positive negative

i woke up early enough this morning to hit coffeeholic for my free coffee and croissant.

it was a beautiful morning. i took a book, but didn't end up reading it because the chef's apprentice kept me occupied with a fun and interesting discussion. while waiting for my ride to show up, i sat on a bench at cafesito reading the iliad. at some point i noticed a particularly nice pair of legs go past, and looked up to see a girl standing on the back of her boyfriend's bicycle. that took me back to my first summer here with lake, and all the emotions of perfect summer tel aviv mornings came flooding back. this is going to be a great summer ^_^ the first thing i heard when i got in this morning was that my unit commander had interviewed me in my absence: this may sound weird, but i'm totally comfortable with anything that might make my application move faster. the kinder is back, and he came past my desk to tell me about his travels in thailand personally. he had a lot of funny stories to share, but we got to talking about full moon parties... he now understands why i can't handle normal parties in this country. it's about attitude more than anything else, and only the nature party people are nice enough and crazy enough to throw good ones. we were warned that the mess hall wasn't going to be a good idea, so a lot of us chose to hit the shuwarma place off base. the meal was good, and we all got silly afterwards - a lunch hour spent laughing raucously is a pleasant rarity. the majority of the afternoon was spent napping and writing songs for the farewell on thursday, and i was very proud of myself for managing to contribute in spite of my linguistic handicap. we took a break for chocolate (loads of good chocolate from thailand) and i returned when an attempt at getting some work done was brought to a halt by one of the secretaries who'd decided that vacuuming the office wouldn't bother me in the slightest. i scored a ride to the train station, and spent most of it sleeping peacefully. at least i've gotten all this out, urchin's talking to me again, and i didn't have too far to go to finish the bottle of rum.

the discussion was fun right until her sister showed up, at which point it turned towards the army. i tried to pull it back to positive stuff, but the girl had nothing to talk about. i find that kinda sad. i spent the next half an hour wondering how i could have forced the topic back and feeling shitty about not having done so. idiot girl was trying to read on the way to the base, and had the nerve to shush us when we got enthusiastic about the news. i totally missed the whole iceland story (i had thought this guy's anger was random). i had an ear-warming experience by phoning the city council to figure out what was going on with my water bill. the bills always confuse me, and it took a good ten minutes to reach someone who could inform me that everything's okay, and that the NIS 300 debt listed on the latest one is not a debt, but rather the paid municipal tax for the previous month. a captain i've never spoken to before walked in this morning, and was shocked to find me sitting there. he got really nosy, and i actually had to explain to him more than once that it's not his place to fire off personal questions that not even my commanders are authorized to ask. nothing pisses me off than people who begin guessing when they've been told to leave off. our previous SC called me up about thursday's farewell organization, and in his usual style completely contradicted his previous plans. i stuck to my guns, though, and at least from my side things will remain stable. i've decided i'm going to take his "gift" with and present it, even if only in private. our unit commander was surprised when i told him that in addition to my current situation and attitude not being appropriate to share with the corps commander (two ranks higher up than the big boss), i also didn't want to make a fool of myself or anyone around me due to my inability to express myself reasonably. "what? your hebrew's just fine!" thanks for the vote of confidence, but i'm perfectly capable of identifying just how much my hebrew isn't fine when it comes to people who don't know me well enough to give me a chance to reword. i called my cousin twice today, forgetting that she's a travel agent and thus slightly busy with the current headlines... i got off the train angry. i just wanted to break stuff, which is a sensation that frustrates me in and of itself. coming home to a dusty, muggy, humid and generally unhappy evening with my patio door and window open had me close to boiling point - the weather in the morning had been wonderful and the forecast stated sunny and cool. lies.

i need to nap. this has been a long day.