my baby's in the white fluffy clouds

• Today I am in California, having woken up at something like 11 or 11:30 AM and not really emerged from grooming and food until 2. Later I get on a plane. This nightshifting has got to stop, because, uh, I have to teach 9:30 AM classes in 11 days. Luckily I cue to the sun in terms of sleep schedule, and I can just leave the blinds open in my bedroom and I should be able to get closer to correct at least. In the meantime, uh, I guess I can stay up late reading? Or talk to customers in Australia?
• California has been wonderful for me. I did not get to see everyone I would want to see --- this is always the way of visits, although I had foolishly hoped being here for three weeks would prevent that --- but I have spent time with many of my friends, and become closer to acquaintances, and actually relaxed in a way I only rarely do. I'm starting to pull myself out of the relaxing-hole, doing a little bit of work for my job, starting to think about school again, and so on. I did not do much reading for school while here, which is mostly a good thing but is a litle bit unfortunate too, because it means Future Rachel has more work to do. It is my hope that Future Rachel will prefer the reserves of sanity and calm and the joyful memories to having already read a few books, but that's on her, not me.
• Ooh, there's something I can do today! I can order all of my textbooks so that they are at my house before the semester starts. That will be useful. I already have... three of them? Four of them? And have read two and a half. Out of like fifteen. If I can get to six before the semester starts I will feel like I am in OK position. I mean I will have to reread them depending on what specifically I am looking for in them, but to have done a first pass on everything within the first few weeks of classes will put me in really good position. (And oh my god we have what, four books by Judith Butler to read? Good god. So much Judy B.) That's the answer to "Rachel, how do you manage to do grad school and also have a job?" I try to get work done as early as possible. Ideally I would hand in all of my assignments a week or two in advance. That way if I screw up, I have wiggle room. This is crucial because I sometimes screw up. ;) (Or my house catches on fire, or what have you.)
• Oh god there is so much that I want to read beyond what I have to read. This semester will likely be better for that than last semester was. Last semester was roughly four books a week --- this semester looks like it will be two or three, though maybe with a little more writing. If I am On My Game(tm) I can use this to read an extra book every week toward being prepared for my exams and dissertation. And hey, last semester I read four or five extra books, too, so I can certainly squeeze in ten or twelve this time. Right? :)
• I wrote something about 2010, but as is my wont, I sent it out via email rather than via LiveJournal --- this year's is short, only like 4000 words, but it's not a blog post. If you don't get my life updates and would like to, please let me know. (Internet friends: You are totally welcome to! But I may have either not had an email address or not thought to add it to my distribution list, which I only poke at occasionally because I only send these out every three to six months.)
• It looks like I am getting another cat! My uncle has seven cats, and one of them got sick and went to the vet, and came back and for some weird smell reason or something the other six cats in the house turned on him, and he was segregated for a while in the hope that they would get over it, but they didn't. :( Selene is not the happiest cat about new cats, but the limited data I have suggests that boy cats are somewhat better, and it is a big house, and hopefully we can make it work. If it is really a disaster, my brother has apparently also offered to take care of the cat? He is a gorgeous Siamese and deserves a good home and hopefully Selene and I can provide him with one.

I ate at a bunch of restaurants in the Bay Area! Here are my brief notes on the interesting ones:

• Cha-Ya: Vegan Japanese. Already knew I liked it. Didn't know their broth contained a tiny amount of tomato. ;_; My fault for not asking.
• Gracias Madre: Vegan Mexican. Hadn't been there before; asked them specifically about allergies and they guaranteed they could handle it. And failed miserably. Delicious, delicious food that was almost worth getting sick. But not quite; I won't be back.
• Minako: Organic Japanese with a large vegan section. The waitress, Judy, is very engaged with you and if you are not psyched for that it can be awkward; if I hadn't been there with regulars I would have felt weird. But she is fun and the place is awesome and they handle allergies well and they make their own natto and <3. Would definitely go again.
• Cafe Gratitude: Vegan, mostly raw. Had been once before, enjoyed this trip as well. Kinda pricy for what it is, but definitely worth hitting once a year or so if only to be like "Yay! Raw food can be awesome and can have many of the things I really like about cooked food like variation in texture and temperature!" (Not that I am likely to go raw; I have no moral objections to the use of fire.) Good about allergies, although sometimes their menu doesn't list all of the things actually in the food, so you should definitely ask.
• Wicked Grounds: I guess technically they are a cafe and not a restaurant, but this is arguably where I spent most of my time and it is wonderful. They have vegan waffles and vegan sandwiches and vegan shakes, and are the best place at feeding me in Soma as far as I can tell. Plus they have a bunch of board games and the regulars are friendly and basically if there were one in Bloomington I would be there most of the time.