pondering: caffeine, alcohol, impatience, spontaneity, taxi cabs

[mostly written on a pc keyboard attached to a mac - an educational experience in itself]

on the way to my original primary base on thursday morning, i was reminded of that worn-out pick-up line:
how do you like your eggs in the morning? boiled, fried or - CAFFEINATED [my version's interrupted]

my day began wonderfully - i managed to prove my worth to a number of people and that did my confidence no end of good. the looks on their faces when they registered that they were dealing with someone who isn't just along for the ride makes me feel all gooey and excited ^_^

granted, in order to survive the meeting i had to power up. the iced-coffee on the way to the base, a redbull two minutes prior to the meeting, and then super-strong coffee halfway through :P
i'm not going to dwell too much on the massive quantities of caffeine i ingested during the rest of the day, it would make me feel bad.

i received a really nice pin that i can't wear - that's rather annoying.
in the middle of the meeting, a really cute girl ran into our office, looked around in a panic, then ran out again. two seconds later her commander ran in, grabbed a bottle of water from the desk, and ran out - we discovered later that she'd made officer the other day, and mistakenly informed her commander that she hadn't gone through shtifa, a tradition of drenching an "achiever" with water, or anything else that more or less resembles a liquid.

thursday was a funny day - if i was george from seinfeld i would've been constantly making a hasty exit; the gems that i felt i was practically exhaling actually had the desired effect, which is unusual because i'm used to receiving odd looks and "what the hell is he on about?"

i learned never to order shakshuka (an israeli egg and tomato mixture) in a roll again, it's messy and not satisfying enough to be justified.

after lunch i caught the kinder working on something against the instructions we'd received, and after a shouting match we consulted the resident authority, only to discover that his mistake had uncovered an error in the instructions themselves. the episode reminded me of a sentiment that i don't usually think about because it's so well internalized: loyalty to the greater good comes above personal pride and rivalry - an insinuation to the contrary really put my back up.

at least the issue was resolved.

i had to learn a bit of perl, and once i found what i was looking for the solution came quickly and fluidly. this spawned an interesting conversation on code obfuscation, and we came up with a couple of artistic project ideas that will probably never materialize.

to sum up the day: i've received even more responsibility, my desk is stacked with work and i'm over-booked, and i'm absolutely loving it. my brain's working! [on fire, more like ^_^]

i was supposed to meet up with a couple of guys at mike's place in the evening, but only one other arrived and that was about 45 minutes after i did. i sat there alone, contemplating the day and repeating "the spirit of the IDF" a few times, and in all that time not a single waitress so much as looked in my direction. unbelievably good service :S

the two of us talked shop for an hour, and when he left i shuffled over to the bench next to me to chat with a couple of cute english girls. i didn't think there was such a thing :P
we sat talking and laughing for a while, and i got the cutest one's number before walking through to the cocktail room. the only unpleasant thing in all of that was some horribly drunk old french guy, who began falling all over the girls and starting to get physical before we managed to chase him away. it got me into a really violent mode, but he was an old drunk so it was hard to deal with.

the cocktail room was meant to be a stopover on the way to the lincoln, but ta2 convinced me that it would be a good night and i got my flat-mates to come over. it was pretty good for the first while, but then it started sucking royally and it totally pulled my mood down.

we walked home, spot and i fighting most of the way, and i eventually got to bed irked.

friday morning began at 10am, and it took an hour to wake the guys up to deal with evolved leftovers and get ready to do the do's of the day.

after a serious shop, we came home for breakfast. spot broke my decorative plate that i received as a gift from the army, and that right pissed me off. aside from that breakfast was good, and then spot and i left to do the inedible shopping.

neither of us like shopping. i hate malls, and i hate people who can't move in a relatively efficient manner. i get claustrophobic and crazy really fast.

we bought a pull-up bar and a foot-pump for my inflatable mattress, i made the mistake of walking into the music store and came out with half my money gone, but the new marilyn manson album and two incubus discs to show for it. we then spent the next couple of hours unsuccessfully hunting a beach umbrella and nine inch nails tickets.

after passing and greeting a bunch of ze germans, and the austrian girl, we met up with the kid at movieing, for a pleasant and amusing cup of coffee. then it was a mad rush home to pack and barely make the last bus to jerusalem, because ru55 had called me up and informed me that i simply had no choice in the matter - the chance to hear "dj with disappointing non-set" from independence day was worth another crazy mission.

i finally finished licensed to kill on the bus: excellent book.

i arrived, cleaned up (and learned a lesson about chafing - hadn't intended to walk so much), and had a good friday night meal. we all chilled for a couple of hours, and then ru55 and i headed off.

the party was great, and the place was beautiful - a private farm snuggled between the territories' borders and privately owned, meaning we shouldn't have had to worry about the police shutting it down. it was a tad on the expensive side, but for such a good setup and proper security et al, it was worth it. the music was great. the crowd was alright, far better than last time.

and we even got an hour or so of dancing in the sunlight before the music went off and the cops shoo'ed us out.



after a pretty drive home (it's as good an excuse as any), i spent the day (minus two hours of napping) reading neil gaiman - anansi boys (styling as usual), sketching, and having ru55 teach me some interesting chemistry in order to explain some electronics to me. i feel that i must learn more.

i left the apartment around 20.30, and after the bus hadn't pitched i hopped into a taxi with a bunch of soldiers. the seat had recently been vacated, and the vacator had left me a lovely puddle to sit in. as someone with serious germ-issues, this was not welcome. i'm still, excuse the pun, pissed off.

which is sad, because otherwise i've had one of those super-rare happy days.

i'm home, i've had a shower (in which i've scrubbed excessively), and i'm now going to sleep the sleep of kings. tomorrow night i'm going out with the english girl and her pack - i've been instructed to bring mine to keep them occupied :P

tool - schism is stunning - where would this world be without opium fiends??
marilyn manson - heart-shaped glasses is good, i'd been expecting something far less tasteful