third strike

or "exclusively screwed"
or "the most expensive drive up north. ever."

i took a twenty minute nap on friday evening, and then a friend woke me up to give me a fifteen-minute warning. i was ready in ten. i was nursing a headache that would only increase in strength and intensity, and was completely exhausted.

we met up with ru55 at his place, played with the wii (quite fun, but i couldn't find a way to get a mii to look like... me), and i passed out on the couch. it appears that i slept for an hour, with my temple resting on my knuckles which in addition to the neurofen appears to have worked in alleviating the headache somewhat.

we left his place around 2am. to get to the starting point took about two hours, and we were stopped on the way by an enthusiastic junior policeman who was determined to search our car. he was puzzled and intrigued by south african sweet-wrappers, and his senior let him enjoy himself for a couple of minutes before loudly hinting at him that i'm an officer. he got this hurt look on his face, but let us go.

we arrived at a parking lot filled with crazy people, and we told to buy tickets and join the convoy. we weren't too trusting about the tickets, but we joined anyway for a mission that was something out of a movie. we travelled through farms and villages, mostly on dirt roads and with our lights off in the dark - no mean feat when we're talking about 60 - 80 cars.

while travelling up the unchartered mountain (according to the gps device), we discover that we can leave a virtual trail of breadcrumbs by indicating traffic cameras. this turned out very useful on the way out.

we bought our tickets on the way in, and were on our way... except we weren't. about five minutes after we acquired our tickets, we discovered that that party was shut down already. all the sneaking in the world won't help when you're sneaking TO a place crawling with cops. the organizers had managed to find a spot right next to another party, and because the pigs couldn't shut them down (private property, although that didn't seem to stop them last time) they shut us down instead.

the worst of that is that the other party was a bunch of arsim, and the cute policewoman was indoctrinated enough to tell *us* that *we* are bad people... the idiots just don't understand that they closed down one of the few exclusive parties for people who don't like stabbing incidents and balloons filled with nitrous.

so yeah, hundreds of us stood shaking our heads, confused and amused and frustrated, and apparently there were a lot of us who'd had our money grabbed at the last moment... it's entirely likely, even, that the girl who sold us our tickets had nothing to do with the organization and had found two innocents to reclaim her cash from :(

after a highly amsuing and odd morning, including bartering for entrance to the other party, we drove to tzemach, had a couple of cups of coffee at the local aroma, then drove past the kinneret, stopping to take photos for a few minutes before i got in the driver's seat and we made our way home.

we stopped halfway to visit my cousins on the kibbutz, it was nice to be able to surprise them for once :)

those earlier cups of coffee and a can of redbull kept me going until i was home and ru55 had rested enough for his return. i showered, had breakfast, watched NIN - closer with the kid, had a nap, cleaned, ate nachos watching 88 minutes, and promptly died until 3.50am. now i'm shaved and have brushed my teeth, done most of the dishes (i HATE the guys for not throwing out the food bits yesterday), and am putting on my uniform to train to the airport.