Blog Every Day in May Challenge: Day 1

This blog has been super quiet for the past couple months.  Part of that is because I moved, another part is that I've been working ridiculously long hours at my new job, and part of it is just because I'm lazy.  I figured a good blog challenge might help me get kickstarted and back up and writing again!

I found out about this challenge through a couple other blogs (which directed me to Jenni's blog, story of my life) and am super excited to join in!  I may or may not write to her prompt everyday, but I will try very very hard to get a blog post out everyday.  For today I will use her prompt, well kinda.  Her prompt is the story of your life in 250 words or less, mine will be heavily focused on recent events and how I ended up in Washington State. Here goes:

Born 12/21/84, grew up in Tahoe, love the outdoors. Somehow made my way to school in Michigan.  Decided to study Mechanical Engineering because everyone told me I'd be good at it.  Going there was one of the best choices I've made, not only did I meet RoB, become a huge fan of college football, but it set me up for a successful career.  I started my career in controls and instrumentation engineering in Oakland, CA with some awesome, very knowledgable, coworkers.  I loved living in the bay area, it was everything I wanted after college, but the big city started to wear me down.  With the sad closing of that office I packed my bags (and boyfriend and dog) to head to Kentucky for a year assignment.  Kentucky was awesome, I got some new work experiences, made some very fun friends, and took in all Kentucky had to offer: bourbon and horse racing.  As my time there came to an end I took my career into my own hands and pursued a job I was interested in in Washington state.  Next thing I knew, I was packing up all my stuff again to head back out west, this time to the pacific northwest.  This is my new adventure!  Work is more demanding than it ever has been, but I've already met so many awesome people and there is so much to explore here.  I have a feeing this place is going to be another on my list of great places to live.

I'm back, and so much to talk about!

 Been a while, time for some updates:

Well I took a slight break form blogging to attempt NaNoWriMo.  Unfortunately, I didn’t complete the 50,000 words during the month of November, but I did complete just over 10,000!  Even though that number isn’t huge it’s the most I’ve ever put into one story and I feel like I have much more I want to write to finish the story, so in a way I do feel like a winner and am happy I attempted it!  Another part of the reason I did it was to help support Rob with his, but he fell apart about halfway through the month, I’m upset I didn’t try to continue to encourage him. I really hope he picks up his story again, like I plan to with mine.

The next (and probably biggest) new thing in my life is that I am moving!  I got offered a temporary job assignment and decided to accept it.  It is in Kentucky, which is a far cry from Oakland, CA, but I’m excited.  All the moving and packing is stressing me out, but living in a new place and working on a new project should be worthwhile.  The assignment will last 6-12 months and then the plan is head back to Oakland where I’ve been working for the past 4 years. 

On my last day at work in Oakland I was pretty sad to leave my office.  I’ve been there for almost 4 years and it was my first job since college so it’s all very strange to be leaving.  I’ve been in Kentucky for two weeks now and I’m heading back home for a few weeks for Christmas.  Then Rob, Angel and I are driving all the way across the country to set up home in Lexington, KY.  I’m ready to live somewhere new so I think this will be a good move for me, but at the same time I really loved everything about Oakland (except the cost of living) so I’m sure there will be a lots I will miss.

I’ve already found a place to rent!  It’s a house, which is a huge deal for us.  It’s so expensive to rent a house in California so it’s nice that we can afford one in Kentucky.  It is a perfect size for two people and we finally get to have a yard for Angel.  I’ve already been scoping out the local restaurant scene and getting advice on places to try.  One of my biggest fears was that there would only be chain restaurants, and at first glance that’s how it appeared.  But after talking to others it sounds like there are lots of local gems and I can’t wait to find them!

In other news, Michigan football had a tremendous season!  They ended the regular season at 10-2 with a win over ohio!!!  That hadn’t happened since my freshman year of college, so it was a nice weight finally lifted off our shoulders.  Our coach, Brady Hoke, was also named the B1G coach of the year, and very deservedly so.  I’m so excited about this team in the future and am proud as always to be a Michigan Wolverine.  We are headed to the Sugar Bowl against Virginia Tech.  I’ll do a more in depth bowl preview as they get closer, but just having Michigan in a BCS bowl is beyond awesome!

So that’s a lot new for me, wish me luck in my move (did I mention how crazy my life is?)  I’ll keep you all updated on my new life in Kentucky!

National Night Out

Last night was National Night Out (NNO).  I don't know if it is a big deal other places but it is a huge deal in Oakland.  There were over 500 NNO parties last night in the city of Oakland, which is awesome.  NNO is when neighborhoods are encouraged to have block parties to get to know your neighbors and make it safe for you to spend a night outside in your neighborhood.  A house up the street had our block party and it was a great time.

Our neighborhood has a few minor problems (occasional break-ins/robberies), but it was great talking to so many people who have lived in this neighborhood for over 20 years and hearing how much they love it.  It made me realize what a cool place Oakland really is.  I met neighbors who were musicians, chefs, professors, and everything in between.  I also realized how important it is to get to know your neighbors and how they all seem to feel safer just because they know their neighbors.

We are currently considering looking for a new apartment, but it will be really hard to find anything that beats this neighborhood, and it might be a good enough reason for us to stay put (if only our building management was a little better)

Cafe Gabriela in Oakland is amazing

The title says it all.  It is my favorite coffee shop in downtown Oakland, actually, all of Oakland.  It's been open for just over a year and I've happily been a patron since the first week they opened.  I was always switching coffee places looking fora place I really liked until this place opened.  Now, if I need coffee it is very rare I'll go anywhere besides Cafe Gabriela.

Some of the things that make it so great:
The owner, Penny, is very personable and really makes an effort to reach out to all of us "regulars".
They serve Blue Bottle coffee.
They also serve kick-ass sandwiches (as their sign clearly says!).
It's small and local and less than a block from my work.

I'm not sure if its all just a great combination or if there are other things that really make this place so wonderful.  It has recently got much busier and I couldn't be happier, I hope this place is around for many years to come.  If you are ever in downtown Oakland and need a place to get coffee head to Cafe Gabriela (Broadway and 10th) and you won't be let down!

Bike to Work Day x 2!

Last Thursday was Bike to Work Day for the San Francisco Bay Area.  This gave me a good reason to put air in my front tire (it had been acting funny) and ride my bike the long distance of 1.9 miles to work!

The only other time I rode to work (last fall) I was a little discouraged because the last 6 blocks of my ride were very frustrating.  There wasn't a real bike lane and lots of stupid stoplights, for these reasons I rode on the sidewalk part of the way, which really slowed me down and I think meant I hit more red lights.  This time I just rode on the road where a bike lane should be and made the cars go around me.  It's really not a very busy road so it wasn't a big deal and the ride was way better and faster!


I am awesome

Since it was a great ride on Thursday I decided to ride again on Friday.  Which was actually better because there was traffic due to construction and I got to speed past all of it!  I felt very cool and environmentally friendly :)

The bf says my goal should be to ride my bike to work at least twice a week, and I think I will take him up on this challenge!  Planning this week for Thursday and Friday again since there is rain in the forecast for the beginning of the week.

Grand Lake

The wonderfulness of the Grand Lake Theater includes a very close neighborhood theater, an organ performance before some movies, and their sly political statements on the marquee.  A true Oakland gem!

Grand Tavern

We ate at the Grand Tavern a few weeks ago, and I'm just getting around to reviewing it, oops!  I had read about this place in a recent Oakland Tribune article and it sounded like a fun place to try.  The restaurant itself is a little strange because it really seems like you are in someone's house (that happens to have a bar in one corner).  You walk in and it's a long hallway with no hostess stand or anything to let you know that you are in the right place.  But once you are inside it is very cozy, some of the tables have big comfy chairs by the fire, some are side benches or window seats, and some are regular looking dinning room tables.  Since we had a group of 6 we sat at one of these bigger tables.  The service we had wasn't great, but I think our waiter might have just been having an off night and it seemed like everyone else's waiters were more attentive. 

On to the important stuff, the food and drinks!  The drink list was expansive and every drink we ordered was great.  I had a gin drink with sparkling wine and a bunch of other stuff that was very refreshing, and everyone else at our table really enjoyed their drinks.  The food was also great, but since this is more of a bar or gastropub a lot of it was small plates so there was lots of sharing.  The bf somehow found the only thing on the menu that wasn't a small plate, a burger with everything and anything on it.

Apparently it was good, and all of our other small plates were delicious.  I shared some of the ravioli and the crab and artichoke brushetta, bother very tasty and the ravioli was actually a good size serving.  Even though this place it probably more about getting together in a fun setting for some drinks and a snack, it was also a fine choice for dinner.  As we were leaving I noticed a patio out front which would be an awesome hangout place when the weather is warmer, I guess I'll have to go back!

Birthday Boy

The bf's birthday was last week and even though we celebrated over the weekend we also went out to a special dinner on his actual birthday.  We ate at a place I've been wanting to try for a while, Pican.  It's in the Uptown area of Oakland surrounded by other really cool new restaurants like Plum, Ozumo, Bakesale Betty, and The Punchdown.

The restaurant was very swanky inside, had a good looking bar area and an open kitchen on one wall.  We brought our own wine ($25 corkage fee) so I don't know how the drinks are, but I do know that they specialize in Bourbon.  We had fried green tomatoes as an appetizer that were dressed up all fancy with feta, radishes, and a buttermilk dressing.  I really enjoyed them but the bf thinks he could make it better and less fancy himself.  For our main courses he had the duck and I had the fried chicken.  The fried chicken was so good and to make it even better it was served with a smoked Gouda mac and cheese, yumzo!  We also got a side of andoullie and scallion hushpuppies with a vinegar sauce, these were also very good.  It was too much food for us so we ended up taking home half of the chicken and some hushpuppies.  I really liked the food and atmosphere here and will definitely try to go back!

Restaurant Week

Last week was Oakland Restaurant Week and we had a chance to eat at two of the restaurants participating.  First up was Camino.  I’ve been interested in this restaurant for a while, it’s always mentioned with some of the best in the Oakland/Berkeley area and it is right in my neighborhood.  The inside of Camino is very cool, most of the patrons sit at two very long communal tables, but there were some individual tables in the middle too.  The cocktails were fantastic and inventive.  We started with a very good, fresh tasting fennel salad.  The main course was half a Dungeness crab cooked in the wood fired oven, served over endives, sunchokes, and beets.  Although this was messy it had very good flavor and was a little spicy, which I loved!  Dessert was an orange custard with fruit compote, not too sweet and a great ending to the meal.  I really enjoyed my meal here and will definitely be coming back.  My boyfriend wasn’t as crazy about it as I was, I think the portions were a little too small for him and he felt awkward trying to eat the messy crab in a nicer setting.

Next up was Bocanova.  I didn’t know much about this restaurant, but always like to find new places down at Jack London Square.  For restaurant week Bocanova served everything family style so the whole table had to participate.  I think we had a total of seven(!) different courses/plates. Again, the cocktails were very inventive and very tasty! Starting with an appetizer of Peruvian olives and seasoned mushrooms, I dislike both these things but tried them anyway and actually enjoyed the mushrooms. The next appetizer was a lobster and shrimp cocktail, this was also delicious. The main courses were steak with chimichurri sauce, sea scallops, and mashed winter squash. All three of the were amazing! The only unfortunate part was dessert, the menu listed a chocolate bread pudding (which sounded amazing), but we were served pineapple and kiwi empanadas. These were good, but the bread pudding sounded better. This restaurant totally impressed me, I didn’t expect it to be that good!  Our whole group really enjoyed the meal, and I highly recommend this place as a change of pace from the seafood restaurants at Jack London Square.

Next time I talk about a restaurant I'll try and have better descriptions of the food, hopefully what the menu actually said instead of me making up what I thought it said.