Tonight at Anna's, Sunday in Sonoma

As with life, the show must go on. My dad had some surgery done and is in the hospital and the family's a bit freaked out (that's probably all he'd like me to say--if that).

Not that it compares in gravity, but yesterday morning our good truck, the dirty 93 Nissan we just bought from my dad for $800 (with power steering and working radio and rock-hard jump seats so all four of us can ride, albeit painfully) was stolen from in front of our house. Nice police officer told me property crime is up in our neighborhood, and in Oakland in general--in 14 years he said he's never seen the kids so active. He said they used to arrest old guys, crack heads, for burglary, but a few days ago he'd arrested several teenagers who'd committed a string of crimes. The good thing is, he said despite some anomalous incidents, violent crime is not increasing. We also discussed the upcoming city elections and the fact that our police force is understaffed by at least 500 officers--though he says they make a lot of money doing so much overtime. Apparently the police academies can't spit out enough officers to replace those who are retiring. He also said he's against legalizing sideshows, something our city council member had proposed. When he finished taking the report he said they had an 85% recovery rate for stolen vehicles, so I might get a call in a few days when the perpetrators had finished using my truck to commit other crimes.

Sure enough, at midnight the dispatcher called and said our truck was around the corner! Radio was removed, and the tool boxes were jimmied open--but thankfully my husband had removed his tools, which he doesn't always do. So now I have a car to get to our gig tonight...

...Yes, tonight, please come see us at Anna's Jazz Island at 8 pm-11:30 pm. Anna's is in downtown Berkeley at 2120 Allston Way (just east of Shattuck Avenue & downtown Berkeley BART).

We'll also be at the Sonoma Jazz+Wine Festival on Sunday, May 28 from 2-5 pm, just a drop in the bucket in a weekend packed with top acts (Herbie Hancock, Dianne Reeves, John Santos, Rickie Lee Jones, Natalie Cole) and toasted fans.

Did I mention I just had a baby 6-7 weeks ago?