at least the breeze is back tonight. last night the air was dead still. and so heavy. it was a proper summer night. those aren't supposed to come until the end of july/beginning of august. not mid june. its when you pull out that trick you learn as a kid (when you live in a hot place) and lay sprawled across the bed not a single millimeter of skin touching itself. and you lay deadstill hoping it makes you just a bit cooler.
this is going to be an exhausting week. it has been an exhausting week. almost as bad as last week. i think this whole month is just trying to kill me. its one of those things where you laugh when it happens, but only to someone else... okay, not entirely true, you get to the point where, even when its your week, the choice becomes laugh or cry. i've never been much good at crying. laughing is much easier.
that and ranting at your computer.
today was a nother day of that. i am changing my job title. i think under my job description on my cv i am just going to write 'trouble shoot - fix the problems that no else wants to touch.' i know its appreciated, but its exhuasting being innovative...
ugh, there was so much more to write about... as there is everyday. but my mind seems to be plaugued lately, i literally cannot remember anything. i'll get up to go somewhere and do something, get halfway there and forget what i am doing or where i am going. i've taken to writing everything down on scraps of paper and carrying them everywhere in an attempt not to look too like a lunatic...
i know what the problem is, i need a break. like 3 weeks off... come on july! let it be the end of july already... please?
out for the weekend. i spent a lazy day, okay, afternoon, on the couch in our flat in jerusalem. it was well earned. it took a while to get out this morning. and this morning was a bit tough. karaoke and drinking go hand in hand. and we spent most of last night singing karaoke... apparently i'm pretty good. at least with the classics. thank god for driving around belting out good summer classics, best way to learn the lyrics!
anyway, i made it up, packed and made it out. and lazed for the afternoon. tomorrow will be adventure time: a colleague is endeavouring to teach me how to sail. i am not sure if she is very brave or ridiculously stupid... we'll see if we both make it back to land. preferably the same land we are leaving from, but then again i hear cyprus is quite nice this time of year.
i'd forgotten in the mayhem that was this week (meeting two VIPs, proving myself more technologically competent than our entire it department - which is ridiculous because i am a techno idiot! - and all the other stuff that managed to just creep in there): i drove into gaza last weekend!
i have been wanting to do it for a while, and now i have done it. i'm happy :) it sounds weird, but its sort of part of the total experience. navigating all of the passport stuff, the security stuff, the obstacle course of blast blocks that they set up (and keep re-arranging, just to keep you on your toes).so yes, happy me.
and, i have cracked some of the tricks of my mac! its only taken like 2 years, but i am feeling more comfortable with it... well, i can mostly work it and don't frek out about breaking it all the time (see above comment about being technologically incompetent...)
okay, i know i am no closer to finishing updating on rome and florence, or how i met carter and blair this week, or much else. but i'm kind of tired (which is bad since i have dinner plans and then plans to meet various different people for drinks across the city...) and in total weekend mode.
unfortunately i do have to do some job apps this weekend. lame. but it has to be done, and these jobs are cool looking... okay, not the best way to describe them. they are are cool looking, but thats not why i want them. i want them because it moves back to what really, really interests me. to what my degrees and research are in.
so yes, somewhat of a working weekend... le sigh. suppose if its not one thing its the other. at least its not actual work. time off after this weekend is necessary.
and there goes the horn for shabbat.
I am a bad blogger. I never seem to write when I should – or I write too little – or I go off on ridiculous tangents.
So today’s randomness: I met jimmy carter. Spoke with him. Shook his hand. It was kind of cool :) I really don’t know how I am going to transition after this… le sigh, the real world’s not looking so much fun….
so, i met tony blair today :) i had this nice post written in my head, but then i only came home at like 2100hrs and (thank god) a colleague from unicef had cooked dinner and took pity on me and fed me (i am 2 for 2 this week - apple pie for dinner last night from a colleague and a lovely chicken tomato dish tonight from another).
so, proper post tomorrow - hopefully! and, again hopefully, i will get the trifecta tomorrow - so far desmond tutu and tony blair, hoping to add jimmy carter tomorrow. we shall see.
in a random side not, i am trying to decide who worries more/is more difficult to deal with: Met protection details or Secret Service protection details. they are running a close race right now, we'll just have to wait and see how tomorrow plays out....
so much for my optimistic 'i'll have time this weekend to catch up on posting!' that just never seems to happen... i als spent a good portion of today blogging in my head. its just unfortunate that i only got home about 45minutes ago... lame!
but, i didn't have to cook dinner - well, i should have, but i didn't. instead i just took the piece of apple pie that a colleague gave me and treated that as dinner :) it was good!! nice and warm with some cream and good company, its the perfect wind down to the day.
and somehow i don't think that today is going to be the only 14 hour plus day of the week... le sigh, lots of news to be coming out of gaza soon.
there is a school yard adage: 'secrets, secrets don't make friends.' sometimes i just feel like screaming that out loud... and sometimes people just don't get it.
want to know the craziest thing of tonight? i ended up defending an american soldier to my flatmates. go figure. he was actually a really nice guy, i spent a good couple hours talking with him. and that right there embodies why i need a new job. just because you're military does not mean that you are anathema to humanitarian aid. but getting humanitarian aid workers to get that is absolutely impossible.
sometimes its the smallest things in life that make a difference. the guy in the corner store from our apartment in jerusalem remembered me when i went in to buy emergency supplies last night (water, a can of coke, popcorn, ceral and milk). its nice. it gives you some feeling of connection to somewhere.
its almost beyond me to believe that i have been over here for 2 years. it feels so much longer and it feels like i arrived yesterday. its just odd. it will be odd to to leave this place. i have no idea where i am going next, not even a continent.
its a bit frustrating as i would like to start packing up a bit and sending stuff on. its amazing how much you can accumulate! i only came with 2 suitcases and i have no idea what i am going to do with all of this stuff... how i am ever going to move it!
so yes, my holiday! it was great fun! my sister and i met up in london and went to the nickleback concert there the first night. the concert was great! we also went with 2 colleagues that was lots of fun, except on of them jumped everytime tehre was a loud bang - and it was a real rock concert so there were lots!
its odd how you just get used to see tracer fire and the sound of mortars and sonic booms and that immediately translate to any loud noice that you hear, even at a concert. i kept expecting her to take cover behind the seats in front of us!
and friday was nice, if a bit hectic. my sister got sick (still nerves i think) so i spent the morning trying to doctor her, before running off to pick up my grandmother at the station and then bringing her back to K's flat - where we were staying. then it was back to the train station with my grandma and then getting ready for dinner.
we had a lovely sushi dinner before meeting up with my 2 colleagues, and off we went clubbing, it was a bit of a surreal night... and i had forgotten how bad cocktails in london are!
saturday was brunch at roast (yum) and then a lazy afternoon and as you like it in the evening - which was lovely! it was opening night and good and fun and interactive. i love, love, love shakespeare! i don't know, but its just so simple its really the basic tellings of all the stories that were woven after it (and before, i know he knicked most of the plot-lines from the eons old myths and stories that were only ever told verbally).
anyway, that was london. it was lovely! and then the next morning was train time! we travelled to paris on the eurostar and then onwards to rome via train. it was kind of fun, i won't lie! i felt like a little kid in the compartment. thank god the other people in the cabin with us were also travelling by train for the first time - so we didn't seem like complete idiots!
we overnighted on teh train - my sister and i in the top bunks, which was really entertaining as they were quite high and it was quite an endeavor to get into them! and we got into rome the next morning around 1030hrs, which worked out just perfectly for us.
okay, need to do px run for teh party this evening and then beautify and go and set-up. will write about rome and florence and the return trip and london later!
life will never deal you more than you can handle. sometimes its hard to remember that. sometimes its damn near impossible. but ultimately its true. at first glance it might appear more than any person can handle. but ultimately, you will find some way to survive.
my boss paid me a compliment today. i don't know if he could sense that i was feeling down or uneasy. but he escalated my job in his opinion. and that made me feel good. somehow it managed to ease the feelings of slave labour that some of my colleagues have been foisting upon me.
there is so much to say and yet so little time to sleep until tomorrow begins. hopefully this weekend i will find time to post. about italy and london. about this week. the future. how i have no idea what i am doing or where i am going with my life, but somehow hope to find fufillment and happiness.
who says i am not an optimist?
back from my whirlwind europe vacation (london, paris, rome, florence, paris, london in 10 days) and i must admit that i missed posting while i was gone. i'll have to start taking my computer with me - or figure out how to get my phones internet to work on different systems... eh-gads, when did travel become so complicated?!?
but i am back. and listless. i blame this weather. this is free-spirited, travelling weather. this is sit out on your balcony - or better yet, the beach! - with a beer/glass of wine/cocktail weather. take a deep breath and just take it in. and i can't do that. that combined with everything else is just giving me itchy feet. its definitely time to go.
maybe i am the gypsy that they are always calling me....
