February 27, 2002 - 11:30 p.m.

today was an unbelievably great day.

the altamont pass was magical. for those not in the know, it's a stretch of highway 580 in california, southeast of san francisco, where they have many, many windmills. it's in these amazing grassy hills, and when you get into the heart of it, you feel like you're surrounded by hills and windmills and can't see much else (today i saw a cow munching around a windmill - bonus!).

i was happy because i actually got to *see* the windmills today. the grass was bright green, and the sky was a brilliant blue. i couldn't knock the grin off of my face. i was also listening to the second mix tape jo-anne ever made me (chronologically, out of something like 22 tapes), which i had recently dug out from my pile of rubble in the barn. it was so good to hear some of those songs again, from back in the day when i used to memorize songs. it feels weird to instantly know all the words to something you had completely forgotten about.

i drove to oakland to meet with a woman with possible publishing connections. it turned out she didn't have any, but it looks like a certain semi-famous person might be writing the foreword to my book (!) because she contacted him today. yikes.

i saw a sign in oakland that said BARP - bay area rapid press. for those of you who are unfamiliar with the bay area, BART stands for bay area rapid transit and is a mode of public transport for commuters and the like. but BARP? that's just weird. it's too much like burp. the best part was that the font for BARP was this 1980s LCD display nightmare - think of atari or something.

on a sidenote, fresnans have been whispering for years about getting a decent public transport system, but do we really need FART? no. that's why we don't have one yet. the even sadder part is that our airport code already sucks - FAT (fresno air terminal). they're trying to change it to FYI (fresno yosemite international), even though there are no international flights out of fresno. heh heh.

i drove from oakland to berkeley to visit the kids at readymade and show them my pillowcase creations. in a bizarre twist, they asked me if i had ever modeled before (uh...[cough]...[pause]...) and then if i wanted to be the cover model for the next issue. the shoot is this saturday! they promised to feed me, so i said ok.

i drove to telegraph ave. to get a sandwich at cafe intermezzo. they still make the vegetarian sammie like i remembered from my undergraduate days, with avocado, cream cheese, sprouts, lettuce, tomato and some other good stuff on homemade honey-wheat bread. F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C. they served it with fresh (ripe!) pineapple wedges, and i had a homemade strawberry lemonade. the sun was shining outside, and i swear that if "carry the zero" by built to spill had been playing, i would have cried. (i say that because there have been other similarly great days when that song has popped up on the radio, and i have shed real tears.)

as i was walking to the parking garage, i saw this huge wooden marquee that only said YOU ARE HERE on a blank green wall. it was perfect, and of course the sun was shining at just the right angle, so I got an amazing polaroid of the whole thing.

i drove to the esprit outlet from there, to grab some stuff for my brother's girlfriend. then i found out they were having an additional 20% off everything for people with student ID. wowee.

there was a full moon as i drove home, and it was reflected off the san luis reservoir, on the pacheco pass (highway 152 between gilroy and los banos). the light it gave was so bright that you could see every hill in silhouette.

and my mom thinks i'm suffering from depression because my visa hasn't arrived.

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oh yes, you should really read tashkent's diary from yesterday. especially if you're bored with america.