I love Tel Aviv.

It took my body (and spirit) about two weeks to understand that I am really back in Israel, but after 10 days in Caesarea and two days in Tel Aviv, I felt a physiological switch.
And smiled.
And haven't stopped since.

Sure - Israel has traffic, and cigarettes and dog shit on every block, and incompetent staff at the cell phone company, but somehow, something about this place relaxes me. I'm still working like crazy, self-initiating into a blackberry addict, and I have a splinter in my finger that is menacing my dexterity and seems anxious to infect my entire right hand....
but so what?

Tel Aviv, especially, is calling to me. We are spending two weeks near Kikar Rabin in the center of Tel Aviv, cat sitting and apartment sitting for Ori's brother. It's awesome to be back with Tripod, and amazing to be wandering around this city, vibrant with life at all hours of the day, visiting our favorite spots and checking out new ones that have popped up in the past two years.

Today (86 degrees!) we spent the day with friends at the beach, parking just beneath our old apartment. We sipped frozen coffee drinks and lemon-mint slurpies and played with their sweet 9-month-old. Sure, most of our friends seem to have added a new family member in the past 12 months, but it hasn't changed things as much as I expected. The babies are still too young to be a major distraction (no terrible-twos yet) and there are always family members nearby to babysit.

We've spent all week reuniting with friends, out wandering the streets until 1 or 2am and returning home past coffeeshops and bars still bustling with crowds who can far outlast us into the night.

I had thought I was ready to settle into a house in the country, but I may need another year yet to explore this city. Nearly everything, and everyone, seems to be in walking distance, the beach is always a few blocks away, and the food is even tastier than I remembered.

Maybe these rose-tinted glasses will lose their sparkle, but I seem to remember this feeling of general contentment as a daily companion from my life in Tel Aviv. I miss my family and my friends, for sure, but not the feeling of general haste and preoccupation that, inexplicably, overcomes me in New York. It's a phenomena I can't entirely explain, but for now I am grateful for my total awareness and acceptance of the moment. I feel each day is a gift. And I relish it.