Almost as soon as self stepped into the Ruppin apartment, she heard from Ying. Self apologized for not seeing her, but was in Bethlehem and Jerusalem all day. Self told Ying she’d bring her Tom Yam soup today, from that restaurant Ying loved, on the corner of Ben Yehuda and Bograshov.
Already, California looms large. Self misses:
her garden
The Economist
The New Yorker
The New York Times Book Review
watching movies
(and, goes without saying, everyone in her family there which includes — aside from hubby and son — the two li’l crits)
A few days after self arrives, there is her reading in the Ferry Building (Apr. 9, 6 PM, for those of you who are interested in meeting self. In person. In full-on comic mode). And then there is her visit to Valerie Miner’s Women’s Studies class at Stanford (Apr. 23– Valerie tells self her students have prepared presentations on Mayor of the Roses, and seem to really like the book. Whew! That’s such a relief–!!!)
Self asked hubby what movies were showing in the local cinemas, and hubby replied that he didn’t know, he was too busy working! Self tells herself she will make it up to hubby by becoming a domestic diva for the remainder of 2008.
And now to re-visit the old Trumpeldor Cemetery, which was closed when self dropped by last Friday or Saturday. The days of her trip are already beginning to run together in her head. All she knows is that the friendliest people in Tel Aviv are taxi drivers. It’s amazing the kinds of things they feel impelled to share with her. One old man showed her an 8 x 10 glossy of his dead son, killed at the age of 33 by a fare who directed him to a dark, gloomy section of the city. Now the driver carries the picture around with him all day in his cab. Heartbreaking.
So, taxi drivers of Tel Aviv, self salutes you. All of you. From the oud-playing driver who took her to Trumpeldor, to Eli who drove her home late one night from Bialik Street and insisted on giving self his phone number, even after self told him she was married, had a son, and moreover was not one of those nice and caring Filipinas the taxi driver seemed to like so much.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers, stay tuned.
Kanlaon 