as soon as i woke up, as soon as i was getting adjusted to the waking life, i heard my doorbell ringing, followed by several loud knocks. i debated whether to answer it or not, but since the television was opened, whoever was outside already knew i was home, so i had no choice. reluctantly, i looked out the window and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was none other than rob house. he just happened to be in the area getting the tires of his car replaced and dropped by. and it's been a while since his last visit back in august, when the floors hadn't been sanded yet and the walls unpainted. rob, as always, wasn't shy about voicing his opinions, and told me he didn't like the pink kitchen nor the blue master bedroom, and said i should've gone with less brighter colors. i discovered something about him that i never knew before, and that's he's actually older than me by 3 years. and here i was thinking maybe he was in his mid-twenties! maybe it's his devil-may-care attitude that made me think he was much younger than what he actually is. rob left, but not before telling me that i should go out today, soak in some of this sweet 40° weather.

i made breakfast, scrambled eggs with scallions again, along with the last of my sausage links and raisin toast and a glass of fruit elixir. after i finished eating, i took a shower and mucked around with my mac a little bit (compiling and upgrading to php 4.3.0), before getting dressed and going out for a run. i wasn't able to go all the way around without stopping today, but i did get more smiles, probably because of the nicer weather. i think most of the people i run into are probably students, they don't have the damaged glare of the unemployed. i got back home and took another shower, then lounged on the couch reading a book, almost falling asleep. my sister came by briefly to drop off some supplies, a carton of eggs and a vietnamese sandwich, my dinner, which i ate.

at 7pm the car honking outside was julie, coming by to pick me up to go see rivers and tides: andy goldsworthy working with time. this was actually a movie she invited me to go see a few weeks ago at the museum of fine art, but we didn't go see it because she was doing her taxes and lost track of time. it turned out to be a good thing that we didn't go, because she ended up getting two free tickets for tonight's viewing. julie also returned the bird books i let her borrow along with the spare strokes cd she copied, and i returned her lidless tupperware container and her manila folder full of cape cod information.

rivers and tides was an interesting first person documentary about andy goldsworthy. i didn't really know who he was, but i've definitely seen photos of his work, where he uses elements from nature to create natural sculptures. common themes appear in his work, including the squiggly line (in the forms of icicle sculptures and stone walls, just a few examples) and the pine cone shape (built from materials such as rocks, twigs, and ice chips). the whole movie he's talking about his personal philosophy, like how he wants to understand the rock, or the force of the water. from a technical perspective some of his constructions are wonderful feats of engineering skills and/or extraordinary patience, but i couldn't help to think that some of his larger structures might pose some kind of danger to unsuspecting passerbys. i also wonder if he isn't destroying the very nature he seeks to understand by building these things. these points are very minor though, not like he's setting forests on fire, nor does he introduce foreign material into his work, but rather all the materials are preexisting things found naturally in the nearby surroundings. his work seemed very japanese to me for some reason, maybe because he works with nature so much and appreciates the hidden beauty of the wilderness, but i always got the feeling that japanese appreciation is more about appreciating the nature, as opposed to andy's work, which is natural but man-made at the same time. still, it'd be interesting to know what the japanese audience thinks about his art. i find andy's philosophy to be very different from my own. occasionally when i do nature photography, the whole point is to leave nature alone, to preserve its authenticity, to appreciate it as it exists. andy's appreciation is different though, he creates as well as appreciates, he is on the one hand an observer like the rest of us but also a participant, which i don't know if i agree with, but occasionally he makes very beautiful work, so it seems to be working for him.

julie had smuggled in a box of chocolate snowcaps; i threatened to expose her ruse if we were in danger of being caught. behind us sat art students (according to julie that is, i just thought they were assholes) who sat with feet draped over our row of seats. one of them had a horrible wheezing laugh, which brought the audience to a chillingly awkward silence whenever he found something funny onscreen. in my mind i slowly fantasized about stabbing him and slicing the feet of his compatriots. if i ever know anyone who laughs like that, there would be no way i could be his/her friend. somewhere in his abused childhood he must've learned how to laugh wrong, if that's even possible. horseshack. remember that guy from welcome back, kotter? this guy laughed like horseshack. i wish i had a time machine so i could bring my hunting knife and relive those moments so i could stab him for real.

after the movie julie "the rage" drove me back to my place. in the car we began to talk about the columbia space shuttle tragedy, and she started asking why are we even sending people up into space anyway. JULIE LEPAGE IS A SPACE HATER! i gasped in horror hearing her question one of the most important endeavors of not just americans, but humanity as a whole! we are asserting our presence in the universe! we need more people in space, not less!

instead of going home though, we decided to get some food. first at dimio, a newly opened gourmet pizza joint on the mass ave outskirt of porter square (only to grab a menu though), before driving to picante in davis square for mexican. unbeknownst to us, the restaurant was 10 minutes to closing, so we had to get take-out instead. i had a bag of salsa chips, julie ordered this giant mexican thing that looked like a large slice of lasagna. since she had to drive me home anyway, we went back to my place to eat and to watch jordan's crossing. she also got a chance to see my new couch and drink a bottle of complimentary corona. after a few minutes of 11pm news, she went back to somerville.