Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Passover is over



Tonight it's all over - and for those in the rest of the world outside Israel, it's over tomorrow night. That's one of the reasons why living in Israel is easier if you're a holiday-observant Jew - much less holiday cooking - only one seder, and one day less of a holiday. It's worth it to me, as I remind Hubby when he gets into his "why the fuck are we here" mode.

Meanwhile, so much has happened in two days. My future son-in-law bought my son a beautiful aquarium and I didn't like the plain fish he bought so I bought some tiger fish, and some fish with beautiful tails - all very small. And Hubby answered an ad to foster a 2 month old puppy from the JSPCA for a few days. Needless to say, the minute the pooch landed at our doorstep, Hubby wanted him for good. But we're not good permanent dog keepers. The longest we had a dog was for a year, after Hubby, frustrated by sweeping mounds of dog hair and being the only one walking him, gave our last dog up for adoption.

My Eldest daughter asked us about paying for her wedding. It was early in the morning, she looked quite dishevelled and was carrying her toothbrush in her hand, while yelling at us when we told her we can't foot more than 1/4 of the total cost. Hubby and I started laughing at her inappropriately and she called her fiancee to tell him she wants to postpone the wedding (it's not postponed), toothbrush in hand, which made us laugh even harder. The Israeli custom is for each side to split the cost (much fairer than the Arab custom of the groom's side having to pay for everything including the house and the North American-Jewish custom of the bride's side having to foot most of the wedding costs). Too bad she doesn't have a crystal ball and cannot see me as grandma looking after her kids once a week while she and her Hubby have some dining out fun - she can only see us as loser parents at the moment. She was livid and said she didn't want us at the wedding (!) So it looks like we're gonna have to crash our own daughter's wedding in June.

Meanwhile, while our Eldest was sulking over at her fiancee's home, we had the Complainer and her boyfriend home with us. Hubby loves when the boys come over because he puts them to work. That's punishment for sleeping with our daughters. The boyfriend had to build the stand-up barbecue Hubby bought (we use simple barbecues here - most Israelis do not use the US-gas-type barbecues. We use the primitive charcoal kind instead). Not only that, but boyfriend had to grill the entire supper himself while Hubby watched Fox News. Obviously, 11 years into our life in this country, Hubby has not yet become Israeli as most Israeli men barbecue at least once a week.

And last night I felt heavy with tiredness - and dreamt of my workplace. Ugh. I hate nightmares.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your hubby is a smart man. He gets the boyfriend to bar-b-que? That is just to get boyfriend thinking about paying for the wedding himself too. Baby steps. You are married to a very clever man.

Unknown said...

The kids - they confuse me too.
OK - here are the cast of characters in order of appearance -
in their twenties:
The Eldest (the one getting married)
The Good Daughter

in their teens:
The Complainer
The Ex-Criminal
Teenage Werewolf (the lone son)

and Amishav- Hubby will be tickled pink to hear you call him clever.