Where did October go??

Seriously! How can it possibly be October 22nd?? Time goes SO much faster for me when I'm in school. The year I was in Urbana after college felt like it took forever (partially in a good way, mind you; it was a very relaxing year in a way), and I'm somehow most of the way through this semester already! It's unreal.

I'm pretty much done with mid-term season now, I think. Not that I really had any midterms, but I did have a lot of stuff to do these past few weeks, and I think I have a bit of a break for a few weeks now before my end of the semester stuff will be due. The main thing on my mind right now is still my National Science Foundation fellowship application. It's almost done, but once I get it handed in and it's completely out of my hands, it'll be a minor weight lifted off my shoulders. And it's due November 6th, so I don't have too much longer to wait! I'm hoping to finish it up this weekend, actually....

Hmm, what else... things are pretty good, really. Roger hasn't been hired on anywhere yet, so we're both frustrated and anxious about that, but we'll be okay on money for a while longer since I just raked in some birthday cash last week! (Thanks again, everyone!) The weather is fantastic, and I've been squeezing in about two runs a week with the dogs. It's funny; they're not in as good a shape as they used to be! I used to have to do at least 7-8 miles with them to even put a dent in their energy for the rest of the day, but we did 6 on Saturday and they napped the rest of the day. It's ok - race registration just opened for next year's San Francisco Marathon, and I'll probably try to train for it and actually run it this summer. :)

I'm getting excited about my classes for next semester, too. I'm only going to take four, I think, and I don't think it will be nearly as rigorous a semester as this one. Which means I should be able to run more regularly, which is what brought me to this paragraph. Anyway, I'm taking a MATH class, and I'm very excited about that. I haven't had math since calculus in my senior year of high school, and I miss it! It's so concrete and unarguable and black and white. It's a puzzle where your answer is either right or wrong - no discussion needed. So that should be fun.

Well, I slept on my back funny last night and it's been bothering me today, so I think I'm going to sign off and go stretch it out a little. I'll leave you with some pictures from the past few days.


Boys asleep on the couch.

Saturday Downtown Berkeley farmer's market. Clock tower on campus in the background, through the trees.

Cute sleepy Huckleberry Hound.


Rye-dog on the lookout. He's decided the picnic table on the porch is his.

I can't figure it out.

There's like, four categories of people in this town. There's looks nice, is nice; looks nice, is actually crazy; looks crazy, is actually perfectly nice; and looks crazy, is definitely crazy. I suppose you could break the whole world up this way, but I think it's a more appealing system for Berkeley in particular because I haven't figured out a reliable metric for putting people in each category yet, so it seems like it would be a very useful system to master here. Let me give you an example for each category, ending with the one that happened to me this morning.

1) Looks nice, is nice. Our neighbors. They're originally from Wisconsin. They say hi to us when we run into them. 'Nuff said.

2) Looks crazy, is actually perfectly nice. Old black dudes with no teeth. I say this because I ran into one with my friend John a while back, and while I was initially a little concerned when he rushed up and started lisping at us, it turned out he just really wanted to find a butcher shop nearby so he could cook up some ox tail. Weird, yes, but also perfectly nice and not necessarily crazy.

3) Looks crazy, is definitely crazy. All the bums on Shattuck Avenue. The ones that gather to sing karaoke are kind of cute, as long as they don't sit down too close to you while you're waiting for the bus, but they're still definitely crazy.

4) Looks nice, is actually crazy. This is the one that gives me the most trouble. I was walking back from the grocery store this morning with a gallon of milk in a plastic bag. I'm strolling along thinking, "Man, this milk is pretty heavy," when I smile and say hi to a woman in her front yard. She smiles back and says, "Boy, that milk sure looks heavy."

Slightly weird thing to say, especially since I was just having that thought myself, but I just say "Yeah, it is!" as I'm walking by. She keeps talking to me though. (This is how these interactions generally go.) "Oh honey, you better be careful, those plastic bags are cutting into your hands!" And she's right, they are. But I think of it more as a temporary inconvenience than a real liability. "Those bags are so thin and that milk is so heavy, you're going to really hurt your hands!" At this point, I've stopped and turned back a little to say something to her. That's the problem with category 4 people; if they were definitely crazy, you could just keep walking, but when they seem like nice normal people at first, it seems so rude to just ignore them.

So I say something like, "Oh, it's ok, I don't have very far to walk." This is also true, but not a satisfactory response, because she replies, "Oh but honey, when you get older, it's gonna be a real problem. You should really think about getting some gloves for that. When you get older, you'll be sorry. So much damage to your hands. Your joints-"

At this point I'm getting a little concerned, because now I've stopped to talk to her and she's clearly not going to stop talking anytime soon, and now I don't know how to gracefully exit this conversation. I say something indistinct and noncommittal like, "Oh um, it's ok..." and smile politely as I try to back away. She's yelling after me though! "Oh honey, your hands, you really need to be careful..."

In retrospect, I suppose a nice way to end things would've been to start screaming "OH GOD I'M BLEEDING I CAN'T FEEL BELOW MY ELBOW I THINK MY FINGER JUST FELL OFF" etc. and run away. As is, I'm just left wondering: will I ever figure out how to avoid the loose screws?

Playing in the backyard

... and all is well. We were just outside playing with the dogs. Remember that first post when I talked about how happy the dogs are just to be alive, and how that makes me happy? Unless you are the Grinch, these pictures should put a smile on your face.







Happiest. Dogs. Ever.

Once a runner,

always a runner. Man. I've been in a minor funk this week. Very minor, really, but just feeling a bit blah. Most of it is just That Time of the Month stuff, but there are other little things too. I had a lot of work over the weekend. Poor Rye pulled a muscle in his leg and he makes me sad when all he can do is sit there all day. We're trying to restrict his movement as much as possible so he'll get better, but that means Huck's movement gets restricted too, since I can't just let Huck out to play, or just take Huck on a walk. So we have two sad, blob-like dogs lying around the house all day. Roger still hasn't heard back about the job we both really want him to get, so he's at a bit of an impasse. I guess I have kind of a sad, blob-like husband too, come to think of it... He's not actually sad, of course, I just feel bad for him because I know I'm anxious for something to work out for him, so he must be ten times as anxious as I am, and I'm trying to keep that in mind and stay optimistic for both of our sakes.

But I really think it's time to shoe-horn running back into my schedule. The problem is, it turns out I'm really really a morning person. I still can't believe that's true, but it definitely is. My brain just shuts down after about 8:00 (pm, at least), and I can't get any work done. So while my classmates are doing their homework from 8:00 to 1:00 am, I'm going to bed at 9:30 and waking up at 5:30 to get stuff done. I just think better in the morning. But as a result, I can no longer do my running in the morning, which is when I've been in the habit of doing it. Get up, go for a run, shower, start my day. It just makes sense. But now I have to work in the morning while my brain's still sharp, then go to class until early afternoon. I think I'll have to start running after class, and that will be perfect as the weather cools off. If I can run around 3:00 in the afternoon this fall and winter, it will still be light out, there won't be the evening traffic yet, and maybe it will energize me so I can get some work done in the evening too.

The thing about "once a runner, always a runner". Sometimes I forget that I really am, deep down, a runner. There are few (if any) things in the world that make me feel so at peace. It's such a zen-like state... my brain quiets down and all is well with the world. I think it's just such a primal act; all of the cerebral stuff fades away for a while, and there is nothing but movement, the physical act of propelling myself forward. It's extremely refreshing.

I have some more things I'd like to tell you about Berkeley, but I'm getting very sleepy. I tested out a new running club tonight, and we ran out to the Bay and along the shore as the sun was setting. There was one girl I really liked, but she turned around halfway through the run because she didn't think she'd make it the whole way. Overall they were a perfectly nice group of folks, I suppose, but I don't think they're the group for me. I'll probably go back again sometime just to have people to run with, but I'm still on the lookout.

Anyway, the point is, I got in a very nice run tonight, and now I'm ready for bed before another long day tomorrow. This is a bit of a meandering post, but I just wanted to let you know I'm still alive, and I keep hoping I'll be able to have a post like "Roger got the job he really wanted and now we have lots of money to do fun stuff!" Not yet. But maybe soon.

San Francisco!

This post will be heavy on the pictures and light on the typing, because I have lots of homework to get back to! I just wanted to share some pictures of San Francisco with you guys.

Yesterday three of my classmates and I went into the city to just walk around and take in the sights. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for it - around 65-70 degrees and sunny. We took the bus (which is free with our student IDs and only take about 35 minutes from Berkeley), had lunch in China Town, and hiked up to Coit Tower, which is a tower on Telegraph Hill that overlooks the city and the San Francisco Bay. We didn't go up to the top of the tower, unfortunately, because it costs $5 and we had already splurged by eating out for lunch! But the view was still fantastic, and the sea breeze was wonderful.

So here are some pictures of San Francisco! I hope you enjoy them!

This is Union Square. I don't really know what's so great about it except that it's famous and it's a big open space in the middle of the city where people apparently sit and drink overpriced coffee. There are also overpriced shops surrounding it too (Gucci, Versace, etc.).


This is the entrance to China Town, complete with a trolley and the
Transamerica Pyramind peeking out in the background.

Here's a nice close-up of a trolley.
It costs like $7 to ride one, so I won't be doing that any time soon.

This one gives you an idea of just how hilly San Francisco is.
I turned around and took this one as we were hiking up to Coit Tower.


Ahhhh. View of the Golden Gate Bridge from the steps of Coit Tower.


Ahhhhh again. This is looking back across the Bay toward Berkeley
and Oakland. The bridge on the right edge of the photo is the
Oakland Bay Bridge, which you can drive across to go from the East Bay
(where Berkeley and Oakland are) to the city.

A quick update about this week

Hi all!

I'm glad to see some of the people I care most about in Illinois have found their way to my blog! Thanks for the comments, everyone - I miss you all!

This is just a very quick update about what's going on this week. Yesterday was the first day since we've been here that it was actually cloudy all day. Sometimes it's cloudy in the morning as the fog rolls off the Bay and up and over the hills, but yesterday it actually stayed cloudy all day and was still cloudy this morning. Then the sun came out around noon and it was sunny, as usual. :)

It feels so much like fall right now, though. It was downright chilly yesterday and has been borderline chilly today - I'm wearing long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, and that feels just about right when I'm standing outside. It's really cold on my bike, though!

This week has been weird because I had an assignment due Tuesday that took a long time, so I only got about 5.75 hours sleep on Monday night. Then I was tired yesterday and didn't get too much done, and now it's probably time for me to get some more work done, since I have another assignment due Friday.

I have fellowships on the brain right now. We got a reminder email this week that the application deadline for the Jacob K. Javits fellowship is on October 3rd. I hadn't even considered applying for it, since I didn't realize I'm eligible, but it turns out I am, so I'm slightly scrambling to get an application together. Then I have my National Science Foundation fellowship application coming up in November, but it's a lot more involved than the Javits one, so it's going to take a lot more thought. If I get either of these, they'll pay all of my tuition plus $30,000 a year for living expenses. Wouldn't that be great? (Yes, yes it would.)

So that's my week. I'll update some more about the specific projects I have in the works (in case someone cares about that), but for now it's time for me to get back to my bread-making. We got a butternut squash in our CSA this week, so I'm making butternut squash bread. Yum.

I hope you're all doing great, and I hope to talk to you all soon!

Missed Another One

Right before we left Illinois, the only earthquake in the past 200 years or something hit, and I slept right through it. I was kind of disappointed, but I figured I'd experience once in the Bay Area soon enough.

Apparently there was a 4.0 magnitude earthquake last night, and I didn't notice a bloody thing. On the bright side, it's because I went out to a cool little brewery in downtown Berkeley with some friends. But I'm kind of disappointed again - everyone's like, "Did you feel the earthquake?" and the answer, again, is no.

I know that's a silly thing to be disappointed about. Really, I'm thankful that it didn't cause any damage, of course. But someday I would like to experience a nice, safe, harmless earthquake just to see what it's like!

Report Card for Berkeley, Part One

I took a picture today! I'll upload it here in a second and put it on this post if it came out even halfway decent. :)

So something I've been thinking of doing for a while is telling you some of the things I really like about Berkeley. There are things I don't like, of course, as well. EDIT: I had originally planned to make this post a list of things I like, but then I remembered this hilarious website I used to read called the Brunching Shuttlecocks, and they had this feature called "The Ratings" where they would pick a random topic and rate aspects of it. So that is what I have decided to do for Berkeley.

1) Commuting by bike. A great way to see the town, get some exercise, save gas, avoid traffic and parking problems... the list goes on and on. Berkeley is so bike friendly. I love it. There are bike lanes and bike boulevards everywhere, and so many people commute by bike, which is really cool to see. There's actual bike traffic on the roads; I counted over two dozen cyclists on my way to class this morning before I got to campus and had to start paying more attention to my surroundings instead of counting fellow bikers. But it's a great way to get around. The only thing making me mad about it so far is that motorists are waaay too "helpful", meaning they wave you on when it's their turn to go at four-way stops, which totally throws off your timing and is really annoying. But overall... A

2) The DMV/traffic regulatory practices. I've already made two appointments at the DMV, neither of which exactly worked out. Cool idea to schedule appointments online to reduce wait times, but other than that, the California DMV website is pretty awful. I showed up for my first appointment and it turned out I needed a whole slew of documents I didn't have with me, none of which were mentioned online. Made a second appointment and was ready to go get my California driver's license, then talked to a classmate and found out they charge you $28 to take a written test whether you pass it or not. She didn't pass because the questions were things like "At what age can you leave your child unattended in the car?" (Apparently 12 is the magic number.) Again, NONE of this was on the website, so I hadn't studied for the test and wasn't prepared to pay $28 to have them tell me to come back another day. So I cancelled that appointment and am now studying for the written exam.

Ok, also, motorists here make me angry. As mentioned above, they wave you on allll the time, and you'd think that would be nice, but really it's just irritating. It's like, I'm a pedestrian, you are in a large heavy vehicle. I will time my crossing of the street to create the least possible disruption to traffic patterns, since this makes the most sense for all parties involved. Instead, any time you come anywhere close to the street on foot, there's suddenly a long line of cars extended in either direction, waiting for you to cross the street whether you intended to or not. Traffic regulatory practices: D+

3) But back to the positives: the weather. A no-brainer, I know, but it really is pretty fantastic. Gets nice and toasty but not too hot during the day, then cools down into the upper 50's at night. Perfect for sitting on the back porch with a hot cup of coffee in the morning, and I can't think of many better ways to start the day. I am a little sad we won't be having any thunderstorms or tornadoes or snow or... anything remotely interesting, really. But for now it's still idyllic and peaceful, so I'll give it an A-.

4) The food. This is a corollary to #3, and I addressed it in my last post, so I won't say anything more about it here except to reiterate that fresh produce rocks. A

5) The dairy products. Ok, this should probably be subsumed by #4, but the dairy products really deserve their own grade, and it will be an outstanding one. You know those commercials where they say "Good milk comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California." or whatever the line is? Well I kind of doubt that the cows here are any happier since they still live on dairy farms and all, but the dairy products here are fantastic. I feel like I've died and gone to France (which is dairy product heaven). I don't know if they raise a different species of cattle here or what, but all of the dairy has a significantly higher percentage of milk fat, and it just melts in your mouth. 2% milk in Illinois has 120 calories per cup, but the 2% milk here has 140, and those are 20 calories' worth of deliciousness. I bought some whole milk yogurt the other day and it's like eating custard. Expensive, hormone-free, locally produced custard. A+

6) The cost of living. There is a grocery story down the street from us that has boxes of granola for sale for $10.99. We live in a smallish two bedroom house with a smallish backyard, and our rent here is $500 more than our rent was in Urbana for a three story house with a huge basement and 4-5 bedrooms. I won't tell you how much we're paying because I don't want to be like "oh woe is me"; I love our little house and we got a great deal on it. You just can't compare prices with Illinois. My classmate has a cute little studio apartment for $900/month. It costs $1.75 every time you take the bus. Gas is firmly fixed above $4/gallon. I'm not making this up. You can't make this stuff up. It's all about supply and demand, I guess, but still... C

7) Air pollution. I know, I was surprised too, but check this out: the five day air quality forecast for the Bay Area. Doesn't that just suck? I thought, oh, Northern California, they're all green-organic-fair trade-vegetable oil powered VW van-driving hippies, right? The air must be fantastic, right? Wrong. Turns out I can't wear my contacts a lot of the time because the grime makes my eyes itchy. Might as well put on my glasses and enjoy those gorgeous sunsets over the Bay. They're breathtaking for a reason: the 2.5 micrometer chunks of particulate matter that fill the air. D+

8) Let's end on a happy note. How about... harmless bums. You know, I've only been to San Francisco a few times, but the bums there seem scary. They scream obscenities and have crazy eyes. But the bums here are of the "smile at you benignly with no teeth" variety. They might ask you for some spare change if you make eye contact with them, but they're totally cool with it if you turn 'em down. I especially liked the harmless bum who was sleeping under a tree by the dog park the other day, and so did Huck. Rather than playing with the other dogs, he decided to just chill by the fence and wag his tail and smile at the crazy old dude, and the crazy old dude just smiled back. B+

Well, I have some other aspects of Berkeley I'd like to relate to you all, but this is longer than I intended and it's getting time for me to head to bed. Yes, it's only 9:45, and yes, that is super lame, but like I said, I get tired really early from all the thinking. (Heh, we'll blame it on that...) I leave you with just a few pictures from the past few weeks.

This first one is me and the dogs chilling in our hotel room in Elko, Nevada.



These are the 8+ UHaul trucks that were parked on the street where we went to go pick up our
bed in Emeryville, a small area just south of here.










This is my cute hubby with our cute puppy.








And this is the view up the bike boulevard that I take to school. See, it doesn't look particularly uphill, but campus is probably about halfway up those hills in the distance, so it's a good little workout.



The End

Well.

We have a problem, and the problem is this: I have now waited too long to update this thing, and I no longer know where to start. This will probably be an extremely stream of consciousness post, so bear with me.

Part of the reason I've been waiting to update is that I've been intending to take lots of pictures and post them, but I somehow haven't gotten around to that yet. This post will unfortunately be picture-less, but the plan is to charge my camera battery tonight and tote my camera around with me for the next few days so that I have no excuses.

One thing that has occurred to me several times in the past week is the very short amount of time it takes for formerly foreign places to become quite familiar. It's so weirdly easy to fall into a routine! Just yesterday when I went out to walk the dogs, I was struck by the normalness of it. Like, this is what I do. I walk my dogs down Curtis Street in Berkeley. The fog is still burning off the hills and it's still a bit chilly, but it will soon be midday, it will get surprisingly warm out, and the sky will be void of clouds. And all of that is perfectly normal now.

I ride my bike to school in the mornings, and I love it. It's a bit of a hike; we live around 1.5 - 2 miles directly west of campus, which means it's a steady incline from here to there. You don't notice it so much when you're walking, but you can definitely feel it on a bike. The first time I tried to make the trip quickly, I was amazed to dismount my bike and have my shorts fit much tighter than usual in the thighs. I thought, "Are my shorts always this tight?" and then I realized my quads had swelled from pedaling uphill for two miles. Sure enough, my shorts fit a lot better a short while later. Thank goodness!

I also noticed the incline the first time I went for a run. I headed west and around campus, then came back home for something around 5 miles round trip. I haven't been running very much at all since we got here, because I really haven't felt the need. Since the Jeep is still out of commission, I walk and bike literally everywhere and sleep like a baby at night. It's a different kind of exercise, but it's exercise nonetheless and I haven't wanted to throw too much stress at my body by combining that with starting school.

I've been surprisingly tired ever since we got here! Well, I guess it's not like I'm tired all the time, it's just that I get tired early in the evening and sleep 9 to 10 hours per night. The constant low intensity exercise and fresh air is part of it, but I've also noticed my brain getting tired from starting classes again. I'm not used to focusing on lectures, readings, and homework anymore, and it's taking a little bit of adjustment to get back into it. In a great way, though; I love being back in school, and I'm really enjoying my classes and professors.

Berkeley is beautiful. The Bay is beautiful. Campus is beautiful. Life here is pretty beautiful. (I don't know if he would admit it, but I'm pretty sure even Roger likes it here...) I've been completely blown away by the abundance of delicious, fresh food. The Park District folks got me $80 worth of gift certificates to the local farmer's markets, of which there are many. The Ecology Center (a local organization that administers Berkeley's recycling program, among other things) sponsors three markets a week, and I've been to two of them. The Urbana farmer's market is great, but the amazing thing about Berkeley is that 1) the markets are year-round here because of the mild climate and 2) the sheer variety of products available is astounding. Not only can you get the standard summer fare of tomatoes, squash, eggplant, cucumbers, potatoes, sweet corn, melons, etc., but there's one farm that specializes in just peaches and plums, and has a tasting table with small slices of dozens of different varieties so you can decide what kind(s) you want! There are also apples, pears, oranges, nuts, mushrooms, and even more exotic products like artisanal cheeses and yogurts, smoked meats, fresh seafood, honey, and plenty of stuff I'm probably forgetting right now. It is so much fun to go and just marvel at the beautiful food, and thanks to the good ol' UPD, I've been able to indulge in some of it too!

This is getting quite long, but I suppose I should update everyone on Roger's job situation. After getting internet access last Sunday, he has been diligently looking for jobs and has put in his application for a few that actually interest him. The review date (the day they start going through applications) for the one he's most excited about isn't until the 9th, so with some luck, maybe he'll have an interview for that one in the next week or so. Until then, we're getting by on my stipend, our savings, and I just took a position as a grader for an undergrad linguistics course, so that will bring in some extra cash too. I've already paid for our CSA shares for the next month too, so we'll at least have fresh produce to look forward to, even if our food budget stays on the cautious side until Roger gets his first paycheck!

Speaking of that first paycheck, I'm really hoping for a trip to Zachary's to celebrate. There are so many great restaurants to check out around here... we just need the disposable income to do it!

And Comcast said...

... let there be internet!

After praying diligently and then taking their name in vain several times, the internet gods have finally deemed us worthy of internet access. The Comcast guy finally came and hooked us up today, so there will be a real blog update in the near future. For real.

But for now, I'm headed to a tea luncheon with the other members of the Berkeley linguistics entering class of Ph.D. students. Hooray!