tuesday's child

(note: tuesday begins on monday night, in accordance with the hebrew calendar)

i rolled to urchin's, clambered up the steps to the roof and sat on the wall with a beer and ben & jerry's while we waited for the fireworks to begin. we heard them, but it took a while to realize that the new building wasn't going to afford us a view of the action and we missioned down the road to rabin square.

we were stopped at the security post and told that we had to finish our beers before crossing the line... considering the fact that i *live* behind the line, that's a pretty silly order...

after watching the stock-standard and uninspired celebrations at the square, we stopped off at my place so i could put on shoes and then hit coffeeholic to pick up coffee and see what we believe was the final firework. then we were off to the florentin street party, grabbing a couple of giant pretzels (mine was salty bacon) on the way.

i don't know why we went to florentin and not to neve tzedek where all the slightly-older-than-fifteens were at. the first street party we passed was pretty cool – classic trance music and loads of people, but when we decided to mission around we discovered that that was the only place that was doing alright. after going full circle (and running into the mongoose's sister), we returned and spent a hour or so in the middle of the throng of hyped-up revellers. [a]

when we got tired of that, we found a funky party on the other side and then stood for song and a half of some hard-rock band until we decided that it was time to exit.

on the way back, we ran into fn – it was an awkward exchange. we hopped a taxi back to the square. the plan was to go to bed, not a particularly fine end for such a happy occasion.

---
it was 2am when dredded-praise (dp)* let me know that she was on her way to the party, and hoped i was having fun. i told her that i would much rather have been going too... we were halfway home when i received a message asking me why i wasn't coming. i let her know that i'd had trouble finding my way.

* a girl i met years ago in south africa, and ran into again at the festival.

a quick phone call later, and i'd gotten her to agree to wait for me if i could be ready in twenty minutes. i got the taxi driver to drop me off at rabin square - he almost went the wrong way, and i think we hit every red light - and i *ran* to the atm, drew cash, *ran* home, and packed my gear in about four minutes.
as i was walking out, i received the following sms: "i didn't mention that it's a car full of girls".
i responded with a promise to try to behave myself.

i made it in time, cars were sorted out and we were on our way - a car full of crazy trance bunnies and good vibes ^_^

the ride there was cool, we slept to the fugees in a loop and arrived as dawn was breaking. the girls wrangled the tickets, and after a short mission we were rocking up on the dancefloor accompanied by the rising sun. setting up the tent was quick and painless, i acquired coffee and an awesome chocolate ball, and i was good to go.

---
a moment on the dancefloor - i was suddenly struck by a wonderful perspective:
from [a] above until the dust, crazy people and fantastic music all swirled around me was all a blur in the movie that is my life, as if the street party that i'd been half-assedly dancing at had been a portal into the serious independence day nature party that enveloped me.

life was good.
---
the only thing that hadn't been organized properly was a sprinkler system - we stomped up an insane amount of dust. i'd left my ski mask at home, so i had to improvise with my shirt; i still ended up with black nostrils and throat.

i managed to break the habit of being one-handed on the dancefloor - i don't know where the need to be holding a drink / bubbles / whatever came from, but i'm definitely better with both hands free :P

aside from a huge hot-dog for breakfast before the quick morning nap, watching with interest as a stand of freshly-made magnets with photos from the morning was brought out, and playing "spot the horse", it was a simple, magnificent morning of deep digging and great tunes.

it was a little disappointing to leave, though. and sad to see that so much trash had been left behind. the scene is maturing considerably, but it still has a way to go.

---
we stopped at a gas station on the way.

some arsim took a liking to one of the girls. aside from the first creepy pick-up line ("you're my heart disease" must have sounded much better in his head), there was a rather sinister atmosphere around those clowns and i was worried that i'd have to jump in to help her out.
fortunately there was no need, and when they eventually turned to fighting we were on the other side of the station and out of harm's way.

i picked up bubbles - really cool bubbles - and dp and i had ice-cream while i cleaned the windows.

the last moment was a special one - we were debating chocolate, and everyone agreed with me when i reverse-quoted the devil's advocate: "chocolate? underrated. the equivalent of experiencing small quantities of love". when i mentioned that that must be the reason i consume so much of it, three of the girls immediately surrounded me with a giant group hug and an "awwwwww", which had us all in hysterics :)

---
on the way back, one of the girls convinced me to use "sexy mother pucker", with hilarious results. she'd been singing "you sexy mother pucker" afterwards (it only took a couple of minutes before the tingling sensation got to me and i had to beg for a wet-wipe), and that sound has been following me around since :P

all the girls had been invited to ze germans' traditional independence day braai, but once we got there only one (anti-1) had the energy to come inside. the welcome was a bit weird - the brother-in-law brought his family for the second time in a row, and that meant that all of us were pushed to the fringe. also, the guys doing the cooking felt taken advantage of, so it looks like next year we'll have to move it to tel aviv.

anti-1 and i slipped into the pool immediately after greeting everyone, and after the dust and the driving it was absolute heaven! the afternoon was spent lounging, eating, and chatting. it was a good barbecue even with the weird people.

it was a bit awkward that everyone assumed that anti-1 was my girlfriend: as i explained, i really like her but it's a bit too soon to be getting excited.

we got a ride back to tel aviv from ze irish german, and after saying goodbye to anti-1, having a quick shower and putting on nice clothes, i took a walk to his place and we were off to sjo's engagement party. there was an ice-cream stand, good whiskey and somewhat unnerving speeches (someone should have proof-read them first), and i met my skijar room-mate's ex. our discussion was amusing.

i got a lot of travel advice for india on the way back - i'll be following up on some of those leads shortly - and went to bed sated in every way [although not looking forward to an early morning, as my SC hadn't been answering his phone].