not quite as planned

with a score provided by porcupine tree*, the lucid dream i just crawled out of went something like this:

at a party underwater, with a thick rope ladder extending a fair ways into black depths and the guests arrayed all the way down it. although everything was under water, we were all talking and breathing without any aids.

on my way down, i came across a rather curious thing: a sheep, tethered to one of the rungs and simply standing - on nothing.
i petted the sheep, then continued on down to the bottom rung upon which a friend was sitting. close by was tethered another animal; this one a lioness.

it's a bit difficult to ignore a beast like that even from a distance, but we began talking on some random topic [quite probably about something related to the bit of the dream before the water] and everything was grand... right until i got too close to the lioness and she pounced. i almost got out of the way in time... only she'd managed to take a solid chunk out of my left foot.

this was at first a bit painful [no understatement there], and i methodically began removing my left boot - the shape of which being a blur to me at the time. it was only with it off that i then realized what kind of damage had been done - a sizable (length-wise) triangular slice of my left foot had been removed, including the third and fourth toes, and what was left of the ball of my foot was pretty much unusable.

i felt myself going into shock so i sat down and commented: "i'm going to have a little sleep now". this drew a few chuckles from the crowd that had gathered around me.

i didn't pass out - actually, i took a good look at the damage and decided that my chances of dancing in the future were rather severely at risk. it was just as this thought struck me that a saviour arrived - someone had managed to retrieve the missing chunk and it fitted almost perfectly!

it was a very cinderella moment.

my only remaining concern was how to keep it in place until i could find a doctor to stitch it all up for me...

i think this is how monkey islands begin.

* porcupine tree - the incident is amazing. no, i'd never heard of them before.

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by my beard and whiskers - and i have those aplenty now - wearing a uniform on the hottest day of a serious heat wave does not make for a pleasurable experience. especially when it's a day that involves quite a bit of walking.

i got to wake up twice this morning, once to find out that my SC was leaving late enough that i really could get back to bed.

on base, i made tea and talked to vyomanaut about invictus (he's a generic sports fanatic) and he was quite moved by my report. i'd actually forgotten that it was he who'd asked me to see it in the first place :P

i tried to call the dermatologist's office for a while before giving up and walking there instead. i managed to arrange an appointment (for next week) fairly fast, but was bothered to hear the following explanation when i asked how it is that they're so difficult to get hold of:
"sometimes we're just too busy to answer calls"

it doesn't look that way to me. in fact, i surreptitiously called before i approached the desk just to check.

once back in the office, i had time for a quick patch before captain incompetent called me in to report on my progress. i was decidedly impolite - as is my wont with him - but intrigued when we both realized just how much work i've managed to get done over the last month or so in spite of my newly acquired bad attitude.

lunch was all about jackass. someone sat down at the table, and a couple of us commented that he looks really similar to someone who recently left our section: nystire told him that that wasn't a compliment. i'm still wondering if there's any way to hear something like that without being totally offended.

the walk to the bus after lunch reminded me of robin williams' live on broadway - "is it hot enough for ya!?"

therapy was quite intense today. i convinced her to let me talk about the big stuff, and it went somewhere very interesting. her summary of the session went something along the lines of "you appear to be a lot better at getting things across than you think, but if there's one thread that runs solidly through your entire service and your experience with the men in suits - it's definitely miscommunication".

it was strange to go from discussing the paranoia and the betrayal that i felt throughout last year's ordeal to - in the big picture - how positive my last six years have been. if i do become schizophrenic at any stage... i'll blame the psychologist :)

on my way home, i tried to find out if my release date had been updated. like an HIV test, checking has no effect on the outcome but it made me nervous as hell. when i got back a negative (or, to keep with the HIV metaphor, a positive) result, i had to push for a second opinion... no dice :/

the guy i was supposed to meet to pick up my tickets for tuesday's party wasn't answering the phone, so i braved the clingy outside to buy a couple of vests with smurfs on them before coming home to shower, fight with urchin online and go to sleep.

...

i've been up for an hour and a half now, eating and posting and browsing, and now i'm going to get back to preparing for our unit trip to jerusalem.

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i spent an hour or so watching various comedians earlier, and i really enjoyed lewis black and adam ferrara

amazing photos!

i've been listening to jeremy messersmith - the silver city while posting this, and it's great stuff :)