weekend - release: part 2

getting to sleep on saturday night? creepy. the fact that i caught a spider running around my bed wasn't a problem in and of itself - that shit happens. what was unusual was that once i'd removed it, shaken out the bedclothes and resumed my attempt to get to sleep, i found another one. two makes a pattern, and i just had to hope that it would stop there.

i woke up at 4am with a cough that left me wondering about my chances of survival... i couldn't breathe and my throat was killing me. it eventually calmed down, though, and i managed to catch a couple more winks.

my blister drove me crazy until saturday night / sunday morning by constantly filling with a dirty-coloured fluid which had to be released every now and again, and it still hurt. the physical relief i felt when instead of fluid i pushed out a weird sliver of something was refreshing, and it hasn't given me any problems since :)

an old woman slipped on a plastic bag that was lying in the gutter as she tried to board the bus, and i was very glad when i saw that she'd managed without any help... for a second there i was terrified that she'd broken something :/

for the last time, i caught the dreaded 156 to the base - it was early enough that it wasn't so bad. i stopped by the mess hall for breakfast, and was surprised to discover that i wasn't particularly hungry :P

the idea of writing the complaint against the policeman is so very tiring: it's not fair that it should be this much work :(

one of our captains walked in, asking questions after having seen some of the photos from my weekend. when i described the people there as "normative" (ordinary citizens), his response took me by surprise:
"no, they are not normative. ordinary people are psychologically imprisoned."
wow! that was decidedly insightful coming from a religious officer.

three girls were in my office, two with stuff to do and idiot girl who'd come in to congratulate me on my impending departure. one of the others agreed with me that anorexia is a social disease (apparently it's a bit of both, it turns out that i didn't have correct information at the time*), but idiot girl began to argue in a way that got me to throwing in reductio ad Hitlerum.

"you can't just compare it to the holocaust!"
"then stop contradicting me and start arguing."

* i didn't realize that there were physical causes as well. as a response to a distorted body image, however, it still falls under the category of "a [relatively] reasonable response" to the sufferer's personal reality.

nyah-nyah brought in a questionnaire that appears to have been built for me, with questions such as "how satisfied are you with you job" and "why did you choose it" :P

i received a call from my old boss (helpdesk support), and in a short while i'll be going for a re-interview. it's definitely a good idea for when i'm not working, i just hope it fits in for when i am.

after a decent lunch and a chat with my kibbutz cousin on my way off the base - i had a positive chat with my mum before going in to the psychologist for a summary session. it was a really positive half an hour; she appears to be well impressed by how adjusted i am but left me with a couple of surprising insights into how i deal with the great wide world around me...

it was time to get ready for grootbek's bachelor's. when i discovered that the cost would be NIS 500 - per person - i balked. more money than i was planning on giving him for his wedding present? for what? we did all the others on the cheap...

and for someone who's about to attain the rank of unemployed, that's not fair. i wasn't going to go, but i really wanted to see everyone and they finally agreed to let me chip in a more reasonable fee...

i was in such a ridiculously good mood that i smiled the entire way home.

getting there wasn't a problem, thankfully, although i could've done without sitting across from a guy who was vigorously picking his nose and chewing on the finds... i woke up from a nap to a strange conversation with the guy next to me, who pays for his bus fare by recycling - a worthy endeavour, but not such good conversation material.

a girl painting her friend's nails on the bus reminded me of springer - when you have brightly coloured toenails, your feet look clean even when covered in mud :)

part 3 coming soon.