I just had a week off and it was quite amazing, in fact. I think part of the fact was that this was my first truly selfish week of holiday I've had in a really long time - I wasn't "supposed" to see anyone/do anything and so I just did only what I wanted and that made it great. It involved lots of food, late nights, and more alcohol than is probably safe (who am I kidding, I know the guidelines). But before I delve in, I'd like to officially welcome Elijah Reinberg to the blogosphere. I hope you have very few returns.
Now, back to me. My vacation started, I guess, with a bang. I was riding around town trying to find the cheapest wine I could (the place that had 12 bottles of decent wine for 45$ had sold out, obviously) when the crank (leg) of my bike just smashed. It was as limp as a war veteran's smile. Immediately it flashed through my mind that I needed to: go to dinner on one part of town, go to a Trivia night on another, go to a party back at the other side of town, go home on my part of town, and be in the city at 9am to tutor. Each of those involves crossing a river and public transportation is not great, especially late at night. Fuck, am I reliant upon my bike. 
I borrowed (commandeered) my housemate's but it was a road-bike and therefore not fun to ride. Either way the Trivia night was fun. It was run by a bunch of friends and I was at a table with a bunch other of friends. We didn't win diddly scot, of course, but at least I was dressed in a nasty yellow fluorescent shirt (because the party I was going to was a fluoro party). I also was pretty useless with the American questions (like what NASA stands for... administration?) although I did know all the Great Lakes so I got props for that. After that we rode over to the fluoro/emo party where people were wearing more ridiculous outfits than I (though I did end up with a fishnet vest over the shirt and, at one point, a pink wig) and danced the night away to music of sorts. Tutoring at 9am the next morning was less fun than normal.Sunday, after picking up bread from my favorite rubbish bin, I went to a BBQ and then went to a friend's parent's house to indulge myself. I haven't seen a movie on a non-laptop screen in ages and so we brought some wine and snacks and watched a couple DVDs (to Be or Not to Be, Rushmore, and several episodes of The Goodies) in her parent's pad. It was definitely what I was supposed to be doing.
Monday was a simple day - I had a couple friends over for dinner and relaxed and prepped myself for the rest of the week.
Tuesday "morning" I got picked up by a car full of ladies and headed up north to Coolum, Sunshine Coast. One of the girl's husband's great aunt has a lovely beach house there, which we rented for 100$ for a week. We spent 3 nights and 3.5 days there and it was an amazing time. At any point there were at least 5 people there, plus more people trickled in and out throughout the time. The beach was a 7 minute walk away and so swimming was in order. There were big waves (due to the general blusteriness of the weather) for us to crash in. It wasn't exactly warm, though, so we never swam for more than 15 minutes. Mostly we lazed around and enshrouded ourselves in holidayiety. One morning it was raining down quite hard and 7 of us ran to the beach and went swimming even though it was surely drowning-weather and we were the only people out there. It was great. Other things we did was fly a kite, play boulles on the beach, read a lot, play cards/backgammon/scrabble/charades, eat a lot, and drink. I went for precisely 5 swims. You can see why I was unhappy to leave, can't you?
Came back on Friday morning where, unfortunately, I had to do some driving through peak-hour traffic and then mellowed for the rest of the night, watching Mystic River (so overrated). Saturday went to the markets, did a bit of study, and then went to a non-DJ off party at a bar. The point was that all these people weren't real DJs but they gave DJing a go, anyway. I hate to sound smarmy but it showed - leave the non-DJing to the non-DJs. Sunday was tutoring, free-breadding, studying, and grasping at the fleeting tendrils of vacation. It's now Monday and back to school with a late night tutoring session to boot. No more days off until November. Yay.Jesus, I didn't know that!1
Here's an interesting journal article (pdf) - the long and short of it is that it's a study done by some researchers in New Mexico where they charted dozens of strippers' earnings with respect to their menstrual cycle. It turns out that during estrous (the ovulatory phase - when the lady is most receptive to impregnation) the tips were much higher than during menstrual phase (and the strippers had to keep bottoms on). Estrous is the phase that any cat owner will be familiar with - when the cat wags its ass in the air, mewing and asking to get screwed. Apparently, and not fully previously appreciated, humans give out the same pheremones and other signals that make them more attractive - best evinced by the tips.
What was Tiny Tim crippled because of his kidneys? Did Beethoven go deaf because of Irritable Bowel Disease? Did FDR actually have Guillian-Barre, not polio? Who knew medihistorical research could be so fun? Me!
Medical word of the post
subluxation: a partial/incomplete dislocation of a joint/organ/thing. Doesn't it sound cool?
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