Meeting a friend for breakfast

2/1/13 

Met my oldest friend, Gordon, for a light breakfast this morning at a local restaurant in the Temescal area of Oakland- old Italian neighborhood on Telegraph Ave that had gone downhill since the 1960s, but has had great resurgence in last ten years.  I love when old neighborhoods revive to former glory in new and vibrant ways. 

Gordon and I know each other from high school and came together to Berkeley for college from a small town in the dry desert at southern most California, 10 miles from Mexican border.  Unlike most of our college friends here, we chose to stay in the area after college.  It’s been over forty years now and I still love the bay area for its vitality, beauty, politics, diversity, food and even its wild and crazy people.

I brought the traveling teapot and had them use it to brew tea for two.  They only have 4 teas to choose from but I know the teas are from a local shop, Far Leaves, so it is quality loose-leaf tea.  Gordon and I have shared many a pot of tea over the years so I was very surprised when he arrived that he wanted a cup of espresso!  Oh well…I drank the entire pot over the next two hours of conversation and enjoyed every drop.