Changing Gears

Different Can Be Good

Ten days since my last post, I'm such a slacker.

I do have a good excuse though, I've been so busy I've barely had time to breath.
The day after my last post, my new boss started.  I've been slightly overstressed over the changes in the office, things are going great so far. My new boss is very nice and easygoing, unlike my old boss he actually seems to enjoy sharing the personal aspects of his life and his experiences and he is an avid mountain biker which means he understands my dire mental state..lol, which means he can't be too bad.
As far as work is concerned, the differenced between him and my old boss are also huge. My old boss was very independent, if I wasn't at my dest he'd answer the phone, he'd use the printer and photocopier on his own without asking me to do it.  If I needed to take a vacation, he would handle his own stuff.  I had lots of free time on my hands... New guy is very high maintenance.  I basically have to do everything for him.  Also he is very connected resulting in a very full schedule to juggle and never ending phone calls, this keeps me extra busy with barely a moment to myself. There are advantages though, for one thing, time goes by faster. Also I am completely involved in all aspects of his work and life, which makes things a lot more interesting. Another positive is that I am so busy, I barely have time to nosh, I might actually lose some weight as a result of all of this. All in all, though I already miss my old boss very much, I think I got a good tradeoff. 

In not so great news, I went to see the Orthopod yesterday. He has taken me off my bike and put me on anti-inflamatories and physio for the next ten days.  I've taken the bus to work two days in a row and it is starting to drive me nuts (45 minutes for a net distance of 2.8kilometers).  Hopefully it is just a bit of an inflamation and nothing more serious. I have to start training for Alyn soon.

I have been getting rid of stuff in my apartment. I can't begin to express how liberating it is to let go of things.  I've packed up most of the softcover books I've already read, somehow I don't think I will be reading them again... Next week I will take them to the used book store.  I've also started removing items from my closet, things I dream of fitting into one of these days (ok I'm keeping a few, I'm only human), things that are just totally unflatterring but I have some sort of attachment to, things I said I'd repair years ago, but seem to remain in the same sad status...
My craft room is the hardest, because I can't seem to let go of my crafting materials.  Only the crafters of this world can understand me on this one. The next phase is the kitchen, but I think I will keep that for after I am done with the rest. As it is, this process though intended to declutter my house and my life, makes my home relatively messy and I need to bring it back to some sort of normalcy no later than a week from now because I have houseguests. I can't believe it is just a week away.

I'm going to meet my cousin after work today, we are on a mission of sorts which cannot be revealed here.  I'm very excited to see her because she told me yesterday that she is ten weekgs pregnant..EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
While at the mall I want to check out a deal for photo paper and a guilliotine (no, not the kind that chops of heads, the kind that cuts paper...) and maybe a nice pair of flat shoes to wear while I am taking care of my knee, I'm tired of wearing boots (it's almost summer) and sneakers (they don't look too great with a skirt..

Somebody Gave Me The Moon Yesterday

Since my birthday fell on Rememberence Day this year and I wasn't in much of celebratory mood I decided to postpone my celebrations.  This weekend we had a full moon, and my friend Ran organized a full moon ride in my honour at the Philip Ranch and the Ruchama Badlands (still can't figure out why they are called that).   He says it was nothing but I know how much thought and planning he put into it, how many times he went out to scout the route to make sure it was ridable and all the discussions he had with fellow riders behind my back, collecting money for my gift and ensuring I had a great time.  And I did.  We had a little last minute glitch when the guy who volunteered his 4x4 called an hour before the start of the ride to tell us (quite expectedly actually) that he wasn't going to make it.  A few panicky phone calls and we managed to arrange another 4x4.  There were almost 50 poeple there (as opposed to the 30 we limited the ride to), and it is quite touching to know so many people came just for me (ok ok, some did come for the ride and the moon and didn't even know me...)  The route was perfect, the weather was just right and the sky was so clear that the light of the mood felt like full daylight.  About 3/4 of the way through we stopped at a place called Tel Nagila, where we emptied the back of the jeep and had a bit of a spread.  Well, a bit of a spread is an understatement.  There was a ton of food, the kind people make at home, not stuff one buys at the store.  It took about 30 minutes for the majority of it to disappear:) and then we somehow managed to get back on the bikes and ride back to the cars.  I got home at 3am and slept almost until noon today.

Today was cleanup day.  I was somewhat successful in putting parts of my house in order...  I actually dumped two of the cardboard boxes from my balcony (thanks Rappy).  I organized and cleaned the livingroom, the balcony, the kitchen and the bathrooms.  I still have the bedroom to do (the night is still young and there is always tomorrow..) and of course my craft/computer/guest room which is a total mess...

Then I decided to get crafty again.  The new challeng on Inspire Me Thursday is journaling.  I've actually been journaling a bit recently, but I wanted to do one of those arty art journals.  When we were clearing out Gilad's office this week, he gave me lots of materials to shred, a lot of them were bound in booklets with nice cardboard covers and separators, so I took the booklets apart and kept the covers and separators.  Today I cut them up to size, gessoed and started paining the backgrounds.  I did some using Misty's method and some using glazes.  So far I like the result, I hope somehing nice actually comes out of it.  In any case, the process of taking out my paints, getting my fingers dirty and just being crafty is enough to give me energy for next week.

Thursday was Gilad's last day, and quite emotional for me.  Sunday we begin anew with Nir.  So far he makes the impression of a nice guy, I'll just go into work tomorrow believing that it's true and hope for the best.

Getting Crafty

Since I'm a bit out of commission today and I'd rather do anything but clean, I decided today would be a day to get crafty.

I have really been enjoying Misty Mawn's work since I found her Inspire Me Thursday Blog and her presonal blog and when I read that she had published her technique in Cloth Paper Scissors, I had to get my hands on the magazine.  I sent my dad to Chapter's where he found it, promptly scanned the relevant pages for me and emailed them to me.  I can't wait until the end of the month when I get the actual magazine.  In the meantime, I also gifted myself a subscription to it.

I love the layering effect, though I need more practice for sure.  I am also lacking in collage materials and I really need to get my hands of some of those transfer gel mediums, but I sort of swore I wasn't buying new craft materials so I am using what I have.   I had two papier mache round boxes, I think I bought them because I wanted to cover them with napkins years ago and I just never got around to it.  I used the layering technique to paint them them and then I started the collage images.  I like how it turned out so far but they need some more stuff I need to work on it... another one of my many works in progress.  In my book it's better to have several works in progress than none at all...

Spring in the Desert

Thursday afternoon Ran called me to tell me he was organizing a ride for Friday and would I open it on groopy as his internet connection was down.  I wasn't so sure I was in a mood for a ride but I said what the heck.  When I went to bed Thursday night there were only five of us registered for the ride.  I don't usually ride in such small groups.

I woke up at 4am and met up with Gershon on the Ayalon Hashalom Offramp, our usual meeting place.  We loaded the bike into the car an proceeded to ride to what is defined as "End of the World, Turn left" to a place called Ezuz.  Ezuz is a moshav established in 1985 on the Israeli-Egyptian border.  To call it a moshav is a bit far fetched, from what I could gather there are four families living there (though their phone book indicates 9...). It is defined as a desert-tourism community.  When we arrived there we were greeted by a little girl who offered us one of her puppies to take home.  I was tempted but decided that a desert puppy won't be happy in a cramped apartment in Givatayim.

There were just six of us, which was unusual but also very refreshing, the comradary was great.  Two weeks ago there were heavy rains in the south and our entire route was sprouting green grass and beautiful flowers, quite uncommon for the area.  It was quite a sight.

The route was 40 kilometers, we started in Azuz, via the Azuz Riverbed, the Matnan Riverbed, up to Kadesh Barne'a and back to Azuz.  For this time of the year the weather was wonderful and breezy even though we spent most of the day in the sun we barely felt it.  We had zero malfunctions, and no serious injuries aside than my pulling my leg muscle yet again, but Ran's  supply of drugs (magnesium, potassium, salts and a few other elements on the chemicals chart) kept me going.  For the first time in months the after effects I usually experience after a ride did not appear.  My leg hurt like hell though so tomorrow I need to make an appointment to see what's going on. In the meantime, I'm putting the bike to bed until Friday night's Full Moon ride.

New Year, New Ride

My  34th birthday was Tuesday.  This year it coincided with the saddest day of the year, Yom Hazikaron, or Remembrence Day, for those who do not speak Hebrew, so big celebrations were a bit of a problem, what's more, I am not too big on birthday celebrations, or at least organizing them.

Odd as it felt for me, I decided to go out for breakfast with Rappy.  We went to a place called Lucas', had Eggs Benedict (which did not come close to those at Slack Alice's in TO where I first tasted them) and some Champaign drinks. At some point my friends Shelly and Dandan came by and surprised me. It was a fun, low key morning. After walking around Shenkin street I came home for a bit of a rest and in the evening we went out for Independence Day celebrations (only in Israel are the saddest and happiest days of the year separated by 60 seconds).  Rappy went with a friend to do some folk dancing, and I went to "shira be'tzibur", or I guess the vocal version of folk dancing where I met with my friend Eyal. It was pretty 'dry' at first, and the sound system was horrible, but as time went on it got better and better and more and more crowded, apparently busses started arriving and mostly religious youth started swarming the place.  I retired close to 1:30am having plans for a ride the next morning.

The ride the next morning followed the path of the battles of the Givati Battallion during the war of Independence. All members of the riding group were old enough to be my parents (some old enough to be my grandparents) but they were a fun bunch.  I got home around noon and prepared myself for Independence Day festivities, that is, the BBQ, or as it is known in Israel the Mangal. (Insert joke, what's the difference between a BBQ and a Mangal?  To the first you wear a shirt...only Israeli's will understand this one I think).  I hung out with my riding buddies for most of the afternoon and had a very nice time.  Then I came home and passed out.

More birthday celebrations next week, we are doing a full moon ride.

In other news, today I got an email letting me know that registration for the Alyn bike ride will begin May 8th, that's four days from now. Ouch.  I don't quite know that I have the money for registration right now, but I'll have to find it somewhere.  I'm thinking maybe I'll ask for the company's contibution early... just in case I am not here come September...
And then, it's the start of the fundraising campaign...
From the initial description of the route it doesn't seem too exciting (at least not for one who spent all winter long criss crossing the Negev), but I realize that it's much harder leading a group of 100+ in the desert than a group of 20.  No matter what the route, I am still very much looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.

In the meantime there are a few long distance challenges ahead for me.  At the begining of June, the gang wants to ride from Jerusalem to the Jerusalem Beach in Tel Aviv and the week after that we want to do a two day ride from Ashkelon ot Eilat.  I'm not sure if I'll do both or neither actually since I will be having company from Canada and my vacation days are running low, very low.