omg. the opera yesterday was INCREDIBLE, even though i had to take a train all the way out to daly city (the only theater i could find that still definitely had seats available) and i got a migraine midway through the third (last) act. despite all of those things, it was still one of the most worthwhile adventures i have undertaken thus far. _tristan und isolde_ was amazing, so amazing, so very amazing that i don't even know how to put it into words. and wagnerian singers are hardcore; they sing incredibly elaborate music for four hours straight.

one reason that i think wagner has gotten this reputation for being difficult is that he didn't really care about musical structure. in most operas, there are reasonably separate songs, which you can hum to yourself on your way home. wagner is not like that. everything is sung, and there's very little sense of where one song ends and another begins -- because there are no pauses, and very few distinct or repeating melody lines. it's not that wagner is really difficult, but he is very different.

anyway, i loved it, and i recommend the experience very highly.

afterwards, my head hurt a lot, but i thought i could tough it out, because i'm a tough guy. so i got on BART... and got off near union square in SF because i needed to find somewhere to buy excedrin . also, yes, ok, i did kind of want to look for pants at H&M. i bought excedrin and drank some water, and, while i was sitting on the lawn at union square, on the phone with my mom, a panhandler came up to me, stuck his hand right in my line of vision (i was kind of looking down) and asked me for a dollar. a dollar! not just anything i can spare, like in berkeley. apparently this man had such standards that he would accept nothing less than a dollar. i gave him nothing. later, i gave a dollar to a man who asked me if i could spare anything. i am not sure that this was the right thing to do, but i did it, so there.

then i bought pants. my head felt better at the time. but then i thought it was going to explode on the train home. when i got home, i took a nap. when i woke up, all i wanted to eat was two pieces of toast and four clementines. i love clementines; jessie bought them last year, and i ate them like i was recovering from scurvy or something. update: i ate two more while i was writing this entry.