welcome back, we'll miss you

an old friend of mine was in israel for the past year and a half.
next month he is leaving again to start law school.
last night we had a barbeque in his honor.

now anyone that you marginally care about who returns home after being away for so long deserves a welcome back hoo-ha of some sort. but this isn't just any friend.

this is the guy who can compliment you on your make up and garnish a salad beautifully without losing his masculinity.

this is the guy who in high school rolled everyone's joints. even though (at the time) he didn't smoke, he still did it better than the rest of us.

this is the guy who would pick us up in his jeep when we were homebound during snowstorms to joyride in the supermarket parking lot snow moguls...

this is the guy who devised his own LSAT tutorial system and helped israeli kids ace the exam, while taking care of his grandmother who was ill.

frankly put, this friend is absolutely the man. and he has been dearly missed.

i volunteered to make kefta, a delicious middle eastern kebab, which i generally do pretty well. since i was working all day, and schlepping via public transport to northern new jersey from brooklyn, the hostess graciously agreed to pick up my grocery needs. so i sent her a shopping list.

when i arrived in new jersey, i realized that the gracious hostess had confused parsley with scallions. (for those of you who are, or ever become familiar with my friend panda, this makes an abundance of sense.) so i threw in some extra mint and sumac and hoped for the best. not my favorite batch, but still tasty.

it's always great to have a bunch of friends together, and despite the heat and humidity, last night no exception. we joked, ate, listened to music, caught up... one friend told me the best piece of news i've heard in a while, but it's still under wraps, so you'll have to be patient with that one.

getting back to the heat and humidity-i do not personally know anyone who enjoys this combination. but you know who loves heat and humidity? mosquitoes.

you know what else mosquitoes love? me.

that's right. i don't know if it's a pheromone, blood, genetics or bad luck thing, but those suckers go after me as if i were the last red blooded bitch on the planet.

seriously. i'm like a one-woman bug zapper, you WANT to go camping with me. literally, i once woke up covered in mosquito bites. no one else in my tent had even been touched. there are approximately 3 mosquitoes in all of orange country california, but when i went last summer, they had all bitten me.

in any other analogous situation i would be flattered, but it really just gets itchy.

moving right along.

it hit at around 9:30 with the vegan cheesecake and vodka soaked watermelon. the fireflies had come and gone. my feet and arms started getting it first. then my face. and then, those little fuckers started going for my ass, like it was a pin cushion.

there was no off to be sprayed, and the citronella torches were most definitely not doing the trick.

so i'm sitting there looking like a maniac, swatting all over the place, uncomfortable and paranoid. i ended up going inside and making my boyfriend scratch my butt. ladylike, huh.

today, my tooshie is still itchy. and as well all know, the only thing that compliments a posterior better than cellulite is bug bites.

but, with only a few weeks before the academic season begins, it was well worth it.

welcome back, ori, we'll miss you.