Did everyone have a good weekend? I saw Ice Age Saturday morning with Karen and Crystal, which was lots of fun and good fodder for our der rigour pickapart session over lunch afterwards (example).

We went to Borders ('your multimedia outlet if you don't have the patience for Amazon'(tm)) and I picked up a book (Derek's Design for Community), a CD (Baroque Adagios (2-disc set)), and a DVD (Say Anything).

That evening around 7pm I dropped by The Underground (the video arcade on the Berkeley campus, a whopping three blocks from my apartment) to see if they were open or if, as I suspected and was proven correct, they're closed for the week for Spring break. Walking up to Sproul Plaza, I called Gypsy's on cellphone speeddial. "Gypsy's" "Yeah, tortellini marinara?" "Okay, ten minutes." Click. It's a tradition. He recognizes my voice and knows I won't be ordering anything else. It's just nice to give them a few minutes lead time so I can get in and get out.

Anyhow, they're two blocks away and I've got 10 minutes. It's a nice night on campus and I figure I'll wander around in the night air to burn off a few minutes. On Sproul Plaza I step up to the brim of Ludwig's Fountain and walk around the circle of the fountain slowly, twice. A small part inside me feels self-conscious that someone might be watching, wondering why I would be walking around in circles, and a slightly larger part squashes that part, surprised I would actually be that self-conscious.

I step down and wander towards Sather Gate and I hear in the distance someone asking for directions to Hertz Hall. Ever helpful, I wander toward the lost traveller, and in front of Dwinnele I come across an elderly woman, around 75 years old, talking to a backpack-(the 'life on my back' kind)-laden youth, doing a lot of pointing, giving vague (and incorrect) directions, as the lady's three friends look on.

Backpack-youth looks to me for a little help and I start giving directions, but it's a little twisty and they'd get lost again. "I'm headed that way myself" I lie. "I can show you where it is."

The lady lets me know that one of her party has a cane and walks very slowly, so I might not want to walk with them. I tell her not to be silly, and we're on our way. As we take our ten-minute journey, I give them a handful of campus trivia. After eleven years I've gathered quite a bit of floatsam on most of the buildings of campus. She tells me they're here to see 'the 12-year-old Bach,' a piano prodigy. Like many of the concerts at Hertz Hall, this one is free.

My quartet drove in from Walnut Creek, from a retirement community of ten thousand, with seven thousand apartments, but no Bach prodigies.

They asked me if I'd like to join them, and I was really tempted. For all that I know about the events on campus, I've actually gone to a saddening few of them. If not for the food that even now was growing cold on the counter at Gypsy's, I would have. "Give the food away to someone else and I'll pay you later this evening" I didn't say. Instead I walked them past the Campenile, helped one of them down the steps to the bridge over Strawberry Creek, through Faculty Glade, and around to the front of Hertz Hall, giving them directions on how to get to Bancroft and down to the Zellerbach parking lot after the recital.

I'm not sure why I blew this out into a full story, but it was really nice. It was nice to walk slowly for a change. It was nice to look around and see the campus through someone else's eyes. Nice to be reminded of all the culture going on just outside my door (okay, honestly the culture going on just outside my door is something I could live without, but go a little farther and there's beauty and art to be had). I won't be in Berkeley forever. I should make the most of the remainder of the experience.

Anyhow, I had a nice dinner at home, listened to some adagios to make up for missing young Bach, and felt a little better about Berkeley.

Okay, train's pulling in to Santa Clara so I'll wrap up. I still have some notes from the Google talk at BayCHI a couple weeks ago, which I'm hoping to type up on the ride home. I've got a backlog of stuff to write about and never enough time to do the stories justice, but I'll do my best to catch up this week.

Happy Monday!