sirens unabating

I'm a basketcase right now, and the sirens won't rest.

After a sad early-morning parting with Brandt at the airport, I went home to go back to sleep for a while. We had a great time out on the Tel Aviv beachfront last night, but not enough sleep to make it into the office ready to work.

I took my time this morning, put headphones on, for the first time all year, to Led Zeppelin, to distract me from my emotions. I sat facing backwards on the bus, next to an adorable girl, and saw a woman, a little older than me, red-in-the-face, wiping tears the entire ride. This automatically provoked my own tears, but too soon it was time to get off the bus.

As I was walking past a couple cafes I thought I would try sometime, there was a loud BOOM! I heard it over the LedZep, but I still figured it was a truck bottoming-out. As I turned the corner onto Hahashmal St, and a tidy, blonde woman pulled over in a Landcruiser and asked me, "Haya pigua? Shamat?" (Was there a suicide bombing? Did you hear it?)

"No, I think it sounded like a truck," I told her, and kept walking.

I turned the corner onto Menachem Begin, a major artery in central Tel Aviv, and saw every person frozen on the sidewalk, cell phones on their ears. Then white sedans full of men started speeding through the city with their blue siren lights flashing.

Three helicopters have flown over the office building already. I guess those are the media's. I've called my program, but information hasn't made it to the news yet. In the meanwhile, the sirens are competing with each other all around me, but home isn't necessarily a better place to be than here.

Ok, the message just came. A bomb went off in the Central Bus Station. I'm fine. We just activated our calling tree.

Keep praying and working for peace.