Christmas, O-Town Style

Friday night Oakland held its main tree-lighting ceremony at Jack London Square. We were promised "snow showers" every half-hour, a talent contest, reindeer, and a 55 foot tree. Now, this is not the sort of event we would ever go to in Minnesota but, you know, when you're far away from the Midwest you miss watching the snow fall just a little bit (but not that much).

However, before the official lighting ceremony, we found ourselves back at Beer Revolution for the happiest of hours. Not only do they offer delicious and unusual beers from all over the world, but they also are next door to another revolution, Souley Vegan. This place is fantastic. They offer all of the typical Southern foods - yams, okra, black eyed peas, collards, lentils, etc., but EVERYTHING is vegan. The restaurant itself is nothing to look at and one would be very tempted to pass it by (vegan soul food, WHA?!?!) but it is totally worth a stop. We were afraid to try the mac and cheese (no one can really beat Ross's F.C. version) so we stuck to lentils, collards and a ridiculously tasty sandwich. The sandwich had BBQ tofu AND fried tofu. The BBQ tofu was spicy and seriously addictive, and the fried tofu was like a pillow of happiness. It had a perfect cornmeal crust, was as light as air, and so savory you never wanted it to end. ALSO, you order at Souley Vegan and it is delivered right to your bar stool at Beer Revolution. Awesome. We actually had to stop back on the way to the tree-lighting and have a piece of cornbread. So, so, good. We'll be going back. 

Anyway, on to the main event. This is how O-Town decorates for Christmas:

They may not have snow, they may not have pine trees, but they sure do have Christmas spirit! They also have these:

That's right! Reindeer at Jack London Square. They probably vacation here to escape the cold of the North Pole. For some reason, none of the kids at the event had any interest in the reindeer. I wanted to watch them all night. Maybe if the reindeer had worn their sleigh bell harnesses the kids would have been more interested.

And, just for BCSM, they had Miss California with a tender offering of Whitney's "Who Could Imagine a King?" I wish I could include a soundfile. It was very, very special. She had a VERY serious tiara.

Then, on to the main event. The tree-lighting ceremony. They had to light up a 55 foot tree so they enlisted the help of several volunteers, including out-going Mayor Ron Dellums, and Oakland's new Mayor, Jean Quan. There wasn't any of the promised snow, but the tree sure looked pretty.

**********************************************************************************

It has been a little cloudy this week but the rain that was expected never came.  I walk 20 minutes to my bus in the morning and all around me, the morning mist creates views like this:

You can barely see the hills in the background but usually by the time I get to work, the mist has cleared, the sun has broken through the clouds and the hills are flooded with light. I am in awe of the geography of this city every time I look up. The other great thing about Northern California, that you can sort of see in this picture, is that they do actually have trees whose leaves change colors! Let's face it, fall colors are one of the best things about the Midwest and I was so afraid we'd miss that. Thankfully, many of the trees are still in the red/gold phase here.

When I leave work (in the hills), it looks like this. Every. Single. Evening. 

Lastly, for my cat-loving friends, meet my new co-worker. She works hard for her money. Also, I have never met a cat who talks so much. We have to tell her to be quiet when we're on the phone. She works (sleeps) in the office all day long.