Berkeley, CA
Sunday July 27, 2003
7:30am I just woke up in front of the Bing Wong Wash Center. It's a big laundromat. The story is that the owner of the property doesn't get mad at people for sleeping there. Since the owner doesn't want to press charges, the cops can't do shit about it. So like twenty bums and street kids crash there every night in front of this place. The owner used to be homeless in Thailand, so he knows what it's like and sympathizes. I wonder if I can still go crash at the church. I didn't have time last night, so I crashed over here. That's alright. I got my sleep either way. So I'm up and ready to start my day. It's Sunday. I want to go check my email somewhere.
7:45am I came over to the bathroom at People's Park and took a piss. Whoa, cool! They're feeding in the park. I think it's Food-Not-Bombs. I think I remember that being in the park every Sunday, since Trinity church doesn't feed on weekends. Well, I think they still have breakfast on Saturday, just not the 4pm meal like they do in the week. Mmm, I'm hungry.
7:50pm Breakfast is served. I got me a bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. I got me a banana, a bagel and a glass of milk. Everything's cool.
8:03pm Patricia was gracious enough to roll me a cigarette. That's very generous of you, Patricia. It'll come back to you. Thanks a lot.
8:36am I finished eating and brushed my teeth in the park. I'm going to go towards the school and see if the email stations are open underneath the staircase in the MLK building. And, I'm going to pass Eid's Electronics and see if he's open. Last time I was here, he had hooked me up with some minicassettes, so maybe he'll hook me up again.
Damn, Eid's wasn't open. He opens at 11:00am tomorrow, though.
8:56am I still had a little trim left over and I sat down with these kids who let me borrow their glass pipe. I took a hit and just then, this cop(I think his name is Lyle) walked up and asked me what I was smoking. I told him, "Some really cheap trim." He was cool enough to just ban me from Telegraph for the day and not throw me in jail or anything.
9:09am That was really cool. I was sitting on the sidewalk smoking the last of my trim with these three other dudes. Then all of a sudden they told me, "Hey, put that away. There's a cop right there." When I told Lyle I was smoking some cheap trim, he said, "You know I would usually give you a ticket and take you to jail, but I'm just going to ban you from Telegraph for the day. You just have to stay off Telegraph all day because you can't be smoking on the street. Go to the park." I thanked him, pulled out my tape recorder and told him, "I am writing a book on generosity that the whole world is going to read and you're in it. What's your name?" Oh yeah, then he went as far as to tell me, "I see that trim on your leg right there. You need to go up to Canada and get you some of the good stuff." Haha, he's all recommending weed to me. That's so hilarious. That's one cool cop.
But, what I'm doing is, I just came to the park. I was wearing my army pants, cargo shorts, my blue shirt, my thermal top and my rainbow beanie. The cop didn't see me walking around with my stick, so I'm just going to change my clothes. I even have another hat to wear. I put my scarf away and everything's going to be cool. I love Berkeley.
9:35am I had a very productive morning session. I changed clothes. I put my tie-dye shirt from Truth or Consequences on, I took my army pants off, changed my socks, cut my toenails, I got everything packed in my bag ready to go and I'm going to go walk down Telegraph again. I got a different hat on. Everything's cool. I'm going to put some deodorant on, too.
9:53am I passed some sports recreation center thing. See, I'm going to look out for tennis courts. I went in the center and asked him, "Hey, are the tennis courts around here? I need a ball for my stick." He told me to go up Bancroft a little after Telegraph to the tennis courts there.
10:00am I'm at the tennis court. There's some people playing. I'm going to ask for a donation.
10:03am Mission accomplished. I have a tennis ball on my stick. Awesome.
10:15am Before, on the highway I had found this little ball I had picked up and put in my backpack. I wanted to give it to someone with a dog. So, I walked around in the park and ran into this hippie guy with a dog. I told him, "Hey, I found this ball on the side of the highway. Could your dog use it?" He told me no, that he would probably just tear it up. He told me, "Thanks anyway, though. I appreciate that. Thanks for even considering it." I told him it wasn't a problem. I walked off and went and got my tennis ball and then I see that guy again. He asks me, "Hey, do you like salmon?" I told him I would eat anything. He said, "Oh, because I'm going to be in the park hooking me friends up with some salmon and since you were nice to me earlier, I want to hook you up, too." Badass, in a minute I'm going to go get some salmon. Awesome.
Here I am again at the big mural before People's Park on the side of Amoeba Music. I remember recording what it said last time I was here, but since I got all my tapes stolen in LA, I'm going to record it again. There's something here that says,
"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious . . that you can't even tacitly take part . . .You've got to put your bodies upon the gears, the levers and all the apparatus and you've got to indicate to the people who run it and own it that unless you are free the machine will be prevented from working at all." M. Savio 1943-1996
10:24am Jim was gracious enough to give me a cigarette.
11:22am I sat in the sun, grabbed my Swiss army knife and began to shave the skin off of my walking staff. I got the bottom piece done. It looks really good. I'm going to finish the whole stick eventually. It'll be badass.
I walked over to the People's Park bathroom because I had to take a piss. Over by the men's restroom, someone wrote on the wall, "HEMP FOR VICTORY." but the Y rubbed off, so now it looks like it says, "HEMP FOR VICTOR." Hehe, signs, signs, everywhere the signs.
Somewhere else it says, "Crowded elevators smell differently to midgets." Umm, ok.
11:26am Barrett was gracious enough to give me a cigarette. I appreciate it, Barrett.
12:07pm I was talking to this guy Barrette who was nice enough to give me some donuts and smoke me out. I was telling him my California story and he just interrupted me saying, "Does this get any more boring?" I told him I could stop if he told me he was bored. He was telling me, "Dude, I already know this stuff." I said, "I'm not trying to convince you of anything. I'm just telling you a story. If you don't want to hear it, you can just wait to hear about it when the rest of the world does." I was pretty insulted at his comment. What a dickhead. I asked him if he knew where I could check my email on a Sunday and he told me at UC. I thought the Doe Library was closed on Sundays, but I might be wrong. I got nothing to lose. It'll be a good walk. I deserve to be lazy today. It's Sunday.
12:25pm The library is open today! From 1-9.
1:01pm I'm sitting down in front of a computer at the Doe Library at UC Berkeley.
5:07pm Munga has agreed to give me a couple hits of marijuana. How generous of you, brother.
8:00pm I met this really cool girl named Anime in the park. Man, she's beautiful. I think she has a boyfriend. Anyway, she was pretty receptive to my stuff, but then she remembered she had to go to the Hare Krishna place to get some food. I'm hungry. I want to go. So, we walked all the way to the place and it's like a big Muslim church. Hare Krishna, but they all made me take my boots off and shit. I had to sit here and all these people were chanting. I felt a little uncomfortable at this brainwashing session, so I decided to leave. Oh well, I'll go find some food somewhere else. It didn't feel right that I had to sit through some bullshit I don't believe in just to eat.
8:23pm Franz is proving me right by giving me some weed. That's very generous of you, brother. It'll come back to you.
9:20pm I'm out flying my sign again!
I had forgot to put, "prove that it's human nature to be generous." I just had, "eliminate money, make everything free and bring world peace." I'll have to make a different sign, but this one will have to do for now.
10:37pm Ed had walked by earlier and said he was going to get a cigarette. I told him that if he ran across two, to bring one by. He did!
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