I got a late start Saturday afternoon (thnks to doing some work in the morning and chatting with Guy and Michelle and their housemates) was heading up for a drive north of Berkeley, when my friend Jenny called back from Davis (which is out in the desert almost to Sacramento). Even though I'd have only a few minutes up there, I went ahead and drove up there, getting there 90 minutes before I was supposed to be back in Berkeley with Reece and Kathy. Davis is cute, and I got to see Jenny and family's house and her two daughters, Phoebe and
I discovered as I was trying to leave that I didn't have my cell phone and, when Jenny called it, a strange man answered. Tuurns out that I had dropped the phone outside of my car and this many had it in an obscure part of the University of California-Davis campus. I considered abandoning the cell phone,but some tenese navigational discussions and navigating finally put me back in contact with my cell phone. Also turns out that - while I raced back to the East Bay area - I couldn't reach the restaurant where we were to meet. Reece called me on his cell phone at 4:15, but I still didn't get there until 4:45, and I ended up staying behind all night. We were at a "tapas" bar in the little area of Berkeley that my hosts Guy and Michelle call the "gourmet ghetto." Reece and Kathy had brought their little dog, Simon, who they were allowed to have in the terrace area. I never totally got over being so late - even though I did to my discredit allow Reece to pay - but it was nice to see these two friends from Tallahassee, who ended up getting married after only being friends in high school - then living in Atlanta, L.A., and now the Bay area. Reece is as big health care lawyer in downtown San Francisco, and Kathy retired after 10 years practicing law (Kathy's Mother was one of our high school math teachers, and Reece's late father was my first boss.) They live in an East Bay suburb.
Then I drove Berkeley - including near where I stayed the last time I was here for a meeting and to a nearby bookstore and near where I'll meet Jenny and family and Rachel and family tomorrow (Sunday) morning before driving into Oakland past that beautiful Lake Merritt to my cousin's condo down the street from Children's Playland (which unfortunately was closed). Cousin Michael and second wife Miranda and their daughter Zoe, 2 (same age as Jenny's younger daughter) lemte visit with them for about an hour. I'd talked in the past on the phone with Miranda, whom my father thought was cool because also went to Swarthmore, but I had neve rmet her, and I'd only seen pictures of Zoe. Two visits or so to the Bay area ago I'd house- and cat-sit for Michael and his first wife in their Berkeley apartment. Michael is the youngest son of my Aunt Taiog, whom I saw a year ago, and Steve, who died several years ago, from complications froma stroke. Michael (before Miranda) was at Stephanie and my (and Vincent's) LA Koreatown post-weding wedding receiptionm, which my first stepmother, June, had put together. Miranda is a psychologist, and Michael is a Web site developer for a Bay area Catholic college, St. Mary's.
Them wanting to put Zoe to bed sent me across the street, to Lake Merritt, where I walked along the lake for a while (reminds me a little of the lakes in Minneapolis or St. Paul, where Guy and Michelle once lived. Then I headed in the car around to a decent-sized little Oakland Chinatown, where - now at dusk - I heard beautiful traditional Chinese music coming from the windows of the second-floor prmises of the Oakland Chinese Association (live or CD?) and brought prawns and tender grees at the New Oakland Seafood Restaurant.
Then I headed back to East Oakland, where I ended up sharing my food and food Guyhad made with an assorted bunch of housemates and hangers on who sat out in the dark in the front yeard of the mansion, talking, eating, and drinking - Guy and Michelle, Louis, Grande Vista heroine Colleen and actor husband Noah, and Colleen's friend Helen and her young son John. Helen is a wild lawyer and war crimes dissertation-er who had a lot energy, swore a lot while she nursed her kid, and has a vision of becoming a Coast Guard attache to the Obama White House (and seeing tax lawyers go after Hallburton and Blackwater and their executives for tax fraud - assuming that no one can get them for war crimes and crimes against humanity.).
Even with segregation and some decaying infrastructure, Oakland is a cute town that has pleasntly surprised me, somewhat like Grand Rapids, Michigan did two years ago. Although Thursday wasa long day with only a car for a bed that night, I've enjoyed my visit to Oakland (where former Congressmas Ron Dellums has replaced former Governor Jerry Brown- now California attorney general - as mayor) and the East By and with old friends (and family members) and new acquaintances. Here's to these hidden gem cities (somewhat like our Louisville): May people enjoy their good points and may they find ways to challenge their not so good points.
I discovered as I was trying to leave that I didn't have my cell phone and, when Jenny called it, a strange man answered. Tuurns out that I had dropped the phone outside of my car and this many had it in an obscure part of the University of California-Davis campus. I considered abandoning the cell phone,but some tenese navigational discussions and navigating finally put me back in contact with my cell phone. Also turns out that - while I raced back to the East Bay area - I couldn't reach the restaurant where we were to meet. Reece called me on his cell phone at 4:15, but I still didn't get there until 4:45, and I ended up staying behind all night. We were at a "tapas" bar in the little area of Berkeley that my hosts Guy and Michelle call the "gourmet ghetto." Reece and Kathy had brought their little dog, Simon, who they were allowed to have in the terrace area. I never totally got over being so late - even though I did to my discredit allow Reece to pay - but it was nice to see these two friends from Tallahassee, who ended up getting married after only being friends in high school - then living in Atlanta, L.A., and now the Bay area. Reece is as big health care lawyer in downtown San Francisco, and Kathy retired after 10 years practicing law (Kathy's Mother was one of our high school math teachers, and Reece's late father was my first boss.) They live in an East Bay suburb.
Then I drove Berkeley - including near where I stayed the last time I was here for a meeting and to a nearby bookstore and near where I'll meet Jenny and family and Rachel and family tomorrow (Sunday) morning before driving into Oakland past that beautiful Lake Merritt to my cousin's condo down the street from Children's Playland (which unfortunately was closed). Cousin Michael and second wife Miranda and their daughter Zoe, 2 (same age as Jenny's younger daughter) lemte visit with them for about an hour. I'd talked in the past on the phone with Miranda, whom my father thought was cool because also went to Swarthmore, but I had neve rmet her, and I'd only seen pictures of Zoe. Two visits or so to the Bay area ago I'd house- and cat-sit for Michael and his first wife in their Berkeley apartment. Michael is the youngest son of my Aunt Taiog, whom I saw a year ago, and Steve, who died several years ago, from complications froma stroke. Michael (before Miranda) was at Stephanie and my (and Vincent's) LA Koreatown post-weding wedding receiptionm, which my first stepmother, June, had put together. Miranda is a psychologist, and Michael is a Web site developer for a Bay area Catholic college, St. Mary's.
Them wanting to put Zoe to bed sent me across the street, to Lake Merritt, where I walked along the lake for a while (reminds me a little of the lakes in Minneapolis or St. Paul, where Guy and Michelle once lived. Then I headed in the car around to a decent-sized little Oakland Chinatown, where - now at dusk - I heard beautiful traditional Chinese music coming from the windows of the second-floor prmises of the Oakland Chinese Association (live or CD?) and brought prawns and tender grees at the New Oakland Seafood Restaurant.
Then I headed back to East Oakland, where I ended up sharing my food and food Guyhad made with an assorted bunch of housemates and hangers on who sat out in the dark in the front yeard of the mansion, talking, eating, and drinking - Guy and Michelle, Louis, Grande Vista heroine Colleen and actor husband Noah, and Colleen's friend Helen and her young son John. Helen is a wild lawyer and war crimes dissertation-er who had a lot energy, swore a lot while she nursed her kid, and has a vision of becoming a Coast Guard attache to the Obama White House (and seeing tax lawyers go after Hallburton and Blackwater and their executives for tax fraud - assuming that no one can get them for war crimes and crimes against humanity.).
Even with segregation and some decaying infrastructure, Oakland is a cute town that has pleasntly surprised me, somewhat like Grand Rapids, Michigan did two years ago. Although Thursday wasa long day with only a car for a bed that night, I've enjoyed my visit to Oakland (where former Congressmas Ron Dellums has replaced former Governor Jerry Brown- now California attorney general - as mayor) and the East By and with old friends (and family members) and new acquaintances. Here's to these hidden gem cities (somewhat like our Louisville): May people enjoy their good points and may they find ways to challenge their not so good points.
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