Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Yesterday

Well I was going to write about how Tuesday was pretty good. But it ended pretty badly so I'm not sure now. Also not so sure just how personal and revealing to get in this blog thing. I'm using a semi-anonymous name, but then again all my readers (so far as I know) are people who know my true identity. Yes, I am Zorro!
So yesterday I did manage to work pretty well in the morning. There were sirens in Haifa. And at some point there was a hit. They didn't want to say exactly where on the news, but the reporter stood in front of it and I could easily identify the road I take every day to work. Luckily it fell not on the road itself, but in the brush below the road, starting a little fire but not causing any other harm. Real close to my office though...

We went to lunch at kibbutz, guests of Iris S. For me it was a huge treat to be back in the "chad", aka the chadar ochel or dining room and on a weekday no less. I made a nice meal out of rice, sweet potatoes, and beans. Iris treated us on her account. The chad is no longer a free for all. Yossi L. came up to Iris and semi-discretely told her that a new account had been started for the refugees and that she could charge our meals to that. Refugees! We now have official status.

I felt more like a returning daughter than a refugee though. We received wedding blessings from Iris's mom, Ofer's mom, and Talma, plus extra blessings when we pointed proudly to Cholent.

After lunch we walked to pick up our beautiful kettuba which has been waiting for us for some time at Yonat's studio. We also had a peek at Danya C.'s beautiful kettuba. We went back to Elah's and I worked some more before being overcome by a serious nap. When I woke Adi was gone, went to the gym with Jeremie. We all showered and got ready to go to a performance by Elah's dance class.

15 cute little girls performed several dances choreographed beautifully by Elah, each with it's own corresponding costume: a moving yoga, a saviyana, "lyrical jazz" (accompanied by sappy music that made me cry!) , and a hip hop number. They also did body drumming accompanied by a message related to helathy nutrition ("Calcium is good for you, uh huh, uh huh!"). You could tell that the girls were enjoying themselves. We had fun too.

The show was in a local community center in a town near where we're staying. There was nothing that spoke of the "matzav" - the "situation" except that the event hadn't been advertised. Only family memebers were there. We felt very special to be a part of the exclusive audience!

After the show Jeremie went to visit a friend in the hospital who is recovering from a serious operation. Adi and I took Elah out to dinner in a cute little cafe near the community center.

It was when we got home and watched the news for a while that things got tense. I should have gone to bed earlier. Instead, after the news, Adi and I argued. The general cause was the underlying fear and stress of which we've each been harboring differently. He wanted very much to go back to Haifa to check on our house and get some things and most importantly to visit his parents. Given the current recommendation to stay in a safe place, I wasn't so crazy about the idea. In fact, it made me quite scared. The secondary dispute was due to the building stress that comes from not being in your own house for a while, about worrying about overstaying your welcome, about where you do or don't feel comfortable, and about where it's really safest. I'm sorry to say we went to bed grumpy and I slept awfully.

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