my kind of town oaktown is

anyone who's known me for 10 seconds knows that oakland, calif. is one of my favorite cities in the world.

i love lake merritt (pictured above), the shops on lakeshore, jack london square, rockridge, the taco truck on e. 14th street, marcus books, the restaurants, the tribune tower and most of all, the people.

it was they who first supported me when i took a job as a sportswriter/columnist at the bob and nancy maynard-owned oakland tribune. those were the days. i fell in love with oaktown during the summer of '89 after having completed a fellowship at nearby cal-berkeley. i officially moved to oaktown on the day that huey newton was murdered.

talk about your agony and ecstasy.

the oakland tribune had the most diverse staff of any newspaper in the country. we sent a chinese photographer and a white writer out to cover newton's funeral and the copy was edited by a black assistant city editor. plus, it was a very nurturing environment--a great place for a green bean like me.

also, the trib really launched my career and i am eternally grateful. it's the spot where i had most of my professional triumphs--as well as a few of my biggest blunders. what made that experience even more meaningful was that an entire community embraced me--the poor little colored girl from the suburbs--and i them. one of my most memorable moments was surviving a 7.1 earthquake in the already structurally unstable tribune tower. i sat at my desk and watched a support beam crack down the middle as my co-workers scattered to find open doorways and dove under desks.




these days one of the first things i do whenever i go to oakland--especially if i'm driving--is to raise my arms in triumph every time i pass the windmills on the 580. to me, that means i'm home--even if oakland is another 60 miles away. one of my first stops once i do cross the city line is always le cheval, a vietnamese-french eatery located in downtown oakland.


it's one of my top 5 favorite restaurants in the world and the place where i chose to celebrate my 50th birthday with some very, very dear friends in january. (below: maria, carlton and joseph chan).


this latest trip up to the bay was something special. yes, i had some business to take care but my good friend gaby--the woman who taught me final cut pro and so much more--agreed to come along for the road trip. gaby is such a trouper. we were supposed to leave at 9:30 a.m. and i usually am such an anal stickler for time, but i had gotten back late sunday night from san diego and been up all night doing stuff, so i snooze-buttoned my way through my 8:30 a.m. alarm. two hours later gaby rang wanting to know if i was on my way. i wasn't because i still had to get the oil changed in the old saab turbo. sweetie that she is, gaby wasn't even mad. she had some things to do and told me to just ring when i was on my way to studio city.

i would have been on my way sooner but of course there was drama at jiffy lube.

unfortunately, a green bean employee had written up my initial order. when i asked him how much it would be he quoted me the low, low, price of $37.99. about 20 minutes later, however, his manager rang me up at $82.50. you know i wasn't having that so after a brief "discussion" and threats to drive away, the price was dropped to $67 out the door. the reason for the discrepancy? you can only use that costly synthetic oil with saabs. had i known that before i bought the ride i'd be cruising in a corolla these days.

the ride up--with the exception of missing the 5 north exit because i was so busy gabbing with gaby--was uneventful. it usually never takes me and my size 81/2 lead foot more than five hours to get to the bay. monday was no exception. since we were basically averaging about 90 mph and stopped only once to pick up some really bad subway sandwiches, we actually made it to our downtown oakland hotel in 4 hours, 40 minutes.

upon checking in, however, i discovered that not only had i forgotten my lingerie, but my mac cosmetics bag as well.

lovely.

it's one thing to replace a bra and panties, but to try and restock hundreds of dollars of mac goodies was something else entirely. i'd have to make it through the next few days with the face god initially gave me.

scary.

the first stop after we checked in? le cheval. but you already knew this!!

i love le cheval because the food is great, the atmosphere is relaxed and diverse and the staff--some of whom still remember me from back in the day--are always cool. plus, they have the best martinis in town.

i ordered, as i always do, the lemongrass tofu, the garlic string beans and a glass of pinot noir. gaby, a le cheval virgin, had the lemongrass chicken and a vodka gimlet. our mutual friend venise, who had driven down from vallejo to meet us, ordered the tofu spring rolls and some water (more on that later). of course, we engaged in communal dining and had a great time catching up on each other's lives. not wanting to end the evening just yet we headed up the street to another one of my old hangouts--the bar at the marriott hotel.

did we have too much to drink? well, maybe gaby and i had one glass too many, but when venise ordered herb tea we decided it was time for an intervention! her excuse? she was staying dry because vallejo was a long ride home.

whateva.

i love it, however, when lips get loose after a few drinks. even though the three of us have known each other since the early '90s, it was probably the first time we'd ever been that open and honest with each other about everything that was going on in our lives. (below: venise, miki, gaby).

bloatedness.
carb-intake.
men.
careers.
aging parents.
annoying siblings.



and yes, we talked plenty of you-know-what, too!

i learned a lot about them and vice-versa. perhaps they learned too much about me, which is why pinot noir is no longer my friend.

the next day i had some meetings in the city--which is what east bay folks call san francisco. i dropped gaby off at van ness and market so she could explore touristy union square and picked her up two hours later. we then went to zachry's pizza in the rockridge area of oakland for a chicago-style deep dish pie.

i think one slice weighed two pounds. no joke.

after dinner i was feeling a bit nostalgic and drove by my old flat, located just up the hill from lake merritt. man, that 'hood has changed--but in a good way.


also bopped over to berkeley, another one of my favorite cities in the world, so i could puruse the dvd bins at amoeba. we made it an early evening, however, heading back to the hotel just after dusk to watch "reign over me" on gaby's 17-inch macbook pro.

gaby thinks adam sandler and don cheadle should never, ever hook up ever again on screen. she didn't buy sandler as a victim.

on wednesday, gaby and i had sushi at a waterfront spot in san mateo with her friend fernanda. we then reconnected with venise in berkeley, even though we should have been well on our way back home to l.a.

but, i can never say no to b-town. i love walking up and down telegraph avenue. my inner-hippie creeps out while i'm checking out the street vendors, ducking in and out of used book and record stores and sipping happily on a soy milkshake from smart alec's.

the folks who regularly congregate on telegraph are my people! from the white guy draped in mudcloth to the homeless man screaming at the wall to the sunburned cal swimmer grabbing a sandwich from the cafe on the corner to the brother with the pink and blue afro playing a plastic bucket in front of the old cody's bookstore.

the telegraph area isn't as colorful as it once was--especially since the people's park has been removed--but it's still irresistible to me.

venise wanted us to meet her at berkeley bowl where she was grocery shopping. this store, located not far from cal, has every imaginable fruit, grain, spice, bread, vegetable, meat and wine on the planet. since i spend very little time in supermarkets, i'm always fascinated by the vast varieties of foods found there, but every five seconds i was picking up some strange looking fruit with feathers or gills and asking v: "what is this?"

v to gaby: she's just like a child. she picks up everything!

me: (picking up some green tomatoes with yellow spots) these tomatoes are rotten.

v: they're organic.

me: eat them and you'll die. trust.

afterwards we went back up to telegraph so i could get a berkley t-shirt. since i did a journalism fellowship there in the '80s and lived on campus in the russian house, i feel i have the right to represent.

about three hours after kissing venise goodbye, having a really mediocre meal at another favorite spot on university avenue and stopping by the marina square mall in san leandro so that gaby could get a cap from the gap outlet, we headed south. again, an uneventful ride. we spent most of the trip down trying to determine if there were any living british actors who were both talented and sexy.

clive owen, you're like the only one dude.

now that i'm back home and slowly getting back into the old routine--waking up, thanking god, suffering through the hot topics on "the view," spending way too much time on the net and then finally getting to work--i'm thinking that i should perhaps spend some more time up north. the people are so naturally common--and that's not a dig. sure, some of them are pseudo-intellects with five degrees from berkeley and perpetual bad hair days--but at least they look the part and are seemingly botox-free.

brings a whole new meaning to the term "organic."

even the stock boys at the whole foods stores here look as though they just stepped out of the makeup trailer.

as for me and pinot noir, i think we shall mend our fences by the weekend. sometimes you just have to talk these things out. sharing, as i experienced this week with v and gabs, just makes you that much closer.

thank goodness my fully stocked wine cooler is less than 10 yards from my bed. that was one smart move on my part. i'm sure my berkeley peeps would totally agree.