jackass in egypt... with an egyptian haircut

two nights ago, i thought i was johnny knoxville. i don't know why, it could've been the massive amounts of vodka tonics i shared with TheMech and TheSiteLead at cafe 55 in order to forget the rough workday we'd had. it could've been the even MORE vodka tonics we had at TheSiteLead's apartment after as a cooldown. i don't know, but it went down like this. TheSiteLead likes to walk around his house in his underwear. what can i say? we weren't at his place more than like 5 minutes before he gets comfortable. i smacked his ass, he cross punched me from left shoulder to my sternum. it HURT! (dumb boys). later on, TheElectrical left for a minute to go to his apartment next door and brought down his air-power BB gun. the most powerful hand-pumped air gun on the market. i asked TheMech to shoot me in the ass which he tried to do, but since i don't have an ass to speak of, it hit my baggy jeans with no effect. we determined i had to pull my pants tighter, so i bent over and pulled them tight without noticing that'd he'd made an unauthorized approach, so he shot me in the ass at point blank range. holy shit, that hurt too. i was hopping around the front yard grabbing my booty, laughing and aching all at the same time. later in the night i was convinced to drop 'em, and yup, i had a NICE welt going on. (btw, there were girls there, so this wasn't come homoerotic get-together, just to let you know).

we calmed down a bit, i tried to burn TheSiteLead's yard but the leaves and grass were a bit too dewy. we talked and laughed. TheMech'sWife is a nice girl, but she smokes entirely too much. she asked for one of my cigarettes and i told her she had to be quiet for 2 minutes. it's for the best, i'm trying to save her lungs and all, and it was the first thing i thought of. it took her a while to stop complaining, and then, as a man of my word, i gave her a cigarette after two minutes. when she was almost done, she threatened to throw it at me, which i encouraged. i called her bluff as she threw it over the fence behind me. toward the end of the night, i asked her to put a cigarette out on my hand. she, again, acted like she would comply, but backed out, so TheMech showed her how it's done (dumb boys, er... maybe just dumb zac). hahah. it didn't hurt, no permanent damage, hardly a mark. we finished our drinks and headed home. i piggybacked TheMech'sWife as far as my house, had a few drinks at home, and went to bed. i've been averaging about 13 hour days for the past week (+2 hours roundtrip driving), and i've only been getting about 2-3 hours sleep per night. i'm tired, but i'm living, even if a bit reckelessly. i do a very good impression of safe recklessness.

last night, i went to the local mall with the regulars, TheSiteLead, TheMech, TheMech'sWife, and TheSiteLead's housekeeper. she knows of a place to get suits which TheSiteLead needs for a function coming up this week. while we were at the mall, i decided i needed a trim. i went to the barber, but they were clsoed for prayer at the time. i went back to the suit shop and found a decent jacket. it's getting cooler now, and it will be cooler on my next assignment a little further north and closer to the coast, so i figured i'd need something for that weather. i bought that then went back to the barber with TheMech'sWife. she told the barber how i wanted my hair. just a little trim was all. maybe she said something in arabic that he didn't understand because it is a bit shorter than i expected. the funny thing is egyptian men have curly hair, in general, but they keep it short, and just gel it and comb it back. this guy didn't know how to cut curly hair so now i kinda have an egyptian haircut. blah. it'll grow out. i think this might bust jules's theory that i might look good with a mini-fro, though the back is really short, less fro-ey. we'll see what happens when it grows out. after, we went back to TheSiteLead's place. as his housekeeper opens the door, she says "smelly" and flips on the light. TheSiteLead froze... then thanked god he was alive. wiring here in egypt is suspect at best, and the "smelly" was a massive build-up of natural gas in the apartment. we think she was in a hurry to leave and forgot to turn off the burner. we ran around opening windows and doors to vent the place out, she warmed up dinner, and we had a few beers. it was a generally low-key night. i got home and talked to the TheJaneAnn for a bit. she'd just cut her hair as well and dyed it. it looks REALLY good, it's a drastic change, that i hope will grow on her soon, because right now, i don't think she's entirely happy with it. she had a play date to get to so she stranded me to watch bad late night TV. i think i was in bed by 11:30pm to be up at 5:30am. woo-hoo.

i've organized, OCD-style, my R&R pix (yeah i know it's been over a month since i started my R&R) and have a draft started. it will be worth the wait, graphic and humor intensive. later.