First day in Oakland was great. My flight got in late Thursday night and though I thought because of the timezone difference I’d be bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6am, I actually ended up sleeping in. D squared took off for work early and I laid around watching judge shows until it was time to get up and head to the City (which is apparently what people in Oakland call San Francisco).
Now, I’m a total public transportation queen, I can and have gotten around pretty much every major city in the world, so I thought navigating the Bart would be an easy experience. Yea I was wrong about that. They have trains on top of trains, the bart on top of the muni, I got a little turned around. But fortunately I finally made my way into San Francisco. . . an hour later than expected.
In San Fran I met up with a lovely friend of a friend that does prison reentry policy for the city of SF. We had hot drinks and waxed poetic about reentry, jobs, and hair. Then she had to get back to work while I headed back to the O. Can’t wait to hang again when I come back.
Next I met up with D squared in Preservation Park, a lovely park with loads of old houses- some uprooted from various parts of the city. Now it’s home to a bunch of nonprofits. We headed off to Lake Chalet restaurant, a beautiful spot on the lake. Should you go and you’re over the age of 21 I would highly recommend the Adrenaline Rush. . .name totally sums up it up.
The hat is dope, I can't lie
We then went to Paramount Theater, an old theater from the 1930s with amazing architecture and bronze moldings. We watched His Girl Friday with Cary Grant, a movie essentially about two reporters in love and their attempts to free a man that was put of death row for killing a black cop. They’re understandably upset since the only reason the guy was put on death row was so that the mayor could secure the black vote for the elections. He’s allegedly insane even though all of his actions would seem to indicate the exact opposite. Right then.
Jammed packed day today, but so far so good!
Branding Brandi 