Thank God Almighty, Spring At Last

Arboreal
Originally uploaded by tjdee.

Four random memories dredged up during the sweaty walk from Shattuck through the Berkeley campus to Café Strada:

My first day at Rutgers: After dropping off my bags at my dorm, mom, Earl and I drove back over the river to explore downtown New Brunswick and the College Ave. campus a bit. I remember being impressed by the cobblestones and freaked out by the prospect of living with some random dude. The real memory revolved around parking on a side street off of College Ave. and trying to cut through a building next to the Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with but not technically part of Rutgers. This was a library of sorts (I don't think I ever stepped foot in that building again in my four years on the banks) and we were immediately reprimanded and forced to go back and around to College.

Nearly a year later, I randomly received two tickets to a Cranberries concert, I think from Stephanie. No one wanted to go with me, so I mentioned it to Kris, with whom I had been exchanging emails and maybe one or two phone calls during the previous two months. I totally mentioned it in the hopes that he would volunteer to go without me having to ask. Mission accomplished. Thus began one of the most bizarre but interesting friendships of my (not so short) life.

Standing on the corner of Sixth and Mission in San Francisco, a really seedy area, I was early for an interview at Greatschools.net. It was just a few days after landing in Oakland for my pre-move summer in the Barea, way the hell back in the summer of 2001, when everything was possible and on track. I was dressed up and realized as I was talking to Lauren (I think) that the prostitutes on the corner across the street thought I was looking for action. I took off.

Finally, sophomore year at Rutgers, fall of 2000, I was at Menlo Park Mall with Kris when I got a call from Melissa. I don't know if she was early or if I had lost track of time, but I needed to haul ass back to the Louis St. apartment to meet her. She was visiting from UConn, which stole her away from me that summer. I was actually visiting her in Rhode Island when she got the call offering her all sorts of perks to join their track team. That night in NB was bizarre because I was leaving this guy with whom there were some definite sparks to hang out with this girl with whom there had been definite sparks. I'm happy that I remain in touch with both.