How can a person break up with someone who isn't his girlfriend? I'm fed up with Naomi - I've discovered she's a bigot (she hates Arabs and doesn't think much better about Sehpardic Jews) and she nags. She treats me like a boyfriend-replacement, getting annoyed when I go somewhere with other friends and without her. I need to get her a bit off my back. I can't wait for either me to get a real girlfriend or for her to get a boyfriend.

Thank god I didn't go to Italy with her - I'm sure she'd drive me crazy!

School started with a weird strike. The national student union, headed by my university's former head of the student association, declared a strike in all universities and colleges, except for Tel-Aviv University and a few small area colleges. My university was officially one of those where the students were striking, but a group of "dissidents" (a rival student organization that opposes the current student association as well as the national student union, because of a long story that goes all the way to a Knesset member who used to be chairwoman of both our university's and the national student organizations), a few hundred out of all the 16,700 students, according to the media, broke the strike and went to classes. Some classes took place as scheduled, some were conducted just partially and some were cancelled.

Anyway, I didn't go to the university. I was supposed to have two classes today - in one only a quarter of the students came so there was only half a lesson that was mostly just an introduction, and one was completely cancelled.

I made a cake today for no special reason. I just felt like eating something tastey and unusual. So I made a chocolate mousse cake. I had almost made an ice-cream cake but decided against it.

Succot will be over soon, and we'll have to take down the Sukka we built. It came out nice with all kinds of leaves from the garden instead of just palm tree leaves (the tree is too high now). Maybe I'll paint the metal frame of the Sukka for next year. I don't really feel like doing that.

My nephew had his first haircut yesterday. My sister had already cut his hair a few times, but this was his first trip to the barber. He wanted me to come see him getting the haircut, but he was scared of it. At first he was hysterical, then we explained to him that it's just like his mother does, but better. My sister was worried that he'd become hysterical if they'd sprinkle his hair to make it wet, so she wet his hair from the sink herself. So he sat on her lap, but kept asking if it's over and making sure the barber won't use the hair dryer, which scares him. He seemed nervous even after it was over. It was pretty traumatic, but hopefully next time will be better.

Normal kids are also nervous the first time their hair is cut, but I think they get over it after the deed is done. But for an autistic kid like my nephew, even as advanced as he is, the fact that a stranger cuts his hair in a room full of other strangers is very scary, and it's a trauma for them. But once it becomes routine, maybe he won't have a problem with it.

It's the middle of the night and I can't sleep. I don't know why. I really need this vacation to end, since I'm getting too bored. I have too much time on my hands and I'm thinking too much about Rachel (I guess I have a tendency to get hung up on women). I haven't heard from her in a while, but that's okay, since she doesn't check her e-mail very frequently.

I've been thinking of starting to read Amos Oz's "A Story of Love and Darkness", which is kind of his autobigraphy, but it's very long. I've also thought of continuing to read The Lord of the Rings, which I started a few years ago but found it too boring (too many goddamn scenery descriptions). All I've been doing is surfing the internet.

I put up a picture of myself at hotornot.com and I didn't get such a high score so I just got pissed and deleted myself from there. People are idiots. I know I look good and I don't need strangers to rate me.

Pure boredom...

Well, it's Yom Kippur now. I'm not fasting.

Ever since I realized Rachel was flirting with me I can't get her out of my mind. It's weird. Was she just doing it for fun, or is she to some extent in love with me (after all, she did tell my sister at one point that I'm a wonderful person - sounds like admiration). And she ends every e-mail to me with "I miss you guys", something she does not write to my sister. She could be adding the "guys" to seem less obvious. Who knows. Whatever it is, I'm not interested in her. At least, I shouldn't be. I know so many reasons not to be. I guess it's my penis taking over my brain or something.

At least there's no way I'll see her before the summer, so things won't go the wrong way because of my current confusion. School starts on October 26 - hopefully I'll just find a normal girlfriend around my own age, who lives in the same country as me and has no children...

Today I realized one of the reasons why I had such a good time in Italy, after my sister told me she just realized what bothered her about the trip - she said Rachel kept flirting with me constantly. I guess I noticed it, but I wasn't sure she really was flirting. But I did know, deep down, that it was indeed flirting.

A whole week with a very attractive woman hitting on me. Not bad at all. Very good for my ego. Who knows what would have happened if my sister wasn't with us. But I'm glad she was, since getting involved with Rachel - a single mother who lives on the other side of the ocean, and who is five years older than me - isn't such a good idea. I am a man after all, and I'd certainly be tempted to think with my penis rather than with my brain, if such an opportunity would have occured. And she's too good a friend, and from too religious a background, for a one-night stand with her.

I gotta admit though, my sister made my day when she said Rachel was flirting...