Frustration

Frustration. I keep calling the moving company who is supposed to have provided us with an estimate for packing and shipping our lift. NO action from them. it's not the Israeli shipper who is the problem--its the local estimator.

I keep waking up at night with multiple lists of Things to Do running through my head. Sleep deprivation isn't helping things. On the contrary --I'm so tired sometimes that I forget things.

My sister-in-law wrote today and filled me in on what's going on in their lives. I also had an email from an old and dear friend in the Sacramento area. I realized that the advent of email has made it easier to keep in touch and also made it less compelling to meet in person. Remember the old days when in order to see old friends of family members, you actually had to talk a lot on the phone, make arrangements to visit for dinner or holidays, and spend time together? Now, the cost of gas, the hectic pace of work, life, children, etc. has made the default option of email an easy choice. I don't mind emailing -- I type quickly so its not a hardship. But I do miss the up-close-and-personal touch that comes with actual time spent together talking or sharing a meal. However, the blessing of email is that it allows frequent albeit not up-close-and-personal contact.

However, email also means that I'll be able to keep in touch with friends and family from 10,000 miles away. It's not the same as being an hour or six or seven away from them, but let's face it: if we're lucky, we see our friends and family out of the area once or twice a year. Sometimes less. Aliyah means starting a blog, learning to use a digital camera, and when coming back to visit, staying for more than a weekend since its a long and expensive trip!

The Husband's birthday is this weekend! A milestone birthday at that! We are gathering for a (semi-suprise) birthday dinner at a restaurant. He's not a birthday-party person, the kind of man who wants hundreds of people at a blow-out bash. And I'm not the kind of person to throw such a bash. I had trouble enough getting the bar-mitzvah done, and I had it catered! (That's what you do if you work full time and don't have the flexibility to take a month off work!)