breaking the cycle

 it was the first real weekend in three weekends, though i was really, really tired last by yesterday afternoon. i think that's just because i'm working really hard these days.

i slept awfully and far from enough on what remained of thursday night, woke up yesterday and took mr smear to school, and then shortly afterwards gd dragged me to the mall to do some shopping. i was starting to feel worn down by the time we returned home, and was relieved to have half an hour to myself before picking up mr smear when he called to say that the juggling teacher was MIA. again.

*sigh*

i convinced him to calm down and just wait by the gate, and once the school day was officially over i picked him up and brought him home to change bags before we all headed out to the ayalon mall for purim costume shopping. after some bus shenanigans - waiting almost half an hour before giving up - we grabbed a rental and were there in no time.

we couldn't find a costume mr smear wanted, but we did find him a fake executioner's axe.

which he can't take to school because since october 7th, no costume weapons allowed :/

anyway, i dropped them off at home and returned the car and returned home, and napped hard, and took a hot bath, and then it was dinner time, by the end of which i was literally passing out at the table.

today:

mr smear and i got up around the same time, and i restarted buddy simulator 1984 which he'd begun last night. we had a great time together, but some of the events were quite disturbing and he had trouble going to sleep tonight...

the game's ESRB rating being for teens is... appropriate. i'm only a little way in and i'm first and foremost impressed by the use of lazy writing to disguise a very carefully crafted experience. secondly, what begins slightly creepy is only becoming creepier.

son of a *****, i'm in.

we had a bit of a fight about him coming out with me today... as usual. but he did, and once he was out he was great. we paid our friends a visit for a while - it was only supposed to be a quick stop to drop off the extra calvin & hobbes books and a hand-me-down onesie - but mr smear and their kids were having a good time and then we got into some conversations. eventually, it was time to go and they asked if they could join us, so we all headed out together on our bikes, through the park to the port.

we began at a playground, with mr smear uninterested in using the facilities and deliberately sunning his "herpes eye" (wtaf?!), and afterwards we biked through the port (big mistake) until the crowds proved too much and then we took a quick detour to get to babylon park. as we turned off the main stretch, right after two large women had just walked right in front of us while mr smear's temper was reaching boiling point, he angrily yelled something to the effect of "i HATE that obese people existing is a thing!" [laughs and dies inside simultaneously]

babylon park was a great idea, except that about 45 seconds in mr smear's friend burst into angry tears because her father wouldn't pay for her to use one of the gambling machines. that tantrum went on for a long time, while mr smear played some cool games (he's surprisingly good at the shooting games and he's getting good at the motorcycle ones too), and mr smear and her little brother and i played air hockey, and generally had a good go.

they left before we did, but when we decided we were done we found them still outside, with her refusing to leave. she agreed to go home with us (although we didn't agree to that :P), and we were almost out of the park when mr smear stopped and i had an opportunity to give her a talk about how her dad was protecting her from herself... it seemed to have landed, but she still didn't want to ride home with him so we all split up and i made sure she got home before mr smear and i came home ourselves.

overall, i'm really pleased with mr smear's attitude today and the two of us got exercise and sunshine and had a good time together, and i feel like i parented well even with the other kids. we had a good evening, with a less insane episode of delicious in dungeon, followed by a good chat with my mom and big sister (who's just arrived in cape town and is staying with her for a week).

and then it was bedtime, and the remaining half of an episode of monk that i'd fallen asleep during, and then comforting mr smear, and now... it's late, and we're about to lose an hour of sleep to the clock moving forward.

[checks]

why the fuck did anyone say that the clocks would be moving forward today? it's another few weeks.

either way, i'm tired and i hope i get a good night's sleep.

on the offensive - part ii

[... continued]

the woman working the metro counter was visibly in need of a verbal pat on the shoulder, the elderly woman ahead of me was driving her crazy. she's either demented or has never been in a metro station before... after i got through, she waddled back towards me from someone who couldn't help her.

"do you know how to get to the casino?" she asked, in french.
"not a clue," i responded. and proceeded to ponder casino ethics. only stupid people gamble, in my opinion. it's just not a past-time that makes any sense to me.

...

the plan had been to see godzilla, but neither gd nor i were up for it. we went to p.m. instead, where i found my stomache to be bigger than my eyes. it's kinda scary how much i ate, especially considering the belly ache after having eaten too much that afternoon.
we finished dinner at yeh! again; the insane crowds and impatience on grand prix saturday night were unsettling. shit, i hadn't even realized it was time for that yet!

i was so absolutely exhausted that i had difficulty maintaining balance, and we went to gd's where i shuffled into bed as soon as i could.

---sunday:

i woke up feeling marginally more human, and would incrementally feel better as my sudden sinusitis slowly went away. i spent the morning trying to repair gd's ubuntu installation and update mine while she gave private haircuts. she doesn't have a sound system in her cutting room so the telly was turned on eardrum-burstingly loud, i didn't even realize how bad it was until it hurt and i grabbed my netbook and ran to the bedroom. it wasn't even a case of turning the sound down: psychologically it was such a brutal experience that it would take a while before i was ready to go back in there :(

i couldn't fix her system - chrome displays in funny colours and flash doesn't work, so i eventually left flash uninstalled and told her to use firefox instead - but i at least sorted out mine. my netbook thought it was in israel and was unsuccessfully trying to update from middle eastern servers.

not that that should have been a problem :/

i did some work on my comic script, gd's brother arrived and we all went shopping. we had a good, cold-salad lunch and relaxed on her balcony for a while, and while she cut his hair i missioned to the pharmacy to pick something up for her. that way we wouldn't be stressed when we went to meet some friends of mine.

or so i thought.

---we were in good spirits as we arrived at berri-uqam, and were on our way out (approaching some police officers) arm in arm when some guy walking in the opposite direction closed in and shouldered gd as he passed. we stopped, shocked, and a few other people behind us stopped and stared as well; i thought he'd misjudged and simply not apologized, which in retrospect would be super weird for a canadian.
gd started saying something angrily, and i told her to let it go... which she did, and *then* told me that he'd actually hurt her.

*then* i was pissed, but by that time he'd disappeared around a corner. i spent the next while beating myself up over the incident and have been brooding on and off since. as we walked out i said to her, without really being convinced myself, that it might have been for the best. as the days have gone by, i've thought longer about the correct response and i can't decide between my first instinct - to run after him, hamstring him and drag him back by his ear to the police - and taking a "wonderfully nice guy" approach and trying to talk to the man.

either way, that shit's never gonna fly with me again.

---we met with my friends and did a serious ice cream and alcohol mission, twice each. at first i wasn't sure that we were all vibing, but an afternoon walking, drinking and sitting on a terrace quickly sorted that out.

weird note: mcauslan's griffon is not a proper griffon. i find that quite jarring.

gd and i came back to my place so i could shower and change, and we ended up having a long talk about the paranormal challenge. you see, she's apparently got a bit of a gift that i haven't mentioned because she's an obvious not-a-loony and she doesn't really talk about it. i'm not dismissive, but i am skeptical; i also believe that regardless of whether she's got second sight or not she's not irresponsible or harming anyone; i'm staying perched on the fence. what i have borne witness to is incredible sensitivity and intuition.
what we were discussing is how to go about setting up a scientifically valid test, if we get anywhere i'll be sure to share it here.
[otherwise, i'm not looking to argue with anyone about it. this is my journal, and i'm not interested in debating gd's powers or lack thereof. i am, however, happy to discuss possible, reasonable scientific methods to test for paranormal abilities and what would be considered a satisfactory demonstration.]

i had her in hysterics when i told her the story of my experience reporting a broken window while high in a charge office, i really need to remember to repeat that here sometime! it's been fifteen years, i guess i don't need to keep those days in the dark any more :P

we went back to her place, she put on hannibal and i sent lengthy criticism to supertongue on a draft of a slam poem of hers.

---monday:

it was a long night of weird dreams. i've heard from ric, who returned to south africa with his tail between his legs, and i'm extremely pleased to report that he's finally found a way to merge his i-was-pushed-into-law-by-my-parents profession with his desire to be a musician: he's created a record label and opened up a law firm specializing in music and the arts. i cannot begin to describe how proud i am of his progress! and how proud i am to have been a part of it.

[continued...]

drifting off

i got to the show on time, but it began an hour late. i left just as the band was getting ready to get on stage, and i had to run to catch the last bus :/

i met up with SxS, his cousin and ru55 in a park, we chatted for a bit before dropping ru55 off at home - i gave his fiancée a birthday present that she absolutely loved: i didn't realize i was the only one to get her a serious gift, though :$

dinner was amazing: we all ate way too much and after such a long day i've been passing out constantly since. we went off to mmf's place, where yogi, grootbek and our irish friend joined us, and i crashed on the couch while they all watched or played poker. now i'm going to get some real sleep because the last couple of days have really taken it out of me!

oh, and i spoke to my mom and finally admitted (i was asked not to tell, but i can't keep secrets from my mommy) that i'm not going to the kibbutz for passover after all - our cousin and her husband are separating. that leaves me with a couple of choices, and what i really want to do is find out who of my friends aren't celebrating and do the big meal in the style i referred to the other day.

unpleasant vindication

i'm blown away. stunned. shocked. kinda hurt. isn't vindication supposed to be a good feeling?

just over a month ago we had an apartment conversation [25th august], which was incredibly unpleasant. i was told i needed to "compromise" (meaning live in a pigsty and do all the chores without complaining), and was made out by spot to be the bad guy.

it turns out that spot had already been fired before that conversation, and has been lying to us non-stop since. so not only has he been unpleasant, unhelpful and smelly (to the point where people won't enter our apartment unless we promise that his door's been closed a while), but he also hasn't been working and we only have another week before rent is due.

and don't think that he's been scrimping the last while. oh no. he's been going out a lot, hasn't had any time to do the laundry or dishes, and has spent wads of cash on poker nights. i'm sorry, i just don't understand.

and how did we discover that spot's been fired? happenstance. not out of spot's mouth. so in addition to us being upset about him lying all the time about the stupid stuff, there was this whopper waiting in the sidelines.

i have a headache.

two days down

i feel like i've lost time...

the braai at SxS's place was awesome - saw a lot of friends i've been out of touch with, the food was great, and i thoroughly enjoyed playing texas hold'em, even though i got my butt whipped.

i left his place around 7am, went straight to the ministry of interior, to discover that they've moved, and i'll only be able to go from the 3rd... oh well. i arrived to a totally quiet base, spent the morning juggling between arbing and grafting.

at 3pm i asked for permission to leave, and my commander gave me an ultimatum: if i finished the prog i was working on successfully by 3.30, i could leave - if not, i leave at 8pm... not very nice, as i've never tried to run the damn thing before.

at approximately 3.25, i gingerly clicked the "work, dammit!" button - and i'll be damned, it ran first time! not only was i very excited, but my commander was severely disappointed, 'cause he had to let me go ^_^

we went to a tattoo parlour in dizengoff - a friend from the base's cousin works their, and i saw his portfolio, and had a chat with him. his work is AMAZING, and as far as money is concerned he said we can work something out. now i just have to do the damn thing.

and yes, i'm totally nervous about this.

humorous aside: we're going to redo their website for them (i hope i find the time). it's one way to pay for the tat ;)

the mongoose and i went to go pick up the tickets - getting lost on the way, but we succeeded in the end. we ate good shuwarma, then took the bus to holon. went to the video store - awesome video store - and got AvP and big fish.

omfg - my first opportunity to see AvP!! my enthusiasm wasn't enough, i was so exhausted that i fell asleep after about half an hour. i LOVED what i did get to see though, so there is hope.

i slept REALLY badly. in the early afternoon, we rushed to return the videos, and then had a brilliant breakfast. we sat down for some serious (read: very tasty) ice-cream, but had to take it with us as his mom came to pick us up.

i took the bus to tel aviv, and walked-very-fast home, where i showered and changed in about 2 minutes (no shit - i'm most impressed), as i was late for a date with this girl i met a few weeks ago.

i am one lucky SOB. the bus arrived AS i got to the stop (aided by a little running). i arrived with time to spare - so i treated myself to neil gaiman - american gods.

i couldn't remember how this girl looks, so i was more than pleasantly surprised when she arrived, and turned out to be FINE. very cute, very sexy. and really nice - we sat talking over coffee for about an hour before she left. unfortunately, as is not usually the case, i'm all enthusiastic, and i'm not sure how she feels - but the situation is definitely an improvement over the norm :D

i walked through to karnaf's pad, got my tickets and sat for coffee. i started reading the book, and the first few pages are simply great. good buy.

the mongoose picked me up, and we drove to get the last ticket, then stopped for a hot dog. damn kosher-for-passover rolls taste like crap. ran into an old friend from the university though, which was nice.

he just dropped me off, i'm doing laundry, planning on reading a bit, and then - who knows??

i really need to slow down my smoking, i'm way out of control.

i'm totally excited about the festival - we're leaving tomorrow!! this is gonna be killer.