update on the ring made from a spoon, mentioned several entries ago: i am allergic to it. it made me more or less break out in very small hives. i went back to telegraph last sunday to try to track down spoon ring guy and exchange my ring (which is silver-plated) for one of the more expensive sterling silver ones. THE GUY WASN'T THERE. but i intend to keep returning until i find him. i feel very strongly about having a ring made from a spoon.

update on _forgetting sarah marshall_: better than _knocked up_. ROUGHLY on-par with _the 40-year-old virgin_, for me, but i can understand that others may feel differently.

update on the box of slightly damaged books: NO ONE ELSE HAS TAKEN ANY OF THEM. i go back like every day and take a few more, thinking, well, if no one else is going to take this, jeez...

update on feeling weird about leaving here and going home: my last day in the office will be 23 may; everyone i work with is sad to hear this. or at least they purport to be. also, i have made a list of things i want to do and see before i go. sample items include dining at two indian restaurants, going to telegraph hill in the city, and going to cafe fanny, the casual arm of the alice waters empire. all of this is doable.

PICTURE TIME!

o spoon ring, how i mourn you.


this is what an allergic reaction to metal looks like, dudes. in a poorly-focused digital photo.

and this is what i look like post-haircut (minor haircut) from the lhasa salon.

at work there is a box of slightly damaged books -- too damaged to sell. so far, i have taken three of them, and i'm planning on taking whatever's still there tomorrow by the end of the day.

today i bought my last bus pass. it was a sniffly moment.

i still need a haircut. i will do that this weekend.

has anyone seen _forgetting sarah marshall_? i'm going to give it a whirl this weekend. it's gotten reeeally good reviews, but i haven't talked to anyone who has actually seen it for themselves.

for a while, i thought my air mattress was broken, but it turned out that one of the valves just wasn't fully closed.

i left work at 2 pm on friday because they ran out of stuff for me to do! they ran out! counterpoint has a two-person editorial department and they're so darn competent that they don't need an intern! jeez! and then today i left at five (i used to never, ever get out of there before 5:45, usually not before 6). having down time during the day actually makes me mad. it seems unnatural. i dunno why i had so much more to do when roxy was here; maybe it's just coincidence, but ever since she left it's been kind of slow for me. i think it's been kind of slow for everyone, though, and obviously my experience is more exaggerated than theirs since i only leech off their extra work instead of having my own independent tasks. meh.

i went to target yesterday to buy yoga clothes. getting to target is an adventure. first i take BART, then i take a bus. the bus drops me off by a freeway overpass, on the other side of the street from target. i walk under the overpass on a path that circles around to the side of the street where the target lives. the first time i did this, it freaked me out. i mean, come on, i'm walking under a deserted freeway overpass, on the wrong side of the street. yesterday was only my second trip, and, yes, it still kind of freaked me out. but i knew that i was on the right path, even if it seemed woefully counterintuitive. but no, it all worked out ok, and there was a flurry of stars and hearts and glitter waiting for me at target.

going back home is much less scary because there is really only one bus in that area at that time, and taking it one way will take me to a BART station (score!), and taking it the other will take me to UC berkeley (slightly more roundabout score!).

when i was at a bus stop on friday, a man walked past me and said, "stay here. it's cold everywhere else but here." i said, "it's kind of cold here, too." but he had already walked by. WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? also it was cold that night, colder than it's been in a little while, and i was sitting on a bench, not even under a shelter, so i don't know what he was thinking, the dummy.

in my long hiatus, the following things have happened:
1. i turned 22. it was weird.
2. i saw a movie called _will success spoil rock hunter?_. it is truly a magnificent film.
3. i went to a huuuuge fabric store called britex and bought three pieces of non-matching fabric that i intend to quilt together. BY HAND.
4. i discovered a new frozen yogurt place called yogurt harmony. their yogurt is not very sweet -- a little bit tart. much more refreshing, i think, and also delicious.
5. i went to the cheeseboard, a pizza collective in north berkeley. this was the same day i went to britex. it was so hot in the city, and people kept wanting to talk to me in ways that made me kind of uncomfortable. then i came back to berkeley, where it was cooler, and all people wanted to do was smile and say hi. oh, and the pizza was good.
6. i slept for like thirteen hours last night. i was telling julie at the office today that i don't know why i'm so tired, and she said the same thing happened to her when she moved here three-ish years ago, and her doctor said it was allergies. this kind of makes sense, so i'm going to buy some claritin tomorrow and give it a go.
7. this goes along with #1: my parents sent me a box full of cool stuff: a glasses cleaning cloth, dark chocolate, a new moleskin, novelty bandaids -- the list goes on and on. oh, and there was a singing birthday card, which was by far not the least awesome part of the package.
8. i have decided that i need to get my hair trimmed. it is looking a little ragged, not to mention pouffy in all the wrong places.
9. i bought a ring! made from a spoon! i'll have to post pictures of it when i get new batteries for my camera.

last night, i slept twelve hours. then i felt sick today at work, so i came home at 2 and slept for another 2.5 hours. now it is 11:30 and i am tired again/still. i am hoping not to feel exhausted tomorrow.

i an weirded out by the fact that i only have like six weeks left here.

in other news, shayna is out of town for today/tonight, so i am taking care of the animals. both of the dogs are sacked out on my bed (koobi is right in front of the space heater, while taylor is next to me), and avi the cat is in my lap. since i am sitting cross-legged, this is also really stretching the heck out of the muscles on the outsides of my hips. it's kind of nice, but i think i'll have to move him in a few minutes.

i really like my internship/job. (i think of it more as a job because i am there more or less as much as the people who get paid to be there.) the people there are so, so, so nice. roxy's last day was monday, and she should be having her baby any time now. her replacement is this reeeeally sweet woman named laura, who i find myself constantly wanting to hug. roxy was incredibly good at her job and a very nice person, but she was never really chatty or anything. laura is chatty and slightly more low-key. more mom-ish -- she has two kids, so that makes sense.

THANK GOD AVI FINALLY MOVED. jeez. that was some intense stretching, let me tell you.

carl the accountant has started calling me "greta-may." he does not know why.

as the entire editorial department tries to figure out how to make a conference call, jack says, "jeez! this is like trying to start a prius!"