When in Rome... get out before the earthquake hits.

So, I'm in Israel right now and apparently completely jetlagged, because it's... oh, 4:30am and I'm blogging instead of sleeping.

I'm having an AMAZING time, and enjoying every minute. I'm doing a much better than usual job of calling people up and making plans and doing stuff, and my Hebrew is holding up reasonably well - it's the first time that I'm here with any reasonable Hebrew to try out, so it's a pretty awesome experience to actually understand some shit.

I had a 7-hour layover in Rome on my way here, and I was extremely tired, having already stopped over in Paris. The next leg of my flight was on El Al Airlines, so I had no idea how much time I'd need to deal with security and transferring my luggage and stuff, so it was hard to resist the temptation to spend the hours eating, sleeping, and shopping in the huge airport... but I didn't! I asked a million people a million questions, changed some dollars to euros at a ridiculous loss, took a train and then a subway, and emerged from the Metro tunnel directly in front of the Colosseum. WOW. I spent about two hours walking around the area and taking pictures, ate an eggplant pizza at a cafe from which I could have hit the Colosseum itself with my crust if I'd thrown it hard enough (next time :) and went back to the airport. Amazing, perfect, fabulous. I was so freaking proud of myself!

And then, you know, a few hours later, 130 people died. Sharing that SoCal love? Oy.

I went dancing only one night out of three so far, but I have nine nights left and I intend to dance on seven of them. Yeee-haw!

The first thing to do is to survey the estate.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

0. Pincher Martin is an incredibly boring book.
1. I desperately need a new computer.
2. I am going to Israel in a few weeks and I am soooooooooo not prepared.
3. I am unbelievably bad at talking on the telephone.

QUESTIONS I HAVE:

4. What is it with Joe's colon?
5. Why is it first Mi Chamocha and then Mi Kamocha? No one I know ever knows.
6. Why can't my computer successfully download the California State Tax program for TurboTax, after I finally ponied up and bought the damn thing and spend all this time installing it and doing everything and I have an internet connection and the other updates work yet THE STATE TAX THING ISN'T WORKING AND I'M VERY FRUSTRATED. I mean, ?

But not today.

One day, I'll stop thinking this is hilarious:

or that this is awesome:

My friends write books and you should read them! And buy them! And give them as gifts!

Restore Yourself: The Antidote for Professional Exhaustion by my dear friend Dr Edy Greenblatt is now out, yay!.. Honestly, if I could have imagined a book that I more needed to read, it might have to be called "Restore Yourself: The Antidote for Professional Exhaustion for people who teach Israeli dance and drink Diet Coke and are way behind on blogging". Or something.

And...
My friend and yoga-buddy Einat spent time in Nepal this summer and wrote In Our Global Village which includes her words, pictures, and artwork. Amazing. Get it!

Catch-up. Mustard.

I have three urges now:
0) to attempt to catch up on the last couple of months, as though this were my diary and you cared about the minutiae of my life
1) to link to the random things I've felt like pointing you to lately
2) to tell you all about my amazing birthday and my amazing friends
3) to say that I have three urges but to really list four.

Well, glad I got that one out of the way. They say you never do anything big, you just do lots of small things that add up to something big. Don't they? Here's a thing:

My dance company, Keshet Chaim Dance Ensemble, had an amazing show on February 1st, called "Keshet for Life: 25 Years and Counting". Alumni came back to celebrate with us, we did a great mix of classic repertoire and new choreography, and it was a freakin blast. There was waaaaay too much rehearsal for me in the month of January, but the show was fabulous. Next up - we perform on the Capitol Steps in Sacramento at the Jewish Heritage Festival. That'll be my first time in the capital, woo-hoo!

The trip to Sacramento is in May. I'm also going to San Francisco for like a day in March, Israel for two weeks in April, San Diego for a gig also in May, and New York for five days to chaperone a school field trip in June (almost definitely, but not yet quite definitely definitely).

And it looks like I'm accompanying Neon Specs to the Skirball to find out the answer to the pressing question: Can Food Really be Authentic?

Good times.

I miss you too.

Thanks for noticing. I miss you too, and I intend to be back, but it's been a crazy time. (Yeah, RDB, what else is new? When was the last time you weren't having a crazy time? 1994?)

I've been sick (again) and yesterday was my birthday (yay!) and I'm working a bit too much these days (only two gigs on the actual day of your birthday? What's the problem, RDB?) but things are great and I feel like writing, so I hope that'll actually happen soon. Hope you're good too.

love,love,love,
RDB

I said READ dance bliss. Not eggplant sandwich dance bliss.

I've read about twenty of the 75 books every woman should read list compiled over at jezebel.com (and brought to my attention by editorial ass). I do, however, own at least five more, so I can pretend I'll get to reading those eventually...

Similar to moonrat, I have read about 15 of Esquire's list for men.

I did, however, read quite a few books in 2008, possibly more than my usual 5o-ish-or-on-average-one-a-week. I'll post a little year-end-round-up soon, I think. I can tell you right now that Three Cups of Tea is not going as fast as I might like and that I'm going to give in and read Twilight in the next couple of days - Kenneth and Paige, we do have a movie date, right?

Hey now.

Um, shortly after that post about the targeted ad for "Tees for Sarcastic Jews", I got an ad for "Socially Awkward Tees".

Wait, why are you laughing?

Lady brings a new cup of coffee.

So, I've definitely never linked to or posted a picture of myself on this here blog, and for that matter I've pretty much not included any actual personally identifying info at all. Well, but something about this picture of my ghetto israeli dancing self just calls for sharing. Yalla.

Um, I took three separate naps yesterday. THREE. What the hell? I think the cold makes me tired. They were all, like, *deep* sleeps, too. Weird.

Hey listen, I know you've all seen the "Take On Me - literal version" video already, but I just found a friend who hadn't yet so I can't resist mentioning it in case you also live under a rock. How f'n fabulous is this?? Go watch it now.

Happy Chanukah. Merry Christmas. Etc.

How did they know?

So, on Facebook there are these targeted ads on the sides of the screen. If your status says you're single, you'll get ads for online dating sites, etc. Right now, I have an ad that says:

Tees for Sarcastic Jews

I shit you not. *That's* targeted advertising. Next up:
"Diet Coke for Wonder Woman fans"?

Oh, so, hey out there, blogoworld. I've been busy and not so much making with the posts, huh? Sorry about that. I'm at winter camp now, enjoying a differently-crazed schedule instead of the usual crazy schedule. Yay me. Hope you're doing well, blogging to come when it comes.