Thursday, June 28, 2007

Day 3 in Milwaukee

We live in a nice neighborhood. All the houses have a different architecture. The last neighborhood was nice, but all the houses looked the same. Here, they're brick, or lannon stone, or sided, and they all have different colored roofs. I walked over to the lake today - it's only four blocks away.

They've been doing some sort of digging in all of our yards. Now there's a hole in our front yard about 8 inches by 3 inches by 6 feet. Much to Ronnie's chagrin I did not go out and ask what it was all for. I figured if they're doing it to everyone, we're in it together, whatever it is.

Did I mention that it got cold out? We went from oppressive heat to needing a long sleeve shirt. At least it's easier to get stuff unpacked. Slowly but surely things are at least getting consolidated, if not actually put away.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

In case you were wondering...

Laverne and Shirley have yet to stop by and say hello.

Also, it is definitely still very hot in Milwaukee. Theoretically, it's going to get cooler tomorrow. but they were also wrong about the storms we were supposed to get last night and all day today. We had about 15 minutes of rain. No thunder, no lightening (I suppose one does follow the other), just a little rain.

The heat is exhausting. We've made good progress on getting things together, but it's been slow because we can only really work in spurts. The kitchen is sort of usable and would be more so if I were 6 inches taller. The dining room is slowly getting emptied, but figuring out where it all goes is a challenge. And the office is just too crowded. I love our red couch, but really, there's no good place for it now.

I walked down to the library today. They've built a new one since we were here before. It's nice, and well air-conditioned. And tonight we walked to a restaurant we like. It's really not so far away, maybe a mile, but given how tired we are, it felt like a really long walk.

Milwaukee Cable Television

When you think there's nothing on at 4:30am, ou'd be wrong. Now, there are episodes of the original Star Trek. That is definitely something I didn't see in Israel! Of course, in order to find it I had to scroll through more Christian stations than I knew couldexist. And, in case you're wondering, the Star Trek episode was the one with the Scalasians (invisible, needed humans to help continue their people....)

It's 5am now, there's another Star Trek on, (Star Date: 51.25.9), the sun is coming up, and it didn't storm last night like they expected it to. 'm hoping they were wrong about it also being really, really hot again today. To find out for sure, I'd have to switch from Star Trek to a local station and this episode is looking pretty good... (there are Klingons).

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Milwaukee

I'm disappointed. In my first 18 hours I have yet to see Laverne, Shirley, Lenny or Squiggy. I could have sworn I told them when my plane arrived....

I finally made it back last night and was welcomed by Ronnie, and lots and lots of boxes. The place in general looks great, if you can imagine it without boxes. It's not that Ronnie didn't do any unpacking - he did - it's just that we still have too much stuff.

And of course, today is one of the 20 or so days during the summer where air conditioning would be really nice. It's just so hot here. If I'm going to sweat this much, I'd just as soon be back in Israel. Thank gd for box fans.

We're in a nice, quiet neighborhood that's close enough to walk to the post office (did that this morning), the grocery store (did that this afternoon), and hopefully, if we're not too tired, to a restaurant we really like (tonight).

My goal for the day is to get the kitchen all unpacked. There's no actual pantry in the house, so I have to figure out which cabinets will get the food. There is plenty of cabinet space, so that's not so much an issue as the fact that I can't comfortably reach the second shelf and even with a step ladder can't really reach the fourth ones. Plus, I have to find the dishes. There's a dishpak in the dining room that I'm hoping has them. If not, it's a big mystery.

The paint colors look pretty good everywhere. The colors work well together and with the architecture. It was a little bit of a guess to make the choices, but they work.

I found two great things at the grocery store that I haven't seen in a few years: bread from Manitowoc and cheese curds. We went up to Manitowoc years ago and got a tour of the bread factory, complete with a pyramid shaped roof on the office of the president (it evidently promotes creative thinking).

Who Needs Paris?

It's the end of June. It shouldn't be freezing in Paris.

And yet, it was. That was my first indication that Paris is not all it's cracked up to be.

Charles de Gaulle (CDG) is undergoing a lot of construction. This is the place where one of the glass "tubes" collapsed last year and killed a few people. In the mean time, they take you from gate to concourse to gate on buses through the back of the airport. It could be really interesting, even in French, but it's not, and especially not on a cold, dark morning at the end of June. Really, it felt like being one of those post-apocalyptic movies, except they don't usually ride around on airport buses - they get cool motorcycles or old cars that miraculously run and there are cool explosions every so often.

Signage at CDG is non-existant. You get off the plane and have no idea where to go. The most obvious place, it seemed, was passport control, except that since I wasn't leaving the airport, that seemed not to be the place to go. On the otherside of the crush of people there was a small staircase that seemed to lead to the street. I had to ask three people where I was supposed to be going. There was not an immediate concensus (hence the third person).

I finally got to my gate. It was about 6:30am. I wanted to change my seat on the plane and waited 45 minutes to be told there was really nothing farther up (because I hate sitting in the back). But then, as the only ray of sunshine on a dark and cloudy morning, the clerk said the seven magic words that I had not expected to hear. "There's no one sittign next to you". That alone was worth 45 minutes and Row 42.

While I was waiting for my flight (delayed!), I noticed a lot of davening (praying) taking place. In addition to the two Jews putting on t'filin, there were also seven African men in robes and fancy hats who put down a prayer mat and started to pray. It was all pretty interesting.

When you are ready to board the flight, you take yet another long bus ride to get to the plane. A long ride, on a crowded bus with people who have already been flying for a few hours and haven't showered or brushed their teeth. You're dropped off on the tarmac facing a huge ramp leading up to the front door of the jumbo jet. Up close, those planes are huge. And the ramps are not escalators, but they should be.

Lastly, you know you're in trouble when get on the plane and it already smells. And in case you're wondering, it did NOT smell like fresh croissant.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

3201

That's the number of kilometers I drove this trip. how do I know? I started out with a new car that only had 4 kilometers on it, and when I got the airport tonight, it ready 3205. That's a lot of mileage (or kilometrage, I suppose) for four weeks. Other than a lot of dust on the outside, and a lot of pretzel crumbs on the inside, I think it looked ok. There were no discernable scratches or dents and I think I took out all the garbage. And this time I remembered to take all my cds and the parking receipts that were in the arm rest.

Last Day

Well, it's my last day in Israel. Really, my last evening. Shabbat was fine. This week I was at the Knesset Towers. The food was terrible. I don't like that they give our participants food that is bad, but if I were a regular "guest" in the hotel and got food like that, I would not pay the bill.

Today has been full of meetings and packing. Avraham Infeld started at 8am, so I got a reminder of the five legs of the table. Not like I could really forget. (Memory, Family, Sinai, Israel (land and state), and Hebrew Language)

It's also been really, really hot here in Jerusalem, and they say it will be even worse tomorrow. I had a friend who was climbing Masada with his family today - I think his mother took the cable car. I think he's CRAZY to climb the snake path, but he did!

It's been a good trip, although a bit long. I still have to decide if I'm coming back in August. At this point, my guess is no....

Friday, June 22, 2007

Finding 59 Derech Beit Lechem

One of the things I do every other day or so is collect the mail from the apartment mailbox. Usually it's junk mail. Two days ago I got a notice about a package for the owners. I gave it to their daughter. Yesterday I saw a paper in the entry hall that indicated there was also a package for me.

Packages need to be picked up at the post office. In this case, the one located at 59 Derech Beit Lechem. That's just two streets away, so this morning, I walked down there. Like the US, even numbers and odd numbers are on opposite sides of the street. The first number I saw was 25, so I at least knew which side of the street I needed to be on. It took me nearly another block to find out that the numbers were going down and not up.

But then I glanced across the street and saw that the house address there was 50. Yes, 50 on one side of the street, 17 on the other. Either way, I knew I had to walk the other direction.

So I walked up a few more blocks. The street was getting increasingly residential and I was wondering if I'd somehow missed a quick even/odd block switch. But the numbers on the even side of the street were in the 80s, so I figured I had to be close.

When I reached 57, I was thinking that maybe packages needed to be picked up at the mailman's house because all I saw were big apartment buildings. Hey, this is Israel, anything is possible. And then there was 59. The entrance to an apartment building. Maybe I wasn't so far off?

Then I noticed a guard standing at the entrance of the driveway and thought I should look just a little farther. Aha! Signs for the post office. Basically, it was a little hole in the wall in the back of the apartment bulding. I am still convinced that the mailman lives there though.

There was a long line, and three counters open. No one was wearing a uniform, unless the national Israeli Mail Service uniforms are also layered tanktops. There was a man yelling at them to find out where he was supposed to pay some sort of bill. He had clearly been given the run around and he was finally told he had to go out to the mall to some office there. He did not look happy when he left.

And then it was my turn. I gave them the little slip of paper and after much confusion, I finally got my package. I think they couldn't figure out why there were two packages to the same address, one for the apartment owners, one for me, in care of the apartment owners, but I was only there to pick up one. Since they ultimately didn't ask me for any identification, I probably should have just picked up both of them....

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Gay Pride Parade

Today was the Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem. They started closing city streets first thing in the morning to prepare and getting around town was not easy given the closures. The ultra-Orthodox have been protesting for days and there were some fears of violence at the Parade.

We got to the area about 5pm, and could tell that there were thousands of people up and across the street for what looked like blocks. From where we parked, about six blocks away, up until where we finally were at the end of the parade route, we saw hundreds of police. And when we finally got to the end of the parade route, we were held back by barricades and more police. There were all sorts of different law enforcement types - regular police, military police, and some guys dressed in all black on black motorcycles. I would have thought 'ninja' if I didn't know better. Really, there was a tremendous amount of weaponry there. I had no concern for my safety, but I was wondering what would happen if there was a crime committed in any other part of the city!

As I mentioned, the streets were all blocked off. We were behind some simple barricades, but up the block, there were two city buses being used to block the streets. We think there were some Haredim behind them protesting. Right next to us - literally 2 feet away - about 8 religious men started chanting horrible things and of course, all the of the television cameras came running. I mean really, it was 8 people, max. And then the religious women started blowing plastic whistles. They were SO annoying, but at least they weren't shouting hateful things.

Other than these folks, it was a really nice crowd. Lots of rainbow balloons, flags, and stickers. And there was a great banner over the entrance to one of the parks announcing the parade that had a skyline of Jerusalem cut out of a rainbow, and a pink lion (the lion is the symbol of Jerusalem). I saw a few people I knew and figured out that I wasn't going to get close to some of the other people I knew were there.

There was supposed to be a big "after-party" in the park, but it was moved to a site a mile or so down the road. We never made it there. By the time we made our way back to the car, drove home and walked back down toward town, it was already getting late....

Same old, same old

Well, another day in Jerusalem. No major crises yesterday and we haven't penciled in any of them in for today. That said, the day is young...

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Survivor

Anyone who knows me knows that I like watching Survivor. On in the background as I work now is the first episode of season five. I remember maybe three of the faces - including one of the best players ever (Stephanie) and the guy who won, who was one of the most boring winners ever. Actually, if memory serves, the whole season was pretty boring. Earlier today they had the season finale of Season 2, which was a pretty good one (and introduced us to Amber, of Rob and Amber fame.

I still say that there's nothing on television during the day worth watching, but at least there's something sort of interesting in the background....

Driver's Education

I think there should be a Potemkin Village built that will allow those learning to drive to take the time they need, allow them to make the mistakes they invariably will, and most importantly, stay off the roads and out of the way of the rest of us. At least here in Israel, those learning to drive are in cars that have a big "lamed" on top of the car, so you know who to stay away from. It doesn't really help that the rest of the drivers on the road are a little crazy....

Monday, June 18, 2007

Life Cycle of the Airport

One of our groups was departing earlier today and I needed to see some of the staff and one of the students before they left. I'd been at a meeting at Yad Vashem (it's sort of weird to go there and really just be interested in the coffee shop) and left a little later than I should have and then encountered construction traffic.

I did make it to the airport by 1pm and I believe I broke a land-speed record or two in my efforts. Needless to say, I made it without a scratch and I think even the cab drivers were impressed.

It was pretty crowded - I guess there are a lot of 4pm departures. It felt like it does before the midnight departures except people aren't already tired from a long day. Mainly, there's no where to sit and lots of luggage carts to get around. And now, at 6:30pm, it's so quiet you wonder if the airport may be closed for some unknown reason. I guess the rush starts again in a few hours.

One sad thing about the airport is that the hummos place no longer has mushrooms. You can get hummos with ful (brown beans), which I had last week, or with chickpeas, which I had today. Neither one is as good as the mushrooms used to be. The man behind the counter said they weren't as popular as the other two. I thought the ful wasn't so good at this place, and the chickpeas on top of hummus is just sort of redundant.

But there's free wireless, and there's something to be said for that....

Sunday, June 17, 2007

The Bik'a, again

Well, once again, I drove down the Bik'a road back to Jerusalem. Only this time I began the drive at 9:30pm, so it was not nearly the beautiful drive that it usually is. There were a million stars out, but it was hard to appreciate them going 100 kilometers an hour. Because it was Saturday night, there was also a fair amount of traffic.

I did have company in the car, which was nice, since we didn't get back until about midnight. Jerusalem is really, really busy on a Saturday night. The most noticeable thing, it smells like pastry everywhere. The bakeries are all starting to bake for the week, and in the three neighborhoods I stopped in (dropping people off and then parking at my apartment), it always smelled like pastry. Which is not bad....

Shabbat was quiet. We were at the King Solomon, which is way on top of the hill in Tiberius. It's also the hotel our students were in last summer when the rockets started raining on Tiberius, so we all (staff) were subconciously relieved to have a quiet Shabbat.

On Friday afternoon, I brought one of our staff people and a sick student down to town for lunch. They ate green olive pizza (ick) and I had my first falafel of the season. I have to say, it was really, really good. It was also my first opportunity to have my favorite sauce - amba. I still don't know exactly what it is, but in my opinion, it tastes like a curried mustard. Someone told me it has mango in it, but I dont' see how that's possible.

And on the down side, I'm out of Pepsi Max again. A Big Gulp would be good right about now. I'm fairly certain that the first person to open up a proper 7-11 would do really, really well here....

Friday, June 15, 2007

Back at Hof Gai

Well, I'm back at Hof Gai, trying (successfully) to be back on line and get some work done. I'm in Tiberius through Shabbat and still have to brave the pre-Shabbat shopping insanity to get some things for our staff oneg. There will be 17 people, plus any random tour educators that decide to come. That's a lot of stuff to get and I think it means stopping at at least two stores, maybe three. Or I could brave the shuk, but that would require a level of stamina I just don't want to exert today.

Last night, one of the staff members took me out for my anniversary. He felt bad for me last year when I was here and Ronnie was in the US and said he'd take me out, but it didn't work out. This year, when I knew he'd be staffing, and that it would be this week, I called him and told him he had a chance to make up for last year. It was a long day yesterday and really, all I wanted was a big fountain soda. Knowing that doesn't exist here, I got a bottle of diet coke and a chocolate milk shake. Not the same, but it hit the spot.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

McDonalds

The McDonalds here in Israel have free wireless access. And there is no place with wireless access (other than McDonalds) in Tiberius. And there is no wireless access in Tsfat. So today, on the way from Tzfat back to Tiberius, I stopped at the McDonalds in Rosh Pina. I ordered a salad and diet coke, paid, sat down and turned on my computer. Supposedly, the salads are made to order there. Given the time it took to get my salad, I believe that it means that they go pick them up somewhere else.

And I actually got connected to their wireless network with a very strong signal. So far, so good. Until I actually tried to open a browser and nothing would come up. I ran the diagnostic test - I'm not sure why. It's never given me information that was either helpful or understood. This time was no different.

The salad wasn't bad, although it wasn't exactly what I ordered. The Diet Coke was too small for the hot day - haven't they heard of large?! And so I left and am now at Hof Gai, a hotel on the shores of the Kinneret, just south of Tiberius, pretending I am a guest here. So far no one seems to have noticed that there is an American sitting among a lobby full of Israelis attending the "Star Home" conference.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Life Cycle of a Shuk

In truth, I wasn't there so early in the morning but my friend Dennis was, and he's a fairly reliable source. He goes running every morning and mentioned to me that he was at Mahane Yehuda (in Jerusalem) while all the booths were being set up, vegetables were delivered, and rugelach were baked.

Mid-day, I spent a few hours in downtown Tel Aviv and walked through Shuk Ha-Carmel. It's a little crazier than Mahane Yehuda, I think. For one, I think there are more cats. And they sell a wider variety of goods, and it's much bigger. There are a lot of tourists in both, but in Tel Aviv, there are also many more foriegn workers who are there. So the shuk also caters to a wider variety of clientele. One big difference - you can't buy pork products at the shuk in Jerusalem.

About 7:30pm, I was walking back through Shuk Ha-Carmel. At this point, the shop owners were literally dumping whatever was left on their tables, straight to the middle of the road. It was like a food fight gone terribly wrong. Tomatoes, lettuce, and melons, were probably the most common, but there were also tons of cardboard boxes, apples, and plums. To make matters only a bit more complicated - there was water running down the middle. My guess is that someone was starting to wash down the street - but it only served to make things really slippery. And, some of the store owners continued to toss fruit (and boxes) into the middle of the street without noticing that there were people walking through....

Sunday, June 10, 2007

The Mega-Event

What do you get when you cram 4000 trip participants, a lot of VIPs, tons of balloons, and fireworks into the Sultan's Pool? The first mega-event of the season. It was actually a good one, especially once they resolved the technical glitches. The fact that all of these people were in a venue that only had two discernable exits, both of which were long staircases up was of some concern to me, but we got out early and avoided the insanity.

There was a fire near my apartment today. When I drove by later a small field was all blackened. I'm not sure if it was an accidental fire or an intentional burn. All I know was that sometime in the middle of the afternoon I smelled some smoke, looked out the window, saw a lot of smoke and what looked like paper flying around and then shut the windows tight. That posed a different problem because it's pretty hot today and it soon became rather stifling. Needless to say, I survived....

Friday, June 08, 2007

cloudy day

It's been pretty unusual weather for June, I think. It's been cloudy for the last few days and last night it actually rained just a little bit. It almost never rains here after the spring. and it's been kind of cool, and maybe even a little cold.

Once again, I am NOT spending Shabbat at the Shalom Hotel. This week, it's the Olive Tree for me. The good news is that I have chocolate and cinnamon rugelach from the shuk for the staff oneg. The cinnamon ones are particularly important because they prove that the chocolate ones are overrated. I went to the shuk pretty early this morning to beat the crowds. I was there with all of the old Russians (and a few Israelis) and their wheeled carts walking through the narrow alleys. There's pretty much no way to not get assaulted by them. There are little wheeled (plaid) carts everywhere. At least I didn't have to buy vegetables.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

so many things...

I drove to Tzfat yesterday morning and went directly to the hospital to meet our staff and student who had been there all night. It's just such a different culture. There are four people to a room, and no where for visitors to really sit. Dennis (our staff person who spent the night there with the student) slept on a balcony. On the balcony. Which had a tile floor. He only had a thin sheet, and it gets a little cold out.

The hospitals are also interesting places because you really get to see all slices of life in Israel - rich and poor, Israeli and Arab and Druze. There was a cell phone that kept ringing with an Arabic melody. It was actually pretty cool and we were talking about how unique that would be if we could get it on our phones either here or in the States.

At some point I went looking for a bathroom. I found one and was surprised to see a larger garbage can there with what looked like garbage from the patient rooms. You know that stiff, molded cardboard that apples come in when they're packed in boxes? Well, that same kind of cardboard was also molded into bed pans and urinals. I'm not sure what kind of time you have between using them and disposing of them.... I shouldn't be so fascinated by garbage in bathrooms, but really, this was nothing I could have imagined.

On my drive back from Tiberius this morning, I saw more animals then ever. More goats than usual (and therefore more shepherds), some sheep (also with a shepherd), horses, donkeys, camels and then, a snake crossing the highway. It turns out that snakes cross the road for the same reasons that chickens do.

Bording the road to Jerusalem is a large field of sunflowers. I thought it was interesting that thousands of them were all approximately the same height. And then I noticed that every few feet or so there seemed to be some overacheivers who were several inches taller than the others. It's probably a safe bet to assume there are also some runts in the field, but I will have to look for them the next time I drive up.

Last night I stayed in the hotel just next door to where our groups were. The story was that there were no rooms. Who knows. I do know that there was no one else in my hotel other than me. That was pretty strange. When I checked in, they asked what time I wanted breakfast. Usually, breakfast runs for a few hours in the morning, so I just asked what time breakfast was. She said since I was the only one eating, it would be whatever time I wanted. I told her I would just go next door and eat with our participants.... The room was nice, and there was a balcony overlooking the Kinneret complete with patio chairs and a jacuzzi. I went out on the balcony only to see the planes that were flying down from the North. They weren't quite fast enough to crfeate a sonic boom that sometimes accompanies the war planes, but they were plenty loud. Rumor has it they were on practice manuevers, but I'm pretty sure they don't do those at 10:30 at night.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

updates +

1. The box that was packed with something that began ticking every morning at 6:30am every morning, has not yet been upacked and it continues to tick. Only now that the box resides in the Central Standard Time, it begins it's call at 5:30am.

2. The proper quote and citation is: "We will know we have become a normal country when Jewish thieves and Jewish prostitutes conduct their business in Hebrew" The author: David Ben Gurion.

3. I cannot use a hospital as home base as our participants get taken to too many different ones! Tonight, for example, we are using Ziv hospital in Tzfat for one of our students. We have not yet had a hospital chosen for us in Jerusalem, but the night is still young.

It's another clear, cool night in Jerusalem. You would never know it was blazing here during the day. The participants are all exhausted having come from an early morning at Masada, a hike at Ein Gedi and a dip in the Dead Sea. Hopefully it will be a quiet night.

We had another shehechiyanu ceremony today with four buses. For the first time, there was an awning set up at the site we use. Given the heat and the sun, it was great. I think it's only up for the Hebrew U Board of Governers meetings, but it doesn't matter to me. The good news, is that I didn't get another parking ticket while there. I got one last week, but at least Aryeh also got one and took care of both of them. They're 100 shekels - that's like $25! I've never gotten a ticket at a shehechiyanu before. Today I found the parking ticket machine and put in my three shekels and paid for plenty of parking. I did not buy a ticket for Aryeh - he was on his own!

Monday, June 04, 2007

Jerusalm

Well, there is something to be said for sunset in Jerusalem. There's a great breeze, it's a clear night, and it's a great night. Jupiter could be seen pretty clearly for a few nights, but if it's still visible, it's not from here. Of course, that could be because there's an apartment building in the way.

I stopped by the grocery store on my way home today. They had a lot of American products but I couldn't believe how expensive they were. Who in the world is going to pay more than $4 for cheese curls? I mean, you really have to be pretty desperate to do that, don't you?

I didn't exactly get lost on my way to my meeting, but I did get a little turned around. And pretty much, I never would have found it on my own. It takes a little pressure off not to get lost anymore though.

Daytime Television

It's offical. Israel is a normal country just like any other. There is nothing on tv during the day. I did find a Law and Order rerun, but it's one I've seen before. Or I could watch Odetta. Like I said - nothing on television.

What is not usual, is that at Hadassah Ein Kerem, there is an attached mall and even a hotel. It was a pretty busy hospital. Given what else it looked like was going on, we weren't surprised to wait a while for the various tests and exams.

Bonus, I'm going on day 8 without getting lost yet. I had good directions to the hospital last night, so that turned out not to be an issue. But today is another day....so getting lost is still a possibility.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Getting Lost, or not

As luck would have it, I did not have to drive to my meeting alone. Had I driven alone, I would have been hopelessly lost. Crisis averted. And I didn't get lost leaving there. That doesn't mean I knew where I was going, but I was headed in the right general direction and figured out how to get where I needed to go. Now I have to get to the hospital to meet a student. If it's one of the two I know how to get to, I'm good to go. If it's the third, I'm not so good....

I have done a lot of driving already today. I drove to Jerusalem from up north this morning. I had all morning to do a two hour drive and I figured I'd take my time and not push too hard to get to town too early. But then there were cars going way too slow. So it became the typical drive. I also had to decide when I was leaving Tiberius whether I wanted to stop for gas before I hit the desert or not. I figured I used half a tank from Beit She'an to Jerusalem and back up to Tiberius, and that the other half-tank should get me back to Jerusalem. Right?

Well, to make a long story short, I did make it. I even had more than a quarter-tank left by the time I got to the gas station right outside Jerusalem.

Getting Lost

So far I've been here a week and haven't gotten lost once. That's pretty much a record for me. But I think it's about to happen. I just have that feeling. I have to drive over to the other side of town to a place I can never find. I guess it's part of the adventure, sort of. What's the worst that can happen? I have a full tank of gas, a big water bottle, and a bag of almonds. I can survive for at least a day....