therapy so I can get myself out of these situations...

In other news, I have my ticket booked for my summer vacation. I leave Tel Aviv for Toronto on June 29th. I have a flight to Vancouver on July 6th returning to Toronto Julye 11th and returning back to Israel July 23rd. Now all that is left is actually ticketing, and as usual, I am stalling because I am indecisive about things. I promised my agent and answer tomorrow morning.

The smell of holidays in in the air

Yesterday I decided to cut work early and go to Migdal Ha'Emek with my boss for the traditional toast at a company at which he is the chairman of the board.  My boss is a bit of an odd man but we had a nice drive up. He was telling me how close to retirement he is.  Funny, he brought me to the company, and for the past five years has managed to drive me up the wall, but if he does indeed retire soon, I will really miss him. Though he has a reputation of being difficult, and manages to live up to said reputation often, he's actually a really good, honest guy.

Anyway, the girls at the company invited me to come, and my other boss cut the day short as well, so I figured why not? Plus I will admit there was a certain someone there I was eager to see.  I think we spent 45 minutes there, of which I spent at least 30 minutes with said someone (hence missing all the speaches).  It was a nice break from the daily routine at work, which lately, has become very noisy and loud. 

I ended up not going to the show last night. I feel bad because I promissed Danny I would, but I was lying in my warm and comfy bed and just fell asleep.

This morning I took Josh to the video store. That will keep him entertained for a couple of hours. On the way I saw that the neighborhood craft store is having a closeout sale.  I got three stamps and some molds for polymer clay.  I could have bought out the entire store but I reminded myself that I want to use what I have and try to buy as little as possible.  I couldn't resist the stamps (everything was three for the price of two) but I managed to resist the rest.

Tomorrow is my bike course. I'm a bit apprehesive about it, I hope that it is at my level.  I also happen to be the only girl registered.

Houseguests

It's been almost a week since my cross country adventure. I'm still pooped, my black and blue marks are truning purple and yellow, my behind is not as sore as it was a couple of days ago, but I am really really tired.

This weekend I will not be doing much riding, though a few offers have been put on the table. I acually signed up for an advanced Mountain Goat course this Saturday, but it's been raining quite heavily for the past few days and the course is too wet and muddy for effective instruction, so I've been told it would probably be postponed. This means I can stay at home and do some of my Spring cleaning.

I have a houseguest for the weekend. Josh is 18 and he's from Maryland. He came here on some school program. They went to Poland for a week and then they came to Israel for five weeks, he got kicked out after week three. The story goes that someone sold his friends some pot. A kilo and a half to be exact. His friends, being so generous, let everyone on the program know they had the stuff and would sell it, not being too discrete about it. Someone offered him a smoke and he took it. Since the kids weren't too discrete, they were caught. Josh was scared of the consequences so he came forward and admitted to smoking. He was kicked out. As usual, Ruthie took him in until his parents come to Israel on Tuesday. However, Ruthie had plans of her own to go Eilat with her kids and grandkids, and last time she left an 18 year old unsupervised in her home, said 18 year old had a party and invited all her friends. So of course the natural thing to do was to ask me to take him. And as anyone who knows me will attest, I do not know how to say no, especially not to my cousin Ruthie who is so good to me all of the time. She's paying me 100 shekels a night for my troubles. Won't make me rich, but still nice.

Anyway, he came over last night. I fed him some dinner and then we talked a little (no tv in my house means one has to communicate). There is only so much I could talk to the kid about because I have little interest in music and cars... I managed to stay awake until 10pm and I left him to his telephone conversations with his friends. This morning I left him the key to the apartment and my subscription for the DVD library, hopefully he will be able to keep himself entertained.

I'm going to party this evening, I can't quite define it. There will be Israeli rock music but no performances. The participants will be performing. It's not exactly Kareoke, but something of the sort. Should be fun though. Might take Josh along though I'm not sure he'll appreciate it much.

Sea To Sea or How to Cross a Country in Two Days

I'm still recouperating from my weekend adventures.  My bike's bruises are being tended to at the shop as I write, my body will need a few more restful days for the sore muscles and bruises to heal though.

I had an awesome adventure. 

Thursday night I baked a bunch of goodies for the my riding companions as per their orders/requests, packed my stuff and went to sleep relatively early. Unfortunately I had one hour less to sleep due to daylight savings. I got up at 5am on Friday and Itzik picked me up, chronically late as usual...
We drove South to Kibbutz Zikim.  For those of you not familiar with Israeli geography, Zikim is not too far from the Gaza Strip and within very close range of the Kassam rockets.  We loaded up the car that was going to take our stuff to our night stop, got on our bikes and scrambled to get out of range...

We pretty much rode along the border line and then inland.  The first day was very long 87.5 kilometers, with cumulative climbs of about 1200m.  We passed by Sderot (home of Amir Peretz, leader of the Labor party, a few popular rock groups and one Miri Bohadana.  Saw the Shikmim Ranch, home of our comatose Prime Minister and continued to the Ruchama Badlands (that's what the sign says I swear). A bit further East and from there Southward to our resting place for the night, Kibbutz Kramim. Why is it that the comfy (everything is relative) bed is always at the top of a hill?  After 11 hours on and off our bikes nothing felt better than a hot shower and clean cloths.  The fact that dinner was pretty gross didn't matter we ate it anyway.  The majority of the gang went to bed early, some of us stayed up for coffee and then the baked goods began to appear... According to Polar users, over 5000 calories a day were lost but I believe at least double that amount was gained. 

I learned the true meaning of the  Ran the Apothecary's nickname that evening, when brought out his medicine chest (well it wasn't really a chest but a huge tupperware box) and started distributing its contents amongs all the 'sufferrers'.  The funny thing is that everyone took what he dispensed, as though he were a doctor, no questions asked.  The man claims not to be a hypochondriac, I'm not so sure of that.

Before we went to bed, Ze'ev pulled out a huge bag with breakfast for day two. He brought bread and jam and cheese and veggies, tuna, a goody bag of dried fruits and an energy bar for each of us.  The next morning, Ricki and I opened our little sandwitch factory and made sandwitches for everyone in our room. There was way too much stuff, most of it, I am ashamed to say, still in my unpacked backpack (what? I was tired.)

We hired a bus for the second day. It was supposed to meet up with us at various points on the trip to carry our food supplies and water for the day, and anyone who got too tired to continue. The bus driver seemed extremely annoyed that he had to wake up early on a Saturday, it was the start of a not so wonderful relationship.

We started day two climbing and swearing. There was a bit of an argument as to whether to take the short steep climb followed by another short steep climb or to take the easier yet longer paved route.  Steep climbs won the debate so we climbed and swore and ran out of breath and swore some more but it was only the beginning so we decided to keep the swearing to a minimum. We entered the Yatir Forst, which from our homework we learned, is the largest forst in Israel, and we rode and we rode, mostly on an incline. We had a rest stop at the forest and called the bus to meet us at a certain point, and after a long argument the bus driver relented and drove the 500 meters to where we were. Another strike for Mr.Busdriver.  We continued to Har (Mt.)  Amasa where we were going to ride through the Roman Steps.  I was looking forward to acting my revenge on the steps as during my last visit there several months ago, while still riding my hard-tail, my back muscles froze on me after about a kilometer causing me to fall off the bike and not being able to get back on it.  Armed with rear suspension and 130mm on the front, I was ready for the challenge.

As soon as I left the bus and we started climbing to the Roman Steps, I remembered a real hard technical climb and asked myself why I didn't board the bus. Before I knew it the climb was over and the steps started, only I didn't even realize I was there yet, because apparently with full suspension, the world looks and feels different.  Before I knew it, I was at the end of the Roman Road.  I did almost flip over once but all in all managed to do it quite easily.  Celebrating my personal triumph, all of a sudden I was filled with renewed energy (though that was possibly the result of eating a banana).

We continued through the new Arab settlement of Dahania, where we collected some kids of rageddy bikes. They managed to keep up with us for a few kilometers, quite a feat actually considering their gear.  Our last meeting with the bus was at Tel Arad where we had our packed lunches and got ready for the last leg of the trip.  At this point we were pretty much done with climbing for the day, it was supposed to be smooth sailing to the Dead Sea.

We circled Arad from the south riding a well packed gravel road. About 10 kilometers from our destination, less than a likometer from the intersection with the road, Ze'evik crashed. Luckily nothing serious, mostly scrapes and bruises, we were very lucky.  It was obvious though that he wouldn't be able to continue.  As we were close to the road connected Arad and the Dead Sea, we called the bus driver to come pick him up from the road and take him to the first aid station in Arad. The bus driver demanded NIS300 for his trouble. This of course cost him his generous tip...  Luckily there are more good people in this world than bad ones (or so I would like to believe) and we managed to wave down a jeep on the road which came to the rescue.  In a small world moment, it turned out to be Ran's girlfriend's sister and her husband.  They took Ze'evik to Arad and we continued on our way to Ma'ale Yair.  Ma'ale Yair is a dirt path leading down from the Judean Dessert to the Dead Sea. The descent is approximately 500m.  This route has been totally ruined by the jeeps in their attempt to climb up, making the path very technical and dangerous for cyclist.  I was there with the group less than a month ago and it terrified me, which meant I only rode the very comfy parts.  This time though, maybe more confindent in my technical abilities, I did most of it on my bike. From the bottom of Maale Yair, it was a short road ride to the hotels of the Dead Sea where the bus was waiting for us to take us back to our cars waiting for us at the missile range...

This was definitly one of the best cycling experiences I've had.  The route, the planning and the organization were awesome. The views of our tiny country are everchanging and amazing and every time I ride with them, I appreciate my riding buddies more,especially those of us who are of the fiminine persuasion. We rock!

When we arrived back at Zikim it was pouring rain, earlier on Saturday, the Kassams were falling out of the sky not more than a kilometer from where our cars were parked. We lucked out on two counts.