Ahhhh Sinai

I really need to be in a place where no one expects anything from me. Away from complaining children who do nothing but sleep all day, away from the demands of a family, from the job, from errands, from appointments, from volunteer work, from regimented schedules, from time, etc. And the one place in the world where you can do that is in Sinai.

Everyone I spoke to today about going down to Sinai would roll their eyes heavenward and sigh.

"aaaahhhhh. Sinaiiiiiii"

Everyone.

From the girls at work who had been there, to the ones working at the cellphone center where I switched phones - complete strangers. And from all of them it was the same reaction.

"aaaahhhhh. Sinaiiiiii"

Some were warning me that there were travel warnings out there - not to mention the terrorist attacks in Cairo over the weekend. But that didn't stop 20,000 Israelis from crossing the border into Egypt over the Passover holiday.

I tried to convince my Good Daughter to come along with me to Paradise - to the unspoiled beaches filled with beautiful coral and where the friendly dolphins swim right up to you.

"There's nothing to do there." she complained.

"That's the point. There should be nothing to do. We'll play card games and backgammon and read."

"I hate reading."

"I hate playing games."

I guess it will be equally a challenge for time-obsessed me to do nothing but pay attention to my daughter and look out into the Red Sea for hours. There may be a camel trek and Bedouin dinner to break up the monotony but not much more. And after tiredly preparing leftovers for dinner and cleaning up after everyone and cajoling my daughter to help my son with his homework and being unsuccessful in convincing my Complaining Daughter that a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico will be good for her and she continues to refuse to cooperate and call up someone who is making a movie about it - so that I believe I will cancel the whole deal with her- and when I want to send my son to sleepaway camp for 2 1/2 weeks, and he doesn't want to go to a "stupid camp" - I think I need this time to gaze out into the sea and do absolutely nothing and be absolutely uncontactable for 4 days this weekend.