Blog Post in the Traditional Style

Had a nice post sushiplus nap and now I am proofreading. Oddly nice just coming straight home as all last week I went to yoga after work. Every day I think. Have been doing the agni sara and could oddly touch my chest to my knee in pyramid pose. Not sure if it is the sucking in the belly or the fact that we went bottom up instead of top to bottom. If my chest is already low to the ground, it is easy to just turn. My body randomly started doing the retention of breath thing at work today. It is kind of mysterious but cool. Instead of blogging for a proofreading break I should do some crunches or something, but... Think I did too much yoga last week and I am feeling tired. Or maybe it was walking from Oakland to Berkeley Saturday. I don't know why I did that, but I wanted to see things. There are so many neighborhoods to explore in my new city. I am still missing being a San Franciscan like crazy, and don't know if I will last longer than my lease. But at least I can explore. Also, it is cleaner here, and people smile at you, so that is nice.

Saturday I walked up to Temescal looking for a chilaquile; pico paco taqueria does not have this, they are salvadorean I think. She squinted at me. The other place La Calaca has them, but only until 1, I will try next weekend. Then I walked up trying to find BookZoo. I walked from 51st to Alcatraz. I didn't know how far a walk that is. Also it was hot, and I was carrying my laptop on my shoulder. I bought a Camille Roy and a Stephen Ratcliffe, and almost a Vanessa Place but it was $15 and I don't think I quite understand the genre. Probably if I started reading it the process would teach it to me, but $15... I also had a long conversation with the daughter of the bookseller, she had a cinderella bike and was telling me all about cinderella and showing me all the different ways to ride the bike, some worked better than others. I didn't know Cinderella had friends, but there were a bunch of other people on the bike picture, slowly days later I realize they are the stepsisters. Duh. I find talking to children one of the most bizarre ways to pass time. But after that I was feeling friendly and asked the bookseller where I could get some wifi. So he pointed me in the direction of nomad cafe. It was ok, there was a very strange east bay cultural situation where I was standing by the bathroom, thinking I'm next, but no the girl sitting at the table was next, and then the girl at the other table sitting was after her, and then there was a guy sitting at another table. How do you sit at a table and still be in "a line"? Students maybe. Have unusual ways of communicating. But I worked on my manuscript for a good 2 1/2 hours or so. Black Radisher,David Wolach gave me tons of intricate notes, so I went through one by one. It took a while. I got so into it I was late leaving to go to the city, meet up with an old new college friend (blogless friend how do I link to you), and I missed his friend's reading, but made it to the next one, the CIIS reading, and the next one, the SPD reading, where I abandoned the CIIS group and went off on my own, but saw Kaya, Barbara, and Cedar, and some other cute 20 year olds. I may have stumbled across my next book idea, which will be called Poetry Reading, and is sort of a third cousin to Flarf, zlarf? Because I had to write a poem to get the free book, and of course I had to have a free book if there was a free book to be had, so I wrote lines from each of the poets, kind of collaged together. I think it came out kind of cool. My free book was a bio of Alice James.

Then Sunday I tried to go to the noon yoga to the people class but was late, I just missed the BART when I got there, and this 20 year old boy kept asking me questions: did we just miss the BART, yes we did. He likes my socks. Oh. Do I go to Berkeley. No. What am I reading. What I wrote. Maybe it was the kneesocks that made me look like I was a college student? Then I couldn't get in to the yoga class because I was 5 minutes late and they lock the door. So I went to the half price books and found an Elise Ficarra book and was carrying it around until someone asked me Do I go to State. What is up with this day? Then I went to Royal Cafe for a bit and worked on my other manuscript for a while, until it was almost time to go catch a BART again. I stopped in crossroads, and found a cool 3/4 inch sleeve MTV shirt, so 80's, but didn't buy it because the only time I wear printed shirts is for yoga - actually my favorite yoga outfit is the printed T-shirt outfit, I sometimes start to think tank tops are kind of "traditional" and I like to be different, but has to be short sleeves or I would probably die.

Then I went to Ashby, Ashby is a very exciting BART station. I found David and Sarah's place, and almost felt too shy to go in, the house reading terror, but then I heard familiar voices talking and I felt comforted. I went in and me and Sarah are the only women, and I thought that was odd. The end count was 7 women. I didn't count the men. Ending up leaving with the latest Try!, Sara's latest chap, and Julia Drescher gave me a beautifully made Lulu perfect bound called The Islands. And also CJ's Delete press chap. Beautifully made, and a weird title. I need to start making ypolita chaps again because I don't like not having something to give people. I almost wanted to get up and get my notebook to writ zlarf during the reading, but didn't, but should have because 4 people were writing in notebooks during the readings... Thought I'd try and remember but all i remember is a Julia Drescher line: "Here is an impossibility." I think I remember it right. She writes about land a lot.

Then I left and for some reason, maybe all the sitting, listening, I walked from Ashby Bart area up to Downtown Berkeley BART area, at this point my hip was starting to hurt, and also my feet. I did make it to the 5 o'clock YTTP class, thank god, but my practice was kind of rickety. I also forgot to pay. I feel bad about it. But I love that place because it is ok to forget. Then what did I do? I did not call my mother as I should have. I had A LOT to do on the computer, is how I always feel. I did not watch the movie I've had for two weeks either. I did not go grocery shopping. My feet were hurting. Thinking I really want to just quit netflix, I never watch them, and maybe I could just go to a video store when the mood hits. Sometimes watching movies alone makes me sad, or I only want to if I have an art project or book binding type things to do while I watch. But the only one semi in my neighborhood seems to be here. Not sure what kind of walk that is.

This is kind of like a John Sakkis post but without all the beautiful people. Kind of without any people.