Into the Box Marked "Miscellaneous"

And another month just flew by…but I’ll catch the next one starting tomorrow. I got it! I got it!
According to my self-inflicted schedule, this is the day I should roll over to the next five-year span: 21-25. But there are a few odds and ends to toss into a box before I move ahead.

  • I finally left the phone company when I found a job on campus doing what I was now uniquely qualified to do: answer the phone. I started working at Boalt Hall, now known as Berkeley Law, on the UC campus. I sat right inside the Dean’s office, interacting with faculty, students, and all the nut cases who haunted the halls trying to sue the universe for emotional distress.
  • I went on a date with a guy who had been to clown school. My roommates tried to talk me out of it, but I went anyway. He took me to the circus. Big surprise.We went behind the big tent and met some of the performers before we settled into our front row seats. During the show, one of his clown buddies sat in my lap. I could smell the booze on his breath. He dug his elbow into my breast and then hopped off. I should have listened to my roommates. 
  • Two lies and the truth: back in high school, a bunch of us told our parents we were spending the night at a friend’s house, but really spent the night on the beach. I was supposed to be spending my 18th birthday in a friend’s dorm room, but actually spent it in a cheesy motel with my boyfriend and a bottle of Southern Comfort. After my mother saw “Goodbye Columbus,”she tentatively broached the subject of birth control, so I told her I was on the pill.
  • My first apartment in Berkeley: I shared a room with my sister. The other room was a revolving door for a procession of women, one of whom mostly used it as a mail drop and decoy so her parents wouldn’t suspect that she was really living with her boyfriend. One of our roommates was a waitress who supplemented her income by teaching English to foreign students– primarily, interesting-looking male foreign students. Her mother had been a winner on the old TV show “Queen for a Day.” Contestants on the show would share their hard luck stories and the audience voted for the one with the worst case scenario (unless the whole thing was fixed like all the other quiz shows at the time). The winner would have her wish come true, and she’d get to wear a crown and a robe while the audience went wild Another roommate grew marijuana plants on the windowsill and left mysterious items in the refrigerator marked “DO NOT TOUCH!” We did not touch them.
  • A winner!




    One day, word got around the apartment complex that there was going to be a drug bust in the building. Although we had nothing to fear except what was on our roommate’s windowsill in plain sight and that stuff in the fridge with hazmat warnings on it, just as a precaution, we all took a little stroll around the block, where we ran into all the other people from our building. 

  • Cleaning the fridge: What to wear

During this time, I kept plugging away at my undergraduate degree. Only six more years to go before I earn my B.A.  But that’s for the next installment…

          2 Responses to Into the Box Marked "Miscellaneous"

          1. Bruce Nye says:

            Nice picture at the top — a rarity, a left-handed second base person.

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