So the morning Alex and I left for our Cal excursion, I posted on twitter "9.5. yo son thinks Cal will be like Hogwarts. Yeah-No." And the @Cal Alumni twitter account picked that up and broadcast it on their twitter feed. I was pretty amused. But honestly, Alex knee deep wading through all the Hogwarts lore figured, well, it's a 140 year old university so there would have to be some Hogwarts-like things there. Right?I wracked my brain to provide him just that. But our first stop was at Top Dog. Man, those hot dogs are the best. I so missed them. It was a toss up between those, Blondie's Pizza and Yogurt Park for our lunch menu. Top dog won out because it was the first place we found.
And there's a gratuitous shot of Telegraph Avenue. With all the vendors still lining the sidewalks. But I must admit, the stores are a lot more corporate than I remember. I missed Cody's Books. It was all shuttered and empty. So many good memories there. How I wish I could have spent an hour or two walking through their book shelves one more time. All those books. Mhmm. And the musty smell associated with really old bindings. Nothing like that on earth.
Okay, so we were back to search for Hogwarts-like places...sort of. The above is the library on campus. It used to be the third largest in the U.S. when I went there. Harvard and the Library of Congress held the top two spots.
Most of the Reading Rooms have been converted to accommodate laptops and resulting network connections. But, the North Reading Room still looked the same. How I remember sunsets lighting up those windows. And the accompanying moonlit nights when the only glow would be that of the lamps above the desks. Alex thought I'd hit the jackpot here with Most Hogwarts-like Ambiance.
Alex asked where would Dumbledore work. My guess was the Administration building. Home of thousands of famous protests on Sproul Plaza. Some even when I was there. None were happening on that day. It was sunny, beautiful and the steps held people enjoying the sunshine and their lunches.
Sather Gate. It leads up to Sproul Plaza. I caught this picture of Alex walking confidently towards it. I so hope that in about eight years, I can catch the same shot again. He'll be taller and an enrolled student there and he'll still be walking away from me.
Then in a moment of Let's Just Do It and mostly because my darling BFF Lorraine, was there encouraging me with goading comments and reminders that we met over two decades ago, we started the long walk up to International House. It was much longer than we expected or remembered. Dear God, the slow incline on a warm day nearly killed me and I wondered how did I do that several times a day?
We paused at the Pacific Film Archive because Alex asked me where the film classes were held. And seeing as I snuck into dozens of them in my time there, I knew the entrance rather well. Here's to my son, the future award winning director. May you go there. Or better yet, UCLA, if that's your chosen profession.
Finally, we made it to I-House. The fireplace still stood although on this unexpectedly warm day, it wasn't lit.
I remember endless moments spent waiting for friends on those couches and dozing off on them while waiting. There was, of course, someone doing that on the other side. Things change. Things stay the same. Like in spite of email, there are still the wonderful little mailboxes in the Mail Room. How I loved getting letters and cards from my friends.
Yes, in case you were wondering, I was scoring Big Time on Alex's Will It Be Like Hogwarts' Scale. Because I took him up to the Dining Commons.
And then to the patio in the middle of the four towers. And yes, the fountain still stands. We used to show movies on the walls above. I decided it would be wise to leave out the part about drinking and in general being a part of I-House's trouble-making contingent. It was all very mild, let me tell you and fun.
On our way back, we stopped by another Ritual Place, Cafe Strada although in my time it was known as Cafe Roma. It, too, looked unchanged.
Amazingly delicious iced mochas and a hug from my son for being a cool mom and showing him around her college.
And yes, that commemorative shot. My BFF, Lorraine and I. We met on the first day our little heels stepped on that campus. Our very first day at Cal. And we're still in touch. Still goofy. Still day-dreaming. Still snarky well beyond our years.
Wishing you a moment where you realize that in spite of some decades gone by, things are still the same. So here's to a well placed iced mocha with a friend who loves, cares and still worries about you. Cheers.
What happens when you are so busy that you don't have time to blog?? Yeah, you get Horribly Backed Up. So here comes a purge of posts. And they will cover the last two-ish weeks. We had so much scheduled over those days that I feel like I can hear a collective sigh of relief from my hard drive as I upload these pictures.
On his actual Birth Day Date, he woke up to Birthday Pancakes. Yes, folks, those are As. I know, I can hear the claps and whistles now. Pretty amazing what a little pancake batter in a squeeze bottle will do??
That is always quite a process for us. But this year there was no accidental red dye spillage. In fact, we contained the mess quite well.
Without further adieu, I present, rather proudly, our 2009 Easter Eggs. They were shiny and bright and ready to crack. For the record, we only cracked one in the process of cooking and two more in the process of dying. Those were ceramoniously dropped by Bella on the tile floor. She wanted to see what would happen. A scientist in the making, no doubt.
The big, smiling, 
After serving as Altar Boy for Holy Saturday's morning service, he was off to his soccer game. And much later in the afternoon, I let him get his wish to "play in the street" and we chose a well traveled highway. I'm kidding, of course. But, note how happy he was at that mere thought.
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