Old Friends, New City

I'm sorry I've been so lax in writing to you, it's just that normal life is, well, normal. Sometimes it's hard to find the email-worthy tidbits hidden in an ordinary day. Like this past Saturday night....

On Saturday night I decided to turn in early. I wasn't tired but I was sitting in my pajamas playing mindless computer games when my friend called me to see if I wanted to go to a party. I knew I wasn't doing anything more exciting so I agreed.

She met me in my neighborhood and we walked there together. This friend was Becky, a very close friend of mine from college. We lived in the same apartment our final year at UF and have been to Israel together on various programs and trips many times. Now both of us live in Jerusalem. As Becky and I walked to the apartment complex she told me where we were going. A friend of hers had just moved into a new apartment and they were celebrating their new home along with one of the flatmate's birthdays. (Hebrew Lesson of the Day: In English, a party like this would be called a House Warming Party. In Hebrew it's a Channukat Bayit. Bayit means house and channukat means dedication, as in the holiday of Channukah. The party is a Home Dedication Party!)

Then Becky told me whose home we were going to. The flatmate she knew was named Rebecca.

Rebecca Marcowitz in fact.

For those of you who don't know, Rebecca Marcowitz was one of my first friends when I lived in New Jersey. We've known each other for nineteen years but over the years we've really lost touch with one another. And suddenly both of us were living in Jerusalem and here I was going to her Home Dedication Party!

[For those of you keeping score at home: I currently live in Jerusalem. Becky, who I met and lived with in Florida now currently lives in Jerusalem. She was taking me to the party of Rebecca who I met and became friends with in New Jersey who now lives in Jerusalem.]

Becky, Rebecca, the only thing missing here is a Becca!

So we were having fun at the party, drinking, playing games, schmoozing, meeting new people when all of a sudden I see a familiar face across the room. Could it be? Was it really? It was! On the other side of the room was someone I had met years ago on a trip to Ukraine. What was she doing in Israel? In Jerusalem? At this party? And wasn't her name.... Becca?!?!

Indeed it was. Becky-from-Florida took me to Rebecca-from-New-Jersey's party where I ran into Becca-who-I-met-in-Ukraine all in the center of Jerusalem. What a small, small world!

It was a great party.

Until the cops came.