Recovery.

Woke up Sunday morning to a delicious continental breakfast at Hotel Wright: strong coffee, apricot-wheat soda bread, and a chocolate croissant. We had a very lazy morning, in spite of the fact that we only had half a day to hang out in Berkeley. Just couldn't seem to get motivated! Drank more coffee, watched some of the MTV channels (Addie just got cable). Jesus Crisis! 99% of what i saw/heard was complete garbage, the remaining one percent only barely tolerable.... What has happened to music? i guess i should rephrase: What has happened to music television? Does anyone here remember when MTV was actually good? Like, you could see a Cars video, or Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, or Love and Rockets, Prince, Duran Duran, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, or Nirvana; shows like Yo! MTV Raps, 120 Minutes, Remote Control, Liquid Television, Sifl 'n Olly. Aw heck, i'm gettin' all misty-eyed.

Said our goodbyes to Addie, took the bus down Telegraph Ave. (more memory lane!) to Amoeba to buy some music. $91 later, we emerged with 5 CDs: new Andrew Bird and Animal Collective for me, old M83 and Boards of Canada for both of us, and an old Coil album for Nat. i love that place to death. This may have been the only time that someone did not walk up to me and say, "excuse me, do you know where i can find [insert musician's name here]?" Shucks. i'm losing my edge.

Ran into another friend, Katrina; went and got a delicious white mocha, headed for downtown Berkeley to eat Linner at Cancun. The nopales mole burrito was, for the very first time, disappointing. But it don't matter: we had 5 different kinds of salsa with our chips, and they were all damn delicious.... Pumpkin seed, Avocado, Cascabel, and i then mixed Strawberry with Tomatillo. Mmmmm! The watermelon agua fresca was so-so, but i probably should have known better since it is not melon season. Horchata next time, which is always safe.

It started to rain as we left, which made me worry about the plane being delayed (it wasn't). Katrina took us to get gelato (usually i'm more of a plain ol' ice cream gal, but i'm not sure why!) and i got a fairly nasty combination: Green Tea (macha) and Chai Chocolate, on a plain cone. Weird. Nat's combo was much more appealing (and delicious): Persian Lime and Rosewater. So amazing! Katrina got Lebanese Yogurt, which is what i would get if i ever went again. Although the best flavor i ever had was Orange Cardamom, lawd-a-mercy.

(wow, can i talk about food into the wee hours? Yep.)

Ran to the car through the rain, which was immensely enjoyable because i miss doing that. Listened to the soundtrack for Darjeeling Limited on the way to the BART station. ::sniff::... it was hard to get out of that car. i didn't want to get on a plane. i didn't want to say goodbye to Katrina. i didn't want to go back to sunny and boring San Diego. i didn't want to leave flavorful food, bookstores, rainy nights, good coffee, movie theaters, and music stores... but away we went. Off on the train, and back to airport, where it all began. Garlic fries with mayo in the airport bar. Vodka ginger ale and lime for me, Bailey's on ice for Nat. We read Amoeba's annual list of "Music We Like" while we waited.

Flight home was uneventful. i ordered a vodka tonic instead of vodka ginger ale, and Nat pointed out that it tasted like rubbing alcohol. Yee-haw! We both had to pee, which i thought was unusual, but even more strange was the fact that the woman next to me had to go, as well! She stood up before i even had to ask her to move, so we all went together. Weeeeeeiiiiird.

Managed to listen to a few of the songs off of that Allison Krauss/Robert Plant album, and they were totally decent. i might have to buy it, if not for me then for Addie.... we landed in San Diego, and our hearts sank along with the plane. On the curb we saw a guy in flip-flops and shorts, even thought it was 54 degrees, and we just looked at each other and sighed. Back to the grind. Can't wait to get out of this place.