no more exercise bike

ye gods, it's been a week too long to get it together and post to my blog. so i've been saving scraps and will now attempt to cover it all in one go. i'll probably get horribly distracted on the way, so the most important thing to note is that pg and i have finally revealed to our families that we're engaged. pg informed me in the wee hours of august 6th, and for various reasons it took us a long time to gather everyone in her family in one place so that we could break the news. my poor, long-suffering mother knew for weeks and had to make an effort not to tell anyone... thanks, mommy!

---sunday:

why does the dog have to poop before we get to the municipality baggie station? she usually goes after we reach it, and all i had on me was a holey packet. what a wonderful start to the week! but it's not entirely her fault: the baggie station was empty anyway, so it wouldn't have made much difference :P

the first respondent arrived to take our exercise bike away, and was so enthusiastic when he saw it that i became certain that we should have taken cash for it. oh, well... you win some, you lose some :/

after securing lectures during the previous week by a bunch of friendly professionals and experts who required no incentive to participate in the film festival other than the reward of participating, my conversation with the editor of israel's most popular periodical left a bad taste in my mouth. he was adamant that no self-respecting authority would agree to give a lecture on any topic to anyone without appropriate compensation, and he's talking serious dosh. why are some people assholes?

the first workday of the week went smoothly, and i guess it was nice to hear that the boss wants me to stay on and hopes that i reconsider my position while i'm away. at least i have a safety net in case i don't get sorted in canadia...

i got home just in time to hit the climbing wall with pg. it was good, overall, but i was completely hopeless when it came to the overhang. towards the end i asked one of the guides and he explained the basic technique. also, he explained that it's all about visualizing the success before achieving it. it's kinda hard to believe in oneself when one's hanging off two grips after a difficult climb and one's arms and fingers are all feeling uselessly rubbery...

appleseed is kinda like final fantasy, only more excessively melodramatic. we really enjoyed watching it, though.

---monday:

i met up with tahoma for an early breakfast on rothschild; we talked shop, mostly, and when he left for work i finished my coffee while working on my script before dropping off a screener in the postbox of one of the aforementioned lecturers.

it was a good morning. the slow shady walk home on a sunny day was completely rent asunder with an urgent call from the boss - everything was down, flashing red, and nobody had a clue what to do. i got home to discover that everything was fine and dandy - but between a git hiccup and scr and i not collaborating correctly we'd managed to mistakenly hook up the monitoring system to the development environment :$

i spent the next couple of hours emailing and doing chores, then caught the bus to work, continuing on my script. it's exciting to be making progress :)

lesson of the day: MUST - NOT - FORGET - GOLDEN - RULE: if i've already given notice, i shouldn't get upset if someone i've been working with is shooting himself in the foot with a lack of professionalism. even if it's with my project, it's no longer my problem.
why do i care so much?! :S

i finished the workday with a surprisingly quick database update (i'm used to twiddling my thumbs), and got home early to do some pre-evening shopping and exhausted arranging before pg's family arrived. the announcement of our engagement was met with calm pleasure, and we ate, talked and drank late into the night. and then pg and i went to her brother's place to talk and drink some more, after which i was *really* exhausted.

his reaction to the news was my favourite, though: "so? you guys signed a pre-nup ages ago - it's all the same!"
indeed. but for some reason, my family has responded with amusing slogans like "glad you're making an honest woman out of her" - i believe that sort of expression is a bit outdated. also, pg isn't sure she's ready for an actual wedding, as opposed to a quiet court signing, which means that we might find ourselves disappointing a fair number of people who are expecting a huge family reunion and festivities :P

no matter.

---tuesday:

i got up for an early mission, and walking beneath the canopy of trees through the sweet, albeit short silence of no engines humming nor idiots hooting for an entire block filled me with joyous elation.

i enjoyed a long breakfast, and staved off the terror of cold-calling family by distracting myself with anything at hand.

tuesday was read comics in public day.
hopefully, some people will discover that comics are a full form of literature and are not confined to superheroes. although there are some pretty cool superheroes. comics are awesome. and more fun than novels.
i read sláine: books of invasions (volume 1), just another comic i bought years ago and haven't had time to sink my teeth into. i'm really glad i did! it's gorgeous. it's focused on the end of the story i summarized in my epic sestina of the horned god. it's "cool" factor is through the damned roof.

i sat with the other "readers" only for a short while before returning for a couple of hours of staring blankly at various database scripts, then returned for a bit more before meeting up with botchman for a chat.

half and hour of ear heat from the boss (really, i think i need a hands-free just so that i don't literally fry my brain*) before getting home for more congratulatory calls and then dinner with a few episodes of tiger and bunny. it's a great show :)

* cellphone radiation is not dangerous and doesn't cause cancer. but the damned thing does get hot enough to do other damage.

i was much too tired to go rollerblading. simply wasted.

---wednesday:

i got up early again to have breakfast with the kid, who's just finished his engineering degree and is back in town. it made for a pleasant morning, which stopped being pleasant when i visited the secretariat to sort out some department website issues. it must have taken about an hour, which was a drain, and in addition i learned that the department cannot make allowances for me to study remotely and so i need to put my studies on hold.

i guess i'll be applying to mcgill when i get there in a couple of weeks - maybe they'll be ready to accept a last-minute boarding and i can figure out what to do about working from there.

---i went straight to work and spent it in anguish. 90% of the work is attitude, and mine is oh-gods-i-need-to-get-out-of-here. you know, it's irritating when a software developer refuses to use a wiki to keep documentation up to date and to make it easy to access. it's absolutely stupifying, however, when a software developer demonstrates the inability to understand how a wiki works. scr and i wasted almost twenty minutes, but the moron refuses to accept the basic notions that make wikis great, like linking and editing.

jesus.

---pg dragged me along to a needlefelting workshop. i made a sort-of smurf. it's a technique that demands a lot of patience. full disclosure: i don't have that much patience.

also, one of the women there (i was the first "boy needlefelter" the teacher'd ever had) was super-competitive. it's a gorram needlefelting workshop - we're *all* beginners. you don't need to keep apologizing for not being amazing :/

i had my first contact with "sabich" (egg and eggplant - i only realized there was egg in it when i started eating) on the way to drinks for tahoma's birthday, and it wasn't bad at all. the bar we went to was pretty groovy, with funky music and an eclectically cool and artistic vibe. the evening was pleasant - only i was a bit embarrassed because we were there to celebrate tahoma's birthday and one of the girls blabbed about pg and i becoming engaged; i didn't really want to steal his thunder.

pg's brother had invited me to surf the next morning, so as soon as we got home i went to bed. just as i was closing my eyes my mother called to offer us my grandmother's ring, which i'm surprisingly sentimental about and exceedingly grateful for!

---thursday:

it was a terrible night, with sore feet and plain restlessness, and then suddenly it was almost time to get up and i'd finally passed into a brilliantly deep sleep with epic dreaming. when my alarm went off it roused me from slumber, but not from my dreams. getting ready and out of the house was tough.

the waves were as big as promised. here are my observations of the morning:

1. tel aviv doesn't have nearly enough beach for the number of surfers otherwise unemployed on a thursday morning. it was practically impossible to get anywhere where the waves were breaking without getting into a fight with someone, so we stayed on the outside where... nothing happened.

2. as pg's brother quipped: the water was so dirty that spitting became an act of cleaning. and you spit a lot when you taste that water, i assure you.

3. closer to the beach, there are rocks. lots and lots of sharp ones, with very little sand in between. i managed to do some serious damage to my feet and legs.

4. duck-diving is a lot harder with real waves. at one point i didn't even have enough energy left to try, and i bumbled through the rocks until i got to shore and walked around to try again :(

so i eventually left the water feeling a bit nauseous and with a chafed belly and properly sliced feet, but overall it was still an excellent way to start the day. i then paid the doctor a visit, to verify that my bloodwork was all good*, and then sat at a coffee shop for a perfect tofu salad and iced-coffee while responding to the flood of congratulatory emails.

* my cholesterol and vitamin d are both really low. this is not surprising. when the doctor told me to forget pills and just make sure i'm really getting some sun, i declined to cite research that suggests that this is not enough because i wasn't in the mood for an argument. i'd already bought pills, and i've only just now realized that the 200% RDA that each pill contains is based on the numbers before the revision. which means that according to dr gregor's estimate i should be taking about five a day...
so maybe i'll stick to two a day. and try to get out more.

the workday was one of the sparingly few in recent memory that ended on a good note, with the solid completion of the last of the projects. now all that's left is a bit of qa and knowledge transference, and then i'll have a week or two left to deal exclusively with job hunting, comic scripting, festival organization, saying farewell to everyone and packing up and tidying as much of my belongings as possible.

i was planning on scripting on the bus, but my time got hijacked by a fellow poet; there was internal tension throughout the conversation even though i was enjoying it - i've heard of writer's block, but what i'm experiencing is more like writer's crack...

i scarfed down a quick dinner and took a slow meander to the climbing wall to meet with scrapper. three times, i attempted the overhang. three times. on the first occasion my foot slipped, which was as much a tragedy psychologically as was my attempt to swing back to the wall afterwards. but i fared better in my other two attempts: i may not have managed to pull myself over completely, but i came pretty darn close! i'm super-satisfied with my progress, hopefully next time i'll make it to the top :)

we made some tough choices, and we both left with sore arms, hands and fingers when they shut down for the night. we talked over pasta on the avenue and while walking around dizengoff (egads! i haven't been out on the street on a thursday night in forever, so many interesting people! and some that i know, too :) ) and over coffee; it was late by the time i finally got home and realized just how badly i needed a shower.

i was going to crash, but i came across an email from robot entertainment that said that they'd decided to merge my accounts. alright! hero academy on steam FTW!

well, it's mostly alright, and they're currently re-adding my dissolved team packs and will hopefully synchronize my achievements. either way, i've been celebrating for the past few hours by getting my ass handed to me by someone with a nickname that's desperately in need of a vowel or two.

---friday:

the day began with too much shopping; if i hadn't been listening to tool and a perfect circle in the queue the wait might have driven me demented. aside from the heaviness of the load - if i'd tried to do the same shopping last night i wouldn't have managed - i was bummed out because the frozen goods were mostly defrosted by the time i got home :/

i've spent today resting peacefully, posting this, playing a bit of hero academy, and not really getting into mails or the other stuff that needed doing. i guess that can wait for tomorrow. for now, more resting and gaming. it's been a long week, although most of it was good, and i think i deserve a short break.

apropos time: i can't wait until we leave for canada! but i want a few more hours in each day, and days in each week to get everything done and squared away first...

*sigh*

life really is what happens while you're making plans.