My Blog: First Week in Oakland

Greetings! Spiderman above greeted us in our new place and I thought he would be a fitting greeting for this blog entry.

We've moved in, or moved house (as the British like to say). Here's the view into our apartment. The two doors lead to the bathroom and the bedroom. Keep in mind this is on the "bigger" side you can get in the Bay area for $1700 a month (w/o utilities).

Before & after we moved in (click for larger views):

Much like many other places I've lived, the apartment has character. If the place was an actor in a reality TV show, it would certainly be the lead role.

That said, we do have a nice communal backyard. There's a righteous garden back there, and this is only for one of the buildings. You see, the three neighboring houses (which have been sectioned off and turned into 'apartments') are all owned by the same guy. The backyards are all fenced, but we can traverse from one to the other via an unlocked gate. However, there is a locked gate that leads to the street, so we've basically got private gardens back here. Okay, enough talk, here's some pictures. Click on them for larger views.

The building in the back, which you might be able to make out in the first picture (top left) between the cacophonous jungle, houses a nice gentleman from Wyoming. Apparently, he's here for surfing and cooking. Our other neighbors also have degrees in horticulture or food policy or other herbivore fancies. This probably explains all the food without a price tag. 

In a day or so, I'll be hearing back from the LA Cinefest for some writing I've submitted there, and I'll be sending out poems this week for publication. School is in session, which means it's also submission season when all the hardworking, underpaid graduates and post graduates get to choose which entry goes into their respective literary magazines.

Cheers and keep enjoying your day.