Hoping to bottom out soon...

I think today was the worst day yet - I finally understand what it means to be so upset that you see red.The holy month of Ramadan ends next week with a two day feast called Id El Fitr (literally "celebration of the feast"). The Islamic calendar, and therefore the holidays, are all based on the lunar calendar. According to the school schedule which has been posted for months now, Id El Fitr will be next Thursday and Friday - so Brooke bought her ticket to arrive on Wednesday evening.

Now comes the part that makes smoke come out of my ears...

...the celebration is not based on the actual lunar position (which can be calculated to such a degree of accuracy that at NASA, we routinely point a laser beam at a reflector the size of a newspaper on the moon and hit it) but rather on when the Muslim officials in charge of this process decide the new moon has occurred.

It gets more complicated...

The officials in charge of declaring the holiday vary from country to country - some use astronomical calculations and other use actual sighting of the moon. Thus, the holiday is not declared until the night before - as long as it isn't cloudy. If it is, it might be declared retroactively the day after.

So now the holiday might be Wednesday and Thursday - or it might be Tuesday and Wednesday. Two things are certain - it will definitely not be Thursday and Friday and it was exactly the piece of news needed to push me over the edge. I excused myself from class and beat the wall of the bathroom until my hand was numb and my face was flush. Then I wrote a horribly jaded e-mail to Brooke explaining how I was searching for a flight to come home with her following her trip here next week. She managed to find the only response able to calm me out of my brazen rage - telling me that if I studied twenty-three hours a day and spent one holding her, she would be satisfied. I really don't deserve her.

Perhaps the most ironic part of the day was when someone, seeing my face red with anger, explained that math is not exactly the strength of the Muslim clerics. I shouted in reply "THE MUSLIMS WERE THE FIRST TO DOCUMENT ALGEBRA!!!!" before excusing myself to wash my face with cold water once again.

Today was not a good day - but next Wednesday will be.