Sumi, I'm sorry to hear your diagnosis, but I'm sending you all the good ~ma that the treatment works.

Dana, I'm sorry about the family drama. You just never know.

I hope Mr. Scully did not get eaten by an iguana--not even a nibble.

meara, I know it's hard when one's friends drift away. I'll hope some new ones drift your way.

I've sent off my computer glasses to have one lens replaced, and I have no backup glasses, so I'm perching the laptop desk on the ottoman and the edge of the chair cushion and pulling the laptop partly onto my body to get it close enough to read, which is not a really stable situation. It slipped yesterday and I caught it, spraining or straining my wrist in the process, which I downplayed all evening until the ache woke me from a sound sleep. None of the thirty-odd wrist braces I own applied support in the right places and did apply pressure in the wrong places, so I found a sports wrap, and got back to sleep. Today I've been unwrapping and rewrapping it as the ache gets better or worse in various places. Overall I think it's improving, it's just...a demonstration of the sylphlike grace I've had all my life. Woe. Please pass the tylenol and Look over there! Squirrel!

Mom and I went out for an early Mother's Day dinner yesterday, and from there to visit the nearby house of an old friend of hers. It was just by happenstance, as we'd tried a couple of restaurants in different parts of town earlier and found their parking lots too crowded. By strange coincidence, said friend had pulled out an old photo of Mom holding me as a baby that afternoon and had it near at hand to show us when we stopped by. Good visit, it seemed to brighten both of them up quite a bit to have a chance to socialize a bit.

I also figured out how to get the sliding door of my closet back in its moorings, so no need to have my landlord call in the building's handyman.

My neighbor reports that she saw Mulder this afternoon. Said he was the neighborhood slut and hangs out with several neighbors and claims neglect at home. She said he was fine and would likely be home tonight. Surely if it rains.

Oh very good news.

My original plan was to go and write my deadlines from the campus today. This happened last evening in the entrance to my campus, though, and it's an incredibly tense day all around, so I'll stay home/in the neighborhood.

This city can break one's heart.

That is more than a distraction, Shir. It must be incredibly difficult to try and maintain a normal routine with such outbreaks of violence.

So weird all in one post but Shir that is awful. And I am now disappointed about Justin Theroux and Jennifer Aniston, even though I was already disappointed about the Louis Theroux thing. And really quite disappointed about Karl Urban.

Oh, Shir, I'm so sorry. Stay safe.

And continuing Sophia's feeling of strange things to put on a single post... what's up with Karl Urban? I did a quick Google but didn't find anything.

Tonight, we are going out to dinner with three friends for a bday celebration for one of them. Weird and exciting. And also weird to be so excited and still slighy trepidatious to... have dinner at a restaurant. Slowly getting out and seeing people is wonderful, and it's also bringing home how strange it's all been.

I have a decent shot at a job interview coming up, so any spare -ma you've got would not go amiss if you're of a mind. I think it would be a good fit, so I'm looking forward to talking to them so we can check each other out.

And I need to find a dress for a small wedding in two weeks. THAT will be weird (the gathering, not the dress. I mean, or maybe. Depends what I find.)

I am just dissatisfied he is not married to Nicole Kidman! Also I am listening to a podcast right now with Tig Notaro talking about Jennifer Aniston!

Job~ma, Jen.

And thank you. I am very lucky and privileged to be able to live most of my life in the same 2-3 neighborhoods of Jerusalem that are riots free, and there are usually clear lines of where and it gets ugly and where and when it is "safe" to be (if you're a white woman. Well, at least since the buses stopped exploding. And I wasn't living here then). To be clear, lots of places and neighborhoods in this city are safe. I mean that I rarely have to go through the old city/neighborhoods where there are clashes.

What is very distracting is my frustration and anger over this. So much of this is unnecessary provocations and interventions in how this city usually regulates itself around Ramadan and holidays. This violence is fueled by politicians that are in the middle of a political negotiation to form a government (yes, we still don't have a stable government), by randoms on social media who are just seeing this as entertainment and are bloodthirsty, and by all of those who see this city just as a religious/national symbol, and not as a city with human beings who are living here. We can be so much better than this, in theory. In practice, I'm praying that this day (Jerusalem Unification Day) will not end up in casualties.

(And for those playing at home, the Arabs of the old city and some in East Jerusalem do consider themselves to be Palestinians and framing this as a Palestinian issue is a bit misleading. They are Maqdisi (Arabic for Jerusalemite). There are a few groups of Arabs in Israel/Palestine, they are one of them. Yes, it's all complicated).