chores

i woke up mid-sleep, still feeling great. it took me a little while to get out of the apartment - mostly because i was constantly double-checking that i hadn't forgot any papers and because physically handling all papers plus the bottles and the papers for recycling while wearing wrist-guards and trying to lock the door all at once does require a bit of dexterity.

first stop - post office. i finally finished the awful book i've been subjecting myself to, but only because it got so bad that i skipped to the last chapter to see if it ever gets any better...

nope.

from there i went to the clinic to have my stitches removed. the first nurse i spoke to was quite unpleasant, the second seemed unprofessional; the second had to call the first to come and check that my post-stitches wound would be alright. it doesn't look so good, but at least it's not anywhere that i care too much about :P

i made one last stop to buy tickets to see bob dylan next month - w00t!!! - and then stopped off at home for a pirate bath (i hadn't realized how hot it had become) and a change of clothes for work.
the sewage guy's response to my suggestion that he not leave his engine running was quite overpowering in its haughtiness: "that's great, but what happens when my starter fails? it's happened before. thanks anyway."

shouldn't you get your starter fixed if that's the case? just a thought. his previous claim had been that his truck (i can't remember the brand) doesn't cause pollution. wow.

mail check: i do love getting second notices from the post office without having received a first :/

it's a bad sign when someone like me begins to wonder if perhaps he should consider living somewhere else. do i really want to give up on a country i've sacrificed so much for? when i know that when shit hits the fan overseas, i'll have to come back here and be stuck with the same frustrating lack of civilization? a couple of conversations during the past two days have brought me down a bit...

i went to work, confused by the bus driver's unwillingness to punch my card until i figured out that i was paying more than i should have if i would have used cash. useless bloody card, that.

work was alright, and it's definitely better to be sitting next to someone who can help me with the nuances of php, and can see that it's not just me when weird shit starts happening. my gremlins haven't entirely given up, it seems :P

the bus back to tel aviv took forever to arrive, and the driver was being funny which i wasn't in the mood for. i don't have an israeli sense of humour, and i'm not certain that it's possible to develop one after arriving as an adult.

if i hadn't tricked myself by diarizing my appointment ten minutes early, i probably wouldn't have made it on time. note to self: leave spare. it turns out that my h. pylori count is really high. this bodes ill. literally - i've got to start the triple course of antibiotics again and i'm NOT looking forward to it :S

i stopped by the pharmacy to pick up my meds (and, while i waited, a couple of other things i keep forgetting to organize). that was the second time today that a fancy touch-screen for handling queue numbers didn't work (the first being at the post-office). KISS - simple, mechanical push buttons are better.

i made myself four decent sandwiches for lunch because i was much hungrier than i'd thought, watched some more macbeth while washing the dishes (for which i got shouted at later; i've got to learn to use the dishwasher :P), then passed out for a couple of hours.

waking up as pg and her mother entered when the blanket had fallen and i was in my underwear was a little weird. more for her mum than for me, i think, and then i felt bad because she seemed uncomfortable :(

i had a fight with co-conspirator over the phone because she's not willing to talk to faculty members without me - wtf?!

i spent a short while sorting out papers, then went up with pg to the roof to rotate my wheels while i drank hot chocolate and we smoked nargila with great music playing off my ipod. i felt totally stoned by the time we came downstairs to get ready to roll...

... and received a phone call from my kibbutz cousin, who's just become a grandmother ^_^

rollerblading tonight was sweaty business; i think i agree with the general opinion that summer's here. it's also apparent from the size of the group: it was HUGE tonight.

we went through bnei brak and some guy was so worried about them throwing stones at us that he browbeat someone else into giving up their security shirt and then me into wearing it. only later did the two of us discover that we'd both been lied to; the lender of the shirt was told that i was one of the volunteer organizers and i'd been told the he was responsible for the medics.

crazy bullshitter. weird.

pg and i stopped for great sorbet at vaniglia, then came home. i thought i'd push out the book review this evening, but i've taken longer than i expected so i'm just gonna crash.

my hair's in a bun, and aside from resembling a sumo wrestler i'm quite satisfied with the look. earlier someone in the rollerblading group called me "curly hair" to get my attention, which i found highly amusing.