New Directions (and no, I don't mean Glee!)

I did it. I moved to Israel.

That was the easy part.

The hard part was packing- which of course I didn't actually do until the day/night/morning before my flight. Which ended up being delayed a ridiculous amount of time lol. I didn't mind, I actually got to know some of the other olim (people moving to Israel), we played cards, we chatted, I got distracted n wandered off, bought some chocolate, came back n shared-- nothing new in any of those things lol-- and finally after about 2 hours waiting in the gate, we finally boarded. I sat (aisle seat thank G-d!!) next to a girl I'd met in the airport and a guy I hadn't.

So the flight went well, we met Natan Sharansky in Newark after check-in--- aside: all 3 of my bags were overweight, 1 was even >20lbs over, which is supposed to be like $100 fine or something, but the lady only charged me $25 each, but I just checked my bank statement and it looks like I was only charge $25 total!!! :D --- we took pictures, blah blah blah...

My mother didn't cry, for which I am grateful, my father didn't make it to the airport, for which I was disappointed, but I saw him during the 2 hours extra I had at home and he'll be in Israel on Tuesday. Oy. To see my grandfather who's in a rehab center after having had a stroke a month or so back :( We went to see him Thursday night. It's scary to see your grandparents getting older, my other grandfather is home now from a similar place, and walking, thank G-d, but in pain all the time.

Ok, back to the flight day: umm... yeah, so good

flight, I got to watch I am Number 4 and Country Strong, two movies that I've been wanting to see, I would have watched more, but a total of 10 hours of sleep over 4 or so days does not encourage staying awake on an 11 hour flight. Food was good, had some wine- even better, had some coffee-- big mistake! DO NOT DRINK AIRPLANE COFFEE!! I knew this and I still did it. I must have forgotten...

So we get to Israel, met by Nefesh B'Nefesh people (the organization that helps people make aliyah), some of whom I recognized cuz I've only been in their office like 3 times trying to get help (the non-white coat type), went through passport control, went to the old terminal- which I didn't know how much I missed! It reminds me of my childhood :) -to the Ministry of Absorption

office where we got documents and money- yay ;) - then back to get our luggage lmao 3 huge bags and lil ol' me? it was a sight to see, and then out! into the hot humid air of Tel Aviv! but

before that, MY COUSIN CAME TO MEET ME!! a cousin I hadn't seen in like 2 or 3 years, whose husband I'd never met, with whom I am not in general contact with other that her status updates in my Facebook newsfeed! (which is how she knew I would be arriving that day!) I was

so surprised and so so so happy!

The three of us packed ourselves and my bags into a monit sherut (shared taxi van thingie... hard to translate) with an older French couple and set off to Jerusalem, where I would be (/am) staying with my brother.

Ok. That's enough for now, stay tuned for the next update of

-dum dum dum- Vered's Aliya.

it's been a while...

Okay. So here's an update on the last few months... not that I expect anyone to care, but hey, why not?

As you may have been able to tell from my last post, I hated my job. With a passion. However, you may notice that I used the past tense in that sentence- why? you may ask. Well, now I love it! No, that's a lie, really I quit!! yeyah! Unfortunately, I couldn't squeeze more money out of them when I resigned... not that I'm sure they would have offered it, but my reason was that I'm moving to Israel. Which I am, please G-d, in a few months time. Well, now it's closer to two months. Ask me if I'm ready... nope! not at all! Except for having been accepted into the Ulpan (intensive Hebrew classes) of my choice (woot woot!), and that includes room and board for 5 months, so that's awesome. But there's so much more I need to do before I'm ready to go. Sooo much more! Like go through 24 years worth of crap and figure out what to keep, what to donate, what to throw out...

Right. um... also, my brother got married!!! In Israel. Another reason I decided that my aliyah (move to Israel) has to happen now. G-d willing, they will be starting a family when the time is right and I'd really, really like to be there to be the bestest aunt ever. So I went to Israel for the wedding, which was beautiful, thanks for asking :) and I stayed for an additional month. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, especially cuz I kept getting sick :( but I was able to talk to some people, get some advice, sorta look for a job... Then I came back to the States. I've been home now 3 weeks and I've been really proactive in doing nothing. Really, I think I deserve like an award or something, I am so accomplished at getting nothing done. No, not quite true, I have been keeping up with my Twitter and Facebook. That counts for something, right?

I was looking for a temp job for the next few months but couldn't really find anything. What I did find was a commission-only sales job. It's with Israelis and if it works out, I can continue in Israel, but... I really need money now not in a month... well, I'll just have to be really aggressive, eh, and get the cash flow starting sooner rather than later.

I'm also trying to get people to buy personalized gifts from me, so, hey, if someone you know had/is having a baby or a birthday, or really any occasion, and you don't have time to get them a gift or you want something really special, call me, alright? cuz I'm really good at making gifts and they're nice and reasonably priced. So please take a look at the collage I've included with this post

And that's about all for now...

office therapist?

Although I did study psychology, I have decided that it's no longer what I want to do with my life. It seems as though my coworkers haven't accepted my decision in this matter even though I don't work in the mental health field, I work... slave... pass the time... in the home health field.
Anyway, so I don't know why it is, but I always seem to be the one that people vent to, share office secrets with, etc. Not that I mind, I'm glad that people are comfortable telling me things they wouldn't share with others... that sounds kind of weird, but that's how I've been for a while, it's one of the reasons I wanted to go into clinical psych in the first place, I'm happy to be the person you can talk to when you're frustrated out of your mind with the daily grind... but I don't always have a response for them. And I can't always say what I'm thinking, you know? Like if coworker A says to me that she has so much to do that she can't get the payroll entered (which affects my ability to do my job) and make phone calls and do such-and-such, I can't say to her, "well, if you actually could multitask, you'd be able to!" or "really? because when it was my job, I got it all done..."
sigh.
I also can't stand it when some of the office staff are really nasty to this one woman who works with us. Thing about this lady is that she's a straight shooter, if you mess up, she'll call you out on it, if she messes up, she'll admit it right away. But in her department, no, the whole company, if someone messes up the patients could be at risk, so if a mistake is made, it needs to be constructively criticized so that it won't happen again, but people just don't like the way she talks. Now, being the office therapist and all, I happen to know how crappy her job is, the lack of support she receives (which I can totally empathize with O_o), not to mention some health and relationship issues she's dealing with. So when people call her a bitch and talk about her like there's no reason not to, it bothers me. I'm not going to say anything about what she told me, but sometimes I want to tell them to shut up and leave her alone, how would they act if they were going through what she is.
But of course I won't, everything told to me is in strict confidence, that's part of my job as office therapist.

netflix

I love my Netflix. Most of the time. The problem is that I like to share with people, like my mom and my dad, etc. Now, that in itself wouldn't be a problem except that my mom keeps rating the movies she watches on my account.
Now, those of you who are familiar with Netflix know that when you rate a movie, the algorithms built into the program will select other, similar movies to suggest to you. Wait, no, you don't even have to rate the movie, you only need to watch it. So my mom, who's rating the films she watches, and I use the word "film" rather than "movie" because most of what she watches is from the 40s, 50s, whatever, you know, those black and white dramas, comedies, etc, films that were actually rather well done-- but not what I want recommended! My dad, on the other hand, has a 2-yr-old. Need I say more?
Not to worry, I do appreciate well done films, but I've taken too many film classes to just sit back and relax watching an old movie, I'm always admiring filming technique, witty dialogue, etc. Not what I need when I'm looking for a quick, fun, recent, rom com at the end of a long day.

As much as I like sharing, I think I may need to change my password.

starter

hi all. so this is my first blog ever, and i'm hoping y'all (whoever's reading this) will bear with me as i learn as i go.
a bit about myself... i studied psychology but i no longer want to go into clinical so i have an unused 4-year degree, i'm working at a job i am "dissatisfied" with, making sure that over 100 field employees are paid for the home healthcare services they provide.
anyway, so i'm trying to break into the advertising or marketing fields, but specifically in creative design. for this, i understand that i need to build a portfolio. unfortunately, in order to do this, one needs to actually know how to use the programs that one uses to build such portfolios... which i don't :/
um... what else...? i'm an orthodox Jewish young woman who's trying, at the same time as the above, to move to israel. asap.
yeah, i think that's all for now. hope to be back soon.
A bientot :)