rrrrrrrr Rock me, Amadeus

Nothing against La Nozze di Figaro, or anything else in the Mozart database...
but I think Aria no.14 in Die Zauberflote is one of the best pieces of music ever written.

Look it up, biatch.

Hmm. The Black Eyed Peas make me hungry

Tomorrow is Erev Rosh Hashannah. There's a dinner at six at the Hillel, and services start at 8 in the Reitz. I'm thinking about blowing off the dinner....because, come on, it's dinner at the Hillel.

Thursday morning are the Reform services. My class is at 9:35. Since it's French, I'm thinking I could just go anyways, and still get to services in time. It's worship enough, but it will make Yom Kippur all the better. It's going to be the Holiest of Shabbats this Saturday as it is the holiest day of the year, and the holiest day of the week. A double whammy, Charley-Frances style.

I really cannot wait for the start of the new year. I don't know why this is so monumental to me. It really feels like it's this puzzle piece that someone's holding. I'm watching them pick it up, and hover it over the still incomplete section of the picture. I see it fits, I'm saying, "Yo, put the puzzle piece down already. I need to be seeing this big picture."

Without power, I did a lot of reading. I'm back in an existential funk, and licking up every one of the pages of The Age of Reason. Inside, I found a picture of a young me I thought I had lost. It's me and all my camp friends, in L.A., at the Hilton. We're so cute, us Jewish kids. It's ironic, in an Alanis Morrisette way, that I found it after so long, in Sartre, where I sought to find myself.
Also, I've been reading, The Alchemist. It is a compelling, beautifully serious novel, and it is chock full of signs.
Also, L'etranger, en francais. C'est plus interessant dans sa langue naturelle.

Today, after class let out, and after I putzed around in the computer lab, I took a walk all around campus.

I let me mind go.

I just walked around, the skies were gray, and the wind blew gently, cooling the sweat. It's was a soft day, full of activity, but spent well.

Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans dot, dot, dot.

It was a marvelous night for a moondance

Last night, at around two, I was procrastinating as usual. But would you want to be writing french sentences using the International Phonetic Alphabet at two in the morning? So, there I was, writing a blog entry, sort of intended to complain about how my roommate C, who is a fine roommate otherwise, put me on a diet.

She did it, I'm sure without meaning to. See, Sunday she came home for the first time in a week, since we didn't have power or anything. And since we didn't have power until Saturday 9 am, a mere 6 days after losing it, and since I was running on negative funds, I had been subsiding on tuna, stale white bread and generic cocoa puffs. I feel I need my protein very badly. You could say I am proactively protective of my protein. So imagine my dilemma when my roommate took my last can of tuna for the neighborhood gigolo, Church. (Who is thus far, the fourth coolest cat in my book). I came home yesterday, after class, for lunch, but instead I found it rained on and buggy, and definitely not eaten by a cat. I don't think she meant to do it. After all, I'm not at all upset about the 67 cent investment gone awry. It's 67 cents. Unfortunately, it was the only thing I was actually looking foward to eating (sad day), and the only thing I really wanted to eat, since I can't afford to blow two bucks at taco bell. (Nor do I care to).

But then, her boyfriend-really-almost-husband, came in to set up a house network connection, and since I was then able to print out my French homework, instead of having to recopy it, I decided to buckle down and stop questioning his girl in this public forum.

I just got out of French, and turning in the assignment went very well, merci beaucoup.

Now I have a real dilemma. First of all, I promised myself at the beginning of this year that school would really and truly come first. Since I need a place to live to go to school, work comes second. Summer is the time for blowing things off for pure enjoyment.

Unfortunately, the Austin City Limits festival is this weekend, the weekend right after Rosh Hashannah, and right before two tests I have in school. Granted, the tests are on Wednesday, a full day after we planned to return from the 17 hour drive, but I doubt I will have fully recovered by then. I said yes when I was blinded by the sheer amazingness of the lineup. Three days with The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Cake, Medeski, Martin and Wood, String Cheese, Calexico, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson. Would you say no?

Then I thought I was going to have an exam on the 20th, the Monday morning right after Ben Harper played. It's 17 hours to Austin, 17 back to Gainesville, Ben Harper played at 10 on Sunday, how the hell could I make it? So I made plans to stay and took off work for Rosh Hashannah. Then Frances blew the test to the 22nd. I thought I might have a chance, but then, just to mess things up further, Ivan came along and ruined travel plans, so the group would like to leave Wednesday so that we don't get blown off the panhandle.

Here's the sitch in plain terms:
-If I go, I miss a week of work, and four days of class, which is basically a week.
-If I go, I probably am going to be broke for the rest of my life.
-If I go, I miss Rosh Hashannah, which I have never, ever, ever not celebrated, and especially given recent events, I need a new year.

I already know what the answer is, my dilemma is telling my friends that I can't go. It's Tuesday and they want to leave tomorrow. What do I do? I know someone who wants the ticket, but even if they don't go, I'm sure the gals can sell it in Austin, and even surer of the fact that I will pay for the ticket if nothing else. Money of course, is not the issue.

I told God, that I better have an answer by noon.

Hot Frances on Flordia Action

Frances must have had some Carribbean takeout, after beating the shit out of the islands, she came to Florida and took a nice, long, steamy dump.

I'm still without power at home, which is no biggie, considering I made it two weeks without electricity after Andrew....but my whole world is discombobulated. It's weird to be so detached from the outside world, when right down the block, there's electricity flowing. I dread opening the door and finding that the ceiling fans are still. It gets muggy and still, although, last night it was actually kind of cool outside, so I didn't keep waking up in pools of sweat.


Saturday night, I played it safe and stayed home since I had to work Sunday morning (also, I'd had about 2 hours of sleep since Thursday). Sunday morning was gray and windy, and thankfully Pita Pit was the only place open in Gainesville, so just about the entire city came in or ordered delivery.

Would you believe that people actually called to complain about how long it was taking? Hello, asshole, look outside. See that Hurricane blowing around all those branches? That makes for unsafe driving conditions, perhaps you could be patient for an hour.

The pit stayed open 'til about 4:30, when the lights started flickering, and we lost power. We cleaned up fairly quickly, and then hung around in front of the store, watching the winds tear through the trees, and the dumbasses who don't know what an unlit traffic light means have near misses in the intersection.

Just so you dumbasses know, since you're still driving around recklessly clueless, when the light is out at an intersection, it means it's a fourway stop. Four. way. stop.

Anyways, after work, we came home to a dark house, and that's when the storm started to pick up. We watched it go by on our front porch, finishing off the cold beer so that we could tolerate the warm stuff. Then we played Texas Hold 'em by candle light, trying to imagine the days of Saloons. It was awesome.

Monday certainly put a new meaning to the labor day holiday as the heros of the tree trimming and electrical industry worked long into the night, throughout the remains of the tropical depression, to get most of Gainesville clear roads and Power. Mensches.

Tuesday was another slow day....what does one do without power? Sleep, sleep, read, play solitaire, read, sleep, eat. Kind of like a cat, only much less relaxing, since knowing that you're without power is an incredibly frustrating feeling.

On the plus side, it's quiet at night, and there's still a roof over my head. Minimal damage, for which I'm grateful. H has a tree in her house and on top of car. Well, it was a car, now it's a wreck.

At first, I wasn't bothered by the storm, I thought it would clear up all the messy feelings associated with the end of summer and the start of fall.

(Today's Survey:there anyone for whom this part of the year is enjoyable?)

I think instead, Frances dug up all the dead horses and old grudges. If Ivan makes it up to the G-spot, I hope someone rolls him a famous Gainesville Green fatty, and he fucking chills.