rise of the chandlord

Provided that Vidya doesn't back out of our gentleman's agreement to rent me her place, I am definitely moving to the city! We settled matters this afternoon in Lafayette Park, sitting on some steps with a lovely view of the ocean, eating some mangoes and strawberries and drinking half a bottle of excellent champagne that she had left over from a brunch thing. So now she gets a tenant who won't smear feces all over her walls, I get to call her 'Chandlord', and all is right with the world. And the champagne was particularly delicious, even if the wind was occasionally blowing dirt and tree particles into it.

I had not intended to see her or anyone else today. At around 1pm, I was getting depressed -- I wanted to go out and work on my novel at a cafe, but I'm in freaking Berkeley. That means that when I used Yelp to find a cafe near the house, all the reviews said things like "I love this cafe! It's so dirty!!" In Berkeley speak, "dirty" = "authentic", but in Swampler speak, "dirty" = "unsanitary", and I can't write in unsanitary conditions. I was about to go to Starbucks, which around here gets 2.5-3 stars (as opposed to the dirty places, which get 4.5-5) -- I figured I'm pro-corporation enough to withstand the glares of the hippies, the hipsters, the foodies, and the crackheads. But then I got an IM from Jasmine, whom I haven't seen in months, asking if I wanted to have dinner with her and Michael tonight.

So I went to the evil city, and saw Vidya briefly to discuss the lease and friendship (but not our own friendship, of course). The park is right by the [my employer] shuttle stop, so I tested the walking portion of my upcoming commute -- the first four blocks are short, flat and easy, but the last block up to the shuttle stop is a killer climb. I suppose it's better to have the climb at the beginning of the day rather than the end...and a free shuttle is a pretty awesome benefit.

Then I went to Jasmine and Michael's for dinner, where I stayed for a few hours. Jasmine made some great curried chicken, and we had blackberries and blueberries with whipped cream for dessert, which was excellent. It was fantastic to see them; for desultory readers of the blog, I've known Jasmine and Michael since before (and during) their initial courtship, since they were both in Loro my senior year; when they got married a couple of years ago, I was a bridesmaid. We had a v. entertaining series of discussions which I won't go into here, but mostly revolved around names like 'Ranger' and 'Archer' and 'Cooper'. Then they were nice enough to drop me back off at Vidya's to retrieve my car so that I wouldn't get stabbed, and I made it back to Berkeley in less than half an hour.

I should really go to bed -- tomorrow's a crazy series of appointments and fun times in the south and east bay, and I need to be in Palo Alto by 10:30 for an allergy test. I'm hopeful that I won't have a severe reaction right before my meeting with my boss, but time will tell. Goodnight!