Gemini Girl

So in Judaism there is a tradition that you have to put up a mezuzah on each doorway to your home (i.e on the doorway to your bedroom ,kitchen, living room, entryway.. just not the bathroom). The mezuzah is there to protect your home against unholy things (ie.. spirits, evil eyes, bad luck).

Like I’ve mentioned before I am pretty sensitive to my sixth sense.

When I moved into my first apartment 4 years ago, I COULD NOT get a goods night to sleep. I just felt very unsettled. I started walking around my new apt looking for something- what exactly, I didn’t know?

I came across a tiny bump under the paint on my bedroom door’s enteryway. It was too tiny to be a mezuzah, right? So I called my husband into the room and asked him to break a part  the bump.

He did, and there it was… the tiniest mezuzah I had ever seen.. a mezuzah they haven’t made since the 1920′s!

This little mezuzah had been painted on top of, over and over again for over 80 years- and me a young woman from Brooklyn- “sniffed” it out!

Now, a mezuzah needs to be checked every few years since the hand written blessing inside can fade. And believe me- you do NOT want a faded mezuzha in your house- it can bring A LOT of unwanted issues in your household. The mezuzah that I had uncovered had been deemed “un-kosher” for decades.

The writting inside the scroll

Recently, at night, I had been having that unsettling feeling again. That feeling along with seeing moving things from the side of my eye at night, and then hearing my husband’s voice call me by my name in a whisper (WHEN HE WASNT EVEN HOME) kind of made me decide to have the mezuzot in my home checked. What happens is, you take them off the doorways, and give them to a Rabbi to check.

The DAY we took them off our doors- all HAVOC broke loose.  Neve got sick, Soleil fell off my husband’s shoulders 6 FEET to the ground, I got sick, Soleil got sick… it has been INSANE here.

VERY, VERY unsettling.

We ALL feel it.

I should be getting them back next week… I cant wait to hear whether or not they were OK (but I seriously doubt it).

Wish me luck getting through the next few days!

The funny thing about your husband having the same name as the new President of the US?- The attention you get when you are on any line, waiting to be called.

When he first arrived in the US in 2004, he was detained by airport security. Apparently, he looked “suspicious”- aka he had brown skin.

My husbans is of middle-eastern descent, like me. My parents, as well as his, were born and raised in Israel. His grandparents (and my maternal grandparents) were born in Yemen.

Yemen also happens to be the homeland of Osama Bin Laden. The main difference is, we are of Jewish faith and not terrorists

Yemenite people tend to be dark skinned; brown.

The Yemenite people also have a very rich culture.

My mom’s parents and ancestry is from Yemen. Funny enough, my mom is pretty light skinned.

Every summer we would travel to Israel and stay for two months in my grandparent’s home. I loved being around my grandmother in particular because although she arrived in Israel in her teens, she kept the Yemenite traditions very much alive.

My grandmother wore dresses with long pants underneath and she adored necklaces and jewelry. She wore her hair covered with a hanker-chief.

Barak's Grandmother

My great grandparents

I even had a traditional Yemenite wedding before my actual wedding:

I can still taste my grandmother’s Yemenite Soup and Jachnoon (rolled up buttery dough that is baked overnight).

Jachnoon- yum!

Yemenite Soup

 I can still see her standing by the stove at 3am on a Friday morning, baking the traditional Yemenite bread  (called Lachooch) so that my grandfather would have it first thing when he woke up.

Lachooch

I feel honored and privileged that I was raised within that culture. Unfortunalty, the older generation- the  people I grew up with and learnt from- are slowly fading away. I am sad that my children will not have the honor of truly knowing their cultural roots, by being around amazing people with such a rich cultural history.

Last week I decided to throw caution to the wind and book a surprise trip to LA for my husband and I. Neither of us had ever been (and I am not counting my trip there when I was 2 years old) and both of us were dying to go.

Booked the trip on Tuesday, and we flew out on Friday Morning. We left the kids with my mom, so this was our first trip away from them. It was nice to have some grown up time.

The trip started off horrid- as we were delayed 3 hours on the runway due to “mechanical problems”- definitely not something I wanted to hear a day after I witnessed from my office window- the place crashing into the Hudson.

We finally took off, and from there on out- it was so much fun!

We jam packed so much into the trip

1)      we went to the walk of fame

2)       Mann’s Chinese theater

3)       Rode a double Decker bus ride around LA (like a true tourist!)

4)       Disneyland (which by the way- way more fun as an adult- just less magical),

5)      went to a super cross event (per my husband),

6)       went to the Santa Monica pier

7)      Ate at restaurants non-stop

8)       Met up with these kick ass people.

Alas, no pictures- because my husband left the camera in our hotel room, and when I called two hours after check out, they said it wasn’t there (and I KNOW it was there). And the truth is I don’t care about the camera- I care about the pictures!!! So now I kind of feel like this trip was a figment of my imagination- the picture with Mary Poppins, the picture of me touching Marilyn Monroe’s handprints, the beach… all just a distant memory.

The one thing that DID come out of our trip was falling in love with California. So, we are looking into the possibility of moving there come Fall.  I am looking into being transferred by my company (since we are bicoastal) , and my husband has already applied for schools out there. Everyone in California is so layed back, and since the creative side of my field is exclusively in LA (which is truly where I aspire to be) it would be a plus. It’s way more kid-friendly than it is here in New York. The problem I see is not being around my mom- since she helps us out with the kids. But alas, we cant live our lives just because we have convenient child care. So- stay tuned…

*Before I even discuss this- let me tell you something about sick people-

I opened a flickr account, not too long ago and put up some pictures. One of them was a picture of me and my pregnant belly at 7 weeks pregnant. Turns out some weirdo tagged me as a favorite. I went to his other tags, and it has pictures of a bunch of pregnant women, and some naked pregnant women! I blocked this weirdo right away. I dont think I am liking this flickr thing at all.**

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New Years Resolutions-

So most people never keep them, me included.

But I have vowed to attempt to keep mine, even if only for a few months.

I have joined a gym.

I LOATHE exercise.

But the body I currently reside in, is not my own.

It’s not the body I want to walk around in.

My stomach bulges out, I have no muscle tone in my legs, and these extra 20 lbs have got to go!!

My eating habits are good, most of the time- so it’s the exercise that I am lacking.

I am lucky enough to work in a huge office building that has an amazing gym- and a co-worker who goes on her lunch breaks. So that’s it- I’ll do it on my lunch breaks, with a friend to motivate me.

My goals are pretty reasonable- I just want to be comfortable in my skin- a place I was in prior to IVF, and twin pregnancy.

This body served me well, and was a vessel where my daughters grew for 7 months. But these extra pounds are no longer needed- these birthing hips can be placed aside for at least another three years. Mama needs to fit into her old jeans.

Wish me luck, as I attempt to work my way back!

What have been your resolutions this year?