Maybe Justin is right?

I was sitting at the hotel bar, here in Berkeley, ( http://www.hotelshattuckplaza.com/ ) talking to Danielle and Justin, when Justin observed, "Berkeley is really on odd place;  it's beautiful and smart, and progressive, but also sometimes snobby or even self-righteous, but then it's really sweet and smells like pee, and then it's loud and friendly and a bit unruly and awesome;  it's like the whole city is schizophrenic."

I think I agree.

(By the way, the bar at Hotel Shattuck is great.  The staff are incredibly bright and friendly, mix up some great concoctions, and the food is wonderful - try the burger.)  (Go see Emily and Danielle- great to chat with truly sharp, motivated, funny ladies.)

I wasn't sure what to make of it or if I even liked this place, here across the bridge.
But maybe Justin is on to something.
Maybe the influx of bright, motivated students, and the hard core liberals and hippies, and those free-wheeling left-over beats, and the bums and the train-kids, and all the visitors like me bring a strange brew of energy and thoughts and swirl it around on the streets and then you walk thru it (along with the bum-pee) and you think to yourself, "What in THE Hell is going 'round here!?!".

Just a thought.

"El Duece" and Pinky Tuscadero drove up from San Jose last night and I, being the more handsome and taller man, decided to let bygones be bygones, and allowed him to buy me dinner.
I'm good that way.

I had such a nice dinner with Beth, et al, at Gather the other night that I suggested that we walk down that-aways again.  Glad we did.
After assaulting a couple of strangers out front with cel phone pictures of the Ohr-O'keefe Museum in Biloxi, we tucked into a couple of generous cocktails and a sausage pizza.
I very nearly had our server, Amanda, talked into reading the beer menu out loud in German, just to make the night interesting.  I told her when we sat down that we would be her favorite table that night and after we had our dessert and coffee, she agreed, which prompted me to give her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.  She was a sweetie;  go see Amanda and give her a hug for me!

http://www.gatherrestaurant.com/

And then I stole Pinky Tuscadero away from "El Duece"!

I'm her favorite del Fuego!