Sleepless in Seattle

The past few weeks have been rather crazy, hence my lack of blog activity. While varsity term is finally over, it's taken a while to recouperate from the stress of Honours. I really hadn't realised how exhausted I was. Through most of October, while I was writing up my research and studying for exams, I was functioning on about 5 hours of sleep a night - a bit of a problem for someone who usually gets 8 hours in order to be somewhat sane! I caught up on most of my sleep after my psychopathology exam, and had a lovely 2 weeks off in order to study for neuropsychology, but I ended up going from exhaustion to holiday mode in 1 easy step, so I still ended up studying furiously the night before the exam, woke up and revised at 6am and was far more stressed than I needed to be!

Even with exams over, I still haven't been getting terribly much sleep. Actually being able to relax at last has sent us Honours students into a socialising flurry. The week after exams was pretty crazy, with our post-Honours party and Pam's wedding. The Honours party was held at Mailie's house in Westcliff. Despite the utterly miserable weather (it poured the entire week!), we all had fun exploring her enormous house (it's worth a couple of million rand and has the most amazing view), discussing our holiday plans (holiday - what a beautiful word!) and eating far too much!

Pam's wedding was rather interesting - and a lot of fun! It was raining, so the photos that she'd arranged to have taken with all her friends ebfore were moved from a park near the shul to Melrose Arch Shopping Centre. I wore black - *shudder* - and it was utter chaos, with us running around the shopping mall, dodging Christmas trees and being shouted at by the photographer! Anyway... I got changed into my red dress at Melrose Arch, and drove to the shul. The first part of the wedding involved all the women standing in a room, and then the men coming in with Daniel (the groom), so that he could lift Pam's veil to check that it was her, and they could say some blessings. Pam's dad led the procession, and he was in tears from the instant he saw her, and so was her brother - and then so was I! Lame, I know, but I usually cry at weddings. Anyway... The rest of the service was downstairs in the shul, and it was very lovely. The reception was in Sandton Shul's hall, and it was amazing! I knew a couple of people (as aquantainces), but the girls were very sweet. There was tons of food, and the dancing was so much fun! Girls and boys danced separately (there was a screen across the dance floor), but it was so much fun! And the dessert was incredible - every dessert known to man was spread out on a giant buffet table! I'm seriously considering doing the photography for Jewish weddings as a possible career option - if only for the dessert! I did manage to have a fashion faux pas though. I was chatting to 2 other girls outside the bathroom (turned out they'd never been to a Jewish wedding either, and so they were also lost), and after I came out of the bathroom, I got my dress hooked in my petticoat. We were just standing in the passage, and someone told me, but I might have flashed 1 or 2 Jewish boys, who aren't allowed to hold hands with girls, let alone be flashed some knickers! Oops...

Aside from the party and the wedding, I've also had a surprise 30th birthday party, a couple of DVD evenings, a visit to the theatre to see "Cats" and an awful lot of time with He of Many Sports Injuries. My efforts to reestablish my sleep patterns keep being thwarted, because I'll catch up on my sleep, feel better and then have a late night and be back to being a zombie. It seems to be getting a little bit better though - and I'm really enjoying seeing all my friends again!