Notes from Le Chateau and elsewhere in the People's Republic

Wandering the hallways of Chateau I nearly wept for the place. It was the first co-op I set foot in upon arriving at Berkeley, and Toby and I quickly became friends--initially, yes, because we shared the same first name. I drove him home to Benicia, he gave me a bunch of ball bearings for some reason, and I finally figured out where Berkeley was geographically located. We were taking classes, oddly enough, by virtue of being Spring admits to this school, in the facilities of a neighboring seminary. Toby would arrive late to class from his next-door home at Chateau, in a bathrobe and carrying his breakfast--a bowl of green chocolate chip mint ice cream--to class. Prof. Thiel would yell at him for talking in class, which always made me jump, because, after all, we had similar names and sat near each other.

Toby is still here, and so am I--just visiting now, although a year ago we were both actually residing here. It's been seven years now and we're on the eve of the End of The World party. It was a sad scene indeed at Chateau this evening, and not in the same way as Dandelion Day. A dejected rythmn was bashed out on an improvised drumset, and a somber melody was pounded out by a hooded fellow on the piano. I think Chateau should be in the Smithsonian, but tomorrow is the End Of The World. Someone had written a warning, "exposed electrical wires!" over a wall that had been bashed in in anger over the Closure. I've taken all my visitors there, I think--the prospectives reveled in it, their parents tried to mask their horror. Tonight Kenny and I shared a bottle of wine on the roof with the whole bay and San Francisco and Oakland and Berkeley all before us.

We had a good night of hottubbing tonight, at Kingman this time, a first time for me. We hung out with Ping for a while, saw his sideways room.

Being in Berkeley now is kind of a strange experience--vaguely lonely, vaguely out of place. Just when I start feeling like I don't belong here any more I run into someone I know and haven't seen in a long time. Just the same there are a lot of people who aren't here or who I haven't managed to track down; and a huge number of the people I know at Wilde are graduating now.

I am supposed to be at a conference at 08:00 tomorrow. I'd appreciate any/all wake-up calls at 7am tomorrowtoday (Pacific Time), if any of you are awake. Four hours from now--ack!