God it's been a lovely day/everything's been going my way

[x_los]

Today was splendid. After finally getting some sleep after the IVs of speed, which made me feel better but also ludicrously, unbearably jittery, I woke up feeling actually almost normal. I got a Happy Valentine's Day text from my mom and another from Daddy. I beta'd the second of two fics for bagheera_san (behold the first, which is just lovely), and wrote another two thousand words of my first cliche!fic entry, including some indication of the scenes I still need to write. Dabbing in an outline of what I need to do always gives me a feeling of control and direction in the morass of an ambitious or plottier fic.

A few cups of tea later I had lunch with Haddas, who managed to annoy me by, on the day when I was sick and useless and getting IVs put in, having been off showing the Dutch ambassador around in her sweet IDF war office job. Way to make me feel extra pathetic, friend. But still, had some tea and surprisingly good cake at Member's Club, got juicy gossip from Kim, and we walked back home to bathe in the glut of delicious, warm sun with books. While Haddas embarrassed herself with Twilight I made inroads with High Fidelity. I hadn't picked it up since the train over from England, and I knocked a respectable hundred pages off of this afternoon.

I suggested we hike to Old Bar'am, the ruins of a village and synagoque dating to the third century C.E. This is, according to legend, the final resting place of Queen Esther, my favorite biblical character. Toni, Erik, Tamara, Joel, Haddas and I all went. We stopped en route to check out the Jewish and Christian cemetaries on the side of the road. There were children playing soccer in a wide lawn outside the old synagogue, smacking the ball hard up against the old walls, accidentally sending it knocking into the former Holy of Hollies and clambering over the half-crumbled walls to fetch it back as Haddas berated them for their carelessness in Hebrew. Interesting column capitals and engravings--nothing from the Western architectural canon, though the wide portico is atypical and might well have been Greek or Roman influenced.

The ruins are actually v. well-preserved and shockingly extensive, and though we arrived at sunset we still had time to traipse through the overgrown remnants of what appeared to have once been a relatively sizeable community. I'm unclear on the age of these ruins--Bar'am's the site of an ancient village, but was also the site of a village in 1948, when Jewish troops drove out Christian Arab settlers, who resettled in nearby Jish. Like most Israeli historical sites there's little moderation: no one telling the kids not to play soccer against the ancient synagogue, no ropes preventing touching or running around in the site, no plaques explaining the age and probable use of the buildings. This is frustrating for a history nerd or someone who thinks relics should be somewhat protected from ill-use the way Indiana Jones thinks 'this belongs in a museum,' but Israel's so chock-full o' relics, no wonder they're a bit cavalier about it all. The lack of information did lend a sort of otherworldly ('entering fairyland,' as Haddas so purpley put it) atmosphere to the labrynthine passages in the gloaming. 

We walked back a bit of the way, but I successfully hitched us a ride home (a trick I love pulling, and which makes me feel flush with competence). In roughly an hour and a quarter we're getting around to watching Slumdog Millionaire, about which I've heard good things, if not enthusiastically fabulous ones.

I'm happy to be recovered, largely, though I'm still on antibiotics and still going home to see a real doctor and rest in America at the month's end. All in all a very nice Valentine's day, even though my 'valentine' (lord, how twee) is currently off listening to Tom Stoppard instead of me. :p

Thanks SO MUCH friends who were worried about me when I was sick. It was really v. sweet of y'all, and much appreciated.

Comments

[aralias.livejournal.com]

he was charming and very intersting, as was the play - and it had maria's dad from SJA in it! though with no hair. so basically i'm not sorry.

i'm doubly not sorry because on the way ho,e i saw several valentines couples wearing red and clutching roses and snogging on public transport and i felt actively repulsed by all of this - by the horrific fakeness of it. christmas is a festival that's about everyone, you can celebrate it on public transport because pretty much everyone is going 'hooray, no work and presents', valentines day just feels like something i don't ever want to be a part of. so, tom stoppard: he was good. and you clearly had fun in the synagogue :p

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

I share your twinges at the lack of protection of relics...but on the other hand, there's a part of me that hops up and down like a little kid at the idea of getting to interact with such things without needing an intermediary.

And I am glad you're doing better.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness. I didn't realize you were sick. I guess it's been a long while since I wandered by. I'm glad you're feeling better and that you have managed to have some enjoyment out of life. Take care of yourself.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Ah, comment answering time again. We should /actually/ see some theater someday. I do feel though like nothing was on this week. Perhaps we didn't look hard enough.

That Valentine's equivalent of the Grinch is now 'a Katy.'

[x-los.livejournal.com]

I know, I was really ambivalent about it. Clearly it's their living heritage, though, and it's just an entirely un-American, unsanctified way of existing in an immediate organic continiuum with their past. Which is nifty.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

OH yeah, for weeks, with a thrilling conclussion of almost!death. But I'm in London now, and soon America again, so thanks, and I hope to see a proper doctor soon. :)

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Well, it's good you'll be back soon and can get checked fully and properly. Illnesses that come on like that can linger in most unpleasant ways. Take care.