Chapter 23: Burn, Baby, Burn...

Alright, so my posting is not as regular as before, but I'm settling in...once I'm fully settled, I'll be back on my A-game. One reason I haven't posted this week is because Mom and I are working out every day when we get home from school. For the past three days (I'm including today) we have gotten home at 5 or later (due to language lessons, all the female teachers visiting S's house, and a visit to the giant mall for various items). But why I haven't written isn't important...the exercising, that's what's important. After rowing competitively for eight years and then doing next to nothing in the exercise department for about a year and a half, I'm back in the game!...and I'm forcing Mom to play too. We using balance balls, which somehow make workouts feel more like playtime (I think it's because I harbor a secret hope that one day Mom and I will duct tape handles onto the balls and have a demolition derby around the apartment...or maybe I just like bouncing). We use workout DVDs, which are quite helpful and provide us with many opportunities to comment on/lament over our current situation (please read: we often tell the leader lady to go to Jericho...but in a more colorful manner...hint hint...wink wink...nudge nudge...I think that's it, unless someone else can think of another hinting type motion/movement). But now, I'm crazy hungry (I know, abrupt subject change) and I have to occupy myself until dinner and all this typing and writing takes too much thinkings. Maybe I'll go watch some JAG and knit a hat...yeah, that sounds nice.

Chapter 22: I AM INVINCIBLE!

Indeed, ladies and gentlemen of the blog, I feel like I could climb every mountain and ford every stream (however, I refrain from following rainbows to find my dream), and it's all due to my (well, Mom and my) victory over the blinking DSL light. For those of you who don't know, Mom and I are back in the Holy Land. We were in the States for about 2 and a half months, hanging out with family, visiting Claire (my sister...if anyone reading actually needed that clarification, who are you?) in Costa Rica (which is NOT an island), resting in Old Man Rzegocki's (Walter's) man cave (where we spent the majority of one day watching the entire BBC "Pride & Prejudice" miniseries on Blu-ray), and playing with Vivian. She has a habit of looking up at one and saying, "I hold you" when she wants you to pick her up and I have come to the conclusion that she is either messing up the words she wants to use or (and we all know an italicized or means I like the second option better) she's offering a deal that if I hold her now, she will in turn metaphorically hold me, support me when I am older. But she's offered that deal to so many people, she'll have to win Mega Millions multiple times to follow through on her end. Basically, she's awesome. Let's see...what else did we/I do...hmmmmmmmmmm...cool stuff. OH! I went to Austin to visit Caitlandia (super duper fun) and Kristin came to Seattle for the first time (also super duper fun times) and many other exciting times were had. But I can't think of them now and those that I can think of are not as engaging as I might hope. So, the moral of the ramble is that Mom and I were in the States, but are now back in yon Holy Land (we will have been here a week this Friday).
I'm sure you're all saying "She's been there almost a week and hasn't written any posts...SCANDALOUS!"(you're all saying this in the self-centered part of my brain...the one where everyone's world revolves around my shining countenance). But I have a very good excuse, our internet connection was on the fritz and by on the fritz, I mean gone, missing, broken, no good, non existent, super sucky. At the beginning of the week, I called our service provider trying to figure out what was wrong. The technical support guy and I tried many exciting things to fix our problem...but each time they failed...and each time, I sank deeper and deeper into the depths of despair (despite what Morilla Cuthbert had said). It was clear that the problem was beyond our capabilities and we would need outside help from...a technichian! My ever helpful friend at technical support scheduled me for an appointment on Wednesday between 10 and 12, making a notation in my file that I had requested someone with English skills as my Hebrew is limited to hello and thank you. Wednesday came and Mom and I stayed home to meet the technician. 10 o'clock...no technician. 12 o'clock...no technician. At 12:30, I steeled myself and called the company who was supposedly sending our repair man. I had to steel myself because the answering service is in Hebrew (I think they also had Russian and Arabic as options, but I'm not sure) and as I mentioned, my Hebrew is severely lacking. The only number I can identify with confidence is 2 (shtein...or shteim...something like that), so I blindly press buttons, hoping against hope that I am being connected with a human being and not adding seven new phone lines to our account. After half an hour on hold, I finally made it to a person and informed him of my situation. He attempted to help me, calling the technician to no avail, but in the end he said the best he could do was leave a message. I politely informed him not to worry, that I would be calling back in another hour or two if no one had arrived, then I thanked him and hung up. 2:30...still no repair man. Another round of "Guess the Operator Number!" is begun and 40 minutes later, I have a human being on the phone. But the result is the same. Time passes (in one day I watched all of the Futurama movies, finished a baby blanket, and started rewatching the first season of "Burn Notice"), I keep checking in with our service provider, polite yet insistent. At 5:15, while I'm on the phone with the technical support people yet again, I get a call on my local cell phone from...the repair guy! In my excitement to nail him down and get him to our apartment, I shoved the other phone at Mom (the one with the technical support people) who took it willingly, but with a rather bewildered expression. WIth a combination of broken English and Arabic, I was able to direct him to the right place and he got to work. Mom, on the other hand, was having some difficulty finishing the conversation that I had started on the other line. Over an hour and multiple calls on multiple cell phones later, our DSL light had ceased it's sassy winking behavior and returned to it's regular beacon of hope solidity. I yelped for joy and profusely thanked the repair guy, who had called me on the phone to confirm that our service was now running. After many hours and many phone calls and many minutes spent on hold, we had finally triumphed. I celebrated by watching movie trailers on Apple Trailers...it was delightful. And now that I have reached an acceptable conclusion and length, I will leave you and go watch some more Burn Notice...it's strangely addictive.