home is where...

where you make it, where the heart is, where the heart of the one you love is, where your viola is...
I returned yesterday from a trip home, to many homes. To Jersey City and NYC, to Maryland, where my sister and brother-in-law and their fabulous twins live, to Florida, where my grandmother and aunt and uncle and cousins and their fabulous kids live... I wish to Maine, where my husband's fabulous family lives, but it was not to be on this trip. I return to our new apartment in Givatayim, the first neighborhood I lived in when I moved to Israel almost 2 years ago. I lived with the sweetest woman named Bracha, and certainly she was a blessing. She'd tell me what it was like when she moved to ISrael from Poland in 1935. "I built this country," she said at least 20 times while I lived with her. When it was hot I'd come home and find her in her stockings and bra, laid out on her white leather couch, feet up on the glass coffee table. "It's ok," she said, "as long as it's just you and me."
Now Christopher and I live in a completely renovated shoebox of a place, paying almost 3 times what I paid to share Bracha's lovely, lived-in flat. It's the way of all things, what's going on with apartments in every urban area in the world I guess. Our landlords bought an apartment and split it in two, adding a wall to what used to be a big living room so we have a narrow living room and a narrow bedroom- a studio disguised as a one-bedroom. On this trip I saw that along with the dizzying numbers of high rises and fancy condo buildings going up all over Jersey City, and even Bayonne (when that place gets gentrified... well, you never know. Everyone used to say Jersey City was a slum and look at it now!) two of my three (!) nursery schools are being turned into condos, one of them being Washington Square Church! How weird is it to live in a church, knowing it was ripped apart inside for the likes of the yuppiest people ever?
Anyway, there's much more I could tell of the trip than just to report on the gentrification of the tri-state area. Oh, but on that subject- Red Hook Brooklyn! Wow. I'd never even been there before. My last night in town I drove out with my friend Ed to see the incredible Heather and the Barbarians. (Look them up on myspace for the most gorgeous singer ever, in ever sense of the word). Ed grew up in Brooklyn Heights, and remarked as we drove deeper and deeper into the hood that he used to be afraid to even go near Red Hook because of the wild dogs. Well, now it's all cozy taverns and upscale MExican joints. The show was so so good. I miss that family of mine so much, the Boston crowd. Almost all of whom live in or around NYC now! Really makes it easy for me when I get home. Or, easier anyway. I barely had time to see my friends at all on this trip. It was the second time this year the 4tet had a little US tour, and we played some of our best concerts ever. I had such an awesome time with them. Christopher and I try to take advantage of these tours to see our family and friends since one ticket is paid for, but when it's not a real vacation it makes everything hard. I can't believe the amount I squeezed into the time- a litte over 2 weeks. It was made even shorter by the awfully inconvenient strike, which started an hour before our flight was to leave. I feel bad even complaining about it, even though it was a royal pain in the tush. It was the first time I'd ever even been anywhere during a strike, one that affected me anyway, and I agreed it was necessary... but can't they just strike in a way that doesn't make my plane late?
Anyway, we're playing a project now with Tel Aviv Soloists with one of my all-time heroes, Tabea Zimmermann, leading the orchestra from the principal viola chair. So I need to practice! I'll try to be more... regular in this space. Please keep in touch if you're reading this! I miss everyone back home.