Monday, April 20, 1998

Happy 4/20 y'all! All I can say is I envy Todd his new hippie job in Berkeley! And, even though she doesn't have internet access at home (yet?), here's a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear friend Shel. She's got the coolest birth date I've ever heard of, 4/20/69. I wish she was out here so I could take her out to a good boogie show. I miss you, Shel!

Feeling a bit out of sorts today. I had a rough weekend, and I think there's residual stress.


So, this weekend:

I had Friday off, because I was planning on taking a vacation. That had fallen through, but I decided not to turn down my excused absence. David and I went shopping; I tried to find a chest of drawers, but no luck. David was a fairly good sport: we went to the post office, the cheese shop, St. Vincent dePaul's, the Bread Workshop, a junkyard, Goodwill, Kmart then home. We also stopped off at the first spot I lived out here, which was too creepy for words.

Had Fried Rice for dinner, which was really yummy. I can't tell you how exciting it is when David tries a new recipe. My mom is also a really good cook, but she has such a huge variety of recipes I'm afraid I got a bit spoiled. David has mentioned several times he wants to borrow our family cookbook (which my mom, the eternal librarian, put together a copy for me, my sister and herself). I hope he learns to make vegetarian baskets and stuffed pasta shells (both really tricky recipes I'll never get around to doing myself). How exciting!


Saturday was miserable. David and I had stayed up until 4am the night before, then got up too early on Saturday. I thought some friends had stood me up (misunderstanding) and David's mood left *much* to be desired and things just didn't go well after that. I fell asleep around 10pm, which is terribly early for me.


Sunday was nice. Restful. My friend Joe was down for the weekend, so I went over to the Kidz house (Dan and Elizabeth are the Kidz; Todd and Peter also live there, but Peter wasn't there Sunday). We looked at pictures from the Kidz trip to Europe for awhile. They took some really good shots; they put each other in front of some amazing views, which gave a nice sense of scale.

The Kidz went to look at houses (they're trying to buy in Berkeley, which is a major competition) and Joe, Todd and I sunned ourselves on the back porch. Todd taught Joe tabla sounds (a very tricky instrument to play correctly; Joe's a good drummer, and it was interesting to hear him sound like a beginner again) as I basked in the sun and read My Secret History by Paul Theroux. It was very relaxing, especially after my Saturday.

Went to eat at Picantes, which was yummy. I had rajas tacos. Rajas is a kind of marinated cactus that has a spicy flavor.


I don't know what made me think of this, but I need to start learning Spanish. I'm kicking myself for not taking it more than the one year in high school; it would be *so* useful out here.