Sunday, July 16, 2006

Bombs are Boring

I'm at my office, on the 5th floor in a secure room now. I got here at 9:00 AM and just spent the last three hours waiting, sitting on the floor in the basement near the parking lots. At first everyone was down there, now it seems like most people have just gone home. Adi told me it's safer here at work than on the roads so for now I'm staying here too.
What was it like? Not scary. More boring. Like waiting at the airport for an indeterminate amount of time, with crappy cell phone service and only old New Yorkers, dug out of the trunk of my car, for company. Well there were co-workers too and for the first hour or so Ariella and I amused ousrelves with pregnancy talk.
Someone brought cake, water, and soda. It wasn't exactly festive but it wasn't terrible either. A group of people played cards. Those with laptops tried to connect via their cell phones. Some people just left to be with their families.
At some point people started drifting upstairs. Ariella and I couldn't take it anymore and went up to the ground floor to use the bathroom. The lobby was full of people sitting at cafe tables. More were outside. We went to the cafeteria to get cold water and snacks. Lots of people were there, eating and working.
The best part of that trip upstairs (besides getting some cooler air and relieving my bladder) was that I was able to reach Adi at home on the cell phone. He sounded much more relaxed than when I spoke to him for a few minutes at 9AM when he was rushing down to the shelter in our builidng. He was back at home, feeling better. The workmen were back at work on the apt. next door and their noise had scared him at first, each bang sounding like a rocket boom. He talked to them but eventually got used to it.
Then a security guard came into the cafeteria and told us to go back down, because the cafeteria is all glass with floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides, facing the beach. We obeyed.
Shortly after that, the head of the whole campus came by. He said to stay where we were or go work in a protected room, but to make sure to take the stairs to get there. We just stayed.
The wierd thing in all this is that usually work is really, really top notch excellent about telling us what to do but here there weren't really any formal announcements except that first one at 9AM over the loud speaker telling us to go down.
I just feel really tired now and bored. I'd like to be home but I'm not sure I want to be alone on the road.

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