my brother is trying gamely to continue sleeping despite the fact that i'm in his room, copying cds onto his inexplicable little archos jukebox 6000 which will either be the solution to all my problems or the bane of my existence (pick a cliche!) i have to use his computer b/c i shortcircuited the other jukebox somehow using mine. quite possibly it was a flaw in the machine but one can't be too careful. so for the past few days i've been picking and choosing cds -- they take time to burn you know -- trying to be cold-blooded and rational (will i really listen to that South Park soundtrack i haven't even considered putting on for a good eight months?) and now trying not to wake adam although that's a lost cause.
well, siblings sacrifice for each other, right? or as ross says if you can't use people, what are they there for?

last nite ilana who came over bearing a box full of decorative/cute/emotional stuff via her and liz -- this is a tradition we have, making each other boxes at anxious times -- ended up accompanying my family to dinner. she took judah's place actually as he opted to stay home and create three calculator programs that will take his science test for him. we went to betawi grill, an indonesian restaurant in bethesda i'd only been to once before but i have great memories associated with rijstaffel (mmm amsterdam) and this did not disappoint. the feast lasted two hours and by the end we had to roll each other onto the street.
good stuff.

my flight takes off at 6:10 and as this is a german airline i expect it will be precisely ontime (that's a JOKE, people. altho i did make a sharp comment about volkswagon yesterday that i won't repeat here after my mother and i were nearly run over by a crazed cabrio. half of what i say could get me kicked out of swat; i guess it's a good thing i choose only selected people to confide in. like the world wide web! --sidenote: in the Forward last week my father came across an ad put out by Tikkun, the jewish leftist/progressive group, begging us all to live good charitable loving lives and for god's sake, and i swear this is a quote, "STOP GOYIM BASHING!" ... it was a truly sobering moment for all of us in the kitchen right then as we took stock of our own actions, considered changing our ways, and laughed so hard i'm sure our goyish neighbors heard and assumed we must be jeering at captive christian children we were about to make into matzah. but that aside.)
so we're leaving the house at 2:30 to get to the airport quite early. my friend jamie told me on her flight back from south africa she was strip-searched. is that practice nowadays or is it because she's part-syrian? i wonder.
hope it doesn't come to that with me. i'll be edgy enough. i've also taken the precaution of transferring anything possibly objectionable to my suitcases. all i have left i could use as a weapon in my carryon is a copy of satanic verses i could bash a richard reid over the head with. well, wish me luck.