Oakland, CA

I spent the past weekend in Oakland with M, who has lived there for some time now (ever since she got back from four years in Japan), but I have thus far neglected to visit. It was a short trip (you might be able to tell that I've taken a lot of time off work lately; I didn't want to take off any more days than I absolutely had to in order to make the trip happen).

It all started out with a 6:00am flight. Why have there been so many of those lately? I had a layover in Denver, and my flight from there to Oakland was delayed. I pondered hopping the CME and heading off to Breck for some more skiing, but decided instead that I should carry on as planned. I can go to Breck any old time, but it's not every day I make it all the way to Cali, so on I went. I arrived about an hour late, to cold temperatures but lovely west coast sunshine!

M had to go back to work for a few hours that afternoon, but not before she showed off her shiny new computer!

Hopefully you all recognize me. And for those of you who don't know her, M is the one next to me. H, with the glasses, is M's roommate; P, the dude, is H's fiancee.

While M was at work, I did some reading for my sociology class. She got home and out we went with her dog Zander to the Point Isabel dog park to enjoy the last hour or so of sun. And boy was it lovely!

The Golden Gate

The view towards the city

Z having a rollicking good time in the mud...

...and getting a bath afterwards.

In truth, the dog bath didn't happen until after dinner. Zander's muddy self got to hang out in the car for a couple of hours while M and I went to Berkeley for dinner at House of Curries (oh my god! They have a never-ending chai bar! It was heaven!), and down the street for dessert at Ici. I had creme fraiche ice cream with bourbon winterfruits, in a house-made cone. Delightful!

We headed home, then came the dog bath. We finished up the night is a disastrously fabulous fashion, and I daresay I now have M to thank (or blame) for the fact that I'm totally hooked on Glee! Uh oh spaghettios.

Saturday morning began with a lovely brunch at La Note with M, H, and their friend S (who is very cool). Overall my breakfast was good, but there were a couple details that really stood out - sourdough toast with butter, and whole cloves of roasted garlic in the homefries. Quelle magnifique! We made a quick stop at the Berkeley farmers' market, did a little shopping at Jeremy's, then headed home to relax for a bit before our night out.

Unless I already told you, you would never believe what we did on Saturday night. We went to see a roller derby match between two of the teams in the B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls league, and it was totally awesome! Doors opened at 6, and we probably got there around 7. It was flat-track derby (not to be confused with the banked-track derby of Whip It fame), so the closest seats were on the ground. A bit farther back there were some bleachers, but the track is actually pretty small, so we wanted to be as close as possible.

M and I left our seats for a bit to do some shopping at the booths that were set up, and decided to toss some money into the pot for raffle tickets to win better seats. At the corners of the rink, they had positioned couches, and you could win the privilege of that primo seating. And we won! Hooray! So the four of us (we were there with M's friends F and C) got comfy seating seating with a good view of the rink for the duration of the match.

M with our lucky tickets

I didn't know all the rules of derby going in, but I think I managed to pick up most of the major ones along the way. There are 10 girls on the track at a time. When the first whistle blows, 8 of them start skating. At the front, one girl from each team wears a helmet with a big wide stripe down the middle; she is the pivot, and it's her job to set the pace for the pack. The other six people are called blockers, and it's their job to block the other team's jammer. Shortly after the first whistle blows (maybe 5 seconds? 3?), there's another whistle and the two jammers, one from each team, start skating to catch up with the pack. The jammers can be identified by the star on their helmets. It's their job to try to pass the blockers and break through the pack. The first jammer to break through becomes the lead jammer. Every time the jammers lap the pack, they gets points for their team, one for each opposing team member she passes (not including the first time through the pack). If the second jammer manages to catch up with the lead jammer, the jam is over. The lead jammer can call off the jam at any time, which usually happens if either (a) she's tiring out or is unsure she'll score more points, and/or (b) the other team's jammer is about to score a bunch of points. A jam lasts a maximum of two minutes; if the jammer hasn't called it off by then, the ref does. Then they rotate positions, realign, and start over. The game we saw was played in two 30-minute halves, although I've heard of other set-ups as well.

Pre-game stretch

All the nerdy refs hanging out before the game. I can see why they need more than one ref (there's a lot going on), but I'm pretty sure the extra three or four were just there for kicks.

The match was between the San Francisco Shevil Dead and the Richmond Wrecking Belles

Since M lives in Oakland, we decided to display our East Bay pride and cheer for Richmond (they're in blue and yellow in the pictures)

The jammers lining up for the second whistle

Lots of contact, including hip checking and blocking with arms, to keep the other team's players from passing

The Wrecking Belles' jammer breaks out of the pack

The big monitors showing the score, time remaining, and jam count. We were losing at that point, but ended up winning 127-86). Go Richmond!

While at the match, we enjoyed the lovely goodies from the Milk Money booth (chocolate peanut butter pie and a chocolate whoopie pie!), as well as the Haywire hefeweizen from Pyramid Breweries. (It was either that or PBR, which I seem inclined to drink only in - of all places - New York. Thanks for that, S.) We closed out the night with some more Glee, and now I'm desperate to find the first season on DVD so I can finish it! Anyone have it and willing to lend?

And would you believe it? My trip was almost over - so short! M and I left for the airport the next morning around 5:45, because my flight was at 6:50. Very early...again! I few from Oakland to Kansas City, which is a long flight, but I was sitting next to a lovely woman from Michigan by way of Florida, with whom I chatted for a bit to pass the time.

When we landed at KCI there was snow on the ground and it was so foggy you could barely see the wingtips. I had a window seat and couldn't see the runway at all until just a couple seconds before we landed. Thank goodness for modern instrumentation! The flight attendant greeted us with a cheery "On behalf of Southwest Airlines, we'd like to be the first to welcome you to Anchorage." Very cute.

I didn't expect much from the Kansas City airport, but it was even worse than I thought. The gate area is sealed off, and if you want to go into the terminal to, for example, get food, you have to go back through security to return to your gate! Thankfully my layover was only two hours, and I had an uneaten packet of peanuts from my earlier flight, which was enough to tide me over. (Love, love, LOVE that Southwest still serves honey roasted peanuts! 10,000 times better than the sanitized pretzels served on most other airlines. Actually, the snacks were great overall - lots of tasty choices; the flights attendants, with one exception, were lovely. I haven't flown SW in a while, but might have to give it another chance.) Until...

I thought it would be a good idea to use a full-sized bathroom before getting back on the plane. It's a short flight from KC to StL, and given the nasty weather, there was a fair chance the seat belt sign would never be turned off. But get this: for our gate area (which probably consisted of six or seven gates), there was ONE women's bathroom, which had TWO stalls. Are you flippin' serious? Who designs these places? Obviously, the answer to that question is "men." The response of the woman in line behind me when we finally made it out of the gate area and through the door (after about ten minutes of standing in line) was, "Two stalls? This is an international airport and they have two stalls?" Amen, sister.

Thanks to M for the weekend, for letting me borrow your space heater, and for getting up very early! You're the best!