Jerusalem Welcomes the Pope

It's Pope Fest this week in Jerusalem. Roads are closed, busses are re-routed during the day and the city has a kind of festive atmosphere where everyone's walking in the streets downtown during the closures. Notre Dame hung many yellow and white flags all over the place and a sign at a busy downtown intersection said that Jerusalem's Light Rail Transit system welcomes Pope Benedict XVI. He probably wondered about the horrible mess the light rail system is making of Jerusalem and the least they can do is officially welcome him.

Many of my interfaith friends got to meet the Pope at a special interfaith gathering until a sheikh hijacked the meeting for his own political agenda. Doesn't he know one doesn't talk politics at an interfaith gathering? Asshole.

My daughter wondered why so many tourists had come from overseas to see the Pope. There were dozens of tour buses all over the city.

"They're Pope Groupies" I told her.

"Really? They go all over the world just to see the Pope?"

I'm sure some actually do, although I don't know of anyone personally who does.
*****
And this past week I've also been concentrating on my raw foods, preparing one vegetable juice drink a day. Hubby took a peek at what I was making one morning...

"THAT looks like cat diarrhea." Well, it does actually. Which means I can have this juice all to myself, unlike other snacks and goodies which I have to hide - and hiding places are becoming more scarce in my home, as the family becomes more knowledgable of my hiding places.

I even took dried bananas to work today. Looking at these bananas I packed in a plastic bag, it did look like a dried piece of crap. But you can eat it and it's sweet and it's healthier than chocolate. So there. I won't have to hide any dried bananas either from my family.

My recently-married daughter called me and wants to know whether I can go with her to sushi night one evening. She's become totally addicted to sushi and "needing" it twice a week. We made a date for next week. At home I wondered about this new addiction of hers and told my husband...

"She was never adventurous before. All of a sudden, NOW - she's so into sushi? I don't get it."

I love sushi and when I was her age, I also ate it often. What's happening? Is she becoming more and more like me as time goes on? Where she once detested my "adventurous" gourmet food, now she's liking brown rice with edemame and other healthy options? Well, does that mean she'll be inviting Arabs into her house soon enough?...

Green

I am trying to incorporate some "raw foods" recipes into my life. I took a class during the week to try out some of the funny-looking green drinks because they seem so healthy and quick to make. Quick to Make is the key here. In my busy life, it always seemed nearly impossible to cook healthy meals, so a quick - throw-everything-you-have-in-the-fridge - seemed like a good solution. Which is what I did and - lettuce, peppers, ginger, garlic, apples, pears, beets - even parsley went into the machine. I gave some to Hubby and he grimaced with a loud "Yuck". He anyways believes I'm trying to poison him in one way or another - so I wasn't surprised at his reaction.

One morning I had just finished one of my various Green Drinks, locked the door, and headed for the elevator on my way to work. As I was about to go into the elevator, two young hunky guys were looking around for something on my floor. I asked them what they wanted. They said they were looking for my daughter. THAT daughter - the one that's always getting into trouble with the police. They were investigators and wanted to investigate her about something, but they wouldn't tell me what that something is, because she's over 18 and they just wanted to talk to her. The good citizen that I am, I ran into her room, but she wasn't there. She probably slept over at a friend's house, which is something she does for about half the week. I didn't seem concerned about her whereabouts and told the guys that I'll have her get in touch with them today.

If I do sound pretty blase about this 'challenge' of a daughter - that's because I am. I'm still paying for her friggin' lawyer for her pot bust over two years ago and I'm not getting her any more lawyers. That's it. Finito. It's legal aid for her or I'm placing her with a Moslem family where they lock up their daughters until marriage and then the husband can do with her what he pleases. I've HAD IT!!!! There. I've vented. That felt good. My stress is now gone.

"And by the way" I added, "you made me miss my bus, so could you please drive me to the mall where I could pick it up after it makes its route all over the neighborhood?"

The least they could do is to get me to work on time.

I got on the bus at the Mall, and my married daughter who travels on that same bus each morning with me, was like,

"Oh my God! Your lips!"

"What's wrong with my lips?" I asked.

"You look like you were swimming in Shrek's bath. You're lips are totally green."

"Green"?

I was nervous that the investigators might now think that I ate all my daughter's marijuana - when the culprit was in fact the parsley, celery, carrot, apple drink.

The next day the daughter under investigation goes to the police headquarters and they grill her over whether she's smoking weed or not. She insists she isn't and tells them they could test her if they want to. They don't. Or at least she said they didn't. Time will tell of course if she's lying or not. I'll know within the year if she gets a letter from the court summoning her to yet another trial. But meanwhile, I'll just be drinking my drinks. It take the stress away. And that green is totally legal.