Girls

Girls at work were discussing the new cleaners that come in after hours. One girl in particular when hearing that they were Arabs seemed horrified - Arabs! How are you going to let them here when there's no one watching them, or when we have to work late..." She was going on. The office manager assured her that they were Israelis and had ID cards and not from the territories, which was illegal. That was HER main concern, but she didn't hear the terror in the other's voice, which I heard. I piped in - What are you so frightened of? They just looked at me with a -there-goes-the-liberal-Arab-rights-advocate-again-look and didn't say anything more about it. The evening receptionist is a delight. She wants to come with me to the old city in Jerusalem to meet my Gypsy friend and write about her. I must have asked her 100 times - you're not afraid to go into the Old City? No, she isn't, she thinks they're all interesting and would love to meet the Gypsy family. Wow. It's a date!

Meanwhile, the article from the Jerusalem Post on my Interfaith work has people talking - my daughter's boss read it. She asked her - "Was your mother in the papers?" I asked my daughter if she said "No" since everything I do embarrasses her. She actually did admit that it was her mother in the papers and I feel she was actually proud of me for once. That and the fact that I straightened my hair to give myself a more polished, less hippie look made all my kids more proud of their mother. Now they could actually be seen in the street with me, in broad daylight. Ah the simple things to please your children. Another acquaintance stopped Hubby in the street. "What is going on with your wife?" as if I'd already had that affair with that hunky movie star. "Are you left wingers", he asked, pained by the thought. Hubby answered with that spark of wisdom that creeps out every so often, that that wasn't the point. "She does great work. And it goes beyond that article. She's involved with so much." Sheesh. I really thought he'd kvetch to the guy about me not being around so much and isn't it a pity how I turned out, etc. So that was a big surprise.