Tales from the Towers: You don't need a visa to visit the land of dreams

 My friend Rebecca came to call and spotted my open suitcase.

"I don't understand," she said, "you're leaving sometime in September and you packed already? I always pack a suitcase one day before my trip, or even a few hours before my trip…why all that hurry?"

"Well," I replied, "It's what my mother taught me. She discovered early in my life that I'm a born procrastinator and she told me, 'To make your life easier, do whatever you don't like first. Don't postpone - the knowledge that you have an unpleasant task waiting for you adds stress to your life. So get it over with!'"

Talking about stress, last week wasn't easy. In sweltering heat my daughter and I traveled to Tel-Aviv to get my visa at the American Consulate. The Kafka-esque situation started already at the entrance of the Consulate. The guard said:

"It's only you who goes in!" He pointed at my daughter, saying, "The young lady remains outside!"

"I'm an American citizen, protested my daughter, I'm going in there with my mother. What do you expect me to do? Wait outside in the car? This may take hours!"

The man ignored her protest and told me, "You go in there carrying nothing but your papers, your passport, some change, and definitely no cellular phone."

I walked into a nightmare. One heavy door after the other closed behind me, I walked down long corridors, and for a panicky moment I thought that I had died and was on my way to hell! And then I saw a long, long line of waiting people and I thought to myself that I might not get out of there before midnight.

There are some situations in which there is no way back. Here and there throughout my life I embarked on a road from which there was no return! I remember lying in the hospital fighting the pain while giving birth to my first baby and crying:

"I really don't want a baby, I just changed my mind!"

And there, at the consulate, I thought maybe I really don't want to go to San Diego, but there were all those doors which had closed behind me and there was no way back, they simply wouldn't let me through! And then, quite magically, I was ushered from one window to the other, a man asked me some idiotic questions, I paid some money at another desk where they asked for it, and then I was told:

"Lady, you're all done, you can go home. We'll send your passport plus visa by mail."

I stood there in front of the building waiting for my daughter and asking myself if this had just been a particularly disturbing dream or what….

Back home, I relaxed in my favorite chair and switched on the TV. I found myself in Italy in the middle of Lottomania. The big prize? The amazing sum of 140,000 million Euro. I closed my eyes and let my imagination run wild. What would I do if I won that kind of money? Of course first of all I'd buy villas in the South of France for children and grandchildren, maybe a yacht or two. I subtracted  ten million Euros for the villas but I had no idea regarding prices of yachts.

Should I call my son in Germany and ask him if he knows how much a yacht costs? He'd probably think his mother had gone out of her mind. So let's deduct 2 million Euro for the yachts, give or take a million. Then I'd erect a modern animal clinic, which would give me great satisfaction. But I'd still have a lot of money left....

Designer clothes for myself? This would be crazy when I look and feel best in T-shirts and slacks. So what would I do with the rest of the money? Charity? What if a Madoff-like man gets hold of it? I simply had no idea how to dispose of the money I still had left.

Since I don't seem to be able to dispose of 140 million Euros, I suppose I will have to give up the thought of winning the Lotto prize. Maybe I will buy a ticket this week and win 10,000 shekels - I would hardly have a problem spending that!

Truth is I never bought a lottery ticket in my life, especially after I lost 25 dollars in Las Vegas. This one my father taught me: No gambling!

Lucca