weekend - release: part 3

the bachelor's:
a cool jacuzzi, drunken frisbee (not so good), lots of junk food, wii (mario kart, it took me three races to score any points), passing out at random...

... and the strippers. i just don't get the whole thing. i never have. it's all very robot (thank you, timothy leary, for the expression). having a sibling in the industry kinda detracts from the entertainment a little bit as well.

i was broken upon arriving at home, and desperately in need of those 2.5 hours.

monday morning, 7.20am: the last time i'd have to wait in the steaming hot sun for my SC to pick me up. i hated it, but even so i couldn't take the smile off my face because that's it - all over. he apologized when he arrived, and i explained that the trick is to keep whoever's waiting informed of any delays in order to afford them the opportunity to find some shade - or in winter, coffee.

first order of business: giving the gift to the unit. i finally got it right, remembering to bring it, remembering to place it appropriately, remembering to send an email informing everyone not only of its presence, but of the necessity to not drink from the mug because the message is stuck inside.

i got a lot of positive feedback, in particular from the unit commander who was appreciative of my ability to have a laugh at the expense of both myself and my unit in a very small package.

my SC and i had our final talk, which lasted a fair bit longer than i'd anticipated. we both had plenty to say, and i think the overall feeling was extremely positive. i also received an excellent reference from him :)

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he wanted to know how long i'd had to sign for the officer's course - things began to get complicated. i suddenly recalled that strange elation when i returned and found out that they'd tacked on less than they'd threatened to, and i took my mum's advice (excellent advice!) in not mentioning it or verifying it.

while it is theoretically possible that the date was in order, it seems to me more likely that for the first time in my service, a bank error had occurred in my favour... i nervously pussyfooted around the issue, and no more mention was made of it.

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i then had to begin the forms hike - i had a very short time to sign a lot of different people. i decided to move as efficiently as possible, from one side of the base to the other, and that led me to begin looking for signatures from a section that was on a unit trip for the day.

figures.

all the other stations were a breeze, though. one by one they stamped my form, and it dawned on me that the reason for the hike is that when you're on your way out the pleasure and measure of reality that each and every signature brings is additive ^_^

i'm still laughing at the sheer brilliance of it all: last thursday i was informed by the unit commander that i wouldn't be doing my reserve duty in the unit... with my clearance they'd be hard-pressed to authorize my entrance to the base - how delicious it was to hear that for my reserve duty i've been assigned to... the very same unit!

i think that that means that i won't be called up for a while. :D

the last meal on base was pretty decent - i could swear they'd known i was leaving and got enthusiastic - and i packed up my desk, said my goodbyes and walked off in the crazy heat and my horridly sticky uniform for the very last time. [i suppose it would've been a better day if i'd known that i could come in civvies, but it did add to the ceremony and symbolic significance]

i was most pleased to see my course buddy in my SC's office being interviewed; we've been trying to get him over for the longest time and he's more than welcome to replace me :)

from a soldier having his foot run over by the bus (i'm guessing that he shouldn't have been standing in the road) and another running straight between and getting caught by the next bus' doors (a bit silly, really), the trip to the physio was not uneventful. i was almost too excited to read!

of course i passed out on the bed; between the night before, the massage and the heating towel i couldn't have been more comfortable :P

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on my way out, my SC caught hold of me to inform me of the madness, and to let me know that we're on alert again. i wonder how many people around the world realize how hard it is to be frightened all the time; it reminds me of the shock on chc's face when she was informed that if an israeli soldier is in the process of being kidnapped, his buddies are advised to shoot him so that he won't have to suffer nor be a burden to the state.

we're human beings, dammit, and the monsters are the ones pleading poverty and crying to the cameras while threatening us, attacking us and laughing to our faces.

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i shaved my beard (!!!), ran a washload and left for the tattoo parlour: it was time to get back to being me. urchin met me there, and after i was done telling the girl some funny stories of my previous piercings we were ready to enter her domain.

she did a really good job, and urchin has great photos of it all. urchin was a bit shocked because i hadn't stopped smiling the entire time - of course it hurt, but that's a part of it!
i'm absurdly chuffed with my helix (shiny rainbow tint, to match my nipple-ring) ^_^

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a guy i once studied with (just for a semester) requested a few weeks ago that i add him as a facebook friend. i barely remembered him, but his arbitrariness and childish "philosophizing" ("why is the expression `fuck you` necessarily a negative phrase?") reminded me soon enough. i ran into him at the alumni gathering a few weeks ago, and it didn't take me long before i hit the point of no response - he's quite the douche.

*anyway*, he sent me an instant message on monday evening: "all arabs must die".
and i responded, attempting to be rational, that that's a particularly dangerous attitude that does more damage to him than to any enemies we may have.

let's just say that he wasn't particularly accepting of my position on the matter. i tried to convince him that we're talking about human beings, and that even if we're forced into a position wherein violence or cruelty becomes necessary we cannot afford to take satisfaction from it.

his responses were pretty kindergarten, and after i asked him to leave off until he could learn to read and comprehend my responses he continued to harrass me with cries of "leftist pig" etc.
i'm as anti-left as i am anti-right, and that's anti enough to defriend the bastard. i don't need to be harrassed because i support my country through my insider's understanding that we do our best to preserve our enemies' lives and dignity even above our own soldiers', while at the same time i am deeply saddened by the fact that our own brothers are so filled with hate that they force us to do them harm.

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tuesday morning: the expression "the first day of the rest of your life" doesn't quite touch sides. my grin, however, did >D

i waited for a while, getting a tad nervous, before the bus arrived. standing up for an elderly arab and then wondering how someone could be suspicious of him (although to be fair, a lot of terrorists aren't actually that easy to detect)... yay for being on alert. at least i wasn't wearing a uniform anymore - that reduces the amount of paranoia by an incredible amount. go me for not being a visible target!

unlike the previous day, i did actually manage to read a bit. fitzgerald's the odyssey is an even smoother translation than the iliad - or maybe i've simply become used to his style. i was interrupted at one point by gasoline and the other girl from friday (i hadn't realized that they serve together), who got in the first congratulations of the day :)

...

i haven't been in my old client section in a while, and it turns out that everyone i knew has been rotated out. the only familiar face was my "sorting officer", the guy who's job it is to make sure i do the right reserve duty. he's was one of the guys i really got along with in the officer's course, and aside from a pleasant chat he did me the honour of not changing my reserve duty unit ;)

the entire process took about ten minutes - i was out of there with my no-longer-a-soldier's id card and papers stating my honourable discharge...