coexistapart's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- at least I know they do not discriminate against people with bad teeth I know, I know...I've been absent; I haven't even uploaded all of my Hawai'i entries! I can't tell if I've actually been too busy, or I just don't care. Let's start with the present. The last couple of days have felt like the summer after Posh, before college. Except I probably would not have been this excited if I knew what was coming then that I clearly know now. Ahem. I am working on getting a shipping quote for, e.g., Toronto to Ashdod by freighter. I was thinking super cheap--I saw one website that said $225 for 7 boxes--but when I email for a quote in writing, it's more like $425 for one square meter. And for that price, I may as well take 4 checked bags and maybe ship just one box regular freight. Regardless, sea freight and air cargo under 150lbs is a somewhat complicated world to navigate. I booked my Tel Aviv flight tonight. I cannot remember book a ticket this far advance in ages, but it's fab to have something to look forward to; I have had the date in my head for several weeks now: leave Toronto Wednesday, July 30 in order to arrive in the afternoon Thursday, July 31 in order to have one full day in Tel Aviv before Shabbat closes everything for the weekend, so that I can drive down to Jerusalem at the beginning of the "week" to move into res three days before classes start. I've got various ongoing lists of things to do, buy, and think about (contact lenses? ankle-length skirt and head scarf?) it's no wonder that I don't really "care" about eBay. (Although, in my defense, we don't really have any high price items at the moment, so--call me a snob--it's hard to put in so much time for $10 or $20. Also on my personal development list is this blog editing thing. It comes in spurts. I would really like to get it done, but I need to buckle down. Ditto with the photos. I have been growing out my eyebrows for about a month now. It's a long process, but it's only just now (maybe the past week?) started to get gruesome.... I obviously pluck the ones out in far left field, but I want to get a wax and have them better reshaped so I'm half-way there, I need to stay committed. Ditto with my hair: there's nothing wrong with it, but it feels bland, but between the hard water, the heat, and getting in and out of the pool/going to the gym daily, I think I may ask for last summer's shorter bob right before I leave. Who am I kidding...I hate blowdrying my hair, and half the time I don't even remember I have a good straightener. I've been kind of lax about the gym the past couple of days (i.e. only going every second day) but tonight there was a great episode on A&E, so I ran for 1 hour. Fab! Friday Big and I went into Verizon and got new Blackberries. They still have the buy-one-get-one-free promotion. Big had a $100 hardware upgrade credit, so we paid $70 for TWO Blackberry world phones. Then the sales clerk printed off a mail-in rebate for us to get our $70 back--meaning they are LITERALLY giving the phones away for free. Then again, our shared family plan (for three, all-inclusive mobiles with lots of long distanc) is $225 a month, and with us recommited for two years, that's not a bad deal on them. Oh, regarding what I said earlier about booking my flight, I booked Business Class because it was LITERALLY the same price as economy. Plus it had gone down $300 in the past week or so (hint: there were only three booked seats--out of 35--when I selected mine tonight) so it was $1650 including taxes. The absolute rock bottom cheapest option would have been $1400ish, so I'm really happy with this; it's the newer AC planes with the individual lie-down pods. I had one for Vancouver-Toronto on the way back from HK two years ago. They're not amazing (i.e. First Class) relative, to say, Cathay Pacific or Emirates, but it's good value: a flat bad, personal tv, private walls so you feel unperturbed, computer plug-ins....the regular deal. It's not a return ticket, but as I think I've said before--I really have no idea what I'm doing. I *think* I will come back for 1-2 weeks in Feb, but it's probably not going to be cheaper in the long run to book a TLV-YYZ return if in *that* particular instance I'm going to need to go TLV-East Coast USA-Denver/Phoenix-El Paso. It would be too long and too complicated to do two tickets. And I don't know, for example, if I would be going Cairo-El Paso (Kimberley and her friend) El Paso-Tel Aviv or what. Or if Big wants to go to Barcelona. Or if I won't want to come back because I'll have gone back in September and this will be a return leg. Or if I will choose to use my points for a free ticket (I'm at 65,000 and need 75,000 which will be no problem with travel before I leave), or if I won't have been back in nine months and the economy still floundering so I can fly Business instead of Economy. Etc Etc. There are just too many factors for me to spend $100 moving a ticket multiple times. Tomorrow I need to do eBay. Must do eBay. It's really the last day.... Big has been particularly lovely lately, not that he isn't always and that we have been doing steadily better and better since the new year (vis-a-vis understanding each other). He's really kicked it into high gear knowing that I'm leaving, going out of his way to plan a weekend in Santa Fe (like I've been watching) and maybe a spa weekend to relax in Scottsdale. He will go to Vegas with his older son and new DIL in August, and probably with a friend from upper NY to Hawaii for her conference in September. I am already thinking I want to spend two weeks in either Greece, Italy, or Montenegro (or whatever flights are cheap from Terminal 2) that I am not really worried. Forget schoolwork! Ok. Starting to get my post-workout crash, and I need to go do my nails. 11:29 p.m. - 2009-05-12 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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