I'm safe!

I know that a lot of people have been worried about me given what is going on in Israel at the moment, but I promise I am safe and watching out for my safety. Yes, rockets are being fired at Israel every day, which is not a new occurrence, however there are more rockets and they are being fired at major cities. Yes, I have had to go into bomb shelters at least once a day for the last few days, but I am not scared. Of course, when the air raid siren sounds my heart stops and I react as I was told to, but life goes on every day. I go to work, I walk the dog (not so much on the beach because it's too far from a shelter), I go to the grocery store, I go out with friends and I live my life. I know that everyone cares and is concerned, but I want to assure you that I am ok. All of us here are living our lives with a little more awareness of our surroundings than usual, but we are all still able to joke about things. Also, where I live,we get 90 second to get to a shelter...that's a much longer time than you think! The iron dome, Israel's anti-rocket defense system, has kept us safe and will continue to do so.

My worst fear was to be alone in a car when a siren went off. This happened to me on Thursday morning, as rockets are generally fired around 8:00 in the morning when parents are taking their kids to summer camps. I pulled the car over, like everyone else, got out and went into the nearest building. The building was a bakery and one of the employees came out on the street to offer all of us on the street a place in their shelter. The employee took one look at me and I must have been as white as the cream in his pastry bag because he made sure I was first in the shelter and I think didn't know if he should stuff me full of cream puffs or stuff me into the cream puffs! It was pretty funny.

There's also a long list of running jokes about the safety procedures we are supposed to go through when the alarm sounds. Adding such things as make sure to check Facebook often. Take selfies in the bomb shelters. Make sure to announce each boom you hear from the iron dome taking out whatever is being flung at us.

While, it is unnerving and completely surreal to be going through this, I will be in the USA soon for a vacation out in Seattle with Debby and it will be comforting not be hearing the sirens, but my thoughts will be with my friends, coworkers and loved ones in Israel.