I have a friend who has a blog (called Recipes for Trouble), that intertwines life and food in a really cool way. Sometimes, since I love to discover new foods to cook, I think I'll share them here, but I never have. Until today. Ruth and I had a friend over for lunch, so we took the occasion as an opportunity to go to the farmer's market that happens in downtown Oakland (at Jack London Square) on Sundays.

I've been a fan of Darwin's ever since I read On the Origin of Species when I was a kid. I've even read parts of Steven J Gould's The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. I think there aren't really a whole lot more interesting scientific theories around (well, OK, I've become a recent fan of non-locality.) A while back, a couple of articles piqued my interest.

I came upon a stray tweet from someone I follow, which lead me on a search that led to an interesting blog entry asking "Why don't Christians count the Omer?" Counting the Omer, if you don't know, is a Jewish tradition of counting the 50 days between Passover (the liberation from slavery) and the holiday, Shavu'ot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah to the people of Israel.

As is obvious, I haven't blogged since Inaguration day, more than 3 months ago. Mostly, it's because I've been crazy busy. I moved, again, within Oakland, from Fruitvale to Millsmont. I found a new business partner, and we are busily building a business. I found a new church home, and I am beginning to become involved in varied activities in my East Bay and Bay Area community.

I spent the morning at a friend's house with a small group of folks watching the Inauguration. Obama's speech was, as usual, a call to the best of who we are, and the best of what this country means. It was moving. In going out and about today, people were smiling, wearing their Obama shirts, and feeling elated. Twitter has been abuzz with activity. There is so much to say about what happened today. So many have said so much.

I always think that I'll get my act together and write a letter that I send out to all of my friends, that summarizes my year, etc. And I never actually get to it. So this year, I figured I'd blog it, and hopefully many of the folks I'd want to send it to will end up reading it. It's been a hectic year of change and upheaval. One year ago today, Ruth and I were having dinner at my parent's house in NY. That October, we'd just moved into our house in Shelburne Falls, thinking we'd be there for a while.

You probably heard: a worker at Wal-Mart was trampled to death (and others injured) during a mad rush on the store because of sales this Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. Apparently, two thousand people were willing to wait in line for hours, and rush the store entrance at 5:00 am to get the best deals on plasma screen TVs and Nintendo Wiis. I've been trying, ever since I heard about it, to wrap my mind around it.

I've been thinking a lot about Proposition 8 - both before the election, and after it. In truth I have mixed feelings about the whole gay marriage thing (for example, how it happened that lesbians went from thinking it was an institution of patriarchy to something we wanted,) but that's a different post for a different time. I'm saddened, of course, that a lot of people in California voted to add a discriminatory amendment to the consitution.

I wasn't going to blog about the election. Mostly because I don't really have anything especially articulate to say about what happened on Tuesday that hasn't already been said, not only about Obama's win, but about the passage of Proposition 8 in California. I talked with my parents election night, and they said they could have never imagined a Black man as President in their lifetimes. Even I found it hard to imagine, even with Hollywood's suggestions.

I have been thinking a lot about where I live, and the kind of place it is, and how it is so completely different than anywhere else I've ever lived before. I live in Fruitvale. It is a neighborhood in Oakland that is incredibly diverse, although by far the largest population here is Latino.