The Verdict

Well, overall Oakland is still in one piece. I'm very disappointed with the verdict in the Meserle case. Involuntary manslaughter, amazing. I feel so bad for the family of Oscar Grant.

Luckily there hasn't been too much damage and the protests were overall peaceful. Right now the police are arresting people who refuse to leave the downtown area.

I know that this will result in a rash of Oakland bashing. Now, we've not lived here for very long and we don't live in what is considered to be a great area and lots of people in the Bay Area think that Oakland should just be dumped off the face of the planet. In general, I'm very comfortable walking around my neighborhood which in primarily African American and Mexican. Not too many white people around here. We have a quiet group of streets where we just look out for each other. M and I are the block captains for the neighborhood watch (by default, we kept being the only one's on our street who showed up to the meetings). We have very nice neighbors and a lot of retired people around.

In other news, I'm playing flute for Mass this weekend. I'm so nervous, but I think everything will be okay. Of course it's making me practice a lot more. My teacher would be so proud.

We start "Joseph" rehearsals on Sunday...Yay, can't wait! Okay, enough babbling for now.
Peace