Don't tell the dogs!

But I'm going to be extremely selfish in a minute here and go for a run by myself. I know, I'm an awful dog mom, but I haven't been on a run by myself in (literally) months, and today just feels like a great day for it. I heard this song by Bon Iver again today (scroll down and click on the "Listen" link if you want to hear it), for the second time, and I have decided this is the next album I need to buy. But it put me in such a nice, melancholy little mood, and with the clouds rolling in on a chilly December afternoon, I just want to run around town by myself for a while. Campus will be deserted, the leaves are all still lovely, drooping, and yellow, and I'd like to have nothing else to think about except my own feet pounding the pavement.

In other news, I'm still enjoying having nothing to do, and I've taken the opportunity to read non-school things and watch movies so far. I've also been cooking and have decided I need to make a greater effort to eat healthy. It's easy to eat nothing but sweets around this time of year, and I've definitely hit the point where I feel kind of gross and don't want anymore. So I've been loading up on veggies and am trying to find interesting new things to do with them - if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

So after I finish this blog post, I'm going to hit the road for a while, then I'll shower and get dressed (in my new clothes!), then the one thing I want to get done today is to write a letter to Michelle. Are you reading this, Michelle? I am going to write you a long overdue letter today. I'm thinking about going to Barnes and Noble to do it, just to get out of the house for a while and have an excuse to treat myself to some yummy tea or a Frappuccino or something. Oh right. Eating healthy. Maybe I'll stick with the tea.

The other things I guess I should update you on are as follows:

- I checked my grades the other day and am very pleased with them. Hooray for a successful first semester of grad school! (Not that grades matter that much anymore, but it's always good to get positive feedback.)

- Since I got some money for Christmas, I went clothes shopping the other day and bought some much needed new jeans, as well as some corduroy pants that were on sale and a few cute tops.

- I am leaving for the Bahamas on Friday!!

Since I haven't been very good about taking pictures lately, I hope this will suffice. I wrote it a few weeks ago. You can consider it a belated Christmas present, if you like. Here's to the end of a very interesting 2008!

* * * * *

Berkeley in November

is a failed watercolor

(the kind no one wants because the colors have all run together).

More than that: nothing even matches.

The earth is a parched and dirty brown,

but the trees have somehow regained their lush green

just in time to signal the transition to fall.

(Think of a broken traffic light

that switches on and immediately turns a garish yellow.)

And the sky! Who would think to swirl together such hues of

rose

burnt orange, dirty white

charcoal and cyan?

Frankly it’s all a bit too Thomas Kinkade for my tastes;

the houses glow with luminescent warmth,

the purplish hills come alive with twinkling lights

as the sun sets into the sea.

I just don’t buy it –

the real world is not rendered in such a palette.