UC Berkeley
Today was a fantastic day.
In short, Lisa and I went to Berkeley, hung out and had dinner with David, and had a “scenic” drive on the way back, with several detours and stops along the way.
So my day started with my alarm going off at 6:40 AM and Lisa giving a confirmation call at 6:45 to make sure I was awake and preparing to meet her in the gym. We met near the library on our way down, and arrived at the gym at about 7:00. We used some of the machines downstairs for about 30 minutes and then went upstairs and did cardio for about 20. The gym was pretty well-attended this morning! There were probably about 20 people that we ran into. As we did cardio upstairs, the news was playing -- NBC’s “Today Show”. Wow that news is lamesauce. On Wednesday they gave probably a solid five minutes to this dude called the Naked Cowboy who struts around in his underwear in New York and is suing M&M’s for having a cowboy M&M. They also gave a ton of face time to some dude who got his arm bit off by an alligator, and their weather report made it seem like our smokey skies would be clear in two days -- didn’t happen. (They never really addressed it verbally -- the weatherman seemed to ignore it -- but the five-day forecast only showed Hazy on Wednesday and Thursday, and did the same today with Friday and Saturday.) Today they took a good amount of time to explain Madonna’s divorce situation, talked a great deal about a Coldplay concert they were going to have on the show that day, did a personal interview of the life of this olympic swimmer, and gave a great deal of face time to Boy George, who had his visa denied as he tried to enter our country, likely because of the multiple drug offenses on his criminal record. All the while, Lisa and I are oblivious to the fact that gay marriage was just legalized (I guess for about a month now?).
So we had breakfast separately today, and I got showered and dressed and into the CSMP by 9:00 AM, to work on more homework and prepare for my class (and quiz) from Dr. Waters. He showed up at about 9:20, and at about 9:40 he came by and we talked about UC Davis for a bit, which Lisa and I visited on Wednesday. He has high regards for that school and their math department, and specifically for Celia, the lady in the department whom we spoke with there. Lisa then came by and dropped off her ECCO form and check that needed to be mailed today. I asked Dr Waters a few questions on the homework, he pointed out something in the book, which was his subtle clue that it was important info that may appear on the quiz, and after he answered my questions I asked for ten minutes to study before the quiz. I studied and felt very confident, but unfortunately I didn’t scrutinize over the portion of the book that Waters told me about. I took the quiz and aced the first two questions (except for another silly arithmetic mistake on the first problem!) but messed up on the last one, which involved that topic he clued me in on (it dealt with a proof of some corollary to the additive property of integrals or something). So I got a 16/20. Not bad, but I really want to ace this class.
The lecture was tough for me today. Well, it wasn’t really a lecture. He lectured yesterday, so today was my Q&A session. I felt really bad because there were a few problems that I was totally lost in. I didn’t want him to have to spoonfeed me, especially when he gave me clues to get started on those problems, but I was stumped so I went ahead and asked. One of the proofs was ridiculous (it required using the contrapositive of just a piece of the statement, and then a delta-neighborhood proof in the mix of it. As if!) So I felt a little dumb today. But afterwards he mentioned that the rest of the quarter should only be easier, and that this integration chapter is the one people struggle with the most. Cool beans. As we wrapped up our session, we figured out a time for next week -- 1 pm -- and I told him I couldn’t meet with him on Monday because I’m taking my car to the dealer to get the air conditioning checked out. He had no problem with that. I started putting my stuff away and Dr Waters asked if he’d ever told me what he’d be doing this weekend. I asked “Was it a wedding?” but then I remembered that was going to be next weekend. He showed me a song on his iTunes, which I mistook for Jimi Hendrix but was actually Led Zeppelin. He then played “Stairway to Heaven”, one of their more mellow and melodious tunes. Then he told me the lead singer’s name is Robert Plant, and I was expecting him to tell me that he also makes classical music (as Paul McCartney and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd apparently do), but in actuality he’s going to a bluegrass concert of Robert Plant’s. He’s singing with a woman named Allison Krauss, and Waters feels that “their voices blend beautifully”. He’s excited to be going to their concert with Marlo on Saturday night at Tahoe.
It was about 11:30 when I got out of class, and I realized that time was short before Lisa would be getting out of class and we’d have to rush over to Berkeley to meet my 2:00 appointment with Marc Christ (pronounced with a short i, like Chris) the chair of the math department at UC Berkeley. I went to my room and went online to look at a map of the campus to find out where Evans Hall (the math building -- among other departments) was, and I drew out a little sketch on the back of a sheet of paper. I then headed to the car when I realized I’d left Lisa’s mail in my room. I rushed back to the room, grabbed the stuff and drove to the Post Office. It was now 11:50-something and Lisa got out of class. She called just as I was parking and I told her I’d call as soon as I finished. I went in, got a stamped envelope for 51 cents, and got the stuff together to mail out. As I was going back to the car I was giving Lisa a ring, and I saw Mallory walking by. We said our hellos and I said I couldn’t talk for long because I had an appointment to make at Berkeley. Right as I was saying “Sorry!” to Mallory, Lisa picked up the phone. She got confused and thought I was telling her sorry, and then I clarified that I was on my way to get her. I picked her up, fiddled with the AC to get some cold air going, and off we went!
We stopped at Panda Express to eat, and I made the mistake of allotting ten minutes to eat there before going to Berkeley. Of course on a Friday afternoon, there’s traffic going to Berkeley, and we had some trouble arriving on time. I tried calling Barb, the secretary, to let Michael Christ know that I was running late, but she didn’t answer -- and that’s the only number I had for UCB. 2:00 arrived as I was making a left turn on University to get onto Shattuck. We found a parking spot in front of a church of sorts, and then we walked briskly to Evans Hall. We arrived without realizing, asked a passerby where Evans Hall was, and he pointed to the building right beside us. We went inside and fumbled looking for the stairs until we asked somebody. We got to the eighth floor where the Math Dept is located, and excitedly found room 809, where Dr Christ’s office is located!
I think I made a mistake by saying “Hi Dr Christ! I’m Andy Riffel. I made an appointment with you. Sorry I’m late!” and then as he got up from his chair I hurriedly (as if to make up for lost time?) walked into the room to shake his hand and he said “Oh, come in, come in!” As I looked back, Lisa was respectfully waiting at the door and walked in after he invited us in. Oops! So we talked for a bit, and he just didn’t really seem to have the sweetest people skills. We’d ask him questions that I guess sounded naive or ignorant of us, and I think it set him off a little. He just seemed a little too serious and cold for my liking, despite his momentary bursts of tenderness. He seemed to like Andrew Marks, the only other person he’s ever known from PUC. He praised my small school because I know the faculty there. He said UCB has 160 students in the math grad program (as compared to Davis’ 130 -- not much difference!) and the whole feel of it was very cutthroat, single-minded, and no-nonsense. By the time Lisa and I were done speaking with this man, I’d made my decision. Berkeley gets “la cruz” -- I’m x’ing it off my list. This school just isn’t me; even if I did get accepted I wouldn’t be happy here. I wouldn’t feel inspired and I think I’d get sick of these snooty dudes on their power trips (not that everyone at Berkeley is like that -- but the math department sure felt that way).
So Lisa and I went checking out the campus after re-locating the car. We saw the library, which felt very “Ivy League”. We visited the clock tower (Sather Tower), which they’ve turned into a sort of tourist attraction. We then took a look at their music department. While UC Davis has four PhD programs, Berkeley offers three: Ethnomusicology, Theory/Composition, and Music History/Literature. So maybe it’s not so uncommon to have limited doctoral programs! The secretary (who seemed much more confident and informed than the one at UCD) told us that if you want a performance doctorate you need to attend a conservatory, Juilliard or Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. So that was enlightening :). We then visited the Life Sciences building that had space age doors (or laundry room, as Lisa thought) with little circle windows. We almost set foot in the Education building when David called, saying he’d gotten off the BART. We found him at the West Entrance and walked to my car, where we proceeded to drive to downtown Berkeley.
I drove us around in circles for a bit, looking for parking, and all the while David was quoting some of the statements found in my “Better World Shopping Guide” book in the back seat pocket. They rate organizations based on how socially responsible they are, but only explain why the A’s and F’s receive their ratings -- leaving the other ratings shrouded in mystery. Really though, even the ratings that get explained don’t always seem legitimate. Exxon Mobile received an F rating because they have some ranking on some list of being a corporate criminal, and simply because the book calls them the Worst Corporation on the Planet!, or something like that. If you ask me, all I know about is the oil spill from like two decades ago. What else makes them so bad, really?
Anyways, we found parking and went on an extended walk looking for a place to eat. Lisa and I were pretty cold because of the cool breeze and our lack of layers. We were about to settle for eating at an Italian place or something (I forget) but then David saw a restaurant called Herbivore which he recognized from San Francisco. Everything at this restaurant is entirely vegan. Sweet! Right up our alley :). So that’s where we ate.
Lisa ordered the shish kebab (with seitan), David ordered moussaka, and I got the lentil loaf with red beet sauce. The food was great! Lisa and I will have to revisit the place :). We had some good conversation -- the usual about classes and work, wii games, etc. David’s been having some carpal tunnel syndrome from excessive typing at one of his internships (or both?). We declined on the dessert from the restaurant and went on our way, deciding on gelato on the way to the car :). Lisa got banana and mango gelato, and I got tiramisu and coffee. Yum...
I insisted on driving David home instead of him taking the BART, mostly just because I wanted to maximize our hangout time. Lisa offered him the front seat, which facilitated conversation between us while Lisa could relax in the back :). David put the new Coldplay CD on his iPod and we listened to that along our drive. We talked some more, and I greatly enjoyed the stimulating conversation that ensued. I really felt like David was educating me and getting me up to speed with certain procedures and schools of thought. He told me about how his jobs don’t use resumes when hiring because they’re not standardized and can create bias. They instead have a standardized list of questions for the applicant to respond to. Those companies who do hire with resumes need to be careful not to read them before interviewing the applicant, because biases may appear if the employer recognizes that the applicant attended his/her alma mater or they worked a similar job. Any bias could open the floor for a lawsuit! David’s global understanding of the social structures around him really remind me of Bryan’s savviness -- a beautiful and truly valuable quality.
After dropping David off at the BART station by his house where his car was parked, Lisa and I headed back towards PUC -- but not without a few stops. I saw a sign that said “Cow Palace” along the way and got really excited about it. As we drove past it the first time I had explained to David and Lisa the significance of that name in an inside joke with my family, so I really wanted to check it out just to finally say I’d been there :). (The inside joke is that my grandpa once stayed at the Cow Palace when visiting America/California, and thought it was AMAZING! (I think.) And for some odd reason we sarcastically call my parent’s temporary home in Glendale (the funky one, before the big one we’re in now) the “Cow Palace”. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know.) Not to mention the funny joke that I could call Gaby from there and say “Hey, guess what?! I’m at the Cow Palace!” So Lisa and I followed the signs to get there, and we finally arrived -- only to be blocked by a gate that said “The Cow Palace Reserves the Right to Refuse Service To Anyone”. So I took a picture of that, sent it to Gaby, and Lisa and I were back on our way to the freeway.
I asked Lisa if she wanted to pass through the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back and she agreed, so we stayed on the 101. I had to use the restroom (I was hoping to use the restroom at the Cow Palace) so we went looking for a gas station a few exits later. It took a while before I found a 76 station, where a needy gentleman was washing windows. I tried using the pump but mistakenly put my Chevron card in, which caused an error (that I couldn’t cancel for the life of me!) and forced me to walk in and purchase the gas “manually”, by handing the cashier my card and whatnot. I had looked in my wallet and my smallest bill was a ten, so I decided to buy a water to get some change for the window washer man. I bought a small water, put $20 on the pump, and got the restroom key from the cashier. I got the gas flowing, handed the man a $5 bill, and went to the restroom. It was locked by a pad lock, and after going inside I realized it was pitch black inside. I tried flipping the first light switch but it was a no-go, so I opened the door again to let in light while I searched for another switch. The bathroom had a sort of hallway at the entrance before you actually arrive at the bathroom itself, so I went into the actual bathroom portion and there found a light switch by the toilet. I turned on the light, closed the door, and locked it with the little sliding lock it had. As I was using the restroom I heard someone trying to get in, and they were shaking up the door. I finished my business, turned off the light and headed for the door, thinking I’d be saving time this way by not needing a trip back to the light. I felt for the sliding lock, found it, but couldn’t slide it over! I thought I must have grabbed the wrong thing so I felt around some more and realized that was the only thing that felt like it. I yanked and I pulled but I couldn’t get it out! I meandered back to the restroom and had to feel around the wall for a good twenty seconds before I could find the light switch again to get the lights back on. I went back to the door with the light on and sure enough, that was the lock I was working with before. I tried to move it but couldn’t. I tried pulling upwards, downwards, leftwards, shoving in every direction, but no go! I made a silent prayer of desperation. I started thinking I might need to call Lisa to ask the attendant to help me, but I realized they couldn’t do much anyways. Finally, as I shook the door violently while trying to move the lock, it budged. Woo hoo! Home free :).
So Lisa and I drove and drove, playing songs alphabetically on the iPod, starting with Heritage Singers - One of These Mornings, followed by Rajaton - One of Us, and so forth. The sun was about to go down, so Lisa switched to the Sabbath playlist. We eventually got on the Golden Gate bridge. It was beautiful with all the fog in the sky, and looked like a stairway to heaven, or Jacob’s ladder, because you could see it going up and up but couldn’t see the top. Soon after, we were on the hunt for another gas station because now Lisa needed the restroom. The Denver A Capella Project’s “Amazing Grace” played, and Lisa really liked it, so I decided we should switch and listen to their album. We stopped at the Chevron, where I too used the restroom, and there I realized I had plenty of fluid myself :). The receipt at the pump mysteriously printed out blank, so I had to copy all the info from the machine onto my blank receipt with a pen. We kept driving, and I realized that I wasn’t sure I knew exactly what I was doing, so I took a random exit to take a look at my California map. (I had meant to do that at the Chevron but had forgotten.) Sure enough, the 101-N hits the 37-E, which I can take to the 29-N for Napa and so forth. Perfect.
Lisa and I enjoyed the rest of our drive, with some sweet conversation and sweet music, and eventually made it on campus. We reflected on how awesome and complete of a day it was, and I told her I wanted to journal about it. So now I did :)
In short, Lisa and I went to Berkeley, hung out and had dinner with David, and had a “scenic” drive on the way back, with several detours and stops along the way.
So my day started with my alarm going off at 6:40 AM and Lisa giving a confirmation call at 6:45 to make sure I was awake and preparing to meet her in the gym. We met near the library on our way down, and arrived at the gym at about 7:00. We used some of the machines downstairs for about 30 minutes and then went upstairs and did cardio for about 20. The gym was pretty well-attended this morning! There were probably about 20 people that we ran into. As we did cardio upstairs, the news was playing -- NBC’s “Today Show”. Wow that news is lamesauce. On Wednesday they gave probably a solid five minutes to this dude called the Naked Cowboy who struts around in his underwear in New York and is suing M&M’s for having a cowboy M&M. They also gave a ton of face time to some dude who got his arm bit off by an alligator, and their weather report made it seem like our smokey skies would be clear in two days -- didn’t happen. (They never really addressed it verbally -- the weatherman seemed to ignore it -- but the five-day forecast only showed Hazy on Wednesday and Thursday, and did the same today with Friday and Saturday.) Today they took a good amount of time to explain Madonna’s divorce situation, talked a great deal about a Coldplay concert they were going to have on the show that day, did a personal interview of the life of this olympic swimmer, and gave a great deal of face time to Boy George, who had his visa denied as he tried to enter our country, likely because of the multiple drug offenses on his criminal record. All the while, Lisa and I are oblivious to the fact that gay marriage was just legalized (I guess for about a month now?).
So we had breakfast separately today, and I got showered and dressed and into the CSMP by 9:00 AM, to work on more homework and prepare for my class (and quiz) from Dr. Waters. He showed up at about 9:20, and at about 9:40 he came by and we talked about UC Davis for a bit, which Lisa and I visited on Wednesday. He has high regards for that school and their math department, and specifically for Celia, the lady in the department whom we spoke with there. Lisa then came by and dropped off her ECCO form and check that needed to be mailed today. I asked Dr Waters a few questions on the homework, he pointed out something in the book, which was his subtle clue that it was important info that may appear on the quiz, and after he answered my questions I asked for ten minutes to study before the quiz. I studied and felt very confident, but unfortunately I didn’t scrutinize over the portion of the book that Waters told me about. I took the quiz and aced the first two questions (except for another silly arithmetic mistake on the first problem!) but messed up on the last one, which involved that topic he clued me in on (it dealt with a proof of some corollary to the additive property of integrals or something). So I got a 16/20. Not bad, but I really want to ace this class.
The lecture was tough for me today. Well, it wasn’t really a lecture. He lectured yesterday, so today was my Q&A session. I felt really bad because there were a few problems that I was totally lost in. I didn’t want him to have to spoonfeed me, especially when he gave me clues to get started on those problems, but I was stumped so I went ahead and asked. One of the proofs was ridiculous (it required using the contrapositive of just a piece of the statement, and then a delta-neighborhood proof in the mix of it. As if!) So I felt a little dumb today. But afterwards he mentioned that the rest of the quarter should only be easier, and that this integration chapter is the one people struggle with the most. Cool beans. As we wrapped up our session, we figured out a time for next week -- 1 pm -- and I told him I couldn’t meet with him on Monday because I’m taking my car to the dealer to get the air conditioning checked out. He had no problem with that. I started putting my stuff away and Dr Waters asked if he’d ever told me what he’d be doing this weekend. I asked “Was it a wedding?” but then I remembered that was going to be next weekend. He showed me a song on his iTunes, which I mistook for Jimi Hendrix but was actually Led Zeppelin. He then played “Stairway to Heaven”, one of their more mellow and melodious tunes. Then he told me the lead singer’s name is Robert Plant, and I was expecting him to tell me that he also makes classical music (as Paul McCartney and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd apparently do), but in actuality he’s going to a bluegrass concert of Robert Plant’s. He’s singing with a woman named Allison Krauss, and Waters feels that “their voices blend beautifully”. He’s excited to be going to their concert with Marlo on Saturday night at Tahoe.
It was about 11:30 when I got out of class, and I realized that time was short before Lisa would be getting out of class and we’d have to rush over to Berkeley to meet my 2:00 appointment with Marc Christ (pronounced with a short i, like Chris) the chair of the math department at UC Berkeley. I went to my room and went online to look at a map of the campus to find out where Evans Hall (the math building -- among other departments) was, and I drew out a little sketch on the back of a sheet of paper. I then headed to the car when I realized I’d left Lisa’s mail in my room. I rushed back to the room, grabbed the stuff and drove to the Post Office. It was now 11:50-something and Lisa got out of class. She called just as I was parking and I told her I’d call as soon as I finished. I went in, got a stamped envelope for 51 cents, and got the stuff together to mail out. As I was going back to the car I was giving Lisa a ring, and I saw Mallory walking by. We said our hellos and I said I couldn’t talk for long because I had an appointment to make at Berkeley. Right as I was saying “Sorry!” to Mallory, Lisa picked up the phone. She got confused and thought I was telling her sorry, and then I clarified that I was on my way to get her. I picked her up, fiddled with the AC to get some cold air going, and off we went!
We stopped at Panda Express to eat, and I made the mistake of allotting ten minutes to eat there before going to Berkeley. Of course on a Friday afternoon, there’s traffic going to Berkeley, and we had some trouble arriving on time. I tried calling Barb, the secretary, to let Michael Christ know that I was running late, but she didn’t answer -- and that’s the only number I had for UCB. 2:00 arrived as I was making a left turn on University to get onto Shattuck. We found a parking spot in front of a church of sorts, and then we walked briskly to Evans Hall. We arrived without realizing, asked a passerby where Evans Hall was, and he pointed to the building right beside us. We went inside and fumbled looking for the stairs until we asked somebody. We got to the eighth floor where the Math Dept is located, and excitedly found room 809, where Dr Christ’s office is located!
I think I made a mistake by saying “Hi Dr Christ! I’m Andy Riffel. I made an appointment with you. Sorry I’m late!” and then as he got up from his chair I hurriedly (as if to make up for lost time?) walked into the room to shake his hand and he said “Oh, come in, come in!” As I looked back, Lisa was respectfully waiting at the door and walked in after he invited us in. Oops! So we talked for a bit, and he just didn’t really seem to have the sweetest people skills. We’d ask him questions that I guess sounded naive or ignorant of us, and I think it set him off a little. He just seemed a little too serious and cold for my liking, despite his momentary bursts of tenderness. He seemed to like Andrew Marks, the only other person he’s ever known from PUC. He praised my small school because I know the faculty there. He said UCB has 160 students in the math grad program (as compared to Davis’ 130 -- not much difference!) and the whole feel of it was very cutthroat, single-minded, and no-nonsense. By the time Lisa and I were done speaking with this man, I’d made my decision. Berkeley gets “la cruz” -- I’m x’ing it off my list. This school just isn’t me; even if I did get accepted I wouldn’t be happy here. I wouldn’t feel inspired and I think I’d get sick of these snooty dudes on their power trips (not that everyone at Berkeley is like that -- but the math department sure felt that way).
So Lisa and I went checking out the campus after re-locating the car. We saw the library, which felt very “Ivy League”. We visited the clock tower (Sather Tower), which they’ve turned into a sort of tourist attraction. We then took a look at their music department. While UC Davis has four PhD programs, Berkeley offers three: Ethnomusicology, Theory/Composition, and Music History/Literature. So maybe it’s not so uncommon to have limited doctoral programs! The secretary (who seemed much more confident and informed than the one at UCD) told us that if you want a performance doctorate you need to attend a conservatory, Juilliard or Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. So that was enlightening :). We then visited the Life Sciences building that had space age doors (or laundry room, as Lisa thought) with little circle windows. We almost set foot in the Education building when David called, saying he’d gotten off the BART. We found him at the West Entrance and walked to my car, where we proceeded to drive to downtown Berkeley.
I drove us around in circles for a bit, looking for parking, and all the while David was quoting some of the statements found in my “Better World Shopping Guide” book in the back seat pocket. They rate organizations based on how socially responsible they are, but only explain why the A’s and F’s receive their ratings -- leaving the other ratings shrouded in mystery. Really though, even the ratings that get explained don’t always seem legitimate. Exxon Mobile received an F rating because they have some ranking on some list of being a corporate criminal, and simply because the book calls them the Worst Corporation on the Planet!, or something like that. If you ask me, all I know about is the oil spill from like two decades ago. What else makes them so bad, really?
Anyways, we found parking and went on an extended walk looking for a place to eat. Lisa and I were pretty cold because of the cool breeze and our lack of layers. We were about to settle for eating at an Italian place or something (I forget) but then David saw a restaurant called Herbivore which he recognized from San Francisco. Everything at this restaurant is entirely vegan. Sweet! Right up our alley :). So that’s where we ate.
Lisa ordered the shish kebab (with seitan), David ordered moussaka, and I got the lentil loaf with red beet sauce. The food was great! Lisa and I will have to revisit the place :). We had some good conversation -- the usual about classes and work, wii games, etc. David’s been having some carpal tunnel syndrome from excessive typing at one of his internships (or both?). We declined on the dessert from the restaurant and went on our way, deciding on gelato on the way to the car :). Lisa got banana and mango gelato, and I got tiramisu and coffee. Yum...
I insisted on driving David home instead of him taking the BART, mostly just because I wanted to maximize our hangout time. Lisa offered him the front seat, which facilitated conversation between us while Lisa could relax in the back :). David put the new Coldplay CD on his iPod and we listened to that along our drive. We talked some more, and I greatly enjoyed the stimulating conversation that ensued. I really felt like David was educating me and getting me up to speed with certain procedures and schools of thought. He told me about how his jobs don’t use resumes when hiring because they’re not standardized and can create bias. They instead have a standardized list of questions for the applicant to respond to. Those companies who do hire with resumes need to be careful not to read them before interviewing the applicant, because biases may appear if the employer recognizes that the applicant attended his/her alma mater or they worked a similar job. Any bias could open the floor for a lawsuit! David’s global understanding of the social structures around him really remind me of Bryan’s savviness -- a beautiful and truly valuable quality.
After dropping David off at the BART station by his house where his car was parked, Lisa and I headed back towards PUC -- but not without a few stops. I saw a sign that said “Cow Palace” along the way and got really excited about it. As we drove past it the first time I had explained to David and Lisa the significance of that name in an inside joke with my family, so I really wanted to check it out just to finally say I’d been there :). (The inside joke is that my grandpa once stayed at the Cow Palace when visiting America/California, and thought it was AMAZING! (I think.) And for some odd reason we sarcastically call my parent’s temporary home in Glendale (the funky one, before the big one we’re in now) the “Cow Palace”. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know.) Not to mention the funny joke that I could call Gaby from there and say “Hey, guess what?! I’m at the Cow Palace!” So Lisa and I followed the signs to get there, and we finally arrived -- only to be blocked by a gate that said “The Cow Palace Reserves the Right to Refuse Service To Anyone”. So I took a picture of that, sent it to Gaby, and Lisa and I were back on our way to the freeway.
I asked Lisa if she wanted to pass through the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back and she agreed, so we stayed on the 101. I had to use the restroom (I was hoping to use the restroom at the Cow Palace) so we went looking for a gas station a few exits later. It took a while before I found a 76 station, where a needy gentleman was washing windows. I tried using the pump but mistakenly put my Chevron card in, which caused an error (that I couldn’t cancel for the life of me!) and forced me to walk in and purchase the gas “manually”, by handing the cashier my card and whatnot. I had looked in my wallet and my smallest bill was a ten, so I decided to buy a water to get some change for the window washer man. I bought a small water, put $20 on the pump, and got the restroom key from the cashier. I got the gas flowing, handed the man a $5 bill, and went to the restroom. It was locked by a pad lock, and after going inside I realized it was pitch black inside. I tried flipping the first light switch but it was a no-go, so I opened the door again to let in light while I searched for another switch. The bathroom had a sort of hallway at the entrance before you actually arrive at the bathroom itself, so I went into the actual bathroom portion and there found a light switch by the toilet. I turned on the light, closed the door, and locked it with the little sliding lock it had. As I was using the restroom I heard someone trying to get in, and they were shaking up the door. I finished my business, turned off the light and headed for the door, thinking I’d be saving time this way by not needing a trip back to the light. I felt for the sliding lock, found it, but couldn’t slide it over! I thought I must have grabbed the wrong thing so I felt around some more and realized that was the only thing that felt like it. I yanked and I pulled but I couldn’t get it out! I meandered back to the restroom and had to feel around the wall for a good twenty seconds before I could find the light switch again to get the lights back on. I went back to the door with the light on and sure enough, that was the lock I was working with before. I tried to move it but couldn’t. I tried pulling upwards, downwards, leftwards, shoving in every direction, but no go! I made a silent prayer of desperation. I started thinking I might need to call Lisa to ask the attendant to help me, but I realized they couldn’t do much anyways. Finally, as I shook the door violently while trying to move the lock, it budged. Woo hoo! Home free :).
So Lisa and I drove and drove, playing songs alphabetically on the iPod, starting with Heritage Singers - One of These Mornings, followed by Rajaton - One of Us, and so forth. The sun was about to go down, so Lisa switched to the Sabbath playlist. We eventually got on the Golden Gate bridge. It was beautiful with all the fog in the sky, and looked like a stairway to heaven, or Jacob’s ladder, because you could see it going up and up but couldn’t see the top. Soon after, we were on the hunt for another gas station because now Lisa needed the restroom. The Denver A Capella Project’s “Amazing Grace” played, and Lisa really liked it, so I decided we should switch and listen to their album. We stopped at the Chevron, where I too used the restroom, and there I realized I had plenty of fluid myself :). The receipt at the pump mysteriously printed out blank, so I had to copy all the info from the machine onto my blank receipt with a pen. We kept driving, and I realized that I wasn’t sure I knew exactly what I was doing, so I took a random exit to take a look at my California map. (I had meant to do that at the Chevron but had forgotten.) Sure enough, the 101-N hits the 37-E, which I can take to the 29-N for Napa and so forth. Perfect.
Lisa and I enjoyed the rest of our drive, with some sweet conversation and sweet music, and eventually made it on campus. We reflected on how awesome and complete of a day it was, and I told her I wanted to journal about it. So now I did :)