East Bay

So, I've been staying with a friend (+more friends I'm getting to know) in Berkeley for the weekend. After working yesterday in the East Bay, in the evening I caught up with an old friend and then came to stay at this friend's house. And I just can't get over how wonderful these people are. My friend Sara was the one I was planning on staying with, and it turns out her neighbors (close friends of hers) were going camping this weekend, so they left me a key to their apartment and she told me that I could just come and go whenever I pleased. I walked in to this place and feel welcome even though no one is here - and for the first time in forever, I let myself be completely un-plugged last night and just went to bed. No books, no computer, no phone, no anything - I did play a bit of guitar, though, and that felt lovely. And slept with a French Bulldog on the bed. (She is terrible at posing for pictures, though, so I can't give you one - I'll give you one of Kai, though, the other fella who's in this house, as well as the others next door.)

So, I slept. And unlike the rest of the week, I didn't get up at 5:45. I slept until 7:15, and at 8 went with Sara to the workout class that her boyfriend teaches - push-ups, lunches, crazy army crawls and planks, and then we came back and threw all four dogs into the back of a car and drove up into the hills to Tilden Park, where we went for a hike. I've been part of this hiking adventure before with my friend Kate, who introduced me to Sara, and I can't enjoy it any more. I am SUCH a dog person and having a smoothie filled with greens and all kinds of seeds on my way up a steep hill, then walking with a pack of dogs in the morning is just blissful.

Kai.

Rosie.

Kamaji, after our hike.

After our hike, we got back to the house and I met another of Sara's neighbor/friends, a little 1-year-old named Soren who - this blew my mind - is running and walking down stairs already (okay, the latter with a helping hand just in case) and really, really trying to play the ukelele and play fetch with dogs who aren't really interested in fetch. But whenever something didn't work out, Soren would just start to chuckle and then laugh and I couldn't help but smile.

After we saw him, Sara and I made this recipe that we've heard our friends talk about. Not so much a recipe I suppose as just a way to drink coffee. It sounds weird, be ready for it. You take a spoonful of butter and a spoonful of coconut oil, put it in a blender with some freshly-made coffee, and whirr it all together. It's so deliciously creamy and rich and mind-bogglingly lovely. I was so doubtful about how it would taste, and then - MAN. And we had that with pieces of my favorite kind of bread (so-dense-it-could-be-a-weapon-rye) and homemade marmelade, sat in the sun and watched the dogs sleep, and wondered why we'd ever go back to work again.

And now I'm getting ready to head back over the water. I have the general GRE this week which I feel pretty prepared for and ought to be still studying for the real one, but I think a day to sit back and breathe was more than needed. Isn't that what summer's about?

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People are just so kind. I feel so welcomed by this community and more grateful than I can adequately communicate in person. Sometimes, humanity rocks.