On the road to Santa Cruz to attend the University of California Computing Services Conference. I know, I know; going to Santa Cruz in the summer. Life sucks sometimes, but somebody’s got to suck it up and do the dirty work. On the way, stopped at the Dutch Goose, an old local hangout for one of my colleauges. Excellent burgers, though the promised dingy atmosphere (which harkened back to the famously dank Boll Weevils of my callow San Diego youth) had apparently been long since scrubbed clean.

Met several other colleagues from my campus on the College Eight dining commons grounds, overlooking the coast, and had a decent Hawai’ian-themed dinner. As we gobbled it down we all marveled at the outstanding view, something that is simply nowhere to be found on the bucolic but decidedly flat northern California plain on which our home base sits. Went back to crash in my dorm room, where I found all the board-like flatness I could have hoped for in the rigid, uncomfortable mattress and flimsy pillow. Nearly had to check to make sure the mattress was actually there.

Turned in to the sounds of EVERY SINGLE SOUND in the entire dormitory building. If this is what college life was like, I guess I’m not so sorry I missed it way back when, though of course I would have been less dependent on the creature comforts I’ve grown accustomed to in my old age, so maybe that would have evened things out. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some sleep on this blanket-covered table.