My life surely would be upside down

My family left while I was at work today. It was a wonderful week-long visit from them. Thanksgiving was fantastic and my family were good sports about my tiny apartment and proportionally tiny kitchen. All in all, great.

I'm staying in California for about the same amount of time that I lived in Chile and I'm beginning to think it is the worst amount of time to live anywhere. Just enough time to get really comfortable and start loving a place before leaving. Awesome.

Interestingly, a year ago I was in Mumbai.

The Engine Turns on a Dime

60 Minutes stopped by again. Whenever the segment actually airs, if you see a lady peeling 34 quarts of Sierra Beauty apples, that lady would be me.

After my shift ended I hopped in on the wine class the restaurant has every monday then headed home, at which point a random guy asked if he could walk along with me and recite some poetry to me. Ok so when he was done with two (actually pretty decent) poems, he tried to sell me a little book of poems he had put together. Still, feeling like I'm living the good life. AND, I can now walk up stairs like a normal person.

Don't ask about going down stairs yet.

On such a winter's day

Last night I was invited to go foraging. This is not your ancestors' foraging. I made my way to the restaurant around 1 to meet up with the rest of the group. We grabbed some drinks, some bread and headed to campus where a random and humongous olive tree stands in front of a campus store and across the street from an urban outfitters. surreal. We opened up some bottles of wine and begin stripping the tree of as many olives as we could reach (and see) in the darkness.

The night may or may not have ended with a visit from a cop who, when he found out we were all coming off of working at the restaurant and were seriously harvesting olives, gave us a smile, "alright, pour 'em out. I know how it is for you guys, I've worked in restaurants and yours is a great one. I know you need to relax with how hard you must work, but tonight, do it somewhere else."

And 3 hours later, I got up to go to work.

Even as my eyes do see it

I am feeling pretty pathetic as I limp around the restaurant, knee blown up, bruised and still bleeding a bit and hands bandaged up quite fantastically. At least I get a few laughs from people confirming the ridiculous image I have of myself as I carry farm boxes down stairs, taking the stairs one. step. at. a. time.

This is incredibly frustrating and has doubled the amount of time I take to do absolutely everything. Luckily it's healing up pretty quickly as far as I can tell and I plan to be good as new within the week.

Hey Me Hey Mama

The television's proclamation of Obama's win is echoed by car horns blaring and joyous screams from the street. Strangers high-five as they pass each other and dance freely down the sidewalk. I head to the restaurant and am met by a glass of champagne, hugs and congratulations. Giddy grins and shining eyes filled with hope and accomplishment head out into the Berkeley night where revelers are dancing and drinking in the street. Traffic going through crowds with arms stretched from the windows to the stars and American flags waving in the darkness. Fireworks booming, music pumping and glasses constantly filled. Berkeley was alive last night.

However, the decision to head downtown to the bars with a group of people on bikes landed me on handlebars for the ride, landing me sprawled on the pavement in the middle of an intersection, landing me on my couch with a coworker icing my bloody mess of a knee at 2am, landing me in the emergency room on my day off to get x-rays. Kneecap officially not fractured. But body officially Messed Up.

let it be me

Terra Madre was like an AIESEC conference. Except about food. And 7000 people of all ages. And more diverse I would say. And less dancing breaks, which would have been more than welcome by me. So I guess there were definitely differences, but it often had the same feel. And I sat in workshops wondering if they talk about our food structure at AIESEC conferences these days. I wonder how many normal people who consider themselves politically intelligent and active completely forget the importance of things like food choices and food laws (especially in the United States). I don't think people generally grab a bag of chips and wonder if that choice contributed to the suicides of over 87,000 farmers in India between 2002 and 2006 (Search for anything Vandana Shiva, especially YouTube videos. Amazing). That would be depressing.

Remember that going to the polls on Tuesday is not the only time you cast a vote.

So the conference did have many depressing times, but also many inspiring times. People are doing some amazing work around this world.
The US delegation had a meeting one day and Wisconsin showed up strong, with appearances by Tory Miller of L'etoile in Madison and Will Allen, doing great things in Milwaukee, among other places.

In other news, work is wonderful. I'm really getting into my groove and enjoying it. Also having a pretty good time outside of work, hanging out, working some more, becoming a fixture at the local cafe and library... And I can't wait to go back to school. Ironic.