But today my wise mother told me I need to move past the pain and the outrage of what is currently happening in my beloved country and appreciate and embrace the beauty and goodness of the land of Israel. So I will do my best. This doesn't mean I am not absolutely outraged by these ongoing 'peace talks' and the release of terrorists, it just means I am not going to write about it right now.
So instead, I am going to tell you an amusing story about me and a celebrity. True, it may not be about Israel, but it did happen in Israel, and I guess that counts!
As some of you may know, depending on whether we are Facebook friends or whether I have deemed you worthy of the mildly embarrassing fact, I am absolutely obsessed with this book series called Vampire Academy.
Now before you roll your eyes and think to yourself - Oh joy, another vampire novel, that is so 2010, I have to point out that I am a person of reasonable intelligence and these aren't the sparkly vampires of the Twilightesque world.
The series is witty, engaging, funny, bad ass, and all around awesome. The writing is incredible, the story line is great, and I am OBSESSED with it.
So much so that I mentally reference the book in my head and compare myself to the main character - she kicks butt and has no filter and is all around amazing. Obviously I want to be exactly like her.
When I first finished reading this incredible series, I immediately checked to see if they were making a movie, because what could be better than seeing my favorite series on the big screen. I saw that the rights for a movie adaption of the first book had been bought, but as it commonly happens in Hollywood, it was just sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust.
So you can imagine my surprise and excitement when finally 2 years later, they announced that they had cast the 3 main characters and the movie was in fact being made.
And that is where it began. The obsession. The drive. The constant hunting for any news with any small amount of relevance. The camaraderie that was established with fellow fans, people just as obsessed as I was. This was all about a year ago.
After the initial casting announcement things sped up, they cast other characters, found a location and started filming. Behind the scenes shots were slowly shared and the thirst for these little tidbits was like the thirst of a man in the desert without any water. Each and every picture was shared, over analyzed and saved. This is the level of excitement I have for this movie.
When I found out that the main character, Zoey Deutch, was coming to visit Israel, I was ecstatic. The moment I heard the news, I realized that I absolutely had to meet her. Israel is a small country, and I live right near some of the main tourist attractions. I made it my goal that during the week that she was in Israel, I would meet her.
She came to Israel with a group that brings celebrities from America and has them tour Israel and see what it is really like here so that they can go back to America and impart to their fans the impression they have from the land.
I followed all the celebrities from the group on Instagram and Twitter, avidly stalking their pages hoping for a sign that they were in Jerusalem and I could go meet them. Through all the social media, I excitedly saw Zoey Deutch experience the Tel Aviv nightlife, go jeeping in the Golan Heights, visit an air force base in the south and then it happened. A picture was uploaded on Instagram of the tour group standing in front of the Kotel.
The time had come at last. I got on the train and ran through the Old City in my attempts to catch the group before they moved on to the next attraction. I saw that I had just missed them. Dejected, I made my way home only to see a picture uploaded an hour later of the tour group in the tunnels underneath the Kotel. That is where they had gone, and I had just missed them.
Another picture was uploaded by a fan of the Vampire Academy book (signed by Zoey Deutch herself!) and while cursing her luck and my lack of patience, I saw that she had waited at the entrance of the Old City for the group to leave and therefore got to meet Zoey Deutch.
This only fueled my desire more. I knew at this point that someone had successfully done what I attempted to do, followed Zoey on Instagram and managed to meet her.
The next day was a Friday and I know that the shuk on Friday is an attraction for tourists, so when I was doing my shopping I was scanning my surroundings, not for terrorists like I usually do, but rather for celebrities. Alas, I did not see anyone. An hour before Shabbat started, I saw a picture of the group in the shuk and knew that my hunch had been right. They had gone there that day, and again I had missed them. I decided to run out and check on the off chance that they were still there. The shuk was closed and my hopes were dashed.
Right before Shabbat, I checked Instagram and saw that Zoey's mother had posted a picture by popular Nachlaot graffiti. It was infuriating. This meant that they had toured the small Nachlaot neighborhood and since I live right in the center of that, they had probably walked by my house and again I hadn't seen them. At this point, I had pretty much given up. I felt like I was playing tag, except I was never catching up. I was always one step too late. One step behind them.
So after all my attempts, after all my chasing this group around Jerusalem, Zoey Deutch left Israel without ever meeting me. Her loss.
Now that I have admitted my slightly stalkerish tendencies on the Internet, I can say that despite not actually getting to meet Zoey in real life, her trip was successful because in every interview she had the following week promoting the movie, she mentioned her trip to Israel and how incredible it really was.
Go see the movie - February 14, 2014. It is going to be awesome!
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