Spotted: Walking her dog at Lake Merritt in Oakland, CA
Occupation: Student and baker
Where do you go to school?
Laney at the School of Alameda.
What is your degree in?
Eventually it will be in Environmental Science. I have no idea which direction I'll go in—it just needs to be something to do with the environment. Hydrology or Oceanography . . . I don’t know yet.
What pulls you to environment science?
I’m a big fan of the Earth; I think it’s pretty awesome. I love weather, I’m fascinated by clouds and just water. I would love to work outside as much as possible.
You said you’re a baker. Where do you bake?
I do. I work in Alameda at Blue Dot Cafe. It’s on Encinal and Chestnut in Alameda, and we’re known for our scones.
What’s your favorite thing to bake?
It’s tough because I rarely personally bake. It’s really easy, but I love baking granolas and stuff like that. I'm adding different spices and doing different nuts right now, like candied pecans and savory nuts. I like just easy snacks that you can take with you.
What’s your dog’s name?
Memphis.
Memphis! Are you from Tennessee?
No, my boyfriend who got me him was from Tennessee. I had a Chico and I’m from Chico.
What made you move to the bay?
My mom lives over here, in Alameda.
How long have you been here?
I think like eight or nine years.
Do you like it better here than Chico?
Oh, yeah. I mean, Chico is really pretty and the food is amazing, but it’s a really small town and some people don’t want that. I like that there’s great communities here and everything is reachable, but not everyone knows me and I could live here forever and not everyone would know me.
Tell me about your bag!
I got it at the Salvation Army, the big Chinatown one. It's made out of hemp so it will last forever, and I put a few more rips in it. But I love it and I don’t care about it. It goes with everything and it’s dirt-colored so it matches dirt.
What about your sparrow tattoos?
They’re really old and I wish I could say that they had more meaning than freedom. I got them when I was, like, 17, so I really wanted to be free and travel around. I still have the same concept.
Where did you get your sunglasses?
I got these on the road. I was on vacation and I lost some in the ocean in Southport, North Carolina. I got these in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Do you travel a lot?
My boyfriend lives back East and I did the whole “meet the family” tour for summer vacation.
How was that?
It was awesome! I gained, like, 10 pounds from all the amazing food and the moonshine, but it was really cool.
So you’re in a long-distance relationship?
Yeah, until January when I move to him.
You’re moving away? Are you going to miss it?
Well yes, but for the right man you’ll do just about anything.
How did you meet him?
He was one of my neighbors. So I could have met him within the four months that we lived next to each other, but I was busy doing other things, and not putting myself out there. I don’t know, it just didn’t happen, or maybe I wasn’t ready or I was closing myself off or all of the above. One day he just asked me for the billionth time to go on a date with him and I was like, 'OK.' I’m not going to lie, I was also really poor at the time and wanting a good meal and a beer, and it all just kind of added up. It wasn’t meant to be and it became perfect.
Is there anything that has been really on your mind lately, that you would like to tell the world if you had a giant megaphone?
True love. If you hold out, and sit down and reflect on what you want and you don’t settle for less, you will find it. Even if you have a year or two of solitude, you will find it. I was definitely not a believe in true love until about seven months ago, and then I found it. But I worked really, really hard to not find it, to find it.
