Confessions

Work's been crazy, the world is falling apart, I bought a car and some stock and realized being an adult is both fun and treacherous. Here's some other confessions:

• I've gotten really into power walking at the gym. On the treadmill, sometimes punching the air like the inner soccer mom I truly am. I listen to podcasts and sweat like a beast for an hour. I love it.

• I love power walking so much, and have been so busy, that I decided to combine my two current passions and hold a business meeting while power walking next to my colleague (who was power walking on the treadmill next to me). Horribly nerdy, superbly efficient.

• I have gotten so lazy now that I have a car. I drive the 10 minute walk to work. I make multiple stops along the same road to pick up things at different stores. Part of this is just the fun of having a car; part of it is also avoidance of the cancerous sun; most of it is sheer lazyness.

• Turns out the fact that I am a horrible driver in America makes me a great driver in Ramallah - all that Boston double threat of aggressiveness and incompetence lets me blend right in!

• The detested male street youth of Ramallah (read: shebab) who once harassed me as I walked now find it hilarious to knock on my windows as I am stalled in traffic on crowded streets, sometimes with their keys. This is exponentially worse, and scarier, than getting harassed while walking, and pisses me off - you best not scrape my windows, 16 year old with gelled hair and bedazzled jeans. Turns out a blond woman driving a car is even more attention getting than a blond woman walking in the street. Dammit.

• That being said, when I'm rolling through the checkpoint blaring American classic rock with the wind in my hair, I do feel pretty darn badass.