Lighthearted and Happy, as promised

Exciting things that happened to me this past week (and their accompanying awesomeness):

1. My brother Rafi came to Israel!!!! Accompanying awesomeness included:

    a) Going to the light festival in the old city (see pics)

    b) Wandering the streets of Efrat for hours catching up

    c) Pizza, ice cream, sushi, and lots of captain crunch being eaten.

    d) I got to once again make fun of his smelly feet.

2. I got my army issued skirt!! Accompanying awesomeness includes an awesome story:

    a) As of last week, they still had no idea when my skirt would get in ("Its out of our hands!"), so I decided on a new course of action. I convinced them (wasn't very hard, they are getting really sick of me there) to give me the skirts that they had (which are too small on me), then went to the base seamstress and convinced her (this one was a little harder, had to pull out the whole sob story about how Im alone and dont really speak hebrew and keep getting jerked around) to try to somehow make this skirt fit me. It took her an hour and pretty much everyone there was staring in awe as she dismantled this skirt and pulled the scraps together to make a lovely new skirt that fit me. It looks so good she actually made me parade around the office and show everyone. I was excited, she was excited, I pranced back into my office and they were all excited. It was wonderful.

An hour later, they storeroom called me and told me that they had gotten my skirts. I laughed. Pretty sure God was laughing too.

    b) I look awesome.

3. This weekend I experienced a victory for Jewish Feminists in the form of Sivan Gordon's bat mitzvah.

    a) Sivan led a women's mincha (afternoon prayer) service and read from the Torah as well. The men in her family went up to the women's balcony to throw candy (the typical women's job) and Sivan's cousins, sister, mother, grandmother, and aunts did all the usual male jobs involved in the prayer service. 

    b) It is really cool to be that close to the Torah and everything going on in synagogue. 

    c) At the kiddush (meal) afterwards Sivan, her mother, and her grandmother all got up and spoke and it was just so cool to see all the female pride going on for this recently proclaimed Jewish woman. Also, her father was practically exploding with pride. It was adorable. 

4. I got a job! (not in the army)

    a) I am the new part-time, work-from-home, administrative assistant to Choice of the Heart, a new company that offers preventative counselling and runs  workshops for young couples to teach them how to deal with the most common problems that married couples face.

    b) They think Im awesome. So far Im liking them too.

5. I bought a ticket to come visit the states!

    a) I am expected to become an aunt on August 7th :)

    b) So I am landing on August 15th (avoiding all the messy birth part) just in time to help out with all the newborn baby part.

    c) I am now being kept busy in the army by all the paperwork I have to fill out in order to leave the country. (This is awesome because it means I have something to do).