Intermezzo

It's been quite a while hasn't it. Sorry abt that, it's so unlike me to not write for so long. I finished exams and started classes right away and classes, well, they are exhilarating, I think I might just have some fun this year. But the schedule is a bit mad and what with the bloody office organising (almost finished, don't want to post pics till I have the rug in) and my post-27-exams crash I basically come home and crawl into bed almost immediately, falling asleep entirely too early and waking up entirely too early as well. I have been waking up on my own at around 6.30 every morning for the past fortnight. I am tired all the time, not desperate-tired like during exams, just tired from doing a lot of new, big things at once. I barely check my mail these days and the same goes for blogs, I hope I will become used to this new life soon and my body will let me be more awake soon, I want to be able to see how you're doing again. Tired and hungry all the time gets old fast - and yes, am eating like a beast these days as well, seems I can never get enough, oy vey the arse. As I said, hope this changes soon.

I'm off to Barcelona for a few days, have never been there so am quite excited. Well, quite is a bit of an exaggeration since I am too knackered to muster a proper degree of excitement. But I've always thought I'd love Barcelona. Actually, have always thought a priori that I'd be mad abt Sushi, Barcelona and Boston. Was right abt the sushi, we'll see abt the rest.

An easy fast for those of you who'll need it and everyone, have a brilliant week.

Yes, yes, we're rather dull these days and the heartbreak doesn't vary much either

I could talk at length abt the latest Islamic insanity, i.e., *enter Calimero-esque voice* Oh we're offended, we're offended, we're so very hurt bcs you depict our prophet in compromising positions, you may mock all religious figures, we couldn't be bothered abt the others, but not our prophet so here's Hitler in bed w Anne Frank - *covers mouth* eh eh eh, SEX! - and we'll see how you like it, you bloody Jew pigs, damn you and the mare you rode in on.

*YAWN*

Yes, scary, yes, expected, yes, demented, yes, hardly surprising. Don't feel like talking abt it, couldn't even if I did bcs HAVE INANE EXAM SCHEDULE, in case you had forgotten. Actually passed the exam I was sure I'd failed. Actually had one of the best grades. Said grade was a sad one really, 12/20 - exam was bloody awful, the failure rate was 63%, terrifyingly, but the teachers fully took the blame which is always a refreshing thing to have happen in my faculty. More often that not we are called lazy and stupid and it's all our fault and no, am not joking.

Also.

Got to the end of my binder just now and there was a blue sticker w a phone number on it which was very familiar. Took me a moment to place it, it was from our kibbutz room, when I still lived w Uzi. Punch to the gut, yes, hardly surprising but still, here we are. I rang him, how could I not. Just to see if the number was still working, just to see if I could still reach him, symbolically speaking. Well, he didn't really answer, death being in the way, the phone rang for the longest time and then the voicemail came on, after all this time, and all of a sudden he was talking to me and God, I know his voice so well. Worse, there was a beep and he told me I could leave a message if I was so inclined.

On the 20th it will be a year since he was buried. Already. Already a year since I last set foot on Israel, not that I have good memories from that time, or many for that matter, I seem to have surpressed most of them, Lisa keeps telling me abt things I don't remember we talked abt at all. My Tig, my Tig, my Tig is buried, my Tig is STILL buried and yet he still talks to me when I ring him, echoing the voices in my head that whisper his name constantly.

I left a message.

I DID IT!!

I finally did it!

I bloody shagging sodding fucking did it!

Not only did I actually manage to be there for a change, but - I PASSED BONES!

Bones, Bones, bones, bones, bones!!

It feels even better than this - and believe me, it felt fabulous!

.

I PASSED BONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.

I tore all the stupid, imbecilic, inane pages into small pieces and let them fly out my car window, all of them, not bothered abt littering for once, I needed to be cleansed of all the rubbish and IT FELT SO BLOODY BRILLIANT, who cares if the transversal process of the 6th cervical almost has a ridge instead of a blade-like ventral surface, who gives a bloody damn abt the shape of the sacrum in all species, in what demented world will I need to know how to assemble carpal bones for fuck's sake, and what good will knowing 19 very long and deranged anatomic laws and principles and how many types of rays fish fins have and how they are [2, dull] ever do, and I will try my utmost to forget abt the stupid mesoplagiomeric and mesacromeric and meselcsimeric planes and how their segments and what have you are SO VERY HELPFUL IN DESCRIBING HERMAPHRODITES (sic) and also VERY HANDY TO DEFINE FISH FILETS (sic)- the Theory bit was all bollocks and perfectly useless and dreadful to memorise, the Practical-Theoretic exam (learning ALL things boney abt 9 sodding species, Chicken included) almost had me in tears, the Practical oral exams throughout the semester were a nightmare, I look frightful, have been underslept for ages, am utterly knackered and always short of time, am more than a bit dense with exhaustion and actually forgot my own name a few days ago - but IT'S OVER.

Two exams down, ten more to go.

And then the man as well! And animal bones!

Oh, such fun! Remember The Vault from last post? Game show, TV? Weeeeeell..... I didn't make a lot of money this time, I was a Negotiator and they never make loads. I won 300 E which will pay part of the tuiton AND SOME BOOKS OH YES MAYBE EVEN MORE THAN SOME! I won't post the harlot pics as such EVER for ophtalmologic hygiene reasons; and there's no point in photoshopping them into B&W bcs what was amazing abt the look was what they did do to my face and hair and THAT only works in colour. So bite your tongues, o rushy ones! They'll eventually show it and I'll eventually tape it, w luck, and then I can photograph the screen and then I'll look at the professions to figure out which one I am [Anthropologist, *clears throat*] and then I'll photograph the screen. Are we cool? We're cool then. [Pardon my English, am still very much addicted to Veronica Mars, LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOVE it!]

Am almost revived. For those of you with knowledge of the human skull, and particularly for those of you familiar with animal skulls, you'll be horrified to know that I have been working since Mon on a powerpoint presentation of the mandible of: Horse, Cow, Sheep/Goat, Dog, Cat, Pig and Rabbit. The Chicken is another group's as a whole. No, I'm not kidding at all. And then there were also the Hyoids and the Pterygoids, which my colleagues did. And finally, and this will bring you to your bloody knees, THE SPHENOID! YES! Still not joking! And did you know that there are a plethora of inter-species differences?? Yes there are! And what fun it was trying to understand exactly what hole/thingy corresponded to what foramen on bones that were so old they had sprouted EXTRA ONES!

GAHHHHHHH!

And the views??? We have to, aside from the .ppt pics for the actual presentation, photograph the whole skull, then the mandible, then the head minus mandible dorsally, ventrally, laterally, medially, rostrally, caudally - and THEN: rostro-caudo-lateral, rostro-caudo-medial etc. close to 300 pics altogether, it's all a bit of a blur by now. Presentation is tomorrow and my 1st year colleagues didn't really see the need to start photographing early enough OR to get in touch w me as I frantically left them messages on the noteboard and roamed the corridors trying to track them down bcs our originally presentation was scheduled for the 4th of November. So I showed up for class and told the professor I would be getting a 0 bcs *cringe* I couldn't locate my colleagues. When the blessed 18 year-olds finally showed up for class that day they told me our presentation had been postponed for a week and really, they weren't worried bcs they both knew, did I see, so it was alright. And I asked them if they didn't find the information worthy of sharing w me and BTW why hadn't I been contacted when I'd been leaving messages everywhere and they said Oh right, were you worried? Maybe we were naive? And let's just say I have been doing a fair amount of roaring and yet no hitting, sadly. That would vastly help my adrenal glands regain their normal shape.

So please, say a quick prayer for me bcs oral presentations absolutely horrify me and I can't think of anything I'd like to do less. Help!