Frustration

Is there anything more irresponsible than a teenaged boy?

Last night I get a call from the Oldest Teen. "Can you look on my desk and find my National ID card?" he asks.

"Sure. Why?"

"Oh, I take my road test tomorrow morning and i forgot it at home."

"Tomorrow?? How am I supposed to get it to you tomorrow?"

He offered to come home, but how could he get back to town by 8 am? (We live an hour away by car, and several hours away by bus. As you might guess, he doesn't have access to our car.) Luckily, our neighbor, who is very nice, very responsible, and most importantly, works in Jerusalem, offered to take the card in to work with him for The Oldest Teen to pick up. Now the kid just has to pass his road test.

Oh, and he casually dropped this little bit of luciousness into the conversation: "By the way, I almost got arrested last week."

Say wha?

"It was all a misunderstanding. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," he claimed.

Sure. Right. Whatever. Haven't I heard that line before, on Law and Order?

He "just happened" to "pass by" a demonstration. Got tagged by the police. Starting yelling (in English) that he's an American citizen, that he wants to speak to the Consul before the cops take him anywhere, and do they really want to start dealing with the diplomatic corps for having arrested an innocent American Abroad? (Note how he conveniently forgot to mention that he's also an Israeli citizen.)

So what have we learned today?

• Your national ID card is like your towel--never leave home without it.


• If you're ever on the brink of getting arrested in Israel, claim foreign citizenship.


• No matter what your mother says, there are some things she'd Just Rather Not Know. If it ended up OK, keep it to yourself.

Hey, Oldest Teen, see these three new gray hairs? Thanks a lot, kid.

Then today, I was supposed to meet fellow Israeli knit-blogger Jennifer. We know each other back from the days of the Oasis Israeli Knitting Guild, back before knitting was cool. We hooked up again, on-line, through her Kippalong. We were going to meet today for coffee, but first The Spouse had a business emergency (which means he's going to have to write 1/7th of the work still to be done, instead of just sitting back and brokering the deal, and that instead of us having lots of quality time together betwen trips to the US, we'll both be slaving away long hours, 6 days a week). When we finally got out to the car, it wouldn't start. Someone had turned on our emergency transponder and it drained the battery; we're waiting for the tow guy now. Living in the boonies means a 4+ hour wait. Never-ending fun!

So what does a frustrated knit-blogger do? Join something! Alison re-opened sign up for Sockapal2za. If you hurry, you might still get in. And I signed myself, my father, and The Middle Teen (as a team) up for Cara's Sew What.