it has come to my attention that i must move to the east bay. if i believed in destiny, i'd say i was destined to move to the east bay. right now, i pay a decent chunk of change to rent a live/work loft (which is fancy talk for "i have no kitchen and the bathroom is down the hall, but otherwise my apartment is really cool") in one of the most depressing neighborhoods in san francisco. but i'm not going to badmouth san francisco. this is a great city. i mean, we get along really well. and so what if he's always hitting me up for more money and he smells like pee? he's really interesting and we've been together so long...
but i've been spending a lot of time in the east bay lately and really like it. it's mellower and warmer and everybody i know in oakland has their very own toilet! plus, oakland has mama's royal cafe (where you can get the best soy lattes ever dished out by a diner) and the chapel of the chimes (which is both the most tacky and the most beautiful place i've ever seen). oakland also has manifesto, which is the point of this whole ambling ramble.
manifesto is a bike shop and it rules. every bike in the shop is beautiful. they totally know what they are doing, but they aren't scary bike-core meanies. i love bikes, i ride nearly every day, but i am not a bike expert. i don't even know how to fix a flat. so i sometimes feel like an outsider when i go to a bike shop...like they're all speaking german and i'm the douchebag american who didn't bother to learn the language before i packed up my rucksack and headed to berlin. or something. whatever.
anyway, it's not like that at manifesto. they are friendly. stop by on sunday at 11am for bike church...friendly people, bikes, gospel music, coffee and donuts. and they have hats and t-shirts and candy if you're afraid of the bikes. i bought a sweet scarf from them (it keeps my neck warm when i'm riding in windy-ass san francisco) and some ring pops (you know, for the kids). in closing, manifesto is awesome. and so is oakland. amen.
(image courtesy of manifesto)
