dannyman.toldme.com

Oakland

Well, I live in Oakland now. My first night at Michael’s was Thursday, when I drove across the bay to meet up with him after he got off work. It is a pretty nice place up in the hills above Oakland, not far from Berkeley. I get to house-sit until April rolls around, when Duncan comes back from Europe with Michael, to follow in my footsteps in living at Michael’s and looking for restaurant work.

Hopefully, I’ll find a job really soon. Or, maybe at least I’ll actually receive some mail and be able to complete my appeal for unemployment compensation. Until then … the whole idea of buying gas tends to irk me. Up winding twisty road with no sidewalks, driving is the supreme choice of transportation at the new place. Though it turns out that during the day it ought to be safe enough for me to descend on foot and catch a bus. Sounds to me like good exercise.

Friday I drove back to Mountain View to get almost the last of my stuff, and have lunch with some Tellme colleagues. We passed up the free In-N-Out and had burritos at Los Charros. Angel keeps telling me I should write for the free bi-weekly Wave Magazine, to which I always respond that I have yet to think of a good article to pitch them.

Today I dropped in on a vegetarian restaurant that is taking applications because they’re closing for six weeks to remodel. That’s not great news for me, but that will be a great lead for Duncan, who wants to work in a vegetarian restaurant, when he gets here in April. I’m going to see if I can sweet talk my way in to serving pizza at Zachary’s, which is the source of Chicago-style deep-dish pizza in the Bay Area. Not only did I grow up on this food, but I even worked at the Bay Area’s other Chicago-themed Pizza Place.

After the vegetarian place, I dropped in at The Crucible’s open house / re-opening party. I got to see neon glass working, blacksmithing, TIG welding, and oxy-acetylene torch welding demonstrations. Had I money and an assurance that I’d still be in Oakland for a few months, I’d have quite possibly signed up for a course. The classes look to start ’round 10 April though, so I still have time.

To top it all off, The Crucible also supplied me with free bananas, apples, popcorn, and … barbecue!!! Dang! Free ribs? Yah!