Army - The final days
Well, well, well. I'll now move to army base for the last time. Schedule says I'll have a longer appointment with the docs on Monday, give back my army stuff on Tuesday and then I'm leaving the pits of Hell on Wednesday. Doesn't seem to include too many chances to fuck up with my back, but we'll see...
Back on Wednesday, as a free man.

Murphy's Restatement
"Everything goes wrong all at once."
- 2nd slipped disc incident and "hospital holiday"
- first real meeting with J after about 2 months and my insides are in chaos
- generally depressed mood
- bad weather

Seriously, I'm so fed up with this life...

Back injuries OR: What 3 days army service can do to you
As the frequent readers will know, I've spent quite a large amount of the past 5 months with physical therapy after I suffered from a slipped disc in late January.
Things had been going rather well in the last month or so, which was reason enough for me to not ask the docs to let me stay home for yet another week before I leave army next Wednesday. That was my first mistake.
My second mistake was following orders given by superiours who most obviously have no fucking clue about back injuries like that. After being ordered to clean weapons on Tuesday (the whole day, that is!), which not only meant working in a slightly-bent-over position for about 4-5 hours total but also meant carrying machine guns that weigh around 12 kilogram, I was up and on my feet the entire Wednesday, starting at 0645 with standing guard at the local army sports festival and later having to attend a parade. While the parade was still going on, my legs and feet went numb and finally, my back "collapsed" with kinda evil muscle spasms in my lower back muscle, which resulted in me being sent to hospital.
My dysfunctional-spine-parts-record now lists another disc, in addition to the one that slipped out of its designed position in January and my degenerated-since-birth lower end of the spine (thanks Dad for that part of the legacy)...
I was allowed to leave only about 2 hours ago, my back's pain-free at the moment and I'm seriously hoping that the electro-shock therapy I received in hospital lets me stay pain-free for the coming days.

I'll have to start all over again with physical therapy, which really sucks, I was just being allowed to go climbing again beginning of last week. Shit happens I guess, and Murphy is never too far away.

Good, bad ... I'm the guy with the fun
My day started extremely crappy today. (Yesterday, actually, since it's Friday by now, but anyways.)
Original plans involved another trip to Mannheim, a nice party with nice people and most likely the last occasion on which I'll be able to see A before she leaves for Portland. "Most likely" because I'll be busy with army for the next 10 days and won't be able to just hop into a train and go down there, and I'll lose my free ticket end of the month. So much for the theory.
Enter: Murphy
Got an SMS late last night if I had already a ticket for the party. No, of course I did not, how should I, being about two and a half hours away from the next location to buy them?! So I asked her to get me one. I was suspecting already that my party-plans were heading for the cliffs then already, alas, hope dies last.
About 20 minutes before my train left, I got another SMS, telling me that it had been planned badly and no more cards had been available. "I fucked up, sorry".

I guess I shouldn't be so immensely disappointed, but whenever I'm re-reading that SMS, I can't help but to think "Indeed, you majorly fucked up, thank you, there was no need to invite me in the first place to then fuck it up like that and make me feel like a complete moron who got majorly played". I'm being a bit harsh, but seriously, I'm fucking disappointed about the whole thing.

Fortunately, my mood had calmed a bit after I had gone to bed around 2pm and sleeping until around 9pm. Sleep helps keeping your head free; should you ever feel immensely depressed about something, try sleeping a couple of hours, it usually works miracles for me.
I went online then, and that made my day. I got to read a really funny story about revenge anal rape and I found out aboutCliff Yablonski, which is hilarious. I've laughed so hard that I'll have sore muscles tomorrow, I'm sure.

And now, it's half past 4 in the morning, and I'm still awake. I might go and wreak some carnage in one of the evil 3d ego shooters that make killers out of harmless people. Yes, that sounds like a good thing to me. Have a good night.

Oh ... my ... God
I like to think I'm hard to shock, but I admittedly find this rather disturbing.
Cuddles are cool and all that, but ... I just don't know, reading that was disturbing. Have we degenerated that much already that we need such ... such "events"? If so, my nicely drawn image of the thing called real world has just been blown to bits.

Travelling throughout the country
I'm very busy making the best of my free train ticket in this last week that I have the possibilities to do so. This is my last "free" week, as I'll be at army base from Sunday onwards, for the last 10 days, ever. Unfortunately my free train travel ticket will be lost once I'm out of the army, too.
I've been to Mannheim 2 weeks ago, last week, I went there yesterday, and I will go there again on Thursday. I'm partying way too much, but what else am I to do?!

I got nicely drunk last night, and I was accompanied by a good-looking and charming girl. I had a nice breakfast today, and again I was accompanied by a good-looking and charming girl; a different one though. I can't possibly imagine a nicer way of spending time .. well, okay, I can, but there might be kids reading this.

The reply and a good party
All is well in the land of happiness. She replied and I was mildly surprised by the overall positive reaction, to say the least. I'll see how well things will work out next time we actually meet, but in theory, things are like they were before my confession, except that now I'm not worrying about this part anymore.

I celebrated the positive reply on a private party last night, with loads of heavy metal music and headbanging. I'd have loved to celebrate it with loads of alcohol too, alas, I had to get back home somehow, and the car was the preferred method for the 30km distance, so I stayed sober and had my fun like that; and a lot of fun that was.

Today starts with sunshine and a blue sky. Let's see what I'm in for...

Confessions and The Art of Timing
Hmz.
It could've been so easy. Spending a couple of days with a damn hot, smart and nice girl, leaving, and just stay friends. But of course that's not how things work out in the real world.
I've constantly been thinking about her since I left on Friday. I can't help it.
Since I got used to talking with my heart on my tongue (does that translate in a half-decent way?), I wrote her an email just a couple of minutes ago explaining what happened and that I'd be trying my best to stay the way she experienced me so far and that I could understand if she was feeling a bit uneasier with me sleeping over etc.
Also, my timing was superb: she's leaving for Portland, USA in about 2 months. Great, isn't it?! As if it wasn't complicated enough just by my insides going for more than friendship, no, they're picking a girl I could only dream of and that's going to be away for a year in no time...
Mabye I should start and seriously try to get off women and relationships as a whole. Could save me a lot of trouble I think. But then again, that would be leaving the salt out of the soup that is life. *sigh*
I'll keep you updated whenever there's something new to tell in this matter.
First step: her reply. If there's going to be any.

Party on, Garth!
Heh. I am so looking forward to uni life. Been to this party on Wednesday and damn, that was some fun! Went to bed around 0430 on Thursday morning, but thanks to the incredible heat in the wonderful city of Mannheim, I only fell into a dozing sleep around 0830 ... but I had the best company I could've asked for, so I didn't mind...

On Thursday we went out for a swim at a lake, but unfortunately we were interrupted by an approaching thunderstorm; it was nice anyways, hot sun, cool water and again, the best company I could've asked for.

When I arrived back home yesterday, I was completely exhausted. I'm just not in training yet when it comes to uni life, I definately need to get in shape. Went to bed at 1730, which was a bad idea because I woke up at 4am and couldn't sleep anymore. Oh well. At least I'll be tired tonight...

Summertime
...and the living is easy. If I remember correctly, that's how the song went.
Seriously though. Easy? Judging by the current temperature of ~28°C and a humidity of 99% (well, at least that's how it feels like over here) I don't think this is too easy a summer.
But I'm not going to complain, better to have a hot and humid summer than none at all I guess.
Also, the girls tend to dress more lightly with these temperatures, so I guess I'll better shut up.
On the note of girls: I'm off to some student party with some of the hotties.

How much does a living cost?
After a depressingly crappy weekend, I was relieved to talk to Annie today, who kept calm and a clear head and did some quick calculation on what's ahead of me work-wise if I am to be able to afford my own living once uni life kicks in.
With minimum wages around 6 Euro, I'll have to work approximately 4 hours on 3 nights per week to be able to afford a living, at least roughly calculated. Since I'm pretty sure to be able to find a better-paid job (above minimum slave-wage that is), I should be doing comparably well.
Good news, finally.

A very loud and warm "thank you" to Annie. You brightened me up today with that talk and the clear numbers!

If you ever...
...felt like hitting a brick wall at 200km/h you sure know what a bad day feels like.
A pity there was no brick wall on my way home, not to mention that I probably wouldn't get beyond 160km/h without the engine blowing up. (Not that the end result'd differ too much...)

Be a ninja
Tell me, which boy was not fascinated by the slippery, stealthy and plainly cool image of the Japanese supa-sekkrid Ninja?!
This girl introduces you to the fine art of masking yourselves, the first step into the sekkrid world of ninja. Obviously I've mastered the art already...

Look at me!
Well, it's been nearly 5 months that I set foot in my base and had to army stuff, so my hair has grown pretty nicely. In fact, it's grown enough that you could say I start needing haircuts again. o_O
That's why I usually wear a baseball cap, although I'm usually less "homie" and wear it conservative and standard, if you know what I mean.
Also, as those of you who know me in "real life" might have noticed, I did stuff to my beard, felt like playing around a bit, please hit me back with comments, I'm entirely unsure at the moment.

That's it for now.