chemical balancing

how very odd. i went on two dates this week, both of them with very attractive girls. the first was better looking in a conventional way, the second in an unconventional way, and they were both great fun to spend time with. but while the first girl left me feeling lukewarm, the second has properly captured my imagination - i haven't stopped thinking about her since we parted yesterday afternoon! and the funny thing about that is i don't even have her phone number, we arranged everything using the dating service's messaging system.

was the enthusiasm she showed for a second date for real?

---
tuesday:

i received a tip from my developer who was fired the day after i was and contacted a guy with a very cool start-up that's just received second-round funding. his excitement to learn about me and my experience was audible over the phone, and turned to heavy disappointment when i explained to him that i won't be able to work while waiting for the permit to arrive...

... there really should be some kind of interim permit, you know? just saying.

---a week earlier i'd received a bunch of envelopes from my bank, and after flipping through them i understood that i'd have to send in a consent form before receiving my new credit card. whoops! as i finally sat down to handle that, i noticed that they had actually sent the card! it was just hidden well :P
so i activated the card, absent-mindedly signed the consent form, scratched out my signature on the date column and signed in the correct place, then folded the paper and tried to insert it into the pre-paid envelope i received it with. which was entirely the wrong shape, so i had to perform a complicated little series of folds so i could jam it in. wtf?

---k-twang had met my mother for lunch the day before, and reported that she was looking amazing - mom, if you're reading this, you have no idea how pleased i am to hear this ^_^

---after good french practice, i watched the first season finale of once upon a time..., which was fun. my enthusiasm had been curbed a little by warnings of shitty writing in the season to come... i've now watched a couple of those, and while it's not of the same caliber it's also not so bad either.

i met horseman at la pantere verte, and we left for an open-mic night when a friend of his joined us. cool place (though i don't recall the name), the first set was really groovy music! i find it weird, though it was cool, that all those who performed got up and did so while the musicians were still playing. while the effect was excellent, it made it very hard to concentrate on the actual words... although in one case, after a couple of pieces that one girl did it became clear that this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. her performance was great, to be fair, but not so much the content...

the second set's music felt soulless even though it was the same guys! they were playing a style that didn't suit them, i guess. we left early.

---wednesday:

i went straight to bed, and woke up with horrible night sweats in the middle of the night. it was really unpleasant. it's happened every night since (although i think it's already a little better now that i'm off the antibiotics), it's a yucky feeling and even after showering i just haven't been able to get back to sleep properly. so i've been a little tired of late :(

dream: on the beach, a surprising high tide wipes out our phones. we take shelter, where a coy cute girl makes advances and becomes decidedly less attractive the more affectionate we become.

the morning tristar session with vfmp was good, though it was even tougher breathing than usual. and i managed to hurt my back again: it's becoming normal, i guess at whichever point i "get used to it" my muscles will simply have been strengthened appropriately.

oh! the really sexy kickboxer who i'd seen the week before? the smile she flashed at me as she passed me going into the octagon tells me that she got the message i sent her :) [awkwardness over!]

i had a quick shower before the cleaning lady arrived, then headed downtown for a disappointing lunch that was at least a good opportunity to bone up on bone before the french conversation. takeaway from the afternoon: i need to work harder on my french. i've actually - finally! - started focusing on duolingo, which is amazing if you actually use it, and in addition to the girl i met yesterday pushing my buttons she's francophone and for a lot of the time spoke in french, which is perfect for me :)

i ran some errands and returned to a clean apartment (yay!), rested a bit and played some tekken before going to boxing. the boxing class was good, one of the highlights being body-sparring again with the girl who made me feel shit about doing that, this time not only managing to find my targets in spite of her chest but also coming out on top. i have evolved!

"could you please show me how to dislocate my shoulders to punch?" was not the question i'd meant to ask our instructor, but those were the words that came out anyway.
"what?! why the hell would you want to do that?"
i looked at him sheepishly.
"umm, that's not what i meant - "
"oh, you mean 'pop' your shoulders. alright."
...
"so it's like dancing?"
"exactly."

---after a quick shower i felt that the skin on my chest and back were irritated. just in case anyone forgot that i'm a hypochondriac, and that i'm perpetually worried about picking up ringworm from the gym, i wasn't happy but i couldn't tell if it was anything serious or not.

---i hurriedly ate and left for my date without any protein bars on me - how irresponsible! anyway, i was pleasantly surprised to find that the iranian girl with the dodgy profile picture is beautiful, and time flew while we talked. suddenly it was really late and i was on track to miss the last metro home, so we rushed out, she walked me most of the way to the station and i made it *just* in time.

---thursday:

the night was slightly better, but i was still exhausted and had trouble not sleeping in the dentist's chair. i think he likes me as much as i like him: i'm not sure i'll be going back there again. i hope my teeth are good enough now to last me a while without treatment.

i headed off to mcgill afterwards, with my mouth still anesthetized, to have a chat with the graduate adviser. she seemed nice, but it appears that the university would not be very accommodating regarding my history and i'd essentially have to do their entire master's degree from scratch. not that that would be a terrible thing, mind, but it would be nice to get more than one or two course credits when i've already done more seminars than i'd need.

i can't believe i didn't think to ask them about their phd program! i can't believe that there's a part of me that thinks that that's a serious option.

after a quick lunch i fell into the deepest sleep from which waking up seemed practically impossible. i was woken by a message from my french partner and pretty much sleepwalked downtown. we had a good chat nonetheless, after which i returned for a bit more rest. i sent a nice message to the previous night's date and got a nice one back. i think that's as far as that's going.

jiu-jitsu: i'd spoken to the beast and informed him that i wouldn't be getting back into the ring with him anytime soon, but that doesn't mean i won't partner with him for jiu-jitsu. how he managed to fall on my face during a transition and later knee me (softly, at least) in the head astounded both of us, he was very embarrassed and he eventually made a point of doing all the moves really slowly. after that everything was fine - from his side. from mine, i just couldn't get a handle on things and when firas asked us if anyone had any questions i had so many that there was no way i was going to raise my hand :$

my confidence was blown, and i didn't want to roll afterwards but the kid who usually demotivates me made me feel bad about saying no, so i acquiesced. after a short struggle he had my back, but i managed (somehow) to hip escape and the next thing i knew i was throwing a leg over and had him in full mount! he was almost as surprised as i was, and i suddenly felt much better about myself.

badger was working privately with someone in the octagon and i asked if i could join them for drills; she was only to happy to oblige, and we spent the next hour or so working on counters, stepping with strikes and spinning out. it was AWESOME. and i learned a new punch, the short cross, which is now my favourite :)

when i said goodnight to the kickboxing instructor one of the girls, who's studying to be a yogi, told me she'd figured out which exercises would be best for me for leg flexibility and spent about ten minutes running through them. very cool!

...

the previous night's skin irritation had gotten much worse. i was most unimpressed.

i did plenty of duolingo exercises, then went to bed.

---friday:

the rash was worsening, and i decided that it was time to see a professional. before that, though, the fire alarm went off while i was on the can and that is *not* good timing! it was a false alarm, too, which made it so much worse :(
the only positive thing that came out of that was getting an opportunity to pay january's rent before it gets uncomfortably hurried (or i forget), so my holiday is now pretty much all sorted out :D

i decided to try asking a pharmacist first. i walked all the way there thinking about what i'd say, arrived, and decided that i am far too uncomfortable with that. i couldn't figure out how to approach the subject, and there's not even a vague sense of privacy. so i walked all the way back to the metro and headed to the clinic. i had to wait for ages - as always - and i slept much better sitting in their chairs than i have been in bed. the doctor who saw me was fascinatingly maternal in her care, she was really kind and quite patient too.

so... guess who's developed an allergy to penicillin? that's right!

i am NOT impressed. but at least that explains all the week's discomfort.

...

i was going to have lunch at subway. ordering in french has become a goal of mine, and i'm *almost* ready! at least now i've overheard someone else say "douze pouces" :P
the guy behind the counter didn't hear me say falafel, and took out the bread and cut it before asking again. they were out of falafel. that kinda sucked for both of us.

so instead i messaged aota and newk'd and asked if they'd like to lunch, newk'd wasn't available but aota joined me at the "usual" indian restaurant. it was really good as always :)

on the way back she shouted something at me that made me smile: "stop saying that you were fired! nobody wanted to fire you, if you hadn't forced <the cto>'s hand you'd still be here. you resigned, and you got a decent severance package anyway."

i didn't have a lot of time for anything other than going early to the location of the second date; i hadn't thought to look it up on a map and so i stopped at the jean talon station to do that before switching lines. that turned out to be an excellent idea, because it was a five minute walk from there and not downtown like i'd thought...

the date was great, as i said at the beginning of the post, she's disarmingly charming and when we parted i had a spring in my step.

i returned home and would have been getting ready for boxing if i hadn't suddenly developed an inexplicable headache; i rested for a few hours until vfmp messaged me to invite me to gaming night. my mission: to bring a female green pepper. i included that in my regular shopping, had a quick shower to counter the fact that i was overheating again (what the hell?) and then headed over.

it was a night of ye olde nintendo games, great dinner and carcassonne. vfmp's ultra-competitive brother was really bitter when i coerced vfmp to shut down one of his farmers; he won anyway and it was all supposed to be in good spirits, but he managed to make us feel bad about it :(

lesson for the night: stm's schedules are just fine, it's the damned "transit" app that's screwy! i left too late to make the metro and had to shuffle around in the cold until an unoccupied taxi eventually came my way.