backwards

 i *did* go to bed relatively early, i think. if i recall correctly. it's kinda hard, though, because around twenty minutes to 1am the sirens went off and we all had to scramble downstairs into the shelter.

that was pretty rough.

the morning was okay, though. mr smear led the way to school so that he could demonstrate that he's ready to do the walk alone ("stay back, dad! i need to focus!"), and gd and i spent a quiet morning doing mostly nothing (i lie, i spent a good chunk of today putting together a couple of articles) and watching an episode of strip search. because we've been together for more than a decade and we still haven't finished the season 😂

oh, and we had to go give him his meds at 10am, the asshat security guard's been uncharacteristically cool with us and let me in to go look for him. while i was on a call with a support agent, and the kids were in breaktime. it was intense, and it felt pretty miraculous that i actually managed to find my boy in all that madness.

the afternoon was pretty chilled. i wanted to take mr smear to the beach in the evening, but gd reminded me at the last minute that we needed to be back by 6 for his next dose, so we ended up taking a short walk to a nearby park instead. where we happened to bump into a woman that i served with - we recognized each other, but until she did the "wait, is your name..." thing i wasn't 100% sure if i was looking at the person i thought i was :P

they've just arrived from overseas, with two english-speaking kids who need to integrate into the local schools, and it was a pleasure for both of us to see our kids immediately click. even though the older one's two years younger than mr smear, they're about the same height and they both speak roblox/minecraft fluently :P

we came back home, showered, relaxed a bit (i'm loving shadowrun), made kiddush (although my mom's properly sick, so she left her camera off), and watched the first half of the 1989 batman film. then mr smear went to bed - almost without a fuss, but he's probably still awake reading - and now it's time for me to figure out whether i'm going to sleep or not.

...

we bombed the shit out of hezbollah this evening, and netanyahu gave a speech in front of the UN (which has done little more than consistently expose itself as a mouthpiece for the most oppressive and dangerous regimes on the planet), and everyone here is trying to understand what it all means, whether it matters or not. and all i can think of, all i've been able to think of, is whether blinken's on the quatari payroll or not. it's been a year of all this insanity, and the west is still telling us to stand down / not escalate when we're the ones who're under attack.