Monday, October 12, 2009

100



Read on. There's a giveaway.

This is my 100th entry on this blog.

A little statistics:

The first entry was was dated October 12, 2008, so a little over a year ago.

There have been 149 comments left on the first 99 entries to date.
The most commented post has 9 comments.
The fewest comments (0) usually are left on the entries I like the most.

At its peak my blog had 14 blogger/google followers (before I moved) and 23 followers on Networked blogs.

The shortest entry was 21 characters, including punctuation, excluding spaces.

There have been 4 re-posts of earlier entries, some are from different blogs.

I have updated this blog from 6 countries on two continents. (Israel, Hungary, UK, Netherlands, Ireland and Ukraine.)


As I never got around to introduce everyone in the first 99 entries, here is a proper introduction to the people I mention frequently:


Craig is my 10-year-old future diplomat. He is Kevin's biological son, and in addition to being Jewish, he is also part Native American. He is in 7th grade. He is deaf, but with a cochlear implant he is doing wonderfully.

Justin is 6, and he is unstoppable. He is in a class specializing in the sciences, so he is a pro at using a microscope and he loves when his geneticist uncle lets him look at his anatomy books.

Matthew is also 6, my bunny maniac. He has mild CP and a slight hearing loss, but you would never guess that when listening to him play the piano. He loves studying Torah, but be not deceived: he might be an agnostic in the training with the gazillion questions he raises with every weekly portion. And then we are not even touching the rest of the Tanakh, let alone the Talmud!

Kevin. He has been my partner for over 7 years now. He is the love of my life and the other dad of my kids. He is super smart. He is also ex-LDS with most of his family still in the church, a Utah/California desert rat who totally enjoys the climate of Israel.

Janice is the biological mother of the twins and mom to all three kiddos. She is a California surfer girl, who has been working for several major airlines, though her degree is in marine biology. Go figure. She lives right next door to us and she takes a major part in the kids' lives.

Dad is my biological father, not the adoptive one. Born in pre-1948 Tel Aviv to Holocaust survivors he spent his early childhood in Hungary, where both of my grandparents are from. With a degree in music he has played in various professional and semi professional orchestras around the world. He now runs a small but thriving computer/software business with several international clients. He is my immediate boss.

Miryam is my step-mother, my dad's 4th wife. She and dad have a son together, Yaron (1), and are the legal guardians of 4 children ages 3-12.

Efi or Efrayim is my youngest brother, not counting Yaron. Unlike most of my biological siblings, he and I have a history. Efi is a recent college graduate, who teaches dance to children. He also wants me to point out that he is on the autism spectrum, yet he is a happy and stable individual, married to Maya. Maya and Efi are the parents of Asher. Efi's family lives in the same building as my family.

Chalin is another one of my brothers I have a history with. He was born from my dad's first marriage, and, like his brothers, represents the really religious part of our family. Till about two years ago he and his wife Meira were members of Chabad Lubavitch, and Chalin was a practicing rabbi in the movement. Now they identify as new-chassids and just recently moved with their 6 children to Tel Aviv, where they live close to us.

Arik and Svetlana or Sveta or Sviet or.... My cousins. Technically only Arik is my cousin, but I view Sveta as one as well. She was born in the Soviet Union, and is a teacher. She teaches Hebrew at ulpans (courses) for newcomers and Russian for whoever wants to learn Russian. Arik is freelance architect.

Daniel is my twin brother. He lives in Hungary with his 5-year-old daughter Anna (Panni).

Grandpa and Grandma aka Gramps and Nagyi, Grampa and Gramma, Nagyapó and Nagyanyó are my paternal grandparents. Born and raised in Hungary, they are both Holocaust survivors. Came to the Holy Land after liberation and returned to Hungary for still unexplained reasons in 1950. During the middle of the Hungarian revolution in 1956 that coincided with the Suez Crisis they returned to Israel and have lived there ever since. They are the parents of 6 children.

Seán, Siobhán, Conan, Patrick, Sergei and Erica are my siblings from my adoptive family, since the disruption they are my cousins.

Stuart was a friend who died of complications of AIDS several years ago.

Nathan is the flamboyant, loud, openly gay son of an Orthodox Jewish chazzan (cantor), a software engineer by day and Nathalie by night (twice a month). Nathan is a fellow cancer survivor, we had our initial chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants at the same time back in the mid 80's. He comes and goes as he wishes: he even has keys to our apartment.

The Crazy Christian Neighbor is the father of the family in apartment 7. A triatlonist, an IDF veteran, an American, an abstract painter. Someone who goes bungee jumping in the middle of a storm and has mountain biked in the Himalayas. He picks up the phone for our Orthodox Jewish neighbor during the Shabbat and he painted my ceilings bright orange. He is married to the Wife and is the father of three beautiful, albeit somewhat crazy Christian kids.

The Christian Neighbor is the neighbor in apartment 4. A quiet, self conscious man who makes sure that he keeps the common grill in the courtyard kosher and makes the best burgers in the whole building. His Loud Christian Wife likes to throw impromptu parties for the tennants on Saturday evenings.

The Muslim Neighbor is a secular Lebanese man with a wife and two kids. He fed my kids every evening during Ramadan this year. We don't see them much as they live in the apartment with a different entrance to the street.



5 comments:

  1. Yay 100 posts! Go you! :)

    Of course I wanna play and hopefully win a CD (even with some Christian music, just not all)Count me in!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the bio! It really helps!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy blog-a-versary! By "divine appointment", I was fortunate to discover your blogs following the demise of plastic "Baby April." "Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated."

    I so enjoy the life woven in your blogs...and the "cast of characters" is a rich resource!

    Hallelujah! Michal

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  4. Over 100 posts and where is TROY's name in all of this?! I love this blog for its gentle humour, your optimism in the face of all that sucks, and for Matthewisms. I love you Matthew!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Blogger ate my comment! I think. That is unusal, it hasn't happened before! I hope I'm not repeating myself but if I am, you can just delete my first comment!

    I also find that the posts I am most proud of are the ones that get the least interest or comment from others. Strange that.

    In the event that I do win a CD, may I please have some Israeli or Hungraian music? I don't have any!

    ReplyDelete

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