Friday’s crisis brought with it some difficult consequences. Finally, my father realized that he needs to take his finger out of his arse and do something. Although he has known for the past six months that I was looking for a home for Willy, only now, with the danger of responsibility at his doorstep, he has bothered to make a few calls to his acquaintances and check if anyone could adopt a cat. He did find a very kind lady who may take Willy in this week, which only goes to show that if he had done anything to help earlier the whole process would have been much easier now.

The lesson that I learned from this ordeal, which is not over yet, is that my parents cannot be trusted. This is a very bitter thing to know about one’s parents. Especially now, only little over a week before I fly away. The main implication is a grave disappointment. It must be added here that I was not disappointed by my father. One cannot to be let down by someone from whom one had no expectations. I was disillusioned by my mother who did not put her foot down on time. This was only added to my previous anger with her for constantly moaning about helping me with anything else to do with my relocation. I do understand that what I’m asking is not a little thing, but I thought that I could trust my mother to help, because who else should I put my faith in?

This brings me to the next complication. What should I do now with all the arrangements I was hoping my mother will take care of? There are boxes to be shipped, paperwork regarding insurance and other matters as well as some other bureaucratic issues that may come up. I cannot think of anyone else who I can feel comfortable asking so much of. There’s not much time left, and I’m lost.

11 days to go, and another crisis is threatening to destroy our plans.

For months I have been looking for a home for Willy, knowing that it is not going to be easy to find a place for a cat and that he is not healthy enough to survive the journey if he came with us. The last resort was my parents. My mum said that if all else fails she will be willing to take him in. All else did fail and now my parents have backed out of it as well.

The main problem is my father, who has always been an egocentric miser, and who started sulking from the very first moment his help was considered. As long as the assistance came down to storing a few things in a couple of drawers that my mum managed to vacate in their huge house, it was OK. Especially considering that if any paperwork or delivery needed to be done my mum will take care of it and he won’t have to lift a finger. However, as soon as the subject of having another cat in the house came up, everything exploded. This morning my father threatened the eruption of a third world war (and since he’s German, his ancestry does show some experience with world wars), as well as leaving the house if the cat came in.

Now I’m lost. On the one hand, I do need my parents’ help. There are things that need to be taken care of while I’m away, and a few things that need to be stored (although we did try to store things in other places as much as possible). However, if the price of their help is a constant shower of sulking and insults, than I’d rather give it up. As for Willy, I really don’t know what to do. I contacted a company that specializes in travel arrangements for pets and they will get back to me after the weekend, but I know it is going to be much more expensive than what we were planning to spend or what we will be able to afford as students. More importantly, I don’t think Willy will make it. I wish I could find a place for him in which he will be loved.

I must admit that this has completely taken the air out of my sails. I can’t even bring myself to help E. with packing, as I keep thinking that there’s no reason to bother – after all, there will be nowhere to store the boxes.

Where did all our time go? Such major changes ahead, and we don’t even have the time to be excited about it. The checklist of things to do is still long, full of bureaucracy and boxes.

Last night E. summed the day saying that we achieved a lot. This has been a good description for every day this week, and it’s not over yet. On the one hand, I’m still scared of what’s ahead. On the other hand, I can’t wait for all the preparation and settling down process to end.

A couple of days ago I noticed new blue adverts posted all over Tel Aviv. Reading closely I noticed that the message was “Have a happy period” with an Always logo. I just could not believe my eyes. I waited until the next sign just to check again and the next thought that came to my mind was: This is the work of a male copyrighter!

Yes, Procter & Gamble, this is the example of VERY bad advertising!

During a later discussion at work one of my colleagues pointed wisely that wishing a woman a happy period is the same as wishing someone a fun migraine. The oxymoron is beyond sarcastic, it’s offensive. Obviously, the copyrighter who thought about it never had a period. I am also guessing that he has never been close to a woman who had her period. He never experienced the pain, the hormones, the annoying discomfort, the bloated abdomens, spots, back pains etc. Everything a woman goes through once a month only to be happy to know that she is not unexpectedly pregnant.

For integrity I will admit that this is a global campaign, so maybe things look differently in other parts of the world. However, around here, no woman I spoke to about it thought it made any sense. Well, maybe the HAHP campaign was, like other P&C products, tested of animals with suitable results.

The story of the past couple of weeks since I last posted may be known to most of my readers already, but I believe I owe it to myself to put it into words. The emotions are intense and not easy to express, but I’ll do my best.

After a long and painful battle with Cancer, E’s mum passed away early in the morning last Monday. It did not come as a surprise, but it was still hurting. A mixture of relief and sadness is not an easy one to deal with. All I could think of was that E. needed me. I wanted to be there for him at every second, and I was worried sick whenever I was away. Unfortunately, I still had to work, so I was away from him much more often than I was comfortable with.

Now that the Shiva is over, we have someone else to worry about. After 45 years of partnership E’s dad is alone for the first time, dealing with his grief. E. is making an effort to keep him company when possible and to make sure he is taking care of himself, but there is a constant anxiety of what will happen after move away.

Of course, our travel plans had to be changed slightly. We will travel a couple of weeks later, which will also give us a bit more time to get things sorted. But more about that soon.

Grrrrr…, originally uploaded by Deviant Brainwave.

I have been trying to postpone just as much as I could, but the time has come.

Unfortunately, I can’t take Willy with me on my new adventure across the pond and I urgently need to find him a new place to stay.

If you live around Israel and love cats, and if you are able to take care of such a wonderful and peaceful cat and give him a warm and loving home, please let me know in the comments. If you know someone else who may be able to help, please let them know that their help is needed. (You can also email me on deviant AT this domain).

More pictures of Willy are available on flickr

Thanks!

Here are two facts about things that took place recently:

1. SEVIS
As one of the requirements for a student’s visa to the US, I recently paid the due SEVIS tax. This is basically a tax imposed on all incoming scholars in order to finance a computerized system that follows all foreign students for traces of possible terrorist activity, and it is funded by a fee charged from the same people it follows. This adds all the international students into a very dignified, 1 million strong, haystack.

2. Statistics
Recently I noticed some strange activity in my Firestats logs. There have been regular hits from two specific IP addresses of an unknown host in the US in approximately 30 minutes intervals covering every page and link on this site. This is strange, because such indexing is usually expected to be done by bots, and they do it very quickly. It is easy to identify bot hits as they are been generated at a rushed pace that obviously would not allow a human to read the contents of the pages. These strange hits suggest that there is someone who is actually reading every post I have ever written, but never leaves a comment.

I will conclude these two facts with a quote from Nirvana:

Just because you’re paranoid
Don’t mean they’re not after you

Nirvana – Territorial Pissings