slowly as summer waned and autumn prepared to make an appearence, i found myself inescapably migrating towards Berkeley. the mile and a half that separated me from the MacArthur BART station was becoming tedious. exacerbating the situation was my negligence in leaving my beloved bicycle chained outside in West Oakland overnight. despite my tireless effort and naive hope of witnessing its resurface at the Ashby flea market, i never did see it again. as a result, i was once again sentenced to lowly human locomotion for transportation.
   West Oakland isnt a very hospitable place for people without bulletproof cars, let alone flea market 3-speed bicycles. berkeley on the other hand is a peripatetic paradise. with my debt paid off to jux, and a host of rabid kids vying for my coveted dishwashing job. along with the free room and board, it felt the best time to make my exit. finally, considering how much time i spent in berkeley, i was better off saving myself the 90 cent BART fare, as well as the embarassment of constantly dashing like a mad loon down Shattuck to catch the last BART to west oakland.
   unlike the majority of gutterpunks on Telegraph, i did not have the luxury of a comfty sleeping bag, or a big furry dog to keep me warm at night. fortunately, carl-erik invited me to sleep in his already claustrophobic dorm room. most nights i spent curled up on a heap of clothes in his room, but my unrelenting conscience often pushed me to sleep outside in Sproul Plaza, or in one of the many student lounges around UC Berkeley.
   although infiltrating the student lounges without a student ID was a tricky affair, it was far more desirable than sleeping at the mercy of the eastbay's night time weather. the lounges were liberally furnished with large comfty couches, pool tables, and brand new color televisions with VCRs.
   plan a: had me relying on my disarming charisma to persuade unsuspecting students to sign me in as their overnight guests. unfortunately i think i generally succeeded in coming across as a psychotic undesirable bent on killing rich university students while they slept
   plan b: was to wait until 2am when door security retired for the night. with their absence, enabling me to scoot in unmolested. this was done with the help of stumbling drunk students who would actually hold the door open for me.
   plan c: was simply shimmying my way through the slanted open windows of the lounges. it was fullproof, except for the times when Cal security would remember to close all the windows. But even then, there was thankfully always a couple in the lounge in the midst of a latenight make-out session. with reluctance, they would open the front door after my unabashed knocking on the windows. they could then carry forth with their carnal slurping, and i could get some sleep.