berkeley

friends, i'm up in berkeley for the week for my class at the pacific school of religion. the class is "writing as a healing practice." its good so far; intense because we have to write about a lot of trauma from our lives and share it. but good.

needless to say i'm doing a lot of thinking up here and that's been difficult. so far the summer has been mostly think-free, but now decisions must be made and i'm feeling stressed out.

that aside, i'm enjoying the bay area immensely, likely because of the onslaught of attractive people who seem to live here, along with the incredible liberalism and genuine appreciation of good food. i must say, this is a quality that i haven't found anywhere else in my travels in the US. good food is not just appreciated but revered. and i'm not just talking about fancy restaurants. people love their local and organic produce and are hyper aware of where their food comes from. this is surely because of alice waters' impact on the place, but it is nonetheless in the air and i must say, i love that aspect of it.

i'm going to chez panisse (http://chezpanisse.com) for dinner tomorrow night with some classmates and am very excited about it. tonight i was wandering around and stumbled upon it, only to find that they were celebrating bastille day. there were two servers outside dressed to the nines, serving a $10 prix fixe including pate, mache (greens), cornichons, mustard, bread and butter, along with a glass of wine. though i had already eaten, how could i resist? there was a live band playing romantic french music and little tables set outside. people of all ages were milling around and everyone was in excellent spirits. it was the perfect way to end my night.

i've been doing my share of bopping around since i got here on saturday, hanging out in berkeley on saturday night eating thai food, then hitting a UU church on oakland on sunday afternoon. afterwards i zipped into san francisco to have dim sum, checked out a cartoon museum (really cool), then lay in a park for awhile. i contemplated going to a movie, but then figured it would be better to go home and try to get a head start on the readings. so i grabbed some food at mel's diner and headed home.

today, right after class i began to research somewhere for lunch and i found this seemingly great little indian place that was super cheap and had amazing reviews. sadly, my back has been hurting me again because of my plane injury, so i figured while i am up here in civilization, maybe i'll try to see a chiropractor up here. i managed to find someone about a block from the indian restaurant, so i headed over there in the hopes for grub and adjustment. the chiropractor was great, but she told me that if she didn't know better she'd have thought i was in an accident. apparently my body is an absolute wreck. i knew this; i was in a lot of pain. it was hard to sit upright in class. she worked me over a little, but we made two more appointments for later this week. cute little dyke.

sadly, "vik's" was closed; though i'm not sure if it was closed merely because it was a monday or if it was closed for good. hmm. i got a tip about a taco joint nearby, so i went there, and that was tasty but waaaaay overpriced. afterwards i did some "shopping", then headed back which was when i ran into chez panisse.

i was concerned before i got here that i would be eating so much that i'd be overweight by the time i got back to firebaugh and also totally out of shape. but i'm no longer concerned about this. the hills here are RIDICULOUS and painful, and in general because buses don't run very frequently i find myself walking everywhere. the exercise is great, but i've gotta say, i'm damned tired.