Snippets of a Day

Study group was held in the back of a spacious coffee shop in town, and we started by obtaining appropriately tasty items to soothe our palates. Despite being in a coffee shop, I passed up the chai and cappucino for a strawberry shake, which I enjoyed regardless of the dent it made in my wallet.

Shortly after we'd settled into our corner table and set up Skype for the girl who couldn't make it to the session in person, two ladies came in lugging anatomy textbooks and proceeded to embark on a study of adduction and abduction of joints, involving physical demonstration. While I was properly engrossed with my own studies, thus keeping my eyes to myself, I could not help but notice the extraordinary eyelids of the one girl. They were lovely eyelids, possessing much original character, and struck me at once as being curiously smooth and broad, suitable for her face, shiny as if they had been coated with eyeshadow and washed once.

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Mentioning shiny, there was a tiny jar of sparkles, labelled Fairy Dust, on the kitchen counter at Friday night's birth. I thought of Lara and smiled. Next time I meet a faery I must remember to ask for a wee bit of my own.

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Ariel and I stopped in at Walgreen's on the way home. While she shopped for an assortment of small and varicoloured items, I played with the bouncy balls in the center of the aisle and examined the wind chimes -- the loveliest green wind chime, adorned with a wrought-metal butterfly, would have driven me crazy: the fourth chime was atrociously flat. Right before we left I looked out the window and started, as the bird swooping past the window looked startlingly like a pterodactyl.

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For dinner Hagai made a delicious dish of shakshouka, a traditional Israeli food involving eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce. The fiery spices in the sauce were tempered by the cooling influence of soft goat's cheese, and while I had expected the meal to be torture after he had indicated his intention to serve a hot dish, it proved to be remarkably delicious, pepper and all.

We spread across the tiny kitchen, Ariel and I on the steps, Hagai at the table with their little daughter. Conversation touched on breastfeeding, the clipping of frenulums (of the tongue -- don't go and get any weird ideas), the politics of apprenticeship, the pros and cons of preceptors. Stories were told, amidst the flailing limbs of a wound-up toddler; after plates were cleaned (I wiped mine clear with the crust of my bread slice) we sprawled in the tiny living room-which-doubled-as-a-bedroom and played Elmo and peekaboo, slipping into baby talk as easily as we discussed our various experiences with sibling rivalry.

All in all it was a lovely evening, barring a few episodes of dodging books, ducking out from under shelves as the contents unloaded on my head, and hairpulling, all of which were more amusing than painful. I have been invited for wine whenever I feel the need to unwind, and although it isn't something to be done on a regular basis, I am considering taking them up on the offer -- just for fun. (It should be an interesting experiment; the last time I consumed alcoholic beverage was in my early teens, when I inadvertently ate chocolate cake laced with whiskey and ended up slightly tipsy. Of course, this time, as I intend to know exactly what I'm putting into my mouth, should be different.)

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The Nightcored version of "Get Out Alive" is blaring through my earbuds, which I nearly killed by falling asleep with a playlist still running and the buds in my ears (when I woke in the morning the laptop had fallen to the floor and the plug was bent severely to one side; it unbent for the most part when I slid it back into the jack and the earbuds are, temporarily, functional). The lyrics belong to a certain Bandit, one who has captured my imagination as neatly as if he owned it; while the words could go for more than one Bandit, they call Pipe before the eyes of my mind.

No time for goodbye, he said as he faded away
Don't put your life into someone's hands
They're bound to steal it away.
Don't hide your mistakes
Cause they'll find you, burn you
Then he said
If you want to get out alive, run for your life
If you want to get out alive, run for your life...

If I stay it won't be long
   'Til I'm burning on the inside
If I go I can only hope
   That I make it to the other side
If you want to get out alive (If you want to get out alive)
          run for your life
If you want to get out alive (If you want to get out alive)
          run for...
                        (...your life...)