Sunday, January 28, 2007

the golden city



i just got back from brunch with justin, it was good. we were going to the city but ended up not getting the van, so we just went down to bates. it was nice to actually talk to him... we talked a lot about our friends and what's been happening, and what will happen. the real question right now is spring break. no one wants to spend a grand to have a miserable time. we all know that people will fight. it's true, a thousand dollars could buy a lot of fun otherwise.
amy and jiddy came down after a half hour or so, and amy says "do you guys want to go to bronxville with us," and i said
"to do what?"
"eat"
"no, we already ate here"
and then she realizes i'm confused about what she means, and makes a face, and then i say
"don't be mad at me, i thought you were telling me you're about to go eat in bronxville, so i said no we've eaten here"
and of course she stormed off to go sit at hunter and eli's table.
i didn't immediately apologize for not understanding her (and pissing her off), so she's mad at me. get over it. jiddy sat with us, and said we should start a competition to see from whom amy storms off the most, and how far. i remember when justin pissed her off and she walked back up the hill, he ran after her apologizing and she screamed RAPE to get him to go back down. i don't know why this keeps happening - but i do know one thing - people aren't perfect. but goddamnit, it's tearing us apart. it's like, come on man, get over it. there's nothing to be mad at. it just sucks. you never know when she's gonna storm off or be pissed at you. i miss when she was happy most of the time, and when she was mad you knew it was for a good reason.
i talked to my parents, they were walking down the katy trail to go see victory plaza in dallas. justin and i talked a lot about america, as we usually do when we're alone, and that was okay. he's set on israel now - i keep thinking it'll blow over but he seems serious, and that makes me happy, since he's clearly happy about it. i like hearing him talk about it, and about palestine. i'm proud of him for not being brainwashed by birthright - i'm sure so many kids come back and hate arabs. but he took a few days and travelled without the group in palestine, and is not more on their side than anyone's, though he still believes in a jewish state. he has a video of him walking towards the dome of the rock, where they believe muhammad rose from,
"the spot from which Muhammad ascended to God in heaven, accompanied by the angel Gabriel. There he consulted with Moses and was given the (now obligatory) Islamic prayers before returning to Earth. A Qur'anic verse says that Muhammad took an instantaneous night journey on his horse Buraq from al-Masjid al-Haram ("the sacred mosque," interpreted as being in Mecca) to al-Masjid al-Aqsa ("the farthest mosque," interpreted as being in Jerusalem),"


and the sun is setting and you hear the islamic call to prayer, and the mosque looks so beautiful, it's made from the same jerusalem white rock, which as justin says turns gold when the light hits it. it's the most incredible video. it made me want to go to israel, a want that i haven't really had before. but the sound of the adhan and all that gold...it was really spectacularly great. i finally kind of got what justin kept ranting about... i'll see if he'll send it to me so i can upload it.

now i'm just sitting here thinking i should do some work. tuesday our concept presentations for victor margolin's museum are due - claudia is sending them to victor to comment on. it's a big deal, you have to try and sell it with a few pictures, really. i should do some sketches, cuz right now all i have is a super conceptual idea, which looks cool but doesn't compare to a fully modeled building, which some of the other people already have. i can't work in maya today since the lab is closed and i forgot my mouse in dallas, so i guess i'll have to whip something up tomorrow after precalc.