23rd Birthday!

I have had a really wonderful birthday. And this is truly a testament to my friends, who are wonderful, because I have been sick and feeling mildly awful between coughs and sneezes and stuffed up nights for days. Michael and Manu took time off of their busy schedule to search for "Tylenol Maximum Strength Cold/Flu PM" which proved elusive. Shira, sister to the rescue, came over and dropped off some very powerful meds. My parents sent me beautiful flowers, which I wish I could smell.

Friday night Rachel arrived and Emily shortly followed. It felt like Israel was brought to New York! They each brought my incredibly sweet gifts; a necklace hand-strung by Mama-Buxbaum, NY history cards (a game I know my family will love to play), a cute little replacement book, Starbucks card (soooo necessary from on grad student to another), and more... We got ourselves all dressed up and went for dinner at Max SOHA just around the corner from my dorm. It was a nice meal of good food, sangria and discussions of our current lives and fond memories. For dessert we headed down to Greenwich Village to the Bourgeois Pig, a tiny itsby bitsy little wine and fondue bar. We sipped on not so great hot chocolates and ate incredible fondue all served to us by a Johnny Depp look-alike from his Benny and Joon period. Rachel buttered him up as only she can and he ended up sitting with us, eating our fondue while we all tried to figure out if the Swedish men at the table next to us were gay, or just Swedish.

We slept in the next morning before putting together an incredible breakfast. Of course, Emily was in charge of the cooking, just like back in the Jerusalem apartment. We made pancakes with real maple syrup and chicken sausage, and some good old chai tea. One we were all showered and had sat around for another few hours we got in Rachel's car and went to Brooklyn. Meghan had come in from Israel for her mother's play and had stopped in at Russel and Sam's with a few friends from when she had been living in NY. Shockingly, Eitan Marciano also showed up, and brought us all gifts of baseball cards. I brought up a cake for all of us to celebrate with a novel message that hopefully covered everything. Sam played us his new song, which was dark to say the least, about a spurned lover who after getting out of prison kills his girlfriend. Not exactly a pop tune.

Emily and I left the others there and went back into Manhattan. It was hard to figure out what to do for dinner, so we decided to go to a restaurant that was a bit off the beaten track. It's called the Ayurveda Cafe, and is a vegetarian restaurant with a set menu that changes daily. Emily's friend Elizabeth joined us and we each got a delicious mango lassi and delved into the 7 little dishes that ranged from spicy to pungent. For a relatively little amount of food, we were all stuffed beyond belief and none of us had finished. Pretty impressive. I was feeling pretty sick, so we went back to my apartment and hung out there. Emily and I got into bed and it felt like New Years eve, trying to stay up until midnight when I'd turn 23.

The morning of being 23 has been pretty nice. It's daylight savings time, so having woken up I've not only gained a year, but also lost an hour of my life. My mom and dad each gave me wake-up/ happy birthday calls just a bit too early. I called Yohoshua and forced him to say happy birthday to me too. Emily went out in the morning to go visit her friend in the Bronx, and on the way out she found a gift for me outside the door. It was from Michael and Manu, the most incredible gift. Michael had downloaded pictures of my time in NY, send them to Manu in Germany who then sent the on to a company that makes games and puzzles from them. So now I have my very own Memory game of my NY memories? Have you ever heard of anything sweeter? Plus the card was one of my favorite pictures from Michael's travels, a strange snake carved into solid rock over thousands of years by a little pebble and a lot of water. I told you, great friends.

Emily went out to the Bronx to see Elizabeth's apartment, and I took a much needed morning nap. We met up in the afternoon at Zabar's so Emily could pick up a cinnamon babka for her mom and step-dad (Yummy). We then went down to SOHO to visit what we shall forever after know as Little Israel. There was Rosebud, a Kohn tradition now, where I picked out a very bizarre Israeli-shirt that takes me an hour to put on, but I feel Israeli, so it's worth it. Then to Sabon for Emily and I to wash our hands and try on different scents, and of course talk to Israelis. After hitting a few more stores and Emily buying a few pairs of saucy earrings from street vendors, we were freezing and hungry. Just the right mood for Aroma! We sat surrounded by Israelis eating wonderful food and sipping delicious cafe aromas. Emily and I used to travel an hour out of Arad to sit in the nearest Aroma in Beersheva for the afternoon.

And home we went. We hit up the pub and jazz night and had a few drinks before tucking ourselves in for the night. Emily left early Monday morning, and my weekend is officially over. And so is my birthday. And I'm feeling way less sick. Hurrah for it all!