Now that Mark has allowed me back on the venerable sedhe train, I am going to update all you greedy readers, i.e. matt and maybe scott, on a fascinating and surprisingly undocumented topic, ME. Since Mark won’t tell you about his life, I will tell you about mine, at least briefly. Mostly because I am really really really bored at work right now. Also cuz you care. And I renounce sedhe protocol and refuse to use correct grammarness and capitol letters (sic).

so what does a day in the life of a confused little hippy look like? well, it can be surprisingly mundane. i get up circa 8 (aka 8:40, or 4 hittings-of-the-alarm) and get a small shock as i get my first glimpse of a frail corpse lying next to me in bed. then i realize it’s mark and…i still get a small shock (what does this wonderful intelligent good friend man see in little ol’ me?!). i drive about fifteen minutes from my run down rental house on a park at the foot of the berkeley hills to my work in emeryville, or, as we affectionately know it, pixar-ville (home of pixar, it is also home to chiron). my work days are either 1) spent at the office doing myriad non-job things like writing for y’all and checking out rock climbing info or 2) cruising for hours in a little isuzu truck with a genuine vintage hippy who regales me with his years of labor organizing, blunt comments, and insight into reality that he has gained with the help of… um… various… herbal, fungal, chemical aids. i’ve often entertained the idea of quitting because of days type 1, also the low pay, but stay because of days type 2 and the utter lack of supervision i enjoy. sometime between 3 and 6, i get fed up with work and leave whenever i feel like it. on days type 1, the office days, i am gone to 1-1.5ish hours eating fast food on the shores of the bay, which is minutes away, while listening to, inevitably, air america radio, your show for progessive talk. currently, it being dec 14 so understandably cold and all, it’s in the low 60s, not a cloud in the sky so i see a picnic in the near future, i.e. when i am done writing.

about twice a week, i try to make it rock climbing in the huge berkeley climbing gym. i recently got my own shoes off of craigslist and am now searching for a harness. climbing makes me feel all strong and muscular-y, even if it’s a false since of muscular-y-ness, and i like it almost as much as my other common recreational activity, i.e. smoking, although i find the two mutually exclusive because it’s hard to climb when you have smoky lungs and i certainly don’t feel like climbing after i smoke. once, i climbed this huge rock without any ropes a few months back and smoked at the top. man, getting down was NOT FUN and certainly not safe, so… no more of that. mark joins me in most of the climbing/smoking ventures here mentioned, so the company’s been wonderful since he’s moved (and not updated you about his life, which is going well, i hear).

on thursday nights, we go to needle exchange, mark having jumped on the community work bandwagon, much to my delight (he’s a wonderful person, that mark, btw, also rather cute). and mark and i just started what we hope will become a weekly tradition. after needle exchange, we head to the albatross, one of the coolest bars ever, where there is 25 cent bottomless popcorn bowls and one dollar unlimited darts.

on the weekends, i mostly travel and have gone from local backpacking trips, santa cruz, and the rocky marin beaches to places such as the lost coast, the redwood forests, oregon, olympic national park, seattle, vancouver, big sur, los angeles, and the previously described whirlwind tour o’ the west. sometimes i stick around the bay area and hike or go to the ocean, usually under the influence of something interesting. on my week nights, mon-wed, i go to lots of restaurants, eating my way around the world, as there is everything from ethiopian to nepalese in berkeley, but only one fast food place. i also see lots of "films," i.e. sh1t you can’t see in ohio.

i agonize about whether or not to take the MCATs again. the rebel side of me says NO WAY. the rational side of me realizes that there are only two schools in this area where i want to stay, ucsf and stanford, ranked 1 and 6 respectively, so i better have my sh1t together if i wanna chance at those two. hmmmm.

but mostly i agonize about when i will see the cherubic faces of you, my dear readers. will scott make it here before feb and shipping off to parts unknown??? what’s this i hear about a certain mr. smith weaseling his way out here on the company dime circa jan??? these are the great mysteries in my life.