stop motion two

it began with a nightmare:
lots of people in a competition on an upper floor of a tall building on a mountain covered in snow. it's some kind of dancing competition. i'm sitting on the floor with a group of spectators, and we watch disinterestedly.
dirk diggler and his partner are competing, they encourage audience participation although they'd misunderstood the instructions. everyone's playing along but having a laugh at them, and i only realize after i've begun to play along that this isn't right but the two of them are now giving it their all and totally making fools of themselves.

dirk diggler catches me alone a bit later, says something angrily and then punches me in the face. i put him down, but he gets up and tries again. i defend myself, he begins threatening to stab me - i put him down one more time and i walk away, angry, confused and disappointed.

i don't understand why he'd behave like this, nor why he'd think that i had been intentionally participating in his humiliation.

eventually i come across his closed facebook account [of course i'd be checking facebook in my dreams] and discover that the event had been recorded and that recording has been posted online - suddenly i'm terrified that he's taking it harder than the star wars kid and potentially suicidal...

the first order of the day was a repeat of yesterday's performance, only dressed better and armed with a little more experience. in retrospect, there were a couple of things that we could've improved even more, but quite frankly the effort wouldn't be worth it - what we have is good enough.

unfortunately, when i picked up ukko on my way out i found him unresponsive. a second dead ipod, so soon after the incident, caused me severe distress. getting my warranty papers in order before leaving delayed me quite a bit.

we sat going over the photos at a nearby coffee shop opposite the kabbalah centre. it would appear that tel aviv has its very own diogenes, dressed in ye olde semi-psychedelic fervent-religious wear and carrying diagrams and pictures best suited to a powerpoint presentation. he raved and ranted, cursed and cajoled, and generally caused wonder and alarm.

urchin's response claims quote of the day:
"there's a man who has all the answers"
"i don't think he has all the right answers"
indeed :)

we continued on to dizengof center, discussing and being disgusted by cruelty to animals. we stopped by the art supply store, then idigital to have the cool mac guys elevate my discomfort to "mild panic". eventually i was passed through to a more technical person, who managed to revive ukko and relieve me of my immediate woes. [although he's now in disk mode and refusing to be disconnected from my pc]

on my way past disc center i ran into one of ze germans who's just arrived back in israel for a quick holiday. we stopped for a fairly long chat over orange juice.

i came home, checked out a band (החברים של נטשה) and determined that i won't be going to their concert with gn1 on friday. i also determined that i have no idea how i'm getting to the trance party on friday night :/

i spent the afternoon beginning to process the photos, watching battlestar galactica, and chatting online. i contemplated going to the beach, but as i was on my way out the clouds took over for the day. a bit later i met up with gn1 at what will hopefully be her new apartment, and after a lot of chatting with the current tenants i escorted her to the train station.

around the time that i left the train station ze german, grootbek and breakfast girl were meeting at a bar close to my apartment. due to a series of bad decisions it took the better part of an hour to get there, but at least i was in time for a couple of beers and lots of chatter.

the highlight was on our way back - it turns out that ze german and i share the same bitter experience with being unable to pass the polygraph, and it's the first time i've been able to talk, laugh and vent with someone who truly understands. i passed him a copy of the lie behind the lie detector (bluetooth, and weird coincidence that i had it on my phone) because now he can really appreciate just how accurate it is.

i wasn't home for long before gn1 called to say goodnight... that was another two-hour phone call. a lot less pleasant than the others, though, as the primary topic was friends and family and support and loneliness: it took a lot to explain what a long-term sacrifice i've been making and it brought up a lot of emotion that i don't usually concern myself with. on a day-to-day basis i don't actually think about all the things that not having my immediate family around entails, but when i do think about it it's quite tough.

the conversation after that was great, right until it was time to end the call and i managed to put my foot in my mouth by using an incorrect word that i couldn't take back :/

i'm now way overdue on a visit to my nice, warm bed.