(no subject)
It was very very much A Weekend and I am starting the week the week fairly exhausted so that's great. But:
Watched Captain Marvel on Thursday evening and enjoyed it - was a fun movie, above average in my own personal MCU ranking but not way up top. When I got home I was like, that was nice, but I remember Brie Larson can really really really pack an emotional punch when she wants to, let's rewatch the trailer for Room, which ended in me staying up until 3AM to rewatch the entirety of the movie Room, which remains amazing.
On Friday I drove up to Haifa to meet a friend who is visiting from the US for a week. 70% of conversation was about babies, because this is where my Haifa friends are at, pregnant or with newborns. We met up on the Carmel, then drove down for a stroll on the beach - she lives in Boulder now, which is both inland and was apparently -16 degrees last week or something, and misses the Haifa beach a lot. It was lovely. The water was a beautiful shade of blue that day, sun shimmering on small tide pools between the rocks, and the rocks were all covered in algae that looked like a bright green muppet had exploded all over them but really you just wanted to lean down and pet the moss, it was so soft.
After, we met another friend at a cafe, where I had cauliflower patties and the most delicious orange cider; I love apple cider, but man, orange cider is a serious level up.
In the evening I went to friend #2's apt to hang out for a bit; her oldest kid knows me well enough that he remembers me now, and I think he likes me. There were strawberries and whipped cream, which were basically my pre-dinner snack, because for a late dinner, I met friend #3 and her husband at an Italian restaurant. It was great seeing them; I used to see them a lot in the center, but they had a (very) premature baby two months ago and spend every day at the hospital as he grows gram by gram; hopefully he'll be discharged in a few weeks. They are tired but in good spirits and seem to support each other very much, which is all I could hope for.
I slept at friend #1's airbnb; it was really good to see her. We hadn't seen each other since August, which is longer than at any time since I've known her, but in a sense it was also the most time we've gotten to spend together recently, her visiting sans-family. In the morning, we went down the mountain to share coffee and breakfast in what is apparently the hipster neighborhood of Haifa; we found a small cafe/bar with low ceilings and bright sunlight, with walls painted desert and turquoise and soft jazz playing and dogs waiting outside.
I was going to drive back south by the coast, but I'd heard there were flowers - and here is the important part - right by the parking lot of this park up on the mountain. Well, thought I. As long as it's, I mean, right there by the parking lot, might as well go up and check. So I drove up and parked and god, guys, the country is beautiful right now. Everything was green, and there were wildflowers everywhere - red, pink, orange, yellow, purple, white, the mountain overflowing with them, and grass and trees all around, and perfect cool-warm weather, and the view of the bay and the ocean below. After walking around for a bit, I found myself a tree and sat down with a notebook and brainstormed Purimgifts until I settled on an idea.
Drove back down after that, stopping at McD's for lunch because it's the only thing with a drivethru. The flowers from earlier had made me want to get some new plants, so I stopped by the nursery at Ramat Hasharon to buy some, and since my grandmother lives nearby, I checked if she was free and she was, so I dropped by for a quick coffee and hi. Apparently her boyfriend had just been hospitalized, which is DDD: for me but she didn't seem worried. Ironically, my friends' two month old (but really still minus one month old) baby and my grandmother's 93 year old boyfriend are now on the same medication and have the same side effects.
I got home around 5:30 PM, just in time to pot my new plants, burn a CD of In The Heights for the road, and leave to pick up sister and friends on our way to Jerusalem, where we had tickets for a local community theater production of In The Heights. Drove up to Jerusalem, got there in the nick of time, just managing to glimpse how pretty the walls are in between the traffic. I had such a fun time watching the show - both getting to learn the plot and story, but also being able to participate in that energy of live, non-profit community theather. There's something so raw and joyful there; it was closing night after a 6-show run, and I am very happy there was a large enough group of talented enough people to pull this off in English, in addition to everything.
Got home after 1PM, and it was a wonderful weekend, truly, but also I feel like I need another weekend after that. Work, alas, does not work that way; today was rough. But now I will go to sleep, and hope I will not wake up to online conversations that will make me want to tear my hair out about Gal Gadot's politics.
Flowers!
Sea view from mountain
Fluffy muppet monster remains on the beach. SO SOFT
comments on Dreamwidth.
Watched Captain Marvel on Thursday evening and enjoyed it - was a fun movie, above average in my own personal MCU ranking but not way up top. When I got home I was like, that was nice, but I remember Brie Larson can really really really pack an emotional punch when she wants to, let's rewatch the trailer for Room, which ended in me staying up until 3AM to rewatch the entirety of the movie Room, which remains amazing.
On Friday I drove up to Haifa to meet a friend who is visiting from the US for a week. 70% of conversation was about babies, because this is where my Haifa friends are at, pregnant or with newborns. We met up on the Carmel, then drove down for a stroll on the beach - she lives in Boulder now, which is both inland and was apparently -16 degrees last week or something, and misses the Haifa beach a lot. It was lovely. The water was a beautiful shade of blue that day, sun shimmering on small tide pools between the rocks, and the rocks were all covered in algae that looked like a bright green muppet had exploded all over them but really you just wanted to lean down and pet the moss, it was so soft.
After, we met another friend at a cafe, where I had cauliflower patties and the most delicious orange cider; I love apple cider, but man, orange cider is a serious level up.
In the evening I went to friend #2's apt to hang out for a bit; her oldest kid knows me well enough that he remembers me now, and I think he likes me. There were strawberries and whipped cream, which were basically my pre-dinner snack, because for a late dinner, I met friend #3 and her husband at an Italian restaurant. It was great seeing them; I used to see them a lot in the center, but they had a (very) premature baby two months ago and spend every day at the hospital as he grows gram by gram; hopefully he'll be discharged in a few weeks. They are tired but in good spirits and seem to support each other very much, which is all I could hope for.
I slept at friend #1's airbnb; it was really good to see her. We hadn't seen each other since August, which is longer than at any time since I've known her, but in a sense it was also the most time we've gotten to spend together recently, her visiting sans-family. In the morning, we went down the mountain to share coffee and breakfast in what is apparently the hipster neighborhood of Haifa; we found a small cafe/bar with low ceilings and bright sunlight, with walls painted desert and turquoise and soft jazz playing and dogs waiting outside.
I was going to drive back south by the coast, but I'd heard there were flowers - and here is the important part - right by the parking lot of this park up on the mountain. Well, thought I. As long as it's, I mean, right there by the parking lot, might as well go up and check. So I drove up and parked and god, guys, the country is beautiful right now. Everything was green, and there were wildflowers everywhere - red, pink, orange, yellow, purple, white, the mountain overflowing with them, and grass and trees all around, and perfect cool-warm weather, and the view of the bay and the ocean below. After walking around for a bit, I found myself a tree and sat down with a notebook and brainstormed Purimgifts until I settled on an idea.
Drove back down after that, stopping at McD's for lunch because it's the only thing with a drivethru. The flowers from earlier had made me want to get some new plants, so I stopped by the nursery at Ramat Hasharon to buy some, and since my grandmother lives nearby, I checked if she was free and she was, so I dropped by for a quick coffee and hi. Apparently her boyfriend had just been hospitalized, which is DDD: for me but she didn't seem worried. Ironically, my friends' two month old (but really still minus one month old) baby and my grandmother's 93 year old boyfriend are now on the same medication and have the same side effects.
I got home around 5:30 PM, just in time to pot my new plants, burn a CD of In The Heights for the road, and leave to pick up sister and friends on our way to Jerusalem, where we had tickets for a local community theater production of In The Heights. Drove up to Jerusalem, got there in the nick of time, just managing to glimpse how pretty the walls are in between the traffic. I had such a fun time watching the show - both getting to learn the plot and story, but also being able to participate in that energy of live, non-profit community theather. There's something so raw and joyful there; it was closing night after a 6-show run, and I am very happy there was a large enough group of talented enough people to pull this off in English, in addition to everything.
Got home after 1PM, and it was a wonderful weekend, truly, but also I feel like I need another weekend after that. Work, alas, does not work that way; today was rough. But now I will go to sleep, and hope I will not wake up to online conversations that will make me want to tear my hair out about Gal Gadot's politics.
Flowers!
Sea view from mountain
Fluffy muppet monster remains on the beach. SO SOFT
comments on Dreamwidth.