Israel - Pesach 2025. The Second Plague. Insomnia.
Okay, so that night was a mess.
We were exhausted but wired. I think Madeleine fell asleep at 10:45, and she was amazing. Hallie did not. I tried to put her to bed at like 11:15, but she didn’t fall asleep until around 1:30. I just had to keep going back and forth and I kept falling asleep for 10 minutes and she’d wake me up again—it was horrible. Just horrible. It was like sleep torture they use on terrorists. I wanted to give up the information, I just didn’t know what it was.
Then she was up at 2:30, 3:30, and 4:30. And then Madeleine got up at 4:30 too. So we were all up from 4:30 to 5:30. Then, thankfully, they both went back to sleep, and I did too.
Except—of course—there was an alarm clock in my bedroom set for 7 a.m. So that woke me up. I turned it off, only to find another alarm clock set for 7:09. I turned that one off too and just thanked God it didn’t wake up the girls.
Hallie ended up getting up around 8, and Madeleine slept until close to 10. Either way, we already knew today was going to be a lazy day. We had breakfast at around 10:30 in my parents' apartment. They made us a very nice spread with berries, cereal, and yogurts.
We were moving at a snail's pace, which I think is just my mother’s normal speed, but it worked for us. I think it was around 1 p.m. when we finally left the apartment and headed to the Hadar Mall—their mall here. We went to Greg for lunch, which was really good. My mom and I shared a salmon pad Thai with peanuts (yay peanuts—because Tzvi isn’t here!), and an herby quinoa-apple salad. It did say it had cucumber, but it was listed among a bunch of ingredients, and the whole thing turned out to be like 90% cucumber. So, that didn’t really work for me. I did get a nice slushy iced café, though, and that was delicious. Hallie had pizza, my dad had a sweet potato salad—basically a salad with a ton of fried sweet potatoes on top, which were delicious.
We did some shopping—the girls got new shoes and some toys (they got Barbies), and they picked out some candy. I also went to a makeup store – Il Makiage - which I always see advertised on Instagram. It’s hard to order online without trying stuff, but I had bought a mascara there the last time I was in Israel and really liked it. The woman there was so nice—she did a full face of makeup on me and showed me what I was doing wrong and how to use different products. After the experience I had at Sephora the past couple of weeks—especially during the sale—this was such a contrast. At Sephora, everyone’s busy, no one wants to help you, and you end up on your own. But this woman? So helpful. She helped me and my mom, and we ended up buying a whole bunch of stuff—and we got a bunch of stuff for free too. It was one of those deals: buy four regular products and get three extras. But somehow we got even more than that. I’m not really sure how, but things worked out well for us. And don’t worry, there is a big sign saying that all the makeup is kosher for Pesach—so we’re good to go!
We kept walking around the mall—somehow we were there for over four hours—then headed back to the apartment, chilled a bit, and went back out for dinner.
Dinner was at this tiny restaurant that felt like an American diner, but kind of wasn’t. Like, they had pizza (which you don’t find in diners) but no veggie burgers. We got there and didn’t have our reservation, even though my mom said she made it a week ago, but they managed to squeeze us in even though the place was tiny. I got a salad with tuna. We also had pizza, a milkshake, and garlic knots. Oh, and the pancakes? Those were probably the best thing there, actually.
We came back and did bedikat chametz, then watched some YouTube clips from The Prince of Egypt, because you can’t stream it here on any platform, and I didn’t want to pay for it.
Now we’re trying to go to bed, so… hopefully tonight isn’t like last night. I guess we’ll see.