On another BART note, I’d really like to get an ezrider card so I don’t have to keep on buy paper ones and stop to refill them all the time. I’ve been checking back with their ezrider sign up page. Supposedly they are going to open up sign ups again sometime this month. Woot.

The other day we went for a local hike with Jules’ parents and family friends and once we we past the treeline it was like we were in another world. The trees and foliage were dense for most of the hikes, but some parts thinned out and you could see a hundred yards or so of foresty goodness.

Jules and I took the featured picture after the hike when we were waiting for everyone to catch up. More pictures soon perhaps!

We came down to San Diego for the weekend to see two of my cousins graduate from UCSD. Graduation ceremonies are brutal. For each one we sat in the sun for two hours roasting, listening to mediocre speeches and the names of ~1800 cheery soon to be ex students. Not sure if we got sunburned yet. I have to say that I’m glad my graduation was a small affair with shade for the spectators.

Something I thought about while watching the seemingly endless stream of new additions to the workforce was my own disbelief about graduating. It came in waves I suppose. I walked during my commencement. But then I had one more class to take over the summer. The end of that class was pretty anticlimactic. After that I got someone else to pick up my degree for me. But that’s just a piece of paper with a printed signature from the governator in a manilla envelope. Not even sure exactly where that is at the moment. I got a job with CNET later in the year, but I don’t think they ever checked to see if I had actually graduated. A few after that I got a job with Yahoo! and they did a full background check and I’m pleased to announce that in addition to actually finishing college, I have no criminal record.

Unfortunately, my sis will be studying for her LEED exam (unless she decides to postpone it) this weekend. Alas. But hopefully I’ll get some good oyster and crab eating in with the siblings. Mmmmm… oysters. I’ll also be visiting a high school friend that I haven’t seen in years! We first met during swimming class at the YMCA when I was in elementary school. I proceeded to kick her sister in the face while swimming the front crawl. I swear I didn’t know anyone was behind me! And I didn’t even know their names. In high school orchestra, we met once again. Her first words to me were, “Oh, I remember you! You’re the one who kicked my sister in the face!” So not a great first introduction. Haha… but it will be good seeing her again. Good times, good times.

Hopefully I shall also be working on my grant proposal for fellowship applications this year. I really need to get cracking on that, because the applications are due early november! I’d like to have a good working draft by sunday so that I can bring it in and get it torn to shred by the profs that be. It’s nice that I have some preliminary data to include though~ it makes this proposal seem slightly more feasible when you actually have something to go by.

My route to school is infinitely easier than Mike’s. The bus stop is only a few blocks away, and the 1 transfer I have to do is fairly painless and well timed. The bus also comes every 10 ish minutes or so, so it’s not an enormous pain if I miss one. I find it odd that the BART costs less ($1.40) to get to Downtown Berkeley than the bus ($1.75 +$0.25 Transfer) since it’s much faster; it’s a good thing Berkeley provides the Class Pass so I don’t have to pay for bus fare every day. It’s also nice that I can sit down and read my books and journals en route. If only I didn’t get woozy while reading in a vehicle. I’m gonna need to work on that.

My sister is graduating from Univ. of Washington next week with a bachelor’s degree in Architecture, so I’m taking next friday off and flying up to Seattle, and will arrive at SEATAC 1.5 hours before her ceremony begins. When I arrive at the oakland airport at 1:05 pm on Sunday, I need to go home, grab my violin and head out to St Johns, because I have a performance at 3, and need to be there by 2 pm. Talk about cutting it close. Anyhoo, congrats Jen! Even though you never update your blog anymore, I still love you ~_^