I realized I haven’t really written much here in a while. I guess life and my absorption into Israeli society has reached a standstill in the last half year and I haven’t had much of a desire to write about news events, as I find that I have nothing insightful or unique to say about the news here. As Alan wrote on my birthday card, “I’m getting used to not having our first anything in Israel anymore.” It’s not a bad thing. In fact, in many ways it’s a really good thing – it means life is becoming more comfortable and routine here.
Right now, life is just continuing on as it has – sprinting after the 19 bus, cursing and simultaneously lavishing my silly cat with love, taking care of my cells, shul, lab meetings, bike riding, etc. I’ve collected some pretty good stories in between and occasionally even during the aforementioned activities. But I tend to not write them here, for fear of violating people’s anonymity.
Like older people worry about Alzheimer’s and dementia, I worry about the loss of my English language abilities. I phrase thinks strangely. I notice useful and simple words slipping from my grasp. I still spend a lot of time on the confocal (or rather, in the confocal room…in addition to imaging, it is a quiet and private place for phone calls, napping, illicit snacking, etc).
I also lock myself in the bathroom a lot. At work it seems to be my new thing. I’ve done it three or four times in two weeks alone. I’ve developed this problem where I sort of over-shoot the lock, and the door gets jammed. I then struggle in earnest for a few minutes, which of course feels like nine hours when you’re locked in a bathroom with no obvious way out. If I am really lucky, there will be someone laughing hysterically outside when I finally extricate myself from the stronghold. You can see how uneventful my life is because this is basically the only semi-eventful thing I have to write about.
Hopefully something interesting will happen to me soon. In the meantime, I’ll just be falling asleep while imaging and locking myself in the bathroom for increasingly long periods of time:-)
