Another nearly sleepless night on the ingenious combination mattress/box spring. For the first time, I noticed there was no fitted sheet over the mattress, it being covered only by a standard sheet that stopped three-quarters of the way from the head of the bed, with nothing more than bare vinyl beyond it. Once again was too uncomfortable to fall asleep until the wee hours of the morning, a major factor in falling right back asleep after my alarm (the starting chime from the MacBook Pro) sounded.

Luckily, in a rare instance of foresight, I’d set my phone to emit a grating, repetitive ringtone fifteen minutes after the MBP powered up, and it performed its job admirably, brutally scattering what few Oneiroi had managed to find me in the night. Breakfast was again very filling and tasty. Attended a superb seminar on development and publication of IT service catalogs, then broke for lunch during which barbecued cheeseburgers and hot dogs were in abundance. The Japanese were still playing Duck Duck Goose in the College Eight plaza.

Checked out of the dormitory, and attended a nearly worthless seminar from Berkeley on the first-year student technology experience (”we found our students use lots of technology and want access to it all the time!”). Left UCSC and made a quick stop at a dumpy little donut/ice cream shop to satisfy my sudden craving for a vanilla milkshake. Though I balked a bit at the price ($3.49) given the portion size, it turned out to be the best goddamn vanilla milkshake I think I’ve ever had, replete with bean flecks and a very faint banana undertone from whatever sort of vanilla was in the ice cream.

Kicked back and let my colleague struggle through some relatively light San Jose rush hour traffic and got home at about 6:00 pm, ending my coastal mountain sojourn. Made a beeline for the soft, familiar, comfortable bed and promptly threw my carcass upon it. Many contented sighs ensued. Good to be back home.