1. Silver droplets of rain clinging to the bare branches of trees

2. Learning Coptic bookbinding

3. Getting groceries delivered to my home

1. No school = sleeping in

2. The Internet gods have deigned to give us their favor; hence, I am posting.

3. An unexpected call from Jaime, whom I haven't heard from since the summer, to catch up

1. Watching Azumanga Daioh--its sweet simplicity 

2. During the day, Sugar calls to discuss plans for the evening while he's waiting for some chemical or another to thaw and mentions that he's done research on cultured diamonds. "Now do you think I'm going to run away?" he quips.

3. After adding clear liquid soap on top of the remainder of the white soap, the subsequent strands of white streaking up from the bottom have blossomed into a pale wonderland of mushrooms and dandelions inside the soap dispenser.

Yesterday's beautiful things:

1. Yellowed gingko leaves dropping from their branches resemble butterflies floating to the ground.

2. The San Francisco Bath Salt Co. sells its wares on Pier 39 in large open barrels. I go sniffing from barrel to barrel comparing the scents of the different salts and admiring their creamsicle colors. I dream of a future apartment with a bath.

3. A meetup with the boys and Jules in the city. The same ease and silliness we always have.

1. Running into Wes C. at Borders and getting a chance to catch up

2. Getting to buy decadent and frivolous items like dark chocolate-covered gingersnaps and French truffles at Trader Joe's with the gift card my mom got us for Xmas

3. Meeting Sugar for an Indian food dinner near campus

1. The smell of freshly laundered sheets

2. A full moon hanging low over the Berkeley Hills

3. Being drunk on beauty in the arts section of the library -- I can't resist taking 5 of those books home with me, but it would have been more if not for the fact that I couldn't carry any more.

1. End of the semester potluck. Most everyone sits down and eats together, leisurely conversing all the while. The parade of fabulous home made side dishes and desserts.

2. The rapid construction of the new campus building. Every time I go to school there is visible progress.

3. A trip to the Ace Hardware in town, which always evokes in me an element of child-like wonder as I wander through crowded, narrow aisles and consider the hodgepodge of products on display--working train sets suspended over head, mugs printed with Ann Taintor works, Christmas trees simultaneously bedecked with white feathered birds and sequined aquatic creatures, bins of cookie cutters, a wall of drawers containing different kinds of key chains, all alongside the usual hardware.

1. This afternoon's critical decision: tea or hot chocolate?

2. Though the streets of downtown Berkeley are soggy with our first autumn rain, they still throb with life: women in stylish wool coats and boots, teenagers sharing pizza out of cardboard takeout boxes, canvassers and vendors, etc. I am reminded of London.

3. Running into a classmate on the street

4. Bringing home the two videos Sugar has been patiently waiting for in the library hold queue. He will be so happy.

1. Dewdrops on fallen leaves resemble pieces of silver and pale green Murano glass.

2. I've lost the keys to my car and asked my mom to send her spare so I can take it to the hardware store to make a copy. The package arrives today bearing two freshly minted copies, gift cards for the gas station and the bookstore, and several fengli su.

3. In logging into Facebook and finding a message from Max, I am flooded by a sense of happiness.

1. A girl who looks to be about high school age stops me on the street and asks where I bought my jacket.

2. Catching up with Davin over lunch

3. Treating myself to a slice of pumpkin pie after finishing the last lesson with my first tutoring client

1. The middle-aged ladies in my apparel construction class giggle like junior highers when the instructor demonstrates "prick stitching." The laughter only grows when he talks about how the connotation of the word "prick" has changed over time and how it simply means "some little thing that pokes you and annoys you."

2. I manage to eek out the 10 10" x 5" muslin rectangles I need for my sewing assignment from the leftover muslin of last class. This means I don't have to buy more muslin in class despite having an entire bolt at home.

3. A cold glass of limeade on an uncharacteristically hot afternoon

1. Flush with new cash, I am finally able to try the fries at Amanda's, the hip new organic burger joint on Shattuck.

2. Catching up with old friends--lunch plans with Davin in two weeks and a 2-hour phone conversation with Mony

3. A new job

1. A young girl selling home grown bunches of fresh herbs on the sidewalk next to her home.

2. Panini at Guerilla Cafe

3. A day mostly spent in bed asleep

1. For once, I actually use the recommended utensils for mixing cake batter, and the batter comes together quickly and painlessly.

2. I have an interview tomorrow.

3. Finally having Sugar's brother over for dinner to thank him for helping us move and assemble the furniture

1. The bulletin boards at the library are practically decoupaged with homemade flyers, handwritten notices, programs and brochures advertising this event or that organization. Although I am overwhelmed by their sheer number, I am heartened to get a glimpse of the richness of life here.

2. The bougainvillea are especially brilliant--absolutely radiant--on a cloudy day in the East Bay.

3. A postcard from riceboi2004 in my mailbox nestled in between the mound of junk mail that comes each Tuesday

1. The prettiest manhole cover I have ever seen--it's embossed with two human figures and a cello.

2. In the window of a yoga studio is a white sheet with a De La Vega quote handwritten on it in primary colors:
"In the theater of life, you too will have your moment."

3. The opportunity to help out a stranger--giving my banker advice about getting an MBA 

1. Eating rice with a spoon reminds of my childhood, when I didn't quite have the manual dexterity for chopsticks

2. At Half Price Books, browsing through Japan Through John Lennon's Eyes, a book of sketches done by John Lennon illustrating various Japanese phrases and words

3. Overhearing a conversation between two women in their late 20s reminiscing about when they were undergrads at Cal and thought everything about Berkeley was so "cool" because "it wasn't like high school"

1. A brown and white feather left stuck in the keyhole of our mailbox

2. An afternoon in bed with anime and Barbara Stanwyck as a burlesque dancer puts me in good cheer and distracts from physical ailments

3. Using my new old school embossing label maker to tag all my sewing supplies

1. Getting caught up in someone's story about how she is living out her passion and how that came to be--during off all times, the middle of an interview where I am being interviewed

2. Hearing "Net Let Me Down Again" by Depeche Mode over the loudspeakers at the mall

3. Making pesto

1. Driving by what's left of TJ's Gingerbread House, a former Creole/Cajun restaurant in Oakland decorated to look like gingerbread house with gingerbread man cutouts and all

2. A flock of Canadian geese taking refuge from the midday sun under the shade tree by the walkway from the parking lot

3. Eating the lunch that Sugar made me yesterday