Back.

Everyone has their own ways of making themselves happy.  Everyone strives to find the ultimate way to run their life.  I make rules, tons of rules, rules upon rules upon rules.   Every once in a while I find myself on vacation or some special occasion, and I tell myself, “this doesn’t count,” as I rip into a luscious, five pound, chocolate cake.   Ok so maybe not to this extreme, but I am often overly generous with the grace period granting.  In any case, Weight Watcher’s (Yes, fine, I admit it, I am a Weight Watcher, unofficially, but completely and fully obediently – for the most part) says there is no such thing as a special occasion, if there were then every day might as well be reason to celebrate and enjoy oneself.  The idea is that while they want you to be able to live, splurge from time to time, and be happy they agree, as do I, that one reaches happy more fully by finding the self-power to resist and eat whatever it is one wants sparingly and within the allotted number of points one is allowed to consume per day. 

I am not crazy – just perhaps overly self-disciplined, which to some is a very admirable trait.  I admire myself many times, and dis-admire at other times.  Other times such as today, when I, still getting over my two week “grace period” and jumping back on the “band wagon”  toward a slim, healthy, superior life. 

The flight was quite dull in comparison to other flights which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I guess flights are not meant to be the highlight of one’s travels.  The movies held were quite lame, and the food was absolutely unbearable (I do not agree that all airplane food is by definition gross, I have had some very delicious airplane food in my life, even in economy, so this time I was very disappointed with US Airways).  Although, I do feel the stewardess’ did an impeccable job.  I was originally seated besides an overweight, Orthodox Jew dressed in seven layers too many, and sweating like a pig.  I grimaced as we took off, and squeezed against my beautiful window.  Just as we reached the final altitude and the plane began to level off, the movie screens blinked blue and people eagerly began experimenting with the touch screen sensation.  Mr. Orthodox however ran into a problem with his purchased headphone set; there was something stuck in the headphone electrical outlet.  He quickly got a hold of a very, very nice, gay steward who was extremely sympathetic, and after an unstinting effort admitted that there was a low chance of getting whatever it was out, and that he would be more than grateful to find a new seating assignment for the man. He was successful, and within seconds I had two lovely seats to myself and was even able to fall asleep, after the first meal and two movies that is. 

I still feel slightly guilty for not saying good-bye to everyone, but I am not a huge fan of good-byes, and perhaps it is them who should be to blame.  They didn’t really take enough interest perhaps.   Oh well…. I have many more months to come to term with this until I see them again.  I feel weirdly content with the way things turned out though.  I got to see mostly everyone whom I wanted to, the important ones more than others… and even if we weren’t extremely bold and adventurous and mainly stayed within the boundaries of Palo Alto, I had a very good time, and feel like that was the ideal way to get the most out of my very brief trip home. 

I miss home already, but I am glad to be back as well, and I already talked to my eager komuna whom misses me dearly, as I truly do miss them.  They are so kind and thoughtful and I can’t believe I ever doubted their capacity as good people. 

I also wanted to mention quickly that I had had an interesting realization to add to my numerous conclusions of the differences between Israelis and Palo Altans.   I think my peers in CA are much more ambitious, have much more defined dreams and directions with which they want to take their lives.  I feel like CA are much more well-rounded and forward-thinking in that aspect, or at least at my age, than Israelis.  I find Israelis at my age to generally all be thinking and aspiring toward the same goals and directions, they all seem to be travelling on the same, well-trodden “path”.  True, they do have the consuming, obstacle of the Army impairing their sight of “the future,” but also, the small, family feel of the culture and community here, does shape most people to be quite similar in behavior and aspirations.  My mom, who grew up in Israel, told me that she sees what I mean and that this is a problem, but has majorly improved since her generation where everyone watched the same, single TV channel, shopped at the same, single clothing store, and ate the same foods.  She also said that while Americans perhaps are geared toward the future earlier in their lives, Israelis reach the point of innovation and self-shaping toward an ideal business solution at a more ripe age and are therefore able to succeed much more quickly and in that way catch up if not overtake the Americans’ progress.