The Never Ending Apartment Search As A Metaphor For Life

An igloo built for one (or three small children)I need an apartment. I came home from Israel and have been staying with my folks but this girl is about to turn (cough cough) 30 and needs her space. I love my family and I am so thankful that despite close quarters they were willing to take me in... but I need my space.So I have been on the hunt for an apartment. First I had to get a job. Some level of stability is important, you don't want to get a lease and then not be able to afford it but also apartment complexes and owners frown on giving apartments to people without income. So I found a job. Once I had a contract signed and was sure it was going to pay me... I started looking for an apartment.I found every resource online (have you met me? I am, as a dear friend puts it, an interwebs ninja) and tracked down every locale. I pinpointed the areas I wanted to live in, the price range I wanted to be in, the amenities that were key:Must have: washer and dryer, parking space, be close-ish to work and friendsMust not: be on the first floor, have old fixtures, be in a bad neighborhoodI thought, there has to be a place out there somewhere... within my price range. Every spare second of my day was consumed with the search. I would find places on Craig's List and contact them immediately only to find them gone before I had even seen the post. I would call complexes offering one price online only to find out that when you spoke to them parking was an extra $80 a month, the price was only for the first floor and everything else was $400 more, or they had nothing available until May.What was going on?! Why wasn't my dream place just appearing like I had anticipated? I just couldn't understand... heck, I still can't understand why as I sit in my father's office at my parent's house. The final nail in my apartment coffin came this evening, when I received an email from a place that I had built up in my mind as the perfect place declining my application. It made no sense! I have a stellar rental history, solid income and employment, decent credit, and to top it all off... I WAS HIS ONLY APPLICATION! I don't know why my mini real estate mogul turned me down... I will have to investigate with his consumer reporting agency but what I do know is this... the place was a little on the small side. The kitchen was tiny and you have to be one of those super creative space people (like my friend Morgan at Casa Cullen) to make the living room/dining room space work. But I had convinced myself that since it was in my price range, it had the amenities I wanted, it was in the perfect location for me that it was the right place for me.But what if I was wrong? What if Hashem (G-d) turned me down for this place because The Big G knew that I wasn't going to be happy there? I got tired of looking, I settled for a place that met my surface requirements.Don't we all do that sometimes? Don't we all just want to find the 'right now' solution instead of the right one? We do this in dating, in work, in numerous situations in life. Right now, I am doing that with an apartment. With too many other balls in the air, I decided to stop juggling that one and take the superficially good one I found. G-d said no. In the form of a consumer-reporting agency... but G-d said no.I am a big believer that G-d makes G-d's will known in your life. With little nudges, you can see the right/better/more fruitful path. I am also a big believer that most of us ignore G-d's signs/signals/morse code most of the time and that is how we end up in the crummy situations with 20/20 hindsight.Sometimes life is a seemingly never ending search for the right apartment. The place where you will feel like home and safe. A search that makes you an apartment real estate expert and a very frustrated person. One where you often find yourself ready to pay more than you wanted for less than you wanted... but that rarely works out for the best.You just have to know what you want (w&d, parking space) and what you don't (first floor, old fixtures) and how much you are willing to give of yourself in exchange for it. And if you sacrifice on those details, it may work out... or you may come to resent your home space and be stuck with it for the next 11 months of your lease.

Dear Egypt

Dear Egypt:Please stop looting your museums and for goodness sake, DON'T destroy your pyramids or the store-cities of Pithom and Ra'amses. We refuse to rebuild.Love,The JewsP.S. Great-Grandpa Moshe wants us to remind you that it was only through the good grace of God that we stopped at the number '10.' Don't get any funny ideas about real estate to the east...It's been all over Facebook and Twitter but I had to include it here. Look, it's a funny joke but Israel is really in an awkward spot here. On one hand, we can take in the people who are getting beaten by the government and help protect them but on the other hand, this government was the only one who sought peace with Israel. How do we keep our southern ally and help the people?

Back from the Holy Land

Okay... I get the point... I stink... I am sorry. I have been back to America for 20 days and to Colorado for just over two weeks and I haven't posted a blog. Very not cool of me.But you see, I have been so overwhelmed with this reentry/transition back to my regularly scheduled life... It was like I froze Talia and took a trip in an alternate universe. Now I've come back to find out that the world has moved on but not only was regular Talia frozen, she has this added wealth of knowledge and perspective.I have been putting off writing for a while now. Even before I left. I found some excuse (usually relating to being exhausted or too busy) to not force myself to face the experience I just came home from or the special people I left in Israel.And I guess I am going to put it off again. Not indefinitely, in fact, I am working on it right now... but the more I think about it, the more thought it will take  to write. Not one of my usual off the cuff blogs. And then this blog will undergo a renewal, back to my odd eclectic self of social media and Jewish ideas. With some Sherlock Holmes tossed in for good measure.But I felt I owed it to you all, my blog readers and fans, to tell you where I am and why I have been so noticeably absent. I promise to rectify that very soon!Thanks for sticking around!

A New Year, A New You

I wrote this post for MetroImma and we couldn't run it but I really liked it so I am going to post it here, enjoy! (Thanks to Cindy, who got the piece started.)New Year, New You?Some Jews get offended if you refer to January 1st as The New Year, as if recognition of it somehow undermines the legitimacy of Rosh HaShanah.  It doesn’t have to be a huge celebration or even a nod to secularism or other faiths.  But there’s also no reason why we shouldn’t use every opportunity to take stock of our behavior, achievements and goals.  I don’t know about you, but the heart-felt fervor I feel in Tishrei tends to wear off a little by the time Kislev rolls around, so I for one am not too proud to use this opportunity for yet another fresh start.  It’s pretty easy to act like you mean it with Yom Kippur looming around the corner, so when you’re buttressed between feel-good Hannuka and sweet ole Tu B’Shvat, is a little non-Jewish, non-religious reckoning such a terrible thing?On New Years Eve we hope that this will be the year we stick to our diet, earn that raise and be a better daughter or parent.  New Years resolutions are certainly not a bad thing, that is, if you remember where you wrote them down.  On Rosh Hashanah, we don’t just cross our fingers and hope for the best, but spend time looking back, taking stock, and accepting responsibility for all that we have done, and not done.  More than just the beginning of a new Jewish year, it’s another revolution in an unbroken cycle connecting us to those who went before us, dating back thousands of years.So on the secular New Years, we are given a three-month performance evaluation with the boss. On Rosh Hashanah you really were sorry for not spending more time with your kid after dinner. You wanted to fix that. Have you? What have you done so far this year that you might need to do teshuvah for? How can you prevent yourself from doing these things again?Yes, the secular New Year isn’t something that is distinctly Jewish but it is certainly something that impacts our lives. (Just try writing 13 Adar, 5771 on your checks in America and see the stares you will get!) We can take this day as a post it note reminder, a pop up alert on your Google Calendar, a last minute text message to keep refining who we are. It is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day details. However, when the world seemingly screeches to a halt between Christmas and New Years, what better time for a personal check up and check in?

Chanukah in Jerusalem

While Chanukah has always been an important part of my Jewish life, it was never a focal point. It isn't a major holiday in Judaism and is rabbinic in nature. What does that mean? Well, many of the holidays we celebrate within Judaism are written about in the Torah. They are handed down by G-d to be observed in a certain way. There are only two holidays that are 'man made' as it were. Those are Chanukah and Purim.Ask any American Jewish school kid or adult and they will most likely tell you that Chanukah celebrates the great miracle that happened when the Jews went to the Temple and only found enough oil to light the Menorah for one day and it lasted for eight days. Whether this story is true or not, we are not sure, however, we do know that this was not why the rabbis decided to celebrate Chanukah.The true miracle of Chanukah was the defeat of the Hellenistic Greeks for our religious freedom. You see, they didn't mind us as long as we played by their rules. They actually weren't out to murder us, just to have us stop practicing Judaism and live like them. Well, we weren't so thrilled about that idea. So some people went along with the Greeks because they didn't feel like fighting but some kept their Jewishness in secret. They still learned and taught Torah but did it in a way so the Greeks couldn't catch them. This is the origin of the dreidel. It looks like an innocent game but it can be used as a decoy for a look out or a way to learn Judaism without looking like it. When the Greeks started beating people up and forcing Judaism out of their lives, there was a group of guys who weren't happy with the idea. These are the Maccabees. It was a family and they fought back, rallying Jews to fight with them. There weren't that many in comparison to the Greeks but they fought anyway.The Maccabees used stealthy techniques. They fought at night when the Greeks were off their guard and other ways to utilize their small force. In the end, they defeated the Greeks and won their religious freedom back. However, the Greeks didn't just try to break our spirit by hurting us physically, they destroyed the things we treasured most. Like the Holy Temple. They let pigs run wild in the Temple and it was a filthy mess when the Jews finally came to it. So instead of celebrating like most winning armies would, they put themselves to the task of cleaning up the Temple and that is what the word Chanukah means. Rededication. It was the time when we rededicated the Holy Temple, the Beit Hamikdash, once we cleaned it up and restored it.We use the lights of the Chanukkiah to publicize the miracle. Now, that is an important distinction. The Menorah sat in the Temple year round. It had seven lights. The Chanukkiah was a new invention with nine lights (eight days + the shamash, the helper candle). Today we light our Chanukkiot in our window or doorway to let everyone know of our miracle of religious freedom but that is not all. There were many dark times in Jewish history. Many times when we, as a people, were again persecuted for our religious beliefs. Times when it was not safe to be a Jew at all, much less be a Jew openly. At those times, we lit our Chanukkiahs safely inside our homes. Fortunately, we do not live in those times and we can proudly show our miracle to the world. This is why it is doubly important to light so our neighbors can see.Being in Jerusalem for this holiday, it was incredible. I am used to being the only chanukkiah on the block. In a mass of windows displaying Christmas trees and Christmas lights, my apartment window is the only one with blue and white lights and a chanukkiah. But that is not the case here. So many windows have them. So many windows share the light. Public chanukkiot all over town... so beautiful.It's odd to feel that the holiday season is over and Christmas hasn't even happened yet but that is the reality here in Jerusalem. Post Chanukah and the lights are down, the decorations are down, the sufganiot (jelly donuts) are gone. Its a different world.

Latke Lovers Contest!

Hey guys! My work is hosting a Latke Lovers contest for all the immas out there!Do you have what it takes to create latkes your friends and family rave about? Enter Metroimma's Latke Lovers contest and win some amazing prizes*...as well as your name in lights! All you have to do is get your family and friends to go to the contest listing on the Metroimma facebook page and post the comment “Our MetroImma _____________ makes the best latkes you’ve ever tasted!” The Metroimma who gets the most comments (including "likes") by Friday, December 3rd wins!To enter, join our Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/metroimma

Imagined conversation with G-d on Friday night

My friend Rucheli and I were sitting at a shabbis table on Friday night and we noticed some humorous, if not annoying things. This was how our imagined conversation went.Talia: No really, G-d... what is up with this? Our shabbis table, really?G-d, the almighty: Whatever Talia, deal with it.Talia: Seriously?G-d, the infinite: Seriously.Talia: Let's take this outside.At which point we erupted into a huge fit of giggles. Maybe it is just one of those things where you had to be there but what we were doing was relating to G-d in a way that we understood, that was comprehensible to our brains. It is something that we all do, that we, as humans HAVE to do to be able to relate to a G-d concept. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a high power concept that is working for them... one where they don't have to challenge it or question it, one that comes easily. In it's stead, we have to find the small ways to relate to G-d... that night, it was imagining challenging the big G to a round of fisticuffs outside.

Lesson #65 - How to write with a fountain pen and ink or "Do I really have to write on that tiny piece of pottery?"

This morning, I knew I was in for something different. Having requested not to use a pickax while my body recovered from the work, I was sent to the pottery cleaning and marking. It was a lot of fun but still hard work.Here's my supposition... on a dig, there is nothing but hard work. You can't escape and really, I didn't want to.Here's the deal with pottery marking. There are tons and tons of shards that have been found. Approx 300 BAGS of them at this point in the dig. All of those have to be washed and scrubbed, then marked. If they are edge pieces, like the lip of a jug or bowl or handle or spout... aka recognizable pieces, every single one has to be marked. If they are just random pieces of pottery, all of them above a certain size have to be marked. In this case, anything bigger than three of my thumbs... I don't actually have three thumbs therefore this is just an estimate.Here comes the challenge (other than writing tiny)... You aren't using a sharpie to mark them... you are using a fountain pen and ink well (in this situation, the ink well is a bottle cap). I know a fountain pen sounds romantic but there very little control for a novice on the flow of ink... and you have to write really tiny. As the day progressed, my writing got more consistent and smaller. Thank goodness! Because one of the girls hasn't been feeling well and she was doing the tiny parts, the rim parts, and she had to go rest so I had to finish the tiny parts... yeah... For this work, you are hunched over a piece of pottery, trying to keep your hands steady. The bonus of this work was I had to stop to stretch my hand and arm and back frequently so I got a bunch of pictures. AND I got to go see the synagogue today. What a real thrill to walk down the main street from 1900 years ago! Truly amazing! The intact mosaics on the floor are incredible and you can see the plaster and paint (frescos) on the some of the walls. As they try to understand more about this synagogue, it will be facinating to watch.And here is another sunrise... a nice progression through the morning... for you!(To see all my pictures, go to THDpr Flickr)