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).

Young guy at work who refuses to get vaccine was just telling me that he bought magnet health bracelet this weekend “cause they say it really works”.

I don't watch SNL often anymore, but always record it. This past weekend's episode had a hilarious bit about the return the socialization. It was awesomely painful to watch.

@@ at young guy at work.

To quote Mulaney, this might as well happen. Life's already so goddam weird. [link]

At least it gave me a new tag line.