Dear Lou,

I hope you are not as stressed out as the last time I saw you. Remember, I’m usually the one that’s losing it. Even though you've always been on my mind, I have to concede that I did not try very hard to keep in touch with you during this summer, but nonetheless I still care a lot about you. As you might have expected, I have been very busy trying to make ends meet, sustaining my irresponsibly decadent life style (ha, ha, ha…), and getting ready for the new school year. In case you’ve forgotten, at the beginning of summer, I had moved into my own studio unit back here at the Rochdale co-op (hence the same address as the one I had kept a year ago). This would be the first time in Berkeley that I don’t have any roommates or housemates. While I do miss the opportunities to decompress and hang out with roommates at all hours of the day or night, I’m so glad that from now on, I’m entirely responsible for my own messes, and I don’t have to clean somebody else’s shit. The sense of freedom of being alone is quite beautiful.

Berkeley is so cool in the summer. Literally. I love the generally pleasant, sometimes foggy weather. It usually doesn't get too hot up here. In fact, when I visited my friend in the City on 4th of July, it was downright chilly, even by my standards; I had to bring a jacket. I'm so glad that I don't have to put up with the smoggy heat of SoCal this year. As for the milieu, it can't be any better. Unlike during the frantic school year, life is sort of laid back here at the co-op, and in Berkeley in general. Most kids have left for home or summer jobs. People are gone, and you can actually walk around town without much trouble. Because it’s relatively empty, I’m even working out at the school gym. I’m so glad that I didn’t pack up and move back home again for this summer. I feel like I’m finally getting the chance to experience and enjoy Berkeley. I have it all to myself. Telegraph Ave., Cody’s and Moe’s bookstores, and Amoeba Records are all a few metres away, and I’m totally spoiled. My record collection is growing exponentially. My friend Robert is also up here this summer. He lives in the City, but I was still able to spend loads of time with him. There are some familiar as well as some new faces at the co-op during the summer. Folks are friendly. I’m glad to have good old competent Kriss Worthington as our house manager again. My Arch. 101 studio-mate Casto is my next door neighbour. I’m completely hot and bothered by Wayne, our totally hot new gardening manager at Rochdale. I think he’s from Chicago, and he's taking classes at Cal for the summer. I’ve already found an excuse to invite him over to my apartment (under the pretence of showing him my architecture models). He seems to have an interest in architecture. He liked my models, but alas, nothing happened.

In order to accommodate my summer school schedule, I’ve taken a job with the ASUC (Berkeley student union) in the receiving department. Its flexibility allows me to work between classes and sections. However, it is still a warehouse job with crappy pay. It’s grunt work. Most of my job entails delivering and picking up mail and packages to the various ASUC departments and offices. On the positive side, I do get to meet loads of people throughout ASUC (presence of some mean and nasty student workers on power trips in other ASUC departments notwithstanding), and I work with a crew of two other very cool and laid-back guys, and Mario, our capable supervisor here at the loading docks.

My City Planning 110 class with Professor Peter Bosselmann has been quite an experience so far. Trying to complete two majors in two separate colleges takes up so much time. So I guess it's about time that I take my first summer school class at Cal. The course basically explains why our cities and built environments look the way they do due to particular legislative, economic, historical, social, and even architectural (!) factors. We find out how neighbourhoods work, and what particular traits make a successful neighbourhood. We learn about the importance of density, the dangers of suburban sprawl, and the deadly impact of cars on neighbourhoods. We take walks in various San Francisco neighbourhoods to learn about the factors that shape them. (One thing the class taught me, albeit unintentionally, is that our built environment, despite recent legislation like the ADA, is still hopelessly inadequate with regard to the needs of people in wheelchairs. One of our classmates is in a wheelchair, but he often faces difficulty in keeping up with us during our walking tours of the City. Sometimes, curb cuts at intersections are either far removed from the intersection, or even absent entirely. Ramps are not always available, and accessibility was always a problem in general.) The reading was cool too. I finally have the chance to read Robert Caro’s Power Broker about Robert Moses and his gargantuan public works projects. It’s completely mind-blowing how an unelected municipal official managed to transform his relatively weak office into one of the most powerful and influential. No single person has affected the built environment of the Tri-State area, perhaps even the entire nation, as much as he did. Last but not least, my TA Rolf Pendall is kind of cute, in an intellectual kind of way. He likes A Prairie Home Companion too, I once gathered in a rather funny little incident during section.

Usually when I come home from work or class at the end of the day, I am too tired to do anything else, including writing to you. I just want to sit in front of the little television (my friend Don has thankfully left it here with me for the summer), and watch funny crap like Absolutely Fabulous. I don't want to deal with any more shit. I don't want to see anyone. I crave for oblivion. It's funny how I used to frequently complain (in those shamelessly self-absorbed and pretentious letters that I’ve been sending you for the last three years) about my being really busy, but the truth is that I really have been even busier. Two years ago I had time to socialise, meet new people, go to films, and follow my relatively impetuous sensibilities. Now everything has stopped, and my life has generally become more predictable and conservative in outlook. I am not complaining about this, but I am not enjoying it either. As I look back on this summer, I've noticed that I didn't do or accomplish anything worth mentioning in a letter. I didn't go anywhere. I didn't really meet anyone. I did not learn anything profound. I'm as spiritually vacuous as ever. In fact, I did not even find time to go back home, and fall classes start in a few days. (Come to think of it, the highlight of my summer was when Leslie came up for a visit from southern California with Maria, and she gave me a really awesome mix tape of her favourite Latin disco (cha-cha) music.

Without you this summer, my love life has been unfulfilling. So what else is new?! Needless to say, nothing really has changed since my last letter except my relationship with Chuck, an intelligent, albeit cynical, twenty-nine year old programmer from Concord. Surprisingly, he reminds me of Michael, and perhaps even of Ian. In other words, he fits very well into that undefined but certainly acknowledged nerdy, UNIX hacking, sci-fi reading, Trekkie, Foxtrot and Calvin and Hobbes, Tom Lehrer-fan archetype. Why do I always seem to gravitate toward these types of people?! It's like a curse! While he is not very physically attractive, and there are tremendous differences between us, my relationship with Chuck has thus far been okay. We’re not close intellectually, but we get along. I guess that’s all what we can hope for these days, eh? I’m not in love, and I’m just going to let it run its course, and see what happens. A new semester is coming, so I expect things to change.

Take care, and I hope to hear from you soon. I’ll be back for Thanksgiving.

Yours etc.,
Dan

20 August 1994