Birdland

Just moved here to be closer to work after living in West Sac for a year. My mom thinks this is an improvement over dirty old, crime ridden West Sac. I’m not so sure, but it does beat sitting in my car for hours on end to get to and from work.
This is called the Birdland neighborhood—though people don’t really think of it in terms of neighborhoods here in the way people do in say Berkeley where you can say you live by the Gourmet Ghetto or in the Elmwood neighborhood and people know what you are talking about. Anyway, the Birdland neighborhood has a bit of an aviary theme going with street names like Mallard, Blackbird, Hummingbird and Woodthrush. My former English major self really digs that. Very poetic, even if there is nothing particularly poetic about the streets here.
They are the typical grid. There is nothing wrong with these streets. Most of the homes here are from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
So these are nice wide streets with some trees—though they are not really shady. Just about every house seems to have a pool and yard which is nice because summer here is as bad as over by Sac. When I was moving in earlier this month I thought I was going to die—I was soaked through with sweat by the time I finished. Felt like I had already jumped in the pool.

My living situation here in is a little awkward. I am renting a room in a big house. It is just the dad and his 20 something kid who goes to the local community college and pretty much just hangs out. So I haven’t quite gotten used to it—still feel like the guest who never leaves. But it is a good arrangement for me—I help them keep the place clean and they give me a big discount on the rent.

But the house is really very nice. The kind of house that is now, and probably always will be, way outside of my price range as a single gal.

Just to the north of Birdland is the Pleasanton Sports and Recreation Park which is basically a bunch of sports field.
Apparently, the families of Pleasanton are obsessed with keeping their kids physically active and so on the weekends out come the Soccer moms to cheer their kids on and hope they can achieve some local glory. This is definitely the kind of area where people have pick-up trucks and boats and love outdoor recreation.

On the western end of the neighborhood is Hopyard Road—one of the main north south drags. There you find a Tennis Club—can’t get enough fitness; it is not enough to have a miles worth of sport fields, you also have to have a half dozen tennis courts, and a bunch of stores all with a faux Spanish style office park aesthetic: red tiled roofs and fake stucco walls.

There is a Rite Aid here and that sort of thing. There are also some restaurants. Apparently, Pleasanton residents really like East Asian food, it seems like every other restaurant in Pleasanton is either a sushi place, Szechuan joint, or a Thai place.
There are 2 Japanese and one Chinese restaurant here. There is also a little Italian place that seems passable as a date kind of a place. There is also a Mr. Pickle’s sandwich place which I have to go to simply because it is called Mr. Pickle’s. I am a sucker for ridiculous names on restaurants.

There is also a bar here: Epic Lounge. I will probably check it out at some point but haven’t gotten the chance yet.

On the other end of the neighborhood you get even more Asian food joints: a sushi place, 2 Korean places, 2 Chinese places, 1 Thai, and a Vietnamese place. Now I love Asian food, but how many joints like this do you really need. And how do they stay in business with so much competition. I am guessing I must be the lunch rush from the load of nearby office
parks.

There is a sports bar on this end of the neighborhood as well.

Anyway, that’s my new neighborhood. It still doesn’t feel like home yet but that will come with time. I guess I’m going to be a suburban gal now?