As seen in Downtown Berkeley.

It's so refreshing to see things like this go up in Berkeley instead of graffiti. Brings a smile to my face every time I walk past it. It would be great to get some murals up downtown too. Hope everyone's having a good week...at least a better one than I've been having! I'm under the weather.

Magnolia Season

I love all of the magnolia trees around Berkeley. I went out last weekend on a walk to the Rose Garden, and lo and behold the roses were all dead still, but I did have a nice time photographing the magnolias on campus. I'm so ready for winter to be over!

College Avenue.

This was taken shortly before the start of a very memorable night in Berkeley. Having graduated from UC Berkeley, visiting my old undergrad haunts kind of makes me feel a little sad sometimes. Like I've stayed behind at a party after everybody has left. But who am I kidding, there are worse places that I could be right now. Berkeley has been really great to return to after a two-year stint living in the city.

My brother pictured above has visited me on so many occasions that I'm sure he has developed his own relationship with the East Bay. We've strolled down College together countless times and it's always been a lot of fun. In fact, he has been here so often that people get confused when I tell him that he lives hundreds of miles away! Ahem. Time to move, mister! :)

In any case, Sunday night we made reservations for three at the infamous Trattoria La Siciliana. Delicious food, guaranteed--however only after a wait so long that you feel too hangry to actually enjoy your meal. Sunday was especially bad. After being seated for an hour, there was no food to be seen on ANY tables on the first floor of the restaurant. Why? Well turns out Rachael Ray was dining upstairs with her posse.

After she left in a hurry you could feel the wait staff finally exhale and relax. After the food started coming out of the kitchen (finally!)--a woman storms into the restaurant and starts to scream at the staff. Turns out it's the owner's daughter. And I kid you not the restaurant went from unbearable din to dead silent as she screamed "YOU ARE ALL EFFING MANIACS!" to the staff. She left in a hurry and slammed the door, but only after shouting "SORRY, IT'S HARD TO WORK TOGETHER. WE'RE A FUCKING FAMILY!"

Surprisingly, this only made me love the place more. We always say never again after we leave, and yet we come back again and again for the food. Oh, Trattoria. Never change.