Fish Not Chips: Month in Review

Today marks the end of my fourth week in California, and I feel a proper recapitulation of the month is in order. The results so far:

Throwing a spectacular house party. Granted, parties were completely ruined forever for me by the end of college. Short of hosting a Bootie bash in the backyard (Sam - 24th birthday party?), I don't think anything could ever top my 22nd birthday party. But Sam's entire Berkeley department and their housemates came over for our housewarming party, and they got us pretty damned close.

The bacon-fried hotdogs sure didn't hurt.

Meeting new people. About 95% of the people I've met so far are chemical engineers, but they're still lovely people. My next month should focus on finding people with interests similar to my own, but until then, I've got the more important bases covered - "political debate" friend, "fun banter" friend, a couple of "breakfast in the city" friends, "lives a block away" friend, "can operate a grill" friend, and a wide spectrum of potential "up for anything" friends. Plus Sam, who feeds me, entertains me, and gets the other dish that I wanted to order and shares it with me. The later of those is arguably the most important quality in a roommate/friend.

Finding favorite hangouts. I finally got a handle on the whole north/south thing. With Sam's help, I've located a new favorite Southern restaurant. Dive bars are plentiful in Oakland (go figure), and there seems to be no shortage of foreign food. Given the complete newness of even the big box stores, it took me a while to find simple things, such as christmas lights. But an assembled bike, Yelp and AC Transit's free maps are helping expand my local knowledge at a respectable clip. I've successfully given accurate directions to pedestrians over 75% of the time when asked.

Picking up new, awesome hobbies. This one is still a work in progress. Seeing the city and all it has to offer just doesn't feel complete enough. Gardening and agriculture is coming along though. Our downstairs neighbor/landlord's daughter supports the chicken plan, and even suggested bees, but weeding the backyard is prooving to be an obstacle. The actual labor isn't so bad given the temperate climate, but the sheer volume of thorns, ivy, and other viney matter is likely on the order of 12 times our weekly yard waste allotment from the City of Oakland. My goal is to have enough cleared by the time we leave for Detroit that while I'm in Boston and Las Vegas, Sam can make headway with the actual planting. I want the coop up and operational before I go back to work.