after_alex

This morning I woke up at 5 AM to take Victoria to the airport. She’s going to Australia for Christmas. Usually, I’d gripe and moan about waking up at 5 AM, but after doing almost every other day while I was in Afghanistan it’s a piece of cake. In fact, I kinda enjoy it now. Shh. Don’t tell anyone. But anyway, I decided to start the day with a good deed. Gave a bunch of food to a bum outside Victoria’s apartment. Hey, it’s Christmas Eve and Victoria needed to give away as much food as possible (or else it’d go bad while she’s gone to Australia).

So, at 5 AM it was still dark as night gets in Berkeley, CA. So after we loaded up, Victoria stayed in the car while I delivered a whole basket of goodies to the bum in front of the 2520 Hillegass apartments. Victoria’s scared of bums (after all the stories, police reports, terrible Berkeley-bum experiences, etc.) so she stayed in the car. I’m get pretty buggered up by Berkeley bums sometimes too, but this time I just wanted to help. So I walked up and gave the bum some stuff. Actually it was a lot of stuff. Two MacDonald’s apple pies, Mrs. Field’s cookies, two hot dog buns, a jar of peanut butter, and two bottles of water. I even threw in my own pineapple slices for lunch.

Turns out that the bum was a girl. I totally didn’t expect that. Not only that, but she was my age or younger, and she was obviously tired of living life on the street. So I hooked her up Real good. LBC style. The only thing that was missing was Little Bean boba. Oh well, you do as much as you can. So after that, I felt a little good about myself, and the girl – her name was “Dizzy” – was really stoked that I superbly hooked her up. I think Victoria was even jealous that I treated her so well. Haha. Still love ya, baby! Merry Christmas.

But despite all the poverty, constant rain, illnesses around Berkeley…Yes, life is still good. I can’t complain. In fact, I feel like celebrating. I’ve got great parents (always afraid, yet supportive), a great g/f, great weather. This week I got to indulge in the nice libraries at Berkeley, got some great coffee, ate great food made by Victoria, had a good job interview, it almost seems like it can’t get better than this. Hmm. Maybe it’s just all downhill from here. Or at least that’s the feeling I get sometimes when I realize how lucky I am. Sometimes I even think how lucky the bums of Berkeley are. OK, OK, it’s not just sometimes. But seriously, they really got it good. I mean, take a look – Berkeley bums are often fat and well-clothed. Compare that to bums in Vietnam or Afghanistan!!! Bums in Vietnam are usually skinny as sticks, with bones jutting out from their skin. Afghan bums usually are missing some kind of limb, and for sure have some kind of respiratory problem from all the dust.

But enough crap-talking on bums. I still got respect for them, though they always make me scratch my head. Trying to figure them out would be harder than ace’ing an O-chem class. But anyway, life is still great, and it’s even greater now that I’ve done my random good-deed for the day. That should rack up enough Karma points to last me to the end of the week or whatever. Haha. Just kidding. Merry Christmas.