the third last quick break

and we're counting backwards, so we're typing backwards (and this is just the quick summary):

i shouldn't have eaten 300g of ben & jerry's cake batter ice-cream. i'm already paying for it with a solid headache. the kid's appropriately snarky comment came too late to stop me. in my defense, the idea was to go out for coffee but all the coffee shops are closed due to tonight being the jewish new year. i'm nicely surprised :)

i shopped for the next two days and made myself a tuna salad while browsing online - it's shocking to be back in the real world again. here's the killer:
i booked myself onto the snowboard trip today. YEAH! i don't know how i'm going to organize the payment, but it's good that my name's down :)

i got my to-do items sorted today. i made a really awesome shirt as a goodbye gift for our commander, it's pink and sporting a really funny photo of him. he's not supposed to wear it, but it's funny as hell.

dedication - after searching almost every single arbitrary store on dizengoff, bograshov, king george and sheinkin, i accidentally walked into an oddities shop containing exactly what i was searching for: strap-on pockets for my overalls. with a cute and neither-here-nor-there design so it's good for all occasions.

i bought really shite gloves for the cold week ahead, but seeing as i'm not going to wear them for more than a few nights i didn't think it was worth investing. not like last time, when i bough a really nice pair and promptly lost them.

i went by the gym, and the manager gave me an extension (not free, but outside of the context of a contract) because i've been away doing military things for the last half a year. rather nice of him.

the post-office was closed. that sucks. but the kid did bring back my copies of men in black and its sequel, and after testing the sequel i'm convinced that i don't remember anything from the entire film. good buy!

i stopped by the bank to discover that the message that they left me really wasn't important. the thing i need to prepare for november will cost me NIS 700 if i get it from the bank, and pretty much nothing if i organize it at the post-office. i'll get around to it in november, then.

wake up at 4.30am, hurriedly cleaning for an inspection that never happened, and fairly pleasant bus / train rides home. the most complicated part of the day was and is answering all the wishes for a good new year - there's a bunch i really should have sent out but i don't have the energy.

yesterday we had our peer review, and i'm really glad it's over and there's nothing more to be done about it. there's a bunch of assholes who probably screwed the rest of us over, but as usual i couldn't be arsed to be involved and i hope that my score works out to be at least relatively fair.

yesterday morning we ran an orientation exercise in a small town, which was a lot of fun. the weekend was relaxed, and i got a lot of work done - i was meant to give a lecture yesterday that never materialized, so now i've got some time to practice. i still have to write that book report, so that's my plan for the next two days at home.

last week we ran simulations [like we did before], and i got put into two really uncomfortable ones. the first one was kind of alright, but not good, and the second one was so frustrating that in the middle of it i slammed my hand down on the table just to shut my fellow participants up, and broke my pen. my staring at the table and muttering "dammit, i broke my pen" wasted the effect that i'd managed to achieve.

oh, and volleyball over the weekend was a great success - i got picked for the sport's day team because i took a bunch of misfit beginners and explained the game to them, techniques last. by explaining strategy first and suffering a few learning losses, i got them to a point where nobody could get us off the court... including one of the commanders, who's quite impressed ^_^

there's a bunch of other things that happened during the last two weeks, but kc's coming to pick me up for the family dinner so i'll have to continue another time.

happy jewish new year!