Tel Aviv Diary -August 11-15,2015 - Karen Alkalay-Gut


August 11-15, 2015

If I don't write every day it's because all this preparations are driving me wild. i spent last night trying to organize my tests so i'll be ready for the pre=op on Thursday. maybe because i don't understand exactly what is going to be done to me on Tuesday. maybe because everyone makes mistakes but someone who doesn't know what is going on can make the biggest mistakes that someone else can build on... (For example, I have been limping for a year and only recently realize the pain is from my hip and not my crooked back).

The headlines of Haaretz today said that Bibi is not going to tell the Democrats how to vote. the subtitle was about the legality of force feeding. what a mistake. how appropriate.

As for force-feeding of political prisoners - i would really like to know how a man who planned the murders of innocent people gets this kind of publicity and power. the issue should have been determined as policy long ago and legally.

August 12, 2015

operation hass been moved back to the 16th. ichilov, sixth floor.

tomorrow i spend the day in the hospital and hope i can figure out what i need to do to prepare.

when i watch the news - especially interviews with real people - i cannot help but think that my worries are so minor in comparison. from so many different directions. the multiple tunnels being dug into Israel, the multiple stabbings we've been experiencing, the diminishing pensions resulting from the recent changes in government policies, the genocide in Syria. come on, compared to these things, i'm having an elective procedure instead of a hip replacement operation. nothing to kvetch about.

August 13, 2015

After a long hard day making the rounds of tests
And long waits on hard chairs wearing down
My weakened body and diminished endurance

I am called in for a concilium
Where the subject
On the big screen
is my pelvis

and which operation
will be first.

August 14, 2015

Do you read Lithuanian? Here's a poem of mine about my aunt - translated by Tomas Čepaitisr - in the leading Lithuanian literaly weekly "Northern Athens" ("Šiaurės Atėnai") http://www.satenai.lt/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Nr.15-1223-2015-08-07.pdf

Had to get my teeth checked and cleaned, my nails 'done' and pack up for a hospital stay today. fortunately had shabbat dinner with the kids to cheer me up....

August 15, 2015

Because Isis is beheading people in Sinai, Israelis have starting flocking to Cyprus. I'd pick Cyprus any day. Last month when we were there we ate incredibly well and relatively cheaply, slept in a quiet, discreet, and comfortable hotel a minute from the beach, saw beautiful scenery and were treated beautifully at the airport. That was the Greek side. I've heard the Turkish side is even cheaper, more lovely, and the service is even better. And of course I'm dreaming about vacations. Why not in Israel? Because hotels must be kosher and that jacks up the price. Also I hate children who are not my own and our hotels are full of them. Ann Birstein came back from Eilat many years ago and said to me that she loved it. "It was just like Marjorie Morningstar!" she laughed. Catskills in the fifties - when the Jews were nouveau riche differentiating themselves in every way possible from holocaust victims.

You can see I'm already into escape. I will probably escape from these pages for a few days while the morphine is working its magic... Although who knows?

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