balm of Berkeley

Last year Courtney married Joel out in No Cal. This year Megan married Matt. We decided to all go this time. About 20 hours before we were to leave Dallin came home from the MTC. Emotionally pale and shaking, we bundled him up in our family weave and took him along. I questioned the sanity of this idea ( we offered to just stay home with him ) but it turned out to be incredibly healing. Such a Good visit. His color,appetite,and smile all came back. We all exhaled.It felt wonderful to be together, to be in California. For all of the states faults ( San Andreas being #1...oh, that one is for you Bobo!) there is equally a tangible magic. I loved it, we all did. The weather...PERFECT. The scent of drying eucalyptus leaves made me want to cry..good tears. I had a wonderful time showing everyone Woodside, but I also knew that nothing was going to be able to outdo last year's experience of walking through the Laning house. Another blessing,another "moment"..this time across the bay. After a truly great trip and wedding with the extended family Kevin ended the itinerary with a day a Berkeley. He wasn't that into it himself, in fact he was on business calls on his cell phone the whole time we walked around campus. But he knew how Much it would mean to me and that was very sweet of him. As we pulled off the freeway exit,drove past the Claremont hotel and entered the campus I was truly fighting back tears. And again, good tears, for this is a rare place. It started to rain, "and I was all" oh,come on...could it get any more perfect?!!! In the past(nearly) 30 years I have stopped twice,Very briefly..this time was real. Obviously not long enough,but I was there this time. There were some new buildings,but So much was the same.I am going to go way out on a limb here and truly get in touch with my bezerkeley roots..but I LOVED seeing all my old favorite trees-and they were still just the same ( yes, all those word choices were intentional.) And, yes Porter, I did refrain from hugging them. Sproul Hall was deliciously kooky and one group were dancing to "Ji-ho"-which was a lovely tie in between the past and present. We had our farewell meal at Fentons in Oakland. And on such an ideal day as this,those darn little crab sandwhiches tasted just as fabuluos as they always did. The rain continued to pour down..I honestly couldn't have scripted it any better. PS..I am going back ...and I Will have a thousand hours to spend and walk every inch of my memory,shop at their amazing card stores until I drop with exhaustion,and take a million pictures of the campanille. This may be a bit too bohemian...but I think she was happy to see me back as well.