The News

I walked into the grocery store this morning to buy the Jerusalem Post, which has an article about my interfaith activities in it. Raed the Palestinian worker there greets me. "Arafat is dead! Arafat is dead! Hallo, how are you!" He's smiling from ear to ear as if all his problems will now disappear. I thought maybe I missed something in the news this morning, last I heard the PA chief was being brought to France for treatment. I figured Raed was just being overzealous. For this kind of news Hubby would have woken me up at 3:00 am. I watched Suha Arafat last night visiting her man for the first time in 4 years, wearing an ugly grey suit. She gets a fortune every month from the PA, she can't wear nicer colors?

I got a call on my cell phone at 5:00 am. All my kids were home so who could it have been. At 7:00 I listened to the voice mail. Someone from "shomrei mishpat". It took me a while to figure it out. Mishpat - means a sentence, in legal terms, something to do with a courthouse. I thought what did my ex-Criminal daughter do now? Then it sunk in after a few minutes that it was a wake up call from Rabbis from Human Rights, for their Friday olive picking session. I decided not to go with them this morning. Instead I am hosting some international peace workers who work in Palestinian villages for a Shabbat meal. I needed to be close to home this weekend and I felt I've been lacking company for a while. My kids have not seen any guests since Sukkot and I missed engaging in lively conversation. We usually race through the meal and make sure we finish in time for the program "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" on channel 3. We upped our grocery bill last night by $50 - beer, extra chicken, sodas, cake - but thank God Hubby is now working and we have that extra $ to do this at this time.