summary; tragedy; remedy

summary: a full 36 hours

shopping fail: i bought a few shirts, none of which were appropriate for smart occasions. SxS donated a shirt to my cause, and two of the ones i bought are good for semi-casual wear... but i am going to have to go back and exchange the others.

second breakfast: i had a great coffeeholic breakfast, and then an "anti-ageing" smoothie with ze germans a brisk walk away. very nice.

poster transport: the poster was not designed for transportation. getting it to ze germans was a bit of a mission; getting it to their car way more so. the drive with it was extremely uncomfortable, so much so that grootbek had to sit in the back - and he's big. once at ze germans' place, i managed to fix it up all right, but then it had to go to ra'anana and i lost a piece on the way :(

pre-sabbath swimming: excellent. i spent time with some friends whom we never spend time with, and their little daughter's antics keep bringing a smile to my face. they're an ideal family unit, and it's really, really nice to spend time with them :)

friday night with SxS's fam: a pleasure as usual. it's quite traditional, actually. i was originally intending to go to the synagogue for ru55's "bridegroom's sabbath" (שבת חתן), but i didn't want to mess with the dinner arrangements :P

after dinner and a short nap, SxS's cousin and i visited the couple and their friends.
a) they really appreciated the poster
b) the bride's friends are awesome, especially her cousin. they're all literature majors and are as full of weird as they are friendly. things progessed intangibly with the cousin (semi-colon, or ";").

after a short sleep, SxS and i made our way to the synagogue for the morning service. it was south african traditional, with lots of choir moments. i was reminded of my days (once upon a time) as a choir boy, and then suffered moments feeling like al pacino stirring the holy water. i had a potential target, too: the guy in charge of the zionist fed's housing (who made my life miserable in 2006).

for the first time in ten years (since we both immigrated), i ran into someone who used to be a really close friend for many years. it was nice to see him, although it did throw me a bit :P

SxS and i took a half hour break, then returned to the synagogue for lunch. the bride's mum was really worried because she could see that something was happening between me and ";" - turns out she's not jewish.
erm... big deal.

a coffee misunderstanding and a long conversation with SxS's mother tipped our afternoon plans out the window, and they were fairly complex plans :/

i drove ru55 and ";" to the cliffs of apologna. her mom called me when we arrived, and i felt really bad because she was supposed to come to my place for coffee to see my apartment and i'd forgotten to tell her i wasn't in the right city :S

goodbye: ";" and i have really hit it off, which is not a good thing because she had to leave the country a few hours later. *sigh*

swimming with ze germans was a perfect end to a very serious sabbath. afterwards, SxS and i met yogi for shuwarma, and then picked up mmf for a rooftop barbecue in honour of the newlyweds. it was a very nice evening (minus an ipod incident that bothered me more than it probably should have), and i was completely exhausted by the time i got home.

i woke up early this morning, and walked to the bank to order a new visa. visa tagging is a problem when you're in the military, and instead of taking five minutes to figure out what i want printed on the card it took more than twenty, by which stage i was going to be late for the polygraph. i blame being in a hurry for taking the wrong sequence of buses - i was completely on autopilot and headed for the wrong place.

i'm very glad i registered at a stop that was next to a taxi rank. it was an expensive correction, but a correction nonetheless.

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tragedy: catch twenty-truth
i'm praying to all the gods - PLEASE HELP ME GET THROUGH THIS. i simply cannot pass a polygraph examination. i'm the perfect false positive, because that's what happens when you get excited over questions regardless of whether you're being honest or not.

if these guys want to see me in tears, they're doing a good job. i can't bow out of the process without it being seen as an admission of guilt, and i'm not guilty. i can't pass the polygraph, because it bears no relation to lie detection.

so guess who's not getting ready for university this year. and who's not getting ready for a solid vacation.

this is getting more and more distressing every time. the worst part?
"if you are lying, you're very convincing". thanks. but i have to pass in order to prove that i'm not a liar.

remedy: frisbee

a long chat with my mother (and her advice), excellent frisbee (and managing to not get my ipod wet), alcohol (the guy walking about with vodka and arak and a tank of iced-lemonade on his back), cookies (the claim was "the best in tel aviv", but they're pretty good nonetheless), and walking slowly back along the water's edge.