I'm hitting my introvert wall, but today was great - and I think I can keep pushing through the next few days of social whirl if I go to bed as soon as I finish writing this. I think I've stayed up until at least one a.m. every night since I got back from Iowa, and this was the first night that I didn't drink anything, so hopefully I'll feel more refreshed tomorrow.
But you don't care about tomorrow - you are here for today's recap (okay, maybe you're here because you're bored).
I dragged myself out of bed this morning and drove over to the dirty east bay - I suppose now is as good a time as any to tell you that I've been considering moving to Berkeley. Yes, this is a total jhoke on my face, since I've hated on Berkeley for the last fifteen years. But in December, when I was mostly extremely blocked and angry and unable to write, I was thinking that maybe moving would help (although then I was thinking I would put my stuff in storage and go totally nomad). And then, later in December, when I'd gotten some quiet solace in Iowa, I was thinking that maybe I still wanted to live in the bay area, but that I wanted to live somewhere with more space and more peaceful surroundings.
And so today, I went over to Berkeley to spend some time wandering around the Berkeley Hills - I was looking at both the hills and at North Berkeley, and decided to check out the hills first. This was a good thing; as soon as I saw the hills, I realized I wanted no part in living in them. The area is super peaceful and gorgeous, and there are some awesome walking paths that cut through the hills so you don't have to drive or walk on sidewalks. But the hills are really steep, and it seems highly unlikely that I would ever walk down (or, more likely, back up) them to go to a coffee shop or something. Also, the steepness gives me some serious concerns about landslides, especially since they're right on top of the Hayward fault, which could go off at any moment.
Anyway, I wandered around the hills and the Solano shopping/restaurant strip, and I had lunch, and I bought a book at a bookstore, and it was a nice morning (even if it proved that I don't ever want to go there again). Then I rendezvoused with John and Jess for a v. brief conversation, which was delightful.
But after that, I'm going to put moving thoughts on hiatus for a little bit - I really, really am feeling like writing again, for the first time in forever, and I should strike while that iron is hot rather than obsessing over whether I want to move and where. And I actually like my apartment - it's the crackheads that are a problem, and if I'm holing up and writing and ordering food in to support myself, the crackheads are less of a problem (until I become one).
sssanyway again. I came home in time to have my usual Sunday afternoon call with my parents, who were in fine form. Then I did some stuff around the house, and then I picked up Chandlord, and then we went to the Sunset to have family dinner at Enjoy Vegetarian. There was a pretty long line for the first time in the many times I've been there, and since there were seven of us (plus a baby), we had to wait awhile. But it was worth it, I think.
It was kind of the usual suspects - Omar is in town, so he had organized it, which meant we ended up with Adit, Priyanka, Chandlord, Katrina, and Raja. This group tends to be ridiculous, and we somehow got the waitress (Rachel, whose English is somewhat imperfect) to start saying 'boom' after serving us, so that was exciting.
We also did our usual 'recap your day' conversation, although we turned it into 'weekend update' and put a time limit on it (two minutes to recap, three minutes for the audience to ask follow-up questions). It turns out it's really hard to keep from asking follow-up questions, and we were all trying desperately to remember them - but this kept the conversation from getting bogged down in a play-by-play of Raja's internet browsing as it usually does, so I think this was a good thing. Or maybe it was a bad thing, since Raja can entertain you for forty-five minutes by telling you everything he did on a day in which he didn't leave the house (as discovered at a previous family dinner).
But everyone's updates were mostly enjoyable, mostly informative, and clearly only hinting at many things going on beneath the surface, which was v. entertaining. Also, many of us had overlapped with each other at various points in the weekend, so hearing those overlap points from others was interesting. Anyway, this game probably isn't the game that most people play when having dinner with friends, but I quite enjoyed it.
Eventually, though, Adit and Priyanka had to leave to feed Vihaan (who cannot enjoy vegetarian yet, but he hung out in his carrier for the duration of dinner with minimal fussing), and the rest of us sat around for a bit longer and continued the ridiculousness before parting ways. Then I gave Chandlord a ride home, and I really really hope she hasn't given me the cold she has (which she may have given me yesterday, before she knew she was sick).
And now you know it all, and I must sleep and hope to recover from hitting the introvert wall so that I can write in the morning before attempting extroversion again. Goodnight!
But you don't care about tomorrow - you are here for today's recap (okay, maybe you're here because you're bored).
I dragged myself out of bed this morning and drove over to the dirty east bay - I suppose now is as good a time as any to tell you that I've been considering moving to Berkeley. Yes, this is a total jhoke on my face, since I've hated on Berkeley for the last fifteen years. But in December, when I was mostly extremely blocked and angry and unable to write, I was thinking that maybe moving would help (although then I was thinking I would put my stuff in storage and go totally nomad). And then, later in December, when I'd gotten some quiet solace in Iowa, I was thinking that maybe I still wanted to live in the bay area, but that I wanted to live somewhere with more space and more peaceful surroundings.
And so today, I went over to Berkeley to spend some time wandering around the Berkeley Hills - I was looking at both the hills and at North Berkeley, and decided to check out the hills first. This was a good thing; as soon as I saw the hills, I realized I wanted no part in living in them. The area is super peaceful and gorgeous, and there are some awesome walking paths that cut through the hills so you don't have to drive or walk on sidewalks. But the hills are really steep, and it seems highly unlikely that I would ever walk down (or, more likely, back up) them to go to a coffee shop or something. Also, the steepness gives me some serious concerns about landslides, especially since they're right on top of the Hayward fault, which could go off at any moment.
Anyway, I wandered around the hills and the Solano shopping/restaurant strip, and I had lunch, and I bought a book at a bookstore, and it was a nice morning (even if it proved that I don't ever want to go there again). Then I rendezvoused with John and Jess for a v. brief conversation, which was delightful.
But after that, I'm going to put moving thoughts on hiatus for a little bit - I really, really am feeling like writing again, for the first time in forever, and I should strike while that iron is hot rather than obsessing over whether I want to move and where. And I actually like my apartment - it's the crackheads that are a problem, and if I'm holing up and writing and ordering food in to support myself, the crackheads are less of a problem (until I become one).
sssanyway again. I came home in time to have my usual Sunday afternoon call with my parents, who were in fine form. Then I did some stuff around the house, and then I picked up Chandlord, and then we went to the Sunset to have family dinner at Enjoy Vegetarian. There was a pretty long line for the first time in the many times I've been there, and since there were seven of us (plus a baby), we had to wait awhile. But it was worth it, I think.
It was kind of the usual suspects - Omar is in town, so he had organized it, which meant we ended up with Adit, Priyanka, Chandlord, Katrina, and Raja. This group tends to be ridiculous, and we somehow got the waitress (Rachel, whose English is somewhat imperfect) to start saying 'boom' after serving us, so that was exciting.
We also did our usual 'recap your day' conversation, although we turned it into 'weekend update' and put a time limit on it (two minutes to recap, three minutes for the audience to ask follow-up questions). It turns out it's really hard to keep from asking follow-up questions, and we were all trying desperately to remember them - but this kept the conversation from getting bogged down in a play-by-play of Raja's internet browsing as it usually does, so I think this was a good thing. Or maybe it was a bad thing, since Raja can entertain you for forty-five minutes by telling you everything he did on a day in which he didn't leave the house (as discovered at a previous family dinner).
But everyone's updates were mostly enjoyable, mostly informative, and clearly only hinting at many things going on beneath the surface, which was v. entertaining. Also, many of us had overlapped with each other at various points in the weekend, so hearing those overlap points from others was interesting. Anyway, this game probably isn't the game that most people play when having dinner with friends, but I quite enjoyed it.
Eventually, though, Adit and Priyanka had to leave to feed Vihaan (who cannot enjoy vegetarian yet, but he hung out in his carrier for the duration of dinner with minimal fussing), and the rest of us sat around for a bit longer and continued the ridiculousness before parting ways. Then I gave Chandlord a ride home, and I really really hope she hasn't given me the cold she has (which she may have given me yesterday, before she knew she was sick).
And now you know it all, and I must sleep and hope to recover from hitting the introvert wall so that I can write in the morning before attempting extroversion again. Goodnight!
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