Gone Tomorrow: Trying not to blink

I think there is a saying that in the blink of an eye, life will pass you by. Maybe it's a song lyric. It's something like that. Regardless, the phrase is what I thought about when I started contemplating this summer. In the past 10 days, I've gone to California, graduated from college, and moved out of the house I have lived in for the past two years. Now, I'm packing up to go to Peru for a month and a half. My brother graduates from high school this weekend. When I get back I will go on a cruise to Mexico with my parents and my brother. After that, it's like two weeks at home and then I leave for graduate school at Berkeley in California. Unfortunately, I can't stop blinking and this blog is technological tape that is going to hold my eye lids open so I don't miss anything and I can take it all in. This is also my way of contributing to the giant pile of useless dribble on the internet (that was for you Aimee).

This first "real" post was supposed to be about my trip to California, but I am so busy getting things ready that it will have to be disgustingly short. Alas, I had so much to say. Would anyone who knows me expect less? Instead, I'll just give a little overview of the trip and post some of my favorite pictures.

Friday - woke up wicked early, had Dad drive me to the airport, read an incredible book called Half the Sky on the flight, got to San Francisco, rode the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) into Berkeley, experienced the creepy and depressing fog that settles over the Bay during the summer mornings, met my Advisor, walked around campus, walked around the city, got incredibly lost, found my way back again, saw hippies and some awesome graffiti, met my lab mates and saw the lab which is sweet, walked more, climbed at Indian Rock, fell and bruised my pride and back, met Jena (my Couch Surfing host) and her friends for Thai food, instantly made friends, went to a bar, went to another Couch Surfer's house, made more friends, went to sleep.

And that was only the first day...

Saturday - Woke up, ate steel cut oats (new experience), went climbing at Berkeley Ironworks climbing gym (sweet!), went to Oakland and made more Couch Surfing friends, ate delicious pizza while sitting on the edge of Lake Merritt, hula hooped, went to a thrift store and bought a sweet glam-rock outfit for 5 dollars (more explanation later), went back to Jena's, walked around Oakland, took the BART to Berkeley, scoped some more for good housing, went to sleep.

Sunday - Woke up at 7, took the BART into SanFran with my new Couch Surfing friends for Bay2Breakers.

interjection: Bay2Breakers is ostensibly a 10km race across San Fransicso from the Bay side to the Pacific Ocean. About 1000 people register and legitimately run this Official US Track and Field race. Another 20,000 (!!!!!) people walk the race course behind the runners dressed in crazy costumes (or no clothes at all). I was obviously there to do the latter (I had on clothes, namely the glam-rock outfit bought the day before; think David Bowie, except more awesome).

There's not much to say about B2B that the pictures won't explain better. It was crazy, that is for sure. Still, I digress... let's get back to the schedule. went to B2B, took the BART to Rockridge, had more amazing pizza on College St. , took a nap at Dave's house, woke up went back to Jena's, had dinner, went to sleep.

Monday - Woke up, took the BART back into Berkeley, scoped more housing up Northeast-ish, took the BART to the south part of town, walked from there back to campus and used rough estimates to calculate maximum bike-commuting time I would experience during the school year (Nerd!), cursed the rain (AAAAARRGGGHHH!), took the BART to San Francisco, went climbing at another climbing gym (can you tell I like climbing?), had dinner with Dave and Jessica, went back to Jena's, packed up, went to sleep.

Tuesday - woke up, Jena took me into San Francisco on her way to work, crossed the Bay Bridge which was really cool, got the best view of the Golden Gate Bridge I'd had yet, had some interesting coffee, took the BART to the airport, flew home and finished that book I had mentioned.

Before I get to the pictures, I have to quickly make two plugs: one for Couch Surfing and one for the book I read Half the Sky.

Couch Surfing is a community of people who love to travel and host other travelers. It is free to join, and the idea is you just find some one in the city you are traveling to and they will let you stay with them...for FREE. They are just nice like that. You can also host travelers from other places and meet people from other countries with different perspectives. It might sound sketchy, but check out the website and I think you will be pleasantly surprised like I was (www.couchsurfing.org). I have to plug it because this was my first experience surfing, i didn't even leave my birth country and it was still AMAZING. I met a bunch of cool people that were so welcoming and chill that we pretty much instantly became friends. It truly is a community, with surfers and hosts who live near each other having potlucks and get togethers and creating special interest groups. Like I said, check it out.

I highly recommend Half the Sky. I'm not exactly sure what genre you would file it under but I think of it as a documentary in book form (I can only think in terms of movies, is that a sign of the times?). It documents the plight of women throughout the world but especially in developing countries. Now I know that last sentence just instantly turned some of you off. You probably think you smell the liberal bull@#$% right through your computer screen. But please, bear with me. This book is not about the gender issues that we face here at home like unequal pay or the use of the word "actor" versus "actress" (I never got that one). It concerns things like sex trafficking, honor killings, and issues of maternal health. It presents these things as human rights issues while explaining the economic benefits of putting an end to these atrocities. It also brings to light the incredible things people are doing to stop these atrocities and presents a cohesive plan for involvement by the American government and American citizens. As discussed in the book, human rights are something even the most deeply rooted conservative cares about. It is written by two New York Times journalists and I have never read a more well written or documented discourse on a subject. Although I am somewhat "liberally" inclined, as many of you know I love to argue and play Devil's advocate. Even with books. Is that weird? Yet this book returned my mental cheap shots blow for blow. To put it in simple terms (can I ever do that?) I basically held back tears the entire time I read it, the source of those tears alternating between the incredibly awful and the incredibly amazing things people are doing to each other. Please check it out.

If you'll excuse me, I'll now step down off the soap box and get to some pictures.