it is 11:00 p.m. in the holy city of safed. the kids just left a little while ago. what a holiday was had; here at Zelda's place. it was the first time the entire clan slept here since the wedding, nearly 11 years ago. we had the addition of 8 children aged 10 years to 6 months old and we had 4 dogs here, too. what a whirlwind affair. and of course; the youngsters took over all three floors. yes, we had screaming and running around on all three floors for all 3 days straight.
this afternoon, there were blood curdling screams from 4 of the older kids as they came running down the steps from the rooftop apartment. i can only say that, i now know what a heart attack must feel like. apparently, there was a small scorpion upstairs and the kids all panicked and freaked out. it sounded like someone had been murdered. my heart was thumping for over an hour.
when one of the fathers came home from synagogue; he took care of it. the Sephardic mom sprayed insect repellent to knock the thing out. i don't know if the scorpion was killed or just transported. i will never forget this moment. most of the time the kids were outside in the yard riding scooters. there was always a fight for a particular one. the little 2 1/2 year old girl kept up with her older cousins. kids were in and out of my house all the time. it drove me nuts. i was afraid that my male dog would get out and attack the sister's male dog downstairs.
today my male dog did get out and did enter the backyard and i screamed at the kids like a crazy woman. i was able to get him back upstairs before the other male dog came outside. who knows? maybe they would have hit it off but i didn't want the kids to witness a dog fight, either. it was a large strain on my nerves. i live alone. i am not used to kids running around anymore or a lot of noise. i am not used to people either. there were 14 adults and 12 of them slept downstairs with 5 of the children. I've been self quarantining here for months. i haven't even seen this many people.
my son and family slept upstairs in my house. the kids slept with me on mattresses on the floor. i let go of all of my corona fears and kissed them and hugged them and cried when i saw them. i held my baby grandson in my arms and spoke to him in English and kissed him a hundred times. i then realized that so did another 13 people. i retired to my home after lunch today and slept for most of the day. i was zonked. i was also sugared out. i hit the tiramisu pretty hard. i made it the traditional way and i strategically, omitted the whipped cream and added wine instead of brandy. it was not a big hit. i also hit the lasagna. i was looking pretty trim for a moment. i will start my no sugar regimen again tomorrow. there isn't anything left in the fridge to tempt me.
as much as i overate, i managed to do my nightly fast for at least 12 hours. i went to synagogue on Friday morning. i was able to slip out while the kids slept. they had their entire family downstairs to go to and i was free. there were only about 8 ladies at the synagogue. we all wore masks and sat properly, distanced from one another. no one hugged. it was impossible to breathe, and pray in a mask. my glasses kept on steaming up. it was very strange to be back after a 3 month corona break. i didn't make it there this morning. i was too tired. i didn't really do much but i was constantly bombarded with requests for things and people and kids were traipsing in and out all of the time.
my granddaughter suddenly became very sad and at the end of the holiday started to cry. she didn't want to go home. she said she wanted to live in my home in safed. i felt my heart being ripped out. i don't know when i can visit them. i have no one to watch my dogs and i don't know when i will feel safe travelling on public busses. i had to calm my grandson down a couple of times. he is always being accused of doing something to the other children. he kept saying that he was never coming back to safed. i know that it was better for my son and his family in Jerusalem before the corona outbreak but i worry so much for their financial survival now.
no one knows what is going to be. we have to be diligent and pray more.
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