it was incredibly rejuvenating to go home for the weekend.  my relationship with my parents is so pleasurable now that all the stresses and pressures of normal life are removed...we always got along really well, but at times that was obscured by my need to differentiate myself and prove myself as a free-thinking individual.  now that i live on my own, i no longer need to work to establish my voice or announce my independence. 

on friday night i visited my friend allie at ucla, and after giving a quick hello to mike oleon we went to check out some apartment party that her friends were going to.  at first i was a bit bored with the idea of party-hopping like every other night with random people that i didn't know, but it ended up being a phenomenal night.  within 20 minutes, i bumped into about 10 people that i knew, including some camp girls, my boss from the summer, my best friend from 7th grade who i hadn't seen since, a girl who was best friends with my best friend from elementary school, the center of the cal basketball team who i had hung out with the week before...all in one small room of a single apartment.  it was quite surreal. 

the next night (while recovering from our loss against ucla) i went downtown to the moca with tristan to see the closing night of the basquiat exhibit.  i had been quite disappointed over the summer that i couldn't make it to the exhibit (i had been at camp all summer, and only had a few days in la before leaving for cape cod and then for cal), because basquiat is one of my favorite artists.  when i mentioned this to tristan, he said that the exhibit was still up and that we could go see it when i visited...i was overjoyed!  the exhibit was wonderful, it was so exciting to see his work in its full glory and in its original scale...i absolutely adore him.  tristan and i had a great time watching all of the well dressed la folk, and after seeing every piece i gave him a tour of the outside of the disney center.  we found a pretty little garden in the back of the building that had a nice view of all of the buildings...the late hour and total silence of the city lended to a mood that in his opinion was eerie and in my opinion was intriguing.  we ended the night with in-n-out and carla bruni.  i always love our visits.

my flight was delayed.  and i left ALL of my delicate laundry at home (i took all my underwear and bras home to wash).  and my phone died becuase i forgot to bring a charger to la.  and my bags were disgustingly heavy and my shoulder was sore by the time i made it home in the dark of the night.  and yet each of these little setbacks made me smile all the brighter...just because i'm undaunted by such obstacles, and find their presense somewhat humerous.  my brother laughed at me all weekend for claiming that i "preach impermanence" in order to excuse/explain my mindset about things.  with this mindframe, waiting in the black cold at the corner of shattuck for the 51 bus was nothing short of a calming passage of time.  

today i got back my first in-class-essay from english class.  got a hard, solid, juicy "A", which to my contentment was accompanied by a "great job, yael" written underneath it.  and that professor is a toughy, too, so it was no easy feat.  it definately made me feel as though i ahd redeemed myself from the 30% that i had recieved on my math test.

i can't remember how to load images onto posts, but as soon as i figure it out, i'll put up some pictures of da berkeley life.