Saturday, January 26, 2008

A Brief Respite

It has been raining buckets here and the streets are filled with hoards of students in rain boots holding umbrellas alongside homeless folks hovering underneath awnings to get out of the downpour.

For now, there is a break in the rain. I don't know for how long. But it will make my bike ride to the store a lot more pleasant.

But speaking of homeless people...
I had a discussion about homelessness on the bus home from the party I went to Thursday night with a super nerdy guy who wants to be an aerospace engineer for Northrop Grumman. He mentioned his distaste with People's Park here in Berkeley and believes that the people should not be allowed to temporarily live and sleep in the park because it deters others from enjoying what the park has to offer. While seeing his point, I brought up the issues of drug abuse and mental illness among homeless people and that instead of displacing them from a community park, we should take advantage of their proximity and do what we can to help these people. Investing more time and money into mental illness research and substance abuse programs seems like a more effective solution. Many...well most people know what it feels like to have someone close to them with a mental illness or a substance abuse problem. These people should not be quarantined from society like dogs with rabies. Every person, in my opinion deserves the right to live and attempt to function in our world. Some just need more help than others in doing so.

On another note, catching up with old friends is great and wonderfully nostalgic. I'm off to eat lunch with Julius, my friend Sophia's ex who game me my original tour of Berkeley way back in high school. 3 of closest friends Senior year of high school-Talene, Sophia, and Cara traveled up to Cal to see what we hoped would be our future home. The week was fantastic--filled with food, frat parties, friends, and feelings of excitement for college...and spending it together. Julius showed us Rasputan, Naan n Curry, BART, Top Dog...all the very "Berkeley" parts of Berkeley.

Unfortunately, none of us got into Berkeley. and none of us went to college together. But hey, that's life...you can't plan it out.

I must go get ready because in true Katie fashion I'm in my pajamas and have to be at the corner of Channing and Ellsworth in 15 minutes. HA HA HA.

Whoever is reading this...here is a good song to listen to sometime you want some mellow tunes:

"How Bout You?"-Yonder Mountain String Band (Yes, it's bluegrass music)


Herky, Madison, and Me at a concert in SF

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