Oakland
So tonight, after napping from about 6pm to 11pm (yeah, I know), I wound up going out with Sean and Mike first to the Smokehouse and then just on a random drive around Oakland. Even though I myself never drive, I love, love, love driving aimlessly around the city. It's always an adventure, especially at night when you can't quite see where you're going until just about the last minute.
We went to Chabot Elementary School first, and messed around on the play structures for a while. It was cold as fuck, but still really nice. The sky has been amazingly clear all night (which is, obviously, why it's so damn cold), which means that the stars have been really bright despite the fact that we're in a city with lots of street lights.
Both Sean and Mike actually went to Chabot once upon a time, so they had all kinds of stories about the place. I'm really content when I'm just hanging out with people and listening to their stories. I don't really need to have something to contribute and it's relaxing to hear people talk about things that they remember happily. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would disagree with me about this, and even think it strange for me to be this way, but whatev.
After Chabot we decided that it would be a fun thing to drive up into the hills and look out over the Bay. So we did, though for a while we really had no idea where we were. Claremont just kept going and going and going and going, with no sign of ending up on top of any hill. Once we got there, though...
I pretty much live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Maybe during the day there are parts of it that are really seedy and dirty and unpleasant to be in, but by night the whole Bay Area is amazing. Though we couldn't really see San Francisco too well, we could see just about everything else, all lit up and calm.
I also saw a falling star while we were up there, which made me happy in an amazed six-year-old kind of way. I love that feeling.
I wish that I had had a camera. I need pictures of scenes like that to make me remember that I really do like being here in Oakland, and that it's not the city's fault that I had to go far, far away. Because it's really not. I've even started to think that eventually I'll come back here for grad school or something, which a year ago I still wasn't ready to consider, not even for a moment.
I'm exhausted right now, and yet I'm really not. My sleep schedule is just completely fucked from going between the coasts. I had thought that I was going to be cool and not have to deal with jet lag for too long, but I'm starting to think that I might just end up being off kilter for all three days that I'm here.
So be it, I guess that I'm happy enough to deal with it. G'night everyone.
We went to Chabot Elementary School first, and messed around on the play structures for a while. It was cold as fuck, but still really nice. The sky has been amazingly clear all night (which is, obviously, why it's so damn cold), which means that the stars have been really bright despite the fact that we're in a city with lots of street lights.
Both Sean and Mike actually went to Chabot once upon a time, so they had all kinds of stories about the place. I'm really content when I'm just hanging out with people and listening to their stories. I don't really need to have something to contribute and it's relaxing to hear people talk about things that they remember happily. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would disagree with me about this, and even think it strange for me to be this way, but whatev.
After Chabot we decided that it would be a fun thing to drive up into the hills and look out over the Bay. So we did, though for a while we really had no idea where we were. Claremont just kept going and going and going and going, with no sign of ending up on top of any hill. Once we got there, though...
I pretty much live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Maybe during the day there are parts of it that are really seedy and dirty and unpleasant to be in, but by night the whole Bay Area is amazing. Though we couldn't really see San Francisco too well, we could see just about everything else, all lit up and calm.
I also saw a falling star while we were up there, which made me happy in an amazed six-year-old kind of way. I love that feeling.
I wish that I had had a camera. I need pictures of scenes like that to make me remember that I really do like being here in Oakland, and that it's not the city's fault that I had to go far, far away. Because it's really not. I've even started to think that eventually I'll come back here for grad school or something, which a year ago I still wasn't ready to consider, not even for a moment.
I'm exhausted right now, and yet I'm really not. My sleep schedule is just completely fucked from going between the coasts. I had thought that I was going to be cool and not have to deal with jet lag for too long, but I'm starting to think that I might just end up being off kilter for all three days that I'm here.
So be it, I guess that I'm happy enough to deal with it. G'night everyone.