Begin at the Bottom

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Thursday
30July98

1:55 pm
I have not written for many days.   He and I woke up early last Friday and drove 283 miles to the Sierra Nevadas.   We spent the night at a campsite and set out early Saturday morning on a 7.5 mile backpacking adventure.   Snow was still on the ground but the weather was warm (and the mosquitos were swarming).   It was a hard pack, but we made it to Lake Lillian and enjoyed our Sunday taking day hikes to various nearby lakes.   The waterfalls were in full force and I have excellent photos which will be added shortly.   On Monday we packed out -- six miles -- by a different route.   Since I have been back I have been working furiously to finish everything up before I go away.   I am leaving on the third (Monday) for LA and will be on the east coast from the seventh to the nineteenth.   I will be back in Berkeley on the twentieth.   I will be college shopping with my brother.   I am looking forward to the change of scenery.

It really was a wonderful trip.   I didn't bring a scrap of paper besides our maps so I would have no ooprtunity to write.   I did a lot of thinking about why people do such outdoors recreational activity and thought myself most fortunate to be able to go on such a trip.   I really treasured those precious few days alone with Him in the wilderness.

I have uploaded all of my current work and am spending my shift working on my succulent pages.

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Wednesday
22July98

11:32 am
I feel silly for not having reported the interesting events in my life of late.   I am at work now, but the network went down so only about eight computers are working.   Needless to say, I am not very busy.   Day before last, a client came in, whom I and a co-worker had previously had an altercation with.   He apologized to me; I was impressed.   Yesterday I worked on my succulent list.

2:17 pm
I just found out I won a T-shirt in a contest* sponsored by AltaVista.   Very exciting.   Hee hee.   I did it while I was at work yesterday.

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Tuesday
21July98

12:00 pm
He asked to paint my toenails, and since I let him pick the color they are now blue.

2:52 pm
I have been having a few conversations via e-mail while on shift.   Feel better Basil!   My belly is growling and I am glad to be leaving soon.

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Monday
20July98

5:08 pm
I suppose I should rename this the not-so-daily diary.   I did not feel like writing this weekend.   I didn't even feel like working, but I managed, and uploaded most everything today.

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Friday
17July98

1:17 pm
I registered for the rest of my classes today.   I will be taking Introduction to Development Studies, Intermediate Dance, Dance Analysis, History of Film Theory, and Special Topics in Film: Cinema and Artificial Life.   Yesterday I saw Small Soldiers and then watched Starship Troopers on DVD; the day before I saw A Perfect Murder which is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder.   Most disturbing of the movies was a continuity flaw in Starship Troopers.   One of the main characters was missing an arm from above the elbow.   When he later returned on screen with a prosthetic hand, his arm extended well below the elbow before disappearing into the metal glove.   So sloppy!

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Thursday
16July98

2:22 pm
Working will be over soon and then I am going to see a matinee.   I have spent my free time at work adding links to yesterday's entry.

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Wednesday
15July98

11:21 am
An inventory of the plants in my apartment (not counting the succulents, which reside on His porch), reveals:

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Tuesday
14July98

3:43 pm
The weather is hot and I am working long hours.

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Monday
13July98

5:34 pm
metalic effectI have been farting around all morning at His place.   We played with a nice metalic effect in Photoshop and I watered all of my planties.   Unfortunately, my photos did not turn out so well, so I have nothing to scan to show all of the new growth.   I have been having delightful e-mail conversations with Aurora while she is hard at work in India.   It is slightly disconcerting to hear about her Monday morning while it is still Sunday evening here, but I am getting used to it.

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Sunday
12July98

9:48 pm
I haven't wanted to write for the past few days.   That doesn't mean I haven't composed entries in my head, I simply haven't felt in a writing mood when I have found myself in front of a computer.   On Wednesday I went for a drive with him up the coast nearly all the way to Mendecino.   We took off right after our staff meeting and the whole experience was wonderful.   After we stopped and had a lovely meal (we got two vegan dishes and split them; no man has ever done that with me before) I was very sleepy.   As I cuddled in a blanket of contentment the sky gave a huge full moon just above the horizon.   I watched it the whole way back to Berkeley until the fog fully obscured it from view.

[A large bug with long legs just flew at the computer screen and flew away two legs lighter.   The legs clung to the computer screen until I blew hard enough to dislodge them.   That was one of the more disturbing things I have seen in my day.]

This week has been all about work, except when I called in sick on Thursday due to a belly ache.   Yesterday (Saturday) He and I wandered about Berkeley looking at new shops and neighborhoods.   Today I was up at seven working and then had brunch with Karlyn.   The day was perfect for eating out of doors.   He was still in bed when I left and I was a bit concerned.   I worry when he sleeps for so many hours, mostly because I know that sleeping a lot is a sign of depression.   When we finally got to his place I spent the rest of the day gardening on his porch.   I got one of his housemates a plant for his birthday.   I could spend all day tending to my little green friends.   We also pitched His tent on the porch so we could fix one of the fiberglass poles; we are planning on going backpacking in the next two weeks, but lord only knows if we will make it.   I actually enjoy planning things as much as, if not more than, doing them.   Planning a trip to the beach is often more enjoyable than the sandy, scortching reality.   Not that I don't like doing things.   I love camping and hiking and taking long, meandering walks.   But I love planning too.   There is such an excitment about it.  I remember continually discussing a trip to Tahiti with my exboyfriend Sam.   We were going to go when I was 22.   He still refered to it after we broke up.   Such silliness.   I guess he had the planning bug too.

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Tuesday
7July98

12:52 pm
I am smack dab in the middle of a lengthy shift.   I haven't even read my e-mail yet.   We are going to the Botanical Gardens when I get done with work and then we are hoping to see Armageddon.   Last night we rented The MatchMaker and the night before we got The Apartment, which won Best Picture in 1960.

1:37 pm
I have started the perpetual yawning.   It must be because I haven't had any lunch.   I was just discussing movies with my co-worker.   Film is a universal language.

2:44 pm
My honey has come to work to walk me home.   His SCSI card arrived in the mail yesterday and he spent the morning formatting RAID arrays.   I am so glad to see him.

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Monday
6July98

5:19 pm
I tried in vain to get online yesterday, but the dial-up was not working and I had to default to gardening.   I could live and do nothing else.   Today I got a solid chunk of work done, did a bit of my plant thing, and found a nifty page of fonts*, and a decent collection of images*.   I am hoping to wander around the botanical gardens tomorrow.

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Saturday
4July98
The Fourth of July

3:04 pm
I am very content with this lazy day of gardening and loafing in the sun.   We certainly got a gorgeous fourth.   I have been cataloging the aditional two dozen plants I picked up yesterday when we hit two nurseries and a pot shop.   There were a lot of great finds at Yabusaki's (1001 Dwight, just West of San Pablo) and East Bay Nursery (2332 San Pablo Avenue, only a few blocks North of Yabusaki's).   I have addicted him to Bosais, and we have a healthy five basking in the sun right now.   I love the idea of getting him involved in gardening the way I am and I am delighted that his interests are different from mine -- we are both constantly teaching each other.

With a lot of purchasing and a little propogating, my succulent collection has jumped from 19 to 42.   Fourteen of them are of the Lithops species.

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Friday
3July98

8:48 am
My third night of dreaming of babies in four days.   Four nights ago I rescued a baby from some neglectful, wealthy, and powerful father.   I had been in a car accident and was trying to deal with getting drug tests to prove that I hadn't been drinking while trying to keep this baby safe and warm.   In the end I knew that I could count on my mother to raise the child and I was trying to figure out how I would get it papers so it could go to school.   The next night (three ago), I dreamt that my father had left dozens of babies in the yard of the tall apartment building in which I lived.   I spent the day wandering around discovering new groups of babies, all of whom I was trying to keep warm.   Throughout the day people would wander into the yard, let me know that they knew what was going on (apparently more than I did) and start holding the babies to keep them warm.   I was waiting for my father's return the entire time, and I woke up with Madonna's Pappa Don't Preach in my head, as I had listeded to it the evening before.   Two nights ago I dreamt I was asked to write a screenplay.   When I awoke in my dream, I was delighted to find that I really was writing a screenplay; I was to rewrite an existing screenplay, which they had already started shooting, as the existing writer was nowhere to be found; her name was that of one of my father's female friends.   I began working on it and then wound up at a party where everyone was touting my virtues as a writer.   Last night I was some sort of agent, working on some top secret, life threatening plot.   The adventure was long, but when I was finally unmasked as dawn was breaking, I grabbed a baby (I believe it was the baby of the man I had just gotten killed) just as the mans widow stormed into the room with the gun.   She was carrying a baby of her own, and was prepared, in her anger, to shoot through mine to get to me, but as soon as she saw her dead husband she tended to him.   She, along with the two female companions who accompanied her (all were dressed in black), began a mourning process which was elaborate and ritualistic.   Let me just say that flame throwers were involved and that there was some sort of document -- a tribute --- being produced which you could only add to through by pshycic connection.   I was remourseful, and added saviour to his title, for he had died saving me.

If I didn't have my period, I would be concerned about all of these baby dreams.   When I was home, my dad asked me if I thought that I was capable of being a mother now.   He laughed when I answered yes and simply said that it would require a lot of patience.

9:20am
I am reading my second succulent book (I finished one last night) after a brief stint of watering.

Gardeners unexpectedly fall in love with cacti and succulents, and why not? Tiny Plants explode with brillian flowers .... The cool-toned leaves of succulents are formed like minimalist sculptures, each plant displaying intriguing shapes and blossoms.
Mimi Luebbermann

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Thursday
2July98

3:01 pm
We are trying, without much luck, to make plans for this three day weekend.   I spent the entire three hour shift working on my succulent pages.   My mom has agreed to go the the succulent convention in Las Vegas with me.   I am going to go to the postoffice and pick up the apricots she mailed me.   I also want to drop by the bookstore and get a few books on succulents and visit the last two nurseries in Berkeley I have not hit yet.   For being difficult to navigate and full of tons of useless information, I love the web.   I am so impressed to have so much information at my fingertips.   I love doing research.

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Wednesday
1July98

9:33 am
I am absolutely amazed to discover the computer community preparing for the comming usage of the European Community currency symbol.   Someone must get paid just to think ahead for such situations as this.   I woke up early -- clammy with a sickness that I am using the web to distract me from.   It is either surf or do work.   He is sleeping away the hours only a few feet from me.   I don't want to be sick -- especially not during the summer.

I really feel that my hard work paid off.   My boss e-mailed me yesterday saying that my newest client loved the work I did.   A compliment like that makes up for so much more than it should.   I can put up with a lot if I am told in the end that it was a job well done.   In fact, a few days ago my boss told me that his boss really liked the new CAP site I have been working on.   I guess I am sitting pretty.

12:31 pm
Sweet Jane came and chatted with me before getting started on her programming homework.   I sure am glad I'm not doing summer school.

12:59 pm
The first hour of my shift has passed quickly.   I have discovered The Cactus and Succulent Plant Mall and have typed up a list of my 19 succulents.

1:17 pm
I Just uncovered a succulent convention in Las Vegas.   Now I have to convince my mom to go with me.   I am going to e-mail her right now.