Monday, 10 September, 2007

Today was a very weird day indeed.

This morning, I was on and off the toilet for almost 2 hours, went through half of a soduku book waiting for something to happen. Finally, I got to the point where nothing more was going to come out, and so I got on with the rest of my day.

As I was walking down Market Street towards my new doctor's office, I saw smoke coming out of a demolition zone. People were running towards it. I had a better idea and kept walking away, holding my shirt over my nose to try to block out some of the nasty stench. Within seconds, fire trucks were zooming to the scene, so I just kept on going without looking back.

I got on the BART at a little before 11AM, and just as I got down into the station, a SWAT team came through, looking for a white plastic shopping bag. I wasn't sure whether to be alarmed, or relieved that they were on the case. I was shaken enough that I missed my train, and waited for the next one.

Then, while at work at Berkeley, someone came by ask if we'd heard about "the incident". We hadn't, but it turns out that one of the grad students took a step on the dark side, and was brandishing a hammer and threatening people. Who said being a student was an easy life?


Ah, life in the big city. I guess the funny part of it all is that if I hadn't written these things down today, I surely would have forgotten them by tomorrow. Despite all the wackiness involved in living in downtown San Francisco, it all feels relatively normal, and I feel safe.

I have my third class tomorrow, the first one involving any math (or as I like to call it, common sense with numbers), so hopefully that won't freak the kids out too badly. Last week, I forgot to print out my lecture notes, so I did my best from memory and the barely legible pen markings on a few scraps of paper. It went off without a hitch, of course.

There was one part where they were really struggling to get a concept about the 'social production of disease theory', but I wasn't the least bit concerned that they were having trouble getting it, because it took me a good three years or so before I got it down, maybe longer. I'll have to give them some encouragement though, because I think a lot of them left frustrated that they didn't have the answer.

So, as promised, here's "the picture" that everyone takes in San Francisco, at the park where Tuna and I go for walks (Alamo Square).


And here's a picture of some picture takers. So earnest, so cute!