i wish i could get my head together

mental exhaustion, not physical. perhaps i'm a little ill? it was cold for montrealers today, and i overheated on the way to the office this morning. maybe.

the day was colored by the news from israel: how is it that in the twelve years i've been an israeli, three notable military actions have all taken place when i was overseas, and the american invasion of iraq, two of those while i was on army leave and two of them that i was away for their entirety?

i can't help feeling sorry for both sides, hoping that the israelis manage to establish stability (hah! like that'll ever happen) and that somewhere, somehow, we'll find a solution so that israelis can stop living in fear and start worrying about their own futures.

it shocks me to be exposed to hard line "let's kill all the palestinians" as much as it shocks me to be exposed to left-wing "oh, the poor palestinians, we should try listening to them". violence won't solve anything, but it's less dangerous than believing that there's a world of arabs and muslims that can accept a jewish state.

and of course, pg just landed there a couple of hours ago. not the best timing ever :(

speaking of which, she didn't contact me until she got home and i think i woke her father up looking for her :/

my morning was pretty emotional - another reason for me to be feeling so emotionally knackered - as we finally got all of the application signed and i took it off to the immigration office.

in the tradition of bureaucratic agencies everywhere, the building is under construction and with no clear signs so i began my journey at the customs house, waiting in line for a woman to tell me that i needed the building diagonally across the road. i thanked her and the guard twice, then walked into the grand building.

the security guy didn't speak much english, so he gave me a number to call. after five minutes of my call, which was important to them, not getting through to anyone i returned to the doorman and begged him for another way. he apologized for his french and i told him that i can understand a few words.
"ah!" he said in english, and handed me a paper with an address and 4e written on it. quatr etage i can understand! i thanked him profusely and walked for five minutes, politely following the directions he'd deigned to give me in english.

i entered the less glamorous building and rode the elevator four floors, or five if you count the mezzanine, and strolled up to the big dude on duty behind his glass cage. he was quick to explain that i'd need to return to the lobby to buy an envelope. the lady downstairs spoke not a word of english, but we blabbered and hand-signaled our way to a bargain and she was very friendly. the guy upstairs told me to write CAQ on the envelope and my details and toss it in the mail bin in the wall off to the side.

i tried to read the IMPORTANT - READ THIS CAREFULLY BEFORE SUBMITTING memos that were posted all over the walls sans anglais but failed, and eventually took a deep breath and chucked it in the chute.

i now have naught to do but wait for them to make contact.

an overly friendly crazy woman struck up an awkward conversation when she sat down next to me on the metro; she then shouted "it's liquorice!" at a guy with giant headphones on. she got him to come over to her, and explained that his headphone cable reminded her of liquorice, and wasn't that awfully clever of him?

i returned to the office to wrestle with a perl script whose purpose was to save time transforming a fair amount of data; it was late in the evening by the time i got it reasonably functional and by then it was too late to discover that half the data set was constructed with exceptions and it would've been quicker, easier and better to have manipulated it manually. i left around 8pm, not yet finished.

i wasn't much in the mood to read on the metro, i was thinking about dinner and that i needed to go shopping: when i came in i realized that i had enough to work with and would make up anything missing with a meal replacement.

i'm surprised to discover that lupini beans, at least according to the tin, contain four times as much protein per gram as black beans from the same company. not the tastiest bean, but hidden behind salad and microwave broccoli it did just fine. i'd say i ate too much, even, only here i am polishing off a giant bag of salt and vinegar crisps before i go to bed.

...

they say that snowboard season is open. this weekend i'm going shopping for boots and a board.