Oh What A Day!

it's 12:00 a.m. in the holy city of zefat. i just got back from gal's family. her sister had a birthday party in the local bomb shelter. the location was changed at the last minute and i wasn't told. so, i ended up going to her sister's apartment in another part of town. of course, i didn't have my cellphone with me so i couldn't call another cab. finally, i caught one on the street.

today, the energy in zefat was on the hostile side. zvi woke me up at 8:00 a.m as per my request last night. i fell asleep around 3:00 a.m and i was not at my sharpest this morning. i cabbed it to yoga and then walked to town afterwards. i'm still feeling queezy from all the junk that i ate on tuesday. i went to the national insurance office this morning to get a letter stating how much i receive from them. i needed this to get a reduction on my city real estate tax. i had a bank statement that listed my national insurance monthly allotment, but of course, that wasn't acceptable.

they love paper here. the bureaucracy is insane. every time i go to take care of this they request another form. i took a number and waited for about half an hour. when my number was called i was told by the clerk that i was in the wrong cubicle. so when i requested in a louder voice, that they give me the letter, none the less, the clerk yelled at me for raising my voice. a second later, the guard was at my back, asking me if i had raised my voice to the clerk. i had zero patience for him. i answered rather sarcastically, that i hadn't pulled out a gun or anything like that to warrant all the attention. i told him that i was a 'tad' nervous. he told me to take another number and to drink some water.

i got another number and waited a few more minutes. i finally got my letter and proceded to the city office to get my reduction for the local tax. first, the clerk said that i had a big house and that they had changed the law. she then came back and said that i was entitled to an 80% discount. but of course, i needed to bring another form from the bank. i was right on time and made it to the bank before they closed. i got a copy of my last three bank statements and headed back to the city office. of course, i got flack from the other people waiting on line for their turn. i had to turn and explain to them that i had been in the middle of this a few minutes before.

the clerk glanced down at the statement and asked me what a certain deposit in my account was for. i really didn't know. it was really strange. i explained that perhaps it was sent for my son around the time that we had the bris. she came back a moment later and told me that it was indeed, a dollar transaction from out of the country and that i was no longer entitled to a discount. i tried to reason with her and explain that it was only a one time deposit, but she wouldn't budge. i told her quite calmly, that i still needed financial assistance. she had the nerve to tell me to sell my house. we finally agreed on a 70% discount. when i asked to speak to the manager, she said that i would surely get a 0 discount, if i did. she then decided that i needed two more forms from the national insurance office for 2007 and 2008. i told her that all that information was already in my file but she said that until i produced the two papers, i didn't have a reduction.

it was too late to deal with this today, because the national insurance office closes at 1:00 p.m. i'll have to go back to town on sunday. i stopped in to the local grocery store to buy some fish and veggies for shabbat. i saw the bus and made a run for it. i only had a 100 shekel bill because i had given the remainder of my change to people collecting charity. the bus driver refused to make change. he claimed that he didn't have any. before i said a word, he told me that he wasn't required to make change. i was too embarrassed to ask people for the 5 shekel fare so i got off the bus. i went to a local store to buy a gift for the birthday girl and to break the 100 shekel bill. i missed the next bus and waited for another 30 minutes. when i got home i went right to sleep. i had had enough aggravation.

i woke up at around 5:00 p.m. and i wanted to blow off the birthday party. i put on a bit of makeup and changed my sweater. i melted a bag of white chocolate chips but something went wrong and it clumped up into a giant ball. i added oil and water and put it into the molds. it didn't freeze well nor come out of the molds. and now i have to empty and clean all of the molds. at 7:00 p.m. zvi came down to request food. he didn't want anything that i offered. finally, he agreed to my frying up some meat cigars. i brought the greasy cigars upstairs and i called a cab and jotted down to gal's sister's place. the cab driver gave me a hard time about breaking the 50 shekel note.

i climbed the four floors to find no one home. i realized that the party was probably in canaan. but i couldn't get a cab. when i finally arrived at gal's parents, miriam was still frying up morracan crepes. i waited to go to the party with miriam. i was there for all of 10 minutes when miriam announced that we should leave. i took sahar in the stroller back to miriam's. it was pitch black and very scarey pushing the carriage down the stairs. we drank some coffee while miriam drove all of the girls home. she then took us home. i carried sahar upstairs and got him into pajamas. i then hit the blog.

i still have two sinks full of pots and pans from purim and from last night's dinner. hopefully, i'll have more energy tomorrow. i am officially, calling it a night.