Bye Bye, Berkeley

Berkeley, Oakland, the Bay, and San Francisco

I'm not good a goodbyes, mostly because I'm no good with change. They're emotional and take a lot of effort. So for all of the people I haven't seen in Berkeley and should have, I'm sorry. To my friends in the city who are partying without me, take some shots in my honor. I love you all and thanks to facebook, I know that if we lose touch, at least we can lightly stalk each other from time to time. 

Cal you've meant more to me than I ever expected. If you had asked me 5 years ago where I'd be going to school, my answer would have been "not Berkeley." Seriously. My mom pushed me to go there since I knew what college was. Naturally, I said "no, it's too close to you." So when I wound up at your front door (aka Telegraph Ave) as a freshman, I wasn't too psyched. But just as I learned to love that creepy old Oski, I grew to love Cal. So here's to dorm-room friends, game days, DG, the Daily Cal, recreation, shrooms, Apt 102, the list, RRR weeks, invites, my 4 failed date parties, ACEs, 6 pack, pledge porch, the porch, DG's couch, angels & devils, quiz nights, tap cards, Kip's, drunk brunch, Sunday Graduate days, beat the clocks, the crawl, Yogurt Park runs, protest barricades, marches, the list goes on and on. (and I now realize this is a couple months too late, but this is my blog, so suck it). You gave me "an education," a useful degree in art history; you taught me to think. I can also now successfully navigate through 100 feet of red tape. Thank you. No really, thank you. Berkeley is a special place, a crazy place, but I know when I come again I will only welcome Yoshua screaming about god knows what. Hopefully the earthquakes won't have engulfed the campus by then (seriously, what gives lately?). 

I will miss: the greenery of it all, the Bay's found-no-where-else sense of eclecticism, all of the crazy street people, Berkeley time, Star sandwiches, cheap Thai food, the fog in the morning, Berkeley Bowl, having my picture in a bar close by, BART

I will not miss: the bikers (STOP BIKING, if you're not going at least 25 mph, you don't belong on the road), Bay Area traffic - at least I expect it in LA, feeling badly that I don't shop organic, hipsters, BART