Shopping My Way to the Holy Land – Kveller
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Israel

Shopping My Way to the Holy Land

So, I’m a woman who feels sexiest in a snug pair of jeans, a black tank top, flip-flops, and a smudge of eye makeup.

While there is a latent pink and purple part of me that loves the princess fantasy of ribbons, lace, and dressing up in satin and sky-high heels, I’ve never been able to quite make it work. Either my tights snag, or my nail polish chips, or the seam on my dress is lopsided, or my lipstick rubs off, or my hair frizzes, or my heel gets caught and I fall on my face.

Glamorous fashion and I are so not simpatico. Besides, pink has never been my color.

But while I can’t quite pull off a slinky gown, or a perfect up-do, I love makeup.  And I love to shop.

And with the big move to Israel looming ahead, I’ve had a go-to excuse:

“Overseas shipping is like, so expensive,”  I tell B. as I plunk moisturizer, bronzer, mascara, lipgloss, eyeshadow, and perfume into my sephora.com online basket.  “Besides, these products are way harder to get in Israel,”  I justify further as though we’ll be living in a Bedouin Tent in the middle of the Negev instead of a well-appointed Kibbutz 10 minutes from Tel Aviv.

And he buys  my excuse as I clickity-clack my way through an orgy of online sales and free-shipping offers.

“You can take the girl out of LA, but you can’t take the LA out of the girl,”  I laugh, but really, the more stuff I buy and the more weighed down I become, the easier it is to leave the only home I’ve known.  The creature comforts – the lip glosses and the eyeliners – are cheap security blankets I cling to as I face an overwhelming unknown.

Sarah is moving to Israel next month with her husband, baby, and toddler to live on the kibbutz that her husband grew up on. And she is not happy about this.

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