This weekend was jam-packed, as usual--full of birthdays and celebrations and farmer's market food and cocktails and friends. Friday night we partied it up for my dear friend Doro's 30th birthday at a little speakeasy called The Hideout in San Francisco, where I had Abita beer!! (Abita is a New Orleans beer, which makes me instantly nostalgic). This time, it was a happy nostalgia, because I'll get to drink all the Abita beer I want when I visit New Orleans in October, yay!!!
Yesterday was a typical Bay Area Saturday for me: a trip to the farmer's market (where I got some of the best tomatoes I've ever had), some exercise, and a play written & put on by formerly incarcerated women.
I am lucky to be part of an amazing nonprofit organization that has programming all over the Bay Area for folks who are incarcerated and/or affected by incarceration. One of Community Works' programs is called Rising Voices, which is a reentry program for 18-25 year old women who have just gotten released from jail. Rising Voices provides these women with basic needs, ongoing case management, and a creative arts internship that involves writing and performing their stories of crime, arrest, incarceration, and rehabilitation.
Last night, I saw the final performance of this dynamic show, which was comprised of all the women's original writing and the incredible direction of talented Michelle Maxson. Most of the women in the show had family members in the audience, which made it even more awe-inspiring that they told/performed their stories of drug abuse, prostitution, crime, and incarceration.
I really hope that people who've never had a loved one incarcerated seek out stories such as these. I think that if everyone was exposed to this particular type of art, the world would be full of so much more compassion. It's so easy to judge people without hearing their stories . . . but the love and the truth and the steadfastness that poured forth from these women on Saturday night was pretty incredible.
And today it was back to the East Bay to help my dearest friend Diana (one of the Cobras) move (fortunately for me, she's moving even closer to my neighborhood!), and then over to Helen & Matt's for a pizza cook off! They have a huge garden and an outdoor wood fire oven, so it was a bring-your-own-toppings-we'll-supply-the-dough type of shindig. Here are some pre-oven pics of the ones I made:
(heirloom tomato, fresh mozz, basil)
(pear, ricotta, brie, rosemary, brown butter sauce)
Delish, right? Everyone pounced on them pretty quickly. And sweet Helen even got me a red velvet cupcake--my very favorite--from Berkeley's Love at First Bite, complete with a birthday tiara in early celebration of my 29th birthday tomorrow:
(delicious AND cute)
Hope y'all had equally fun weekends! I wanna hear all about them. And wish me luck tomorrow, cause more importantly than my birthday, it's the first day of school . . . big day!