Blog chadash (aka change is good)

We have new contact information all across the board, so why not a whole new blog? Please update your bookmarks to:

Lovings in Cincinnati

Otherwise known as http://lovingsincincinnati.blogspot.com

Check for new updates there... at least it's easy to remember. :)

A different kind of culture shock

There are some big cultural differences I've noticed between here and home. Like, there are African-Americans everywhere, but almost no Hispanics. I went on Wikipedia out of curiousity, and it said that the city is 52.9% white, 42.9% black or African-American, and 1.2% Hispanic or Latino. I've heard almost no Spanish, but there's quite a lot of German influence in restaurants and names of streets. Sadly, the Costco looked exactly the same, with only one black family in sight and the rest lily-white. (The pizza tasted the same too).

I've never seen so many churches in the same radius as here, either. Baptist, evangelical, Christian Scientist, you name it, there's a church for it, and the signs are big. Ohio isn't technically in the Bible belt, but Kentucky is, and Kentucky's a fast 10 minute drive away. When we came back from the airport we saw a huge statue of Jesus lifting up his arms, and not five minutes from our house is a gigantic billboard on how abortion is murder.

Everyone seems nice, and very friendly. People go out of their way to help you, whether it's the woman in Rite-Aid who showed me where the dollar aisle was, or the waitress who gave us her favorite recommendations and then told us what *not* to get. It's been a real pleasure talking with any of the locals so far - I hope the trend continues!

As far as our house is going, it's being put together slowly but surely. We've bought the little things that help it feel like home, like a laundry basket and plastic hangers. So clothes are in the closet, our one pot and pan are in the cabinet, and Jonathan's computer is proudly on display on the desk we bought from the previous tenants. The rest of our furniture and boxes get here Friday, and our mattress and box spring arrive Thursday. I think next Saturday will definitely involve unpacking, and poor Harry Potter will have to wait til later in the week.

Hello from the Midwest

We did it! We moved. I write this from the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, home of Graeter’s ice cream and the best Thai food I’ve had (who knew?)

It was a travel experience not to be envied, I’ll tell you. Our flight from LAX to Atlanta was delayed an hour, which caused us to miss our connecting flight. We were scheduled on a new flight instead, one which left three hours later. Then *that* flight was delayed forty minutes in Atlanta due to bad weather. It was so bumpy that even I got queasy, and poor Osher threw up in his carrier case. I later found out, when opening baggage, that our bags had gotten left outside at some point in the Atlanta storm, as most of our clothes were soaking wet.

We finally landed, rented our car, and drove an hour to our new place. It’s totally empty, but clean, spacious, and has a great yard and ample storage space in the basement. We bought the cats a litterbox, blew up our air mattress, met our landlord, who’s quite nice, and then Jonathan and I went to buy little things for us – adult not-fun things, like sponges and dish soap and a toilet scrubber brush. Tomorrow it's off to Costco to buy food.

Dinner last night was the aforementioned Thai place, and the local ice cream sho for dessert. The DSL people came today, our car supposedly arrives in the afternoon, Jonathan starts work on Monday, and the moving van with our stuff arrives next Friday.

The cats are settling in nicely. A bit freaked at first, they’ve been very cuddly... nothing like two huge moves in two months to make a pet feel insecure and want love. In lieu of living with our little ones, we bought Jan two new baby rats before we left. They're adorable white balls of fluff. Ruthie, she hasn’t even named them yet. :)

Book recommendation

On a totally separate note, my visit to Aunt Lois' has inspired a wholly new appreciation of nature in me. In search of understanding the world that is not-city, I just read Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, set in the southern Appalachian mountains. Kingsolver (who also wrote The Poisonwood Bible) was raised in rural Kentucky, in the "wrinkle on the map that lies between farms and wildness," and she has a graduate degree in biology. It shows. The woman is a poet, and weaves three separate storylines of a park ranger, a farmer's wife, and an elderly organic farmer into a dizzyingly beautiful tapestry. I learned so much about nature, human relationships, and the connections between the two of them that I can't praise the book enough. Go read it. Now. Click here.

Jerusalem friends

Mara and Mark were here for four days, and we had a fabulous time! They played tourist (Santa Monica Pier, Rodeo Drive and the like), we went to In N'Out, and they even rode the motorcycle with Jonathan. We were sorry to see them go, but at least Mara will be at the LA HUC campus, so I'll see her whenever I visit home.

Mara and Jonathan about to take off on the Hybusa. I think most people forget that we have one. It was one of the scariest things Mara did in her life, but it was worth it, she said.

Jonathan and Mark being tough and manly.

Me and Mark.

Moving

Well, so there's been a slight change in plans. Turns out the movers are coming Friday rather than Thursday, which means there's no way that we can have everything shipped Friday afternoon and drive 10 hours north to be at a wedding Saturday morning. Instead, I'm staying here and Jonathan is flying up by himself. He'll come back Sunday.

I'm so sad! I had wanted to go! Shawn and Kristie, our cousins, had even asked me to do a blessing at the reception. I had to bow out... can't bless, must move.

Squee!

Jonathan and I are going to four weddings in the next three months, and I need a good wedding dress. Yesterday Beverly and I went shopping and we put together a whole outfit. (pictures will follow)

The best part though? The dress I wanted, and ended up buying, wasn't on the rack in my size. The sales lady said hold on a minute, and then she TOOK IT OFF THE MANNEQUIN!

Ridiculous stress

I locked myself out of my mother's house today. I was annoyed at myself, but it wasn't so terrible - I walked across the street to a neighbor's, borrowed a screwdriver to take a screen off an open window, and clambered through. Then I walked to the front, UNLOCKED the door, and went around back to put the screen back up.

And here is where I got stressful - as I walked in again, I promptly noticed that the cats weren't greeting me. Oh no, I thought, where are the cats? I couldn't find them anywhere. Then I knew - they must have gone outside through the open window! What cat could resist? They're always trying to get out the front door, this would have seemed a godsend to them.

I called Jonathan and my mom to come home from shopping, as I needed the extra pairs of eyes. I grabbed keys, my cell phone, and a cat carrier so that when I came across them, I could scoop them back up. Then I wandered around our neighborhood for half an hour calling, "Simcha! Osher! Come here!" I couldn't find them.

By the this time I was in tears, envisioning them getting in fights with the local possums, getting run over, or just getting lost in this new country (we've always kept them inside since we've gotten here). I had gone to three neighbors, two of which were outside helping me look.

After forty minutes I finally headed home, still calling their names. And as I reached the house, I heard Simcha meow in response to my calls. Hooray! I thought. But where IS he?! I circled the house trying to find him, calling continuously so that he would meow back.

Then it hit me - he was calling from INSIDE the house! That couldn't be! I had checked everywhere in the house! I walked in the front door, still confused, and I realized the meows were coming from Beverly's room, which was closed. I opened the door, and who do I see? Simcha and Osher, sitting on the bed meowing, looking at me like I'm absolutely nuts for being so stressed.

After getting over my panic, and wanting to both kiss and kill them at the same time, I thought through everything that had happened since I locked myself out. This is what I think happened: One door of Bev's room opens into the house, the other door opens outside into the backyard. The cats aren't allowed in there because she has lots of decorative masks with feathers, which they like to eat and destroy. So we always keep the doors closed. But when I left to put the screen back up on the window, I left through the back, and I think I probably left her door ajar. The cats must have gotten in and accidentally pushed it closed. Then, when I came in through the front and saw they were missing, I checked every room in the house, including that one. But they know they're not supposed to be in there, so, following past precedent, when they heard me come in, they hid under the bed! Forty minutes later, they were bored and wanted to come out, and so Simcha meowed in response to my calls.

Madness.

So here I am now, frustrated, slightly bedraggled, and calling all our neighbors to thank them for looking for my cats who weren't even missing. And where are they? Sacked out on the living room recliners, relaxing in the sunbeams.

Does that seem fair to you?