pains in the neck, on and off

where are my days going? a quick summary of the weekend:

1. muay thai sparring on friday evening was amazing, but it killed me, in particular my neck was completely buggered by the end and it's only kind-of okay now.

2. it looks like the permit information i got all excited about was incorrect. i've spent many hours trying to wrap my head around everything and it looks like i might well need to get a second job offer because these guys might not be ready to wait that long.

3. vfmp's boyfriend has done me an enormous favour by going through my tax return with me, and instead of me owing the government more than $3000, THEY owe ME a few!

4. my uncle who was on life-support has passed away. i'm more relieved for him than anything else.

5. i've met gd's big brother and introduced gd to godmother.

6. i've made it through to the poetry slam finals.

---my toronto cousin called while i tried to go over my previous post, and i spent most of the conversation hoping that my voice was hushed enough. by the time we were done my netbook had frozen so i published without my usual typo-check and had to fix it up a bit later.

muay thai: i almost sparred with my piercings in. that would have hurt a lot. the second guy i worked with, one of the jewish crew, slipped a punch through my admittedly not-so-wonderful defense and hit me hard enough that i had to tell him to tone it down. he obliged, the rest was cool, and i was very glad that i'd leaned into the shot and not away from it. my third sparring partner was one of the taekwondo guys and while overall he got the best of me, i held my own a fair amount of the time and it was fun. the third guy was the one who trained us on monday, and he was so gentle with me i had to force him to up the level. as i said to him when the round was over: "i know kindness when i see it".
finally, i went up against the fridge. power-wise there was only one point where he hurt me (a solid kick to the back of my thigh) but about halfway through i was totally gassed and i could barely lift my arms. smelling blood, he rained punches down on me until i literally had no choice but to walk away.
"hey!" yelled the coach, "you finish what you started!"
i walked right back in there and continued to receive a (gentle) thumping until the end of the round, at which point i crumpled into a heap on the floor, exhausted. and with a very sore neck. i don't know when that began.

gd and i met at p.m. for a delicious dinner, then joined vfmp and his brother for his brother's birthday. cards against humanity. a different version than the one i'd played before, and not quite as funny. but good, nonetheless.

---saturday:

i was half-asleep all the way home.

i woke up with serious neck damage, with clicking vertebrae. i spent most of saturday and sunday trying deep auto-massages. seems to have helped a bit, though gd's bed certainly wasn't doing me any favours so perhaps it's better now because we slept here last night.

i returned home, rested again and got up feeling a bit less sore, then spent four hours struggling to find details about my permit application. there's something i should've done the moment i received my initial authorization last year: i should have applied for a csq. but i didn't, and i don't have one, so the process might take longer than four weeks in which case my potential employer might lose patience. so i need to impress the guys in tomorrow's interview because i might need them as a backup... and anyway i wouldn't cry if i got a job offer from them.

i crashed while reading french harry potter - i still need to work on my french and i'm enjoying the books again. i dragged myself out of dreamland to join vfmp and his boyfriend for coffee and taxes. as i mentioned above, the difference is astounding! and we enjoyed the conversation, too. afterwards i met up with gd and we hit crudessence for dinner. gd had an allergic reaction to something just before we arrived, but fortunately it wasn't too bad and we could still enjoy the meal together. the food was delicious, although it didn't taste like its description: the blt sandwich didn't taste or feel like a blt sandwich, for example. they could have just called it something else.

their chocolate mousse was mostly excellent! i say mostly, because it didn't really work without actual flakes of chocolate and we ran out of those pretty fast. should've stirred it, i guess.

it was really cold by the time we left and gd was under-dressed. i convinced her to join us at the sports bar to watch the ufc fights, and a bit later vfmp and his boyfriend showed up. the fight night was really good; the two fights that weren't great were at least interesting to watch. and we're a fun group regardless :)

i managed to offend the taxi driver when we arrived at gd's by not taking the coin when he gave me change. whatever.

---yesterday:

we went to bed watching bill hicks - sane man. there were pieces of it i'd forgotten about and loved again.

in the morning i discovered that my uncle has passed away. in addition to the relief - the poor man had been on life-support with a feeding tube down his throat - i felt utterly disconnected. i sent condolences on facebook but felt uncomfortable making contact "in real life". we were all fairly close when i was growing up but now i'm only interested in communicating with the two kids i've never really met.

how very sad.

apple tv's youtube interface is so bad that if *i* was working at apple i'd be trying to get someone fired over it. i managed to find some good music in spite of it, though, and we were watching grace slick interviews when gd pointed out that she was born in the year of the rabbit so it might be the reason that a lot of her art centers around a white one (in addition to the obvious alice in wonderland inspiration).

i got home, barely had time to touch the nda for mti and chug breakfast before leaving to meet gd and her brother at their mother's place to help them box up. my presence turned out to be unnecessary, the only achievement of the afternoon being my being approved by her brother.
"are your intentions honourable?" he asked me.
"not even a little," i quipped.
we're on good terms, now :)

advertisements for goat simulator followed us around the metro system. as well as ads inappropriately announced over the pa. that's not smart, stm.

we went to godmother's charity vintage sale, we had a quick chat and gd found something she liked. then we did some shopping, and the rest of the evening was spent awkwardly trying to figure out how we feel about aaa and what to do about inviting her or not to the poetry slam, as she'd been the one to inform me that i'd made the finals. weird facebook fail. whatever.

i've finally been made a couple of offers on the books i'm trying to sell in israel, and while trying to price them discovered that a lot of the out-of-copyright ones are being offered for free on amazon! since when were *they* so generous?!

my mom and i chatted on skype and gd was around, so they've finally (sort of) been introduced. that's cool :)

after making dinner, i tried to get some studying done while gd watched night watch, but i was so tired that i went to bed barely getting through anything.

---today:

it was a beautiful spring morning (which has since soured), but it was tough getting up and that's probably because i'm not looking forward to dealing with my work permit application. the meeting about it was cancelled, so i'm waiting to see what'll happen with that. i've spoken to a government immigration agent and arranged a meeting with an organization that assists immigrants, and the only other thing of actual value i've done today is pick up new shin guards and unsuccessfully hunt down papers for my tax return.

...

the guy who sold me the guards? he told me to meet me at the gym at 10.30. i arrived at 10.30, and sent him a message. he told me to wait for him, he'd be there at 11am.

WTF?!?!

i was pissed, and his apology did nothing to calm me down. what incredible disrespect - i'm not dealing with him again. at least the guards are really, really good *and* exactly the right colour.