I've finally gotten around to renovating and updating my web site. As I'd expected, my life sped up to warp speed when I left Montpelier, and here it is, two years down the line, and I'm wondering how they snuck by without me noticing. I'm also wondering how to sum it all up here. It would obviously be impossible to 'sum it up,' but I'll do my best to leave you with an image that gives you some idea where I've gone and where I'm headed.

I've successfully completed my 'initiation' into the Berkeley community. I no longer turn my head at scraggly-haired kids sitting on sidewalks holding signs requesting "spare change for pot and beer." The lady with multi-colored dreadlocks who speaks five languages and spends her days selling homemade hats on the street and roping naive college kids into hour-long conversations about the price of rice in China has become a normal feature of my life. I've gotten used to reading books for classes that contain references to work done by professors I took classes from in prior semesters. I�ve gotten better at dealing with other people�s ignorance (and I�ve learned that intelligence doesn�t necessarily preclude ignorance). I�ve also learned that I�m not as ignorant about some things as I once thought I was, and way more so about other things than I would have imagined. Living in Berkeley is extremely easy�there are countless veterans of the Disability Rights Movement to kick butt over curb cuts and ramps, and people are generally too busy looking at the 45-year-old half-naked guy on the street corner dressed like Bam-Bam Flinstone to stare at me. Because of the revolutionaries and the Bam-Bams, I�ve been able to begin figuring out what I�m all about and where I want to go from here.

I've also learned how to get all my own needs met; I�ve had between six and eight students working for me as personal attendants for the past two years. I�m getting better every day at balancing the part-time job of time-keeping, managing payrolls, and maintaining happy, reliable employees. They have mostly all been students, and many of them are best friends. I�ve had incredible luck with my people; all of them are gems. Many have been with me since my first or second semester, and a few have come home with me. All my friends and attendants are so full of life and authentic, but they�re all amazingly unique. I still don�t fly with one isolated crowd. Everybody I know is driven by something different. I�d be hard-pressed to name three people out here with similar backgrounds and values.

I declared my major in English about a month ago. I realized I wasn�t going to figure out what I wanted to do with the next forty years of my life by the time I had to declare, but being able to write and think well will be useful whatever I end up doing. I�ve been taking a lot of pre-requisite, general ed. classes so far; next semester I�ll delve into the meat of the major. I�ve also been co-teaching a class for the past three semesters. The class is called Inclusion Initiative, and we it�s an introduction to disability slash crash-course on how to be a personal attendant. I teach it with my best friend, Sofia (who�s also in a chair), and two of my attendants. The main objective of the class is to recruit students to work as attendants; each of our students is required to get a job as an attendant in order to pass the class. Much of my �good luck� with getting attendants has been because of this requirement!

I�m currently finishing up summer school. I decided to stay out here for a while this summer to taste something new. I did my fifth summer at Shake last year, and while it will always be part of me, it was time to move on. I�m also planning on interning in Washington, D.C. in the Spring (possibly with Sen. Leahy or with an interest group), and I wanted to take a course on American politics so I�d have a base level of knowledge/na�vete about our government when I go. My dad is coming out this week to help me pack up, then we fly home with one of my great friends and attendants next weekend. My friend, Haley, is staying for three weeks. I�m taking her to Shake for a week to visit, and we�ll also spend some time at our camp on Willoughby. I�m going to Maine for a weekend in August to see Phish with another friend from Cali who�s working at Shake this summer (he spent last summer there working for me and got hooked). I still love my music, and I was very pleased when Phish started touring again after their two-year hiatus!

Two years down, some more to go. Next? Who knows! The list entitled �That Might Be Cool� includes skiing for a year or so in Colorado, law school, spending a few months wandering aimlessly around Europe, and the beginnings of many other ideas that don�t yet consider the how�s or why�s. I�ll keep you in the loop as the list grows!