How on earth do you pack for 10-18 degree Celsius weather? I don't -- I honestly don't remember what that's like. I spent the winter in New York in freezing temperatures, and by the time I returned to Israel Tel Aviv was already in its mid-twenties. These type of temperatures seem like winter temperatures to me, not August. I guess I'll need - an ( Read more... )

So things are still - fraught. News just broke that there's going to be a 72-hour (meaning a weekend-long) ceasefire, during which representatives are supposed to meet in Egypt to negotiate further. Honestly though, I don't see this ending in the next week; can't imagine the IDF pulling out without destroying as many tunnels as they can find. Maybe ( Read more... )

Work, at least, is better. After having finished dealing with 90% of my old fuck ups that dragged on forever in the past two weeks, I had, in what I thought would be the worst timing ever, my half-yearly review this afternoon... which was excellent? I'm consistently awed at job reviews how much confidence my bosses have in me doing a good job. I ( Read more... )

I have to say, yesterday I was going to make an actual positive post, which like - everything is relative, but it had points going for in that: (1) no sirens in Tel Aviv for more than 24 hours (since then: more than 48 even), and more importantly (2) my sister spent the weekend in a base much closer to home and we visited her for 3 hours and it was ( Read more... )

Well. The potential ceasefire lasted exactly 45 minutes, so that went nowhere fast. As usual there was little affect in Tel Aviv - a single siren Tuesday afternoon. But Tuesday was a long, long day - this entire week has been one of the most stressful weeks I remember having in a really long time. Part of it was The Situation happening in the ( Read more... )

1. They are talking about a ceasefire tomorrow morning, negotiated by Egypt. I'm not actually clear on whether both sides are on board yet but ugh Pleasepleasepleaaaaase let this happen. I mean, for one, obviously less death and war, but also it will mean I can go to sleep again dressed in a less decent clothes than the shorts I've been wearing in ( Read more... )

Update: baby sis is home for the weekend! And has treated us with the biggest eyeroll imaginable for worrying about her, ugh, KIDS. She went down south yesterday, and then was called back to her homebase a bit further away from the action, where she and her unit are prepared and waiting to see if they get any orders. Since it's sitting and waiting ( Read more... )

( Moments from the past few days. In between normal life, this is what's been happening. )

Things are quiet now; it's amazing how quickly you can shift between modes, normal vs national emergency. This entire week feels like it took dragged on forever, yesterday morning feels like a year ago, and at the same time I feel like I barely blinked and now it's over ( Read more... )

Hi guys, just checking in to say everything is fine with me. No concrete information on what caused the explosion in Tel Aviv, everyone at work is mostly checking in with family and refreshing news sites and trying to figure out how much to worry and making morbid jokes ( Read more... )