Sunday, July 26, 2020

The balloons from last week’s party bob around the office. Over the weekend, one yellow balloon wanders back into my cube. When I come in to work, I find it snuggled tight against the wastebasket. I try not to disturb it as I set up for the day. Much of today’s work is mundane but worthwhile. I’m updating older documentation that was put together well. I’m mostly adding information and graphics to show connections between things. They seemed more obvious before, but now that I've moved the text around into a new medium, I have to make them clear. Before the afternoon prayers, a coworker tries to get me to speak more Hebrew in the office. Speaking Hebrew feels more stressful as I go on, rather than less. I really should have taken an introduction to conversational Hebrew when I got here. I was told to leapfrog ahead because I tested well on reading and grammar. That hasn’t played out well. On the way home, I see more cats than usual. Several of them lie sunning themselves in the twilight on a patch of pavement on the street with the store where I pick up my packages. Further down the street, the shopkeeper leans on a car outside the store, smoking. I pass behind him. I don’t say hello. People greet each other less here than we did in the States, and a lot less than we did in Texas. More cats lie around in my yard when I get home. Most of them scatter when they see me coming. One cat, larger than the rest with tortoise-shell fur, glances up at me but doesn’t move. I step carefully around where he lies. I don’t want to disturb him, either.