Today was absolutely exhausting - and I don't mean because I painted my bedroom alone for at least eight hours, climbing over my bed, lifting the chair to do the high parts over and over again...with 80s love songs blasting in the background. I mean it was mentally taxing...

Just imagine the look on my face a week ago tonight when I went to prepare myself an actual Shabbat dinner, took the chicken out of the fridge and was met with a stink to high heaven! For ten minutes, I tried to convince myself that I was imagining it and that the chicken was just fine...but eventually I checked the date and even the day we bought it, it was expired - the date read May 4th!

There were 100 party goers whose fate did not become death and did not become enslavement - and that is because they crossed paths with a 24-year-old man named Ran Gvili - a man who was lying at home injured that morning when the worst attack in modern Israel's history broke out.

"You can feel the death here," said my roommate of a few days, as we passed each other at the Nova Festival site, after each exploring it on our own for about fifteen minutes. A casual remark said without any emotion, on a beautiful sunny day at around 5pm - the time of day where you have to be careful which side you take a picture from, as one way will face the shining sun as it gets ready to set, and the other will give your shot exquisite lighting.