The Smells of Berkeley

Pee

Body odor

Vomit

Garbage

Pot

Cigarette smoke (Really?  People still smoke? So 90’s.)

Besides the fact that these all happen to be offensive odors, and that I have had actual nightmares about walking barefoot downtown (google People's Park) we are obsessed with Berkeley.  Remember how I was always the annoying girl who thought that Southern California is the best place ever to live and nothing could ever compare?  I still do, but I’m just stretching the geographical boundaries a little up the coast.  People always ask us if Berkeley is this crazy liberal place full of crazy liberal people and I always say “yes, yes it is.”  Berkeley is everything its reputation leads you to believe but there’s just so much more.  Yes, people here are insane.  Not day goes by that I don’t see at least two people yelling at walls or conversing  with invisible and divine beings floating above them. This city is full of intellectuals of the 1% and homeless variety and for the most part, they are pretty liberal. (A breath of fresh air in my opinion…still undecided in who I’m going to vote for this November, but happy to see that at least people in my ward aren’t going to vote for Mitt Romney just because he’s LDS.)  People here are nuts about food and “local organic” but it’s not pretentions—it’s because they actually care about the environment and their bodies.  And there are bikers everywhere!  Not the kinds that ride for Jesus or have sweet tats on their biceps, (though I’m sure many of them might…) but the kind that are all hunched down in skin tight spandex or whatever RIDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LANE.  It’s extremely irritating.  And kind of ironic that we find it so annoying since we just got a bike…but still.  It’s cool though that a lot of people ride their bikes to work, take them on BART, etc.  I’m just paranoid I’m going to hit one or open my car door parked on the side of the road and someone’s going to smash right into it.  ANYWAYS.  The longer I’m here the more I wish we could stay forever.  Seriously I never want to leave.  I love that we can see the Golden Gate Bridge every day across the bay. I love that we live by the water.  I love that there is not one single fast food place in the actual city of Berkeley except for one McDonald’s downtown.  (Don’t get me wrong...I LOVE CHEESEBURGERS AND FRENCH FRIES.  That’s just one less food temptation.) I love the university radio station. KALX.  French, Caribbean, Post-Punk, Jazz, Blue Grass, Mid-Century folk and country…everything is like a surprise, you never know what you’re going to get.   The list seriously goes on and on.  And I will most likely blog about this list again…probably soon.  BUT here’s the thing.  Living here is INSNELY expensive.  For two people with no kids and two jobs, it’s totally fine.   And yes, sometimes I wish we could live like this forever.  But someday there will be little Danielles and Jordans running around and remember my dream about walking barefoot?  Kids always run around barefoot but if you do that here, you might step in a needle that was used for illegal activity or something equally as repulsive.  The average price for a 4 bedroom home is a little under $1 million and who knows if that includes a parking spot.  Did I mention the crazy people?  The pan handlers with signs that say words I don’t want my kids learning ever, or asking for services that my lead to premature discussions of where babies come from.  Point is, I’m not sure how long we’ll be here.  At least a few more years, and then when we retire, but we’ve both decided that this is not the place we want to raise our kids.  Who knows, maybe we’ll get the impression to stay which WOULD BE AWESOME.  But I often have the feeling that we won’t be here forever—that it’s going to be the place where we lived our first few years married together, where we had our first kid…I’m already getting nostalgic.  But I guess that’s my point.  I want to remember everything about this amazing, beautiful, crazy city that we love so much.  And people always say that smells are the most powerful memory triggers.

**This post may make the city sound like a repulsive, dirty, place.  It is and it’s not.  It’s just a city and there are more beautiful things about it than there are gross…these things have just been on my mind for a couple of weeks.

Berkeley 1st Ward

This is a post about my ward.  The Berkeley 1^st ward.  Berkeley’s only ward besides the university ward. The church building is this gorgeous white structure in this beautiful neighborhood and it’s across the street from the “Friends of the Quakers” organization…or something.  I don’t know much about the history of the building but I do think it was built in the 1930’s and the chapel feels like a nativity scene.  The walls are this really soft gold and there are HUGE windows and exposed wooden beams going across the top. 

Every Sunday when we go to church I feel the strongest spirit of confirmation that this is the place we are supposed to be.  I don’t know for how long but for now this is home!  I’ve changed a lot since being a member of this ward-one of the most startling changes I’ve noticed in myself is being more comfortable and confident in my adult self.  It’s weird.  Sometimes I feel nostalgic for my 18 year old self that was fun and carefree and danced all the time…but I’m learning that being an adult is so much more rewarding than I had previously imagined.  Not that I am officially an adult, but I’m growing into it. I am no longer a student in a student ward where everyone is my age and I’m not one of the Julander girls in the Capo 2 ward here.  I’m Sister Beasley.  I associate with the adults, not just my other student friends and I’m not looked at as one of the “grown up youth”. 

This is especially apparent to me in my calling.  I am one of the activity day leaders.  The other leader is my friend Shawn and she is so cool!  I have so much fun riding with her to activity days on Tuesdays and planning activities for the 8-11 year old girls.  We have the best calling!  I never thought I could love children so much.  It’s such a new feeling being looked up to as a leader by little kids.  They are all so sweet and smart and have such funny and interesting personalities.  It’s so fun to watch them interact with each other and create really artistic things when we do crafts.  I guess I never realized how mentally and socially developed girls this age are.  I just remember being kind of shy and awkward and weird.  Maybe that’s how they feel about themselves sometimes but to me they are so beautiful and talented and wonderful! 

Tonight Shawn and I introduced Activity Days to the girls who are turning 8 this year and while we were there we got to listen to each of their parents talk about their kid and introduce them to everyone.  I guess one of the reasons I feel more like an adult now is because I’m relating more to the parents than I do to the kids.  Not because I have kids but because I could only imagine how proud each of them are about their little girl or boy turning 8 and preparing to be baptized.  When they were talking about their children I was thinking about how cool it is to be the parent of one of Heavenly Father’s children and to watch them grow and change and learn the gospel.  Some of the kids were described as being sensitive to the Spirit and things that are right, and good.  Some are inquisitive, and active, and kind to their younger siblings.  How nice it must be to be the parent of a girl or boy who is kind to their younger siblings!  I was not always like that to Kellie.  In fact, I was really mean to her sometimes and I still feel bad about it.  I think the biggest and newest thing that I notice is the Spirit I feel when I am in their presence.  I never really understood that until recently.  People bear their testimonies all the time about how much they feel the Spirit serving in Primary and being around such “precious” children and I would think, “Really?  They’re just kids…” I was not very fond of children...  But that’s probably because I hadn’t had many opportunities to really be around them and the few times I was they were kind of terrors sometimes.  But it has helped me so much being around them in a church setting.  It’s totally different than babysitting the semi-evil little girls who would give each other bloody noses and defiantly disrespect me.  That was birth control.  Seriously.  BUT I’ve changed.  The Berkeley ward has given me an entirely new perspective and love for kids that I really never thought I would have.   I learn from their parents every week and I love their kids.  BUT I am not ready to have kids right this second.  I need to get in better shape and be more consistent in running EVERY DAY so I don’t get fat when I’m preg.  Also, I love our apt to much and as soon as there’s a little baby crawling around we would have to move.  And I don’t want to yet.  Also Willis attacks all things that move and all things that don’t move and has already chewed on our nephew when he was here.  Willis is not ready for a baby.   I guess my whole point is that Heavenly Father is PREPARING me to be a mother someday and that is neat.  I did not expect this “change of heart” when we first moved here. 

Moving on.  The Berkeley ward definitely lives up to its reputation.  It’s so…Berkeley.  People speak their minds, they ask questions, there are some definite feminist agendas during some of the lessons, there is an art group that meets every month, a book group, a feminist discussion group, half of the ward are married students at Cal earning their PH.Ds, the Bishop endorsed Obama during our tithing interview, the list goes on.  I love it.  At first I was really taken aback by how extremely opposite it is from every BYU student ward and my home ward.  But I have grown to love it more than I ever thought.  It’s such a tight community of friends looking out for each other and people who try their best to live the Gospel.  It’d definitely the kind of ward where everyone has a place because of the nature of  Berkeley.  I’m sure some of these things could be said about a lot of other wards (besides the existence of a feminist discussion group and the many members who support Obama) but there is no place in the world like Berkeley.  We even have a homeless man who comes sometimes.  The day we move away from this ward will be one of the saddest days.   To be continued,

Endorphins

 Yesterday I found my happy place in Berkeley.  It's the track above the Clark Kerr student housing complex that is right across the street from our apt.  Some women in my ward who live in the neighborhood told me about it and I have wandered up the hill SO MANY times to find it but for some reason I have never been able to.  Yesterday I was given a google earth print out of our street by this nice neighbor that I know and I saw the track!  And I was excited.  I followed the trails to get there and was overwhelmed by the most spectacular sight-a green field and the clearest view of the bay and Golden Gate Bridge.  Talk about more motivation to run EVERY DAY.  I was so happy to be there.  The batteries in my camera have died and I can’t find my charger so until then here are some pictures I found of this lovely escape :)


               This is the student housing complex across the street from our house.  The track is somewhere on the hill:

This is the view from the track but I'll take a better picture when I find a  way to charge my  camera.

CAT!

We’ve been planning on adopting a kitten since before we got engaged.  So, basically for the past 10 months.  We have both always had cats in our homes growing up (Randall….) and have been sooo excited to get one of our own.  I suggested we get one after I find a job so that we would have that solid extra income in case of cat emergencies, etc.  (P.S. I found a job.  I work on UC Berkeley campus) Soo what was the first thing that came to mind when they offered me the job?  CAT! I had a few rescue centers/adoption agencies picked out that we would go check out the next Saturday.  The first was at a woman’s house who had fostered a small litter of kittens since birth and volunteered through a rescue agency.  She was kind of nuts.  In a cat kind of a way.  Not only were there 4 kittens running around but she had 3 of her own and 2 dogs.  It was an experience.  There were 3 really pretty white kittens and one grey striped one.  We had kind of already decided against white kittens (and orange ones) because we don’t really think they’re that cute when they’re old…sorry white and orange cats.  So even though the kittens were super cute that left us with only one option which was the grey tabby.  He was so adorable.  But not the most friendly….so we told her that we were going to keep looking.  She reacted as though we had rejected her own human children.  “Really!? That has only happened to me 4 times!”  (She claims to have fostered over 1,000 cats in the past 15 years.)  We told her we just weren’t connecting with any of them and if we’re going to have this cat for 20 years, we want it to be the right one.  It was awkward.  But, as the truest of cat lovers, she understood.  And we were out of there.  Then we sat in the car trying to figure out where to go next.  We had a few more options closer to home but I had this really weird strong feeling about going to a particular Petco where a rescue center was holding an adoption event.  I say ‘weird’ because we’re talking about a cat, here, people.  Not even the type of life decision that determines your destiny.   But I’ve seen the Animal Planet show, My Cat From Hell.  And I don’t want one from there.  Also, Randall, who is my black cat at my parent’s home, who is also my baby, doesn’t like me…?  I don’t know why.  I’ve had him since I was 12 and he was a baby Halloween cat.  But he doesn’t let me hold him ever or really see him during the day….but I still LOVE him.  So basically my heart has been gushing out love for a cat who does not even really care about it or reciprocate it and has not for 11 years.  I just want a cat who loves me! (Also, just because we have one here, does not make me love Randall any less.)  ANYWAYS, back to the cat whisperer feelings.  So we drive like a million miles to this random Petco in the middle of nowhere and we walk inside and there were tons of kittens.  And the first one we saw was this tiny little black and white tuxedo kitten.  Just sitting in his cage all alone.  The volunteers could see the joy and love and excitement oozing from my face so they were super willing to let us hold any of them.  So we pick up the tuxedo one first.  He was cantankerous, hissing at the other cats and swatting at us.  We put him back.  Picked up another kitten.   And for some reason I had this feeling that the first tuxedo was the one we were supposed to take home.  I tried to squash that feeling, because I was looking for a kitten that was nice and sweet and purring and not the devil reincarnate.  So we looked at a few more.  And then I started to cry.  It was too heartbreaking seeing all these cats in cages without homes.  (Yes, I was embarrassed.)  And also I was crying because I knew that that little tuxedo was supposed to go home with us.  Not crying because I was sad that he was sort of mean, but because I knew that he needed LOVE! Aaaaand, Jordan felt the exact same way.  Kismet?  Yes.  So we talked to the women volunteering there and they said that he wouldn’t be so surly in a home.  He was just super stressed out and agitated from all the people and commotion and being stuck in a cage.  One of them had fostered him and said he was super playful and fun and sweet and the thought crossed my mind that maybe she was just trying to get rid of him but we stuck with our faith and took him home.  As soon as we picked him up and put him in our cat carrier it was like he was a different animal.  Silent, calm, just kind of checking us out.  He cried a little on the way home when we were on the freeway but every time we’d slow down, he would stop.  So we took him into our bedroom and shut the door so he wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the rest of the apt.  And he soared!  He was so so happy!  Prancing around and curling up in our laps and eating food and checking out his litter and playing with feathers.  He slept in my arms all night.  I don’t know why I had the feeling to go to that particular adoption event, and I don’t know why Jordan and I both had the feeling that he was the one after our only, semi-adverse, interaction with him.  But he’s ours!   And he’s been like a dream come true. 

He cries when he can’t see us, he climbs up my legs and up my back when I’m standing so he can perch on my shoulders (which makes me ALMOST pee every time because it’s hilarious and I never see it coming), he falls asleep in our arms and laps, when I’m sitting on a chair he’ll jump into our laps, crawl up our arms and sleep behind our necks across my shoulders.  He’s almost as obsessed with us as we are with him.  Oh and his name’s Willis, and yes, I understand that I just wrote like 50 pages about a cat and that’s about 90 points on the Crazy Cat Lady scale…and I have no justification for that, except for my recent degree in English, which I have to make use of somewhere (blog posts).

Babbyyyy! (don't worry--not ours)

The terms ‘grandparents’ or ‘siblings’ or ‘cousins’ are usually applied to the duality of gender in a couple or group of people...but how does one pluralize ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle’?  Because that’s what we are!  Is there is no word in the English language that describes this relationship we, as a couple, have to our new nephew?  We’re just relatives?  I feel that our kinship to Peter extends deeper than ‘relative’ status.  Great  Aunt Gladys who sends the occasional $5 on your birthday is a relative.  (Peter, I will send you SEVEN dollars) WE witnessed one of Peter’s first bowel movements shortly after his arrival into this world.  That is neat. 

Anyways, he’s adorable.  And not in the default kind of a way just because he’s a newborn.  He’s huge.  And soft and pink.  And not all squished and raisin like.  But even if he was your typical raisin baby, he would still be adorable.  Because I’m his aunt.  And Jordan’s his uncle.  So we’d adore him no matter what.  Congrats, Jess and Eric!

Berkeley, CA

We never want to leave Berkeley.  It’s picturesque and charming and people actually recycle here.  Religiously. 

We live in a one bedroom apartment in a house that was built in 1905.  It’s a classic Berkeley Shingle style building with a redwood in the driveway.  Redwood trees!  Everywhere.  And a giant unidentified broad leafed tree framing our bay window. 

Berkeley has a walk score of 88.  I walk on 2-6mi on any given day depending on where I’m going.  You can walk everywhere here! To the grocery store, to the library, to a million cafes and restaurants and shops and theaters.  To the best Indian restaurant in the world.  That’s the best part!  The food!  Everything is delicious and everything is cheap.

People are obsessed with food here.  And not in a quantity over quality kind of a way.  Healthy eating is a way of life…one that I am trying very hard to adapt to.  The Berkeley Bowl is an indoor farmers market with about 90 different types of cucumbers.  I had a minor melt down the first time we went because what is the difference between a fancy cucumber and a Persian cucumber?  Isn’t anything that isn’t a regular cucumber kind of fancy?  An English cucumber is definitely fancy.  But not at the Berkeley Bowl.  

We are married!

This is a blog.