happy day, happy day -- i'm in berkeley california -- on the west coast for only the second time in my life and in this state for the first. right now i'm in the library -- ben got becca and me passes -- and ahhhhh internet .... the house tho lovely is unwired: no computer and no vcr. not much food, either. the kids are living more or less hand to mouth so i feel guilty already for trespassing. i'll buy them something; i'm not sure what yet. and i'll contribute to groceries and such.

the flight here was something else. i felt like i was in limbo -- setting my watch back and not talking to anyone for hours tends to do that to me. i boarded the first plane with about 40 chubby blond kids in identical tee-shirts and crosses. as it turned out, they're from assorted VA choirs and they're going to mexico city to sing of the glory of god. they did a preview show for about an hour at one point; luckily, i had my cd player and aimee mann and all was good. the airline also didn't have a veggie meal for me on either flight so a friendly flight attendent dug up an old kid's meal and i had peanut butter and jelly on white bread for what may have been the first time in my life. on the second flight, they gave me baby carrots so i partook of those for, oh, the 54,357th time. quality rabbit food. :-) it was all right: when i got there (ben becca and becca's bunny, sean met at the baggage claim) and we got to the house in emeryville, sean and becca went out again to obtain good veggie cambodian food for us all. and it finally occurred to me to call my father. luckily he hadn't been worried.

so, so far, so good. slept late after ben left this morning and then becca and i met up, having experimented w/ various sources of public transportation around here, in berkely proper. cute town, very busy, very ethnic. becca looked at all the stores enviously, comparing this to the sad excuse for a ville we have back at swat.

in general i haven't noticed too many things to differentiate this area notably from home. there are palm trees, tho it's hard to believe that this drizzly climate supports them, and the houses, at least in oakland, are small pastel cubes: they look like children's blocks. they're made of some material that could or could not be stucco -- i'm just not wise enuf to know.
i assume i'll find more differences as i go on. but generally, i'm having a wonderful time, taking everything
moment by moment, and i'm very very glad i'm here.

ilana, baby, if you're reading this, thanks for supplying the rain-check plan of seeing the ani movie w/ me.
definitely go anyway and tell me how it is.
love to everyone.