Fleet Week

My parents came up this weekend and it was EXHAUSTING. They arrived Thursday, and I thought they'd be here late at night, but they actually got here at 4. There was some crazed coordination of schedules, because I was going to eat out with Angelica (back from UCLA med school!) and Ryan. My parents are very flexible though, so they just stayed in my apartment while I went out for a quick dinner. I always forget how old Ryan is, but he is my oldest friend, at 27. HAHA We came to a realization, which I think everyone who ages eventually has, that as you get older, you can call people "my age" even if they are several years off from you. But at my age, there's a difference between saying you're 19 or 20. 20 or 21. 17 or 18. Which is kind of interesting. I feel like there is some sort of mathematical equation out there to show the relationship between age and perception of age. I don't care enough to think any more about it though.

I came back, then took my parents out to Thai house. I actually really don't like Berkeley Thai House. Sure, it has the distinction of being one of the chosen "Best of Berkeley" restaurants, but it's expensive and has relatively small portions. It's delicious, but I really can't taste a distinct difference from other Thai restaurants. My parents liked it enough.

Next day was Friday! Their coming on Thursday really threw me off my week. But they left yesterday, so I have all Sunday to study. It feels like an added day to my weekend. On Friday, I essentially made them walk around from 8am to 4pm. HAHA We went on a campus tour, starting at Haas, which was fun. I walked them to Gregoire's, but it wasn't open for an hour, so I walked them to La Note. If you know where these places are, I essentially walked them to the three farthest corners of Berkeley that I ever venture to. The only way it would have been worse if I had decied to make four stops, and walked over to Crepevine.

I had class, so then I walked them to a shuttle so they could go to UC Botanical Gardens. I didn't realize that this is something I know about my parents. Like, I think sometimes people say things about their parents like "oh they wouldn't like that" or "my mom loves that!" and I think "wow, they know a lot of their parents." I feel like I don't know anything about my parents. But I realized, they are the type of people who love visiting Botanical Gardens and walking around. I figured all parents were like that, but I guess not, because my friends would suggest places to take them to, and I knew they wouldn't like it. So yay to me! Twenty years old, and I know one thing about my parents.

My class literally lasted seven minutes. We went over homework, which was one problem of ratio calculations, and then my GSI was like "So... that's it. Does anyone have questions?" HAHA But I loved it because I immediately went home and watched all the TV I had missed on Thursday night. When my parents came home, we went to 99 Ranch with Caroline and Jonathan. Then my mom taught me and Caroline how to cook. I'm glad Caroline was there, because I was tired of learning about ten minutes in, and there was still fifty minutes to go. Caroline had her notebook out and was taking crazy notes. HAHA We made this ground pork with miso paste, bok choy, green beans, bean sprouts, and miso soup. It was a lot of vegetables.

Then we went to Ici, but my dad opted not to, because it was pretty cold outside. But I was determined to have my mom try it, so we walked over. My mom loved the ice cream cone. HAHA I tried Darjeeling Cinnamon and it is so far my favorite flavor. It's like eating tea ice cream. SO GOOD! My mom was like "let's come here tomorrow! When are they open? Noon?"

Saturday was SF day. I was pretty stressed because we'd be taking public transportation, so I spent like two hours figuring where to go and where to get there. Turns out, it was a lot of work for not very much reward. We only went to 2 places of 6 that I had planned. While I did know that it is Fleet Week, what I did not know was that people in SF actually come out for Fleet Week. There were TONS of people trying to get to Fisherman's Wharf. After wasting like 40 minutes trying to catch a Muni, we walked to the shopping center, which is like 8 city blocks away. Went to Union Square, ate lunch that we had packed, then caught a Muni to Fisherman's Wharf about 4 hours later than I had planned. SO many people.

The Blue Angels were performing. Before, I always thought it seemed kind of stupid. It's a bunch of planes ... flying around. What's the point? But I TOTALLY get it now. They fly REALLY close to each other and still do all these tricks. INSANE! And sometimes they would fly right overhead the pier, which was pretty cool. The weird thing was that while in line for the restroom, I saw all these Marines, and they looked REALLY young. I would have thought they were dressed up for Halloween, they looked like they were in high school. It seems kind of weird that there are people in the armed forces and I look at them and think they aren't even old enough to have their own apartment or whatever.

Getting BACK from Pier 39 was PAINFUL. First, we waited at a stop FOREVER and I was like "there is no way that something wouldn't come." I figured out that our stop was not in service, but someone had neglected to PUT UP A SIGN. We managed to catch a muni right before it left. ONLY, it took a full 25 minutes to get from ONE STOP to the NEXT. That's like ... a 8 minute walk. Traffic was INSANE. But once we got around the corner, we went by really quickly. Plus there was this hilarious pair of drunk friends from New York. They were like 50ish and taking swigs from their wine bottle. They were HILARIOUS. omg, while I do not want to be a poster child for public drunkenness, it seems like something that would be fun to experience.

So my parents are gone now. It's only 10:30, but I woke up at 7:30 and have thus far done ZERO work. I just am not in the mood to do anything. I watched my video blogs, read my tv recaps, and now there's nothing left for me to do but work. I don't even like playing minesweeper anymore, because I somehow got a best time of 121 seconds on expert, and I don't think I'll ever be able to beat that. Also, my browser always lags, so I don't even enjoy playing tetris. But I feel like after three straight days of entertaining my parents, I deserve two days of rotting my brain with non-stop tv. Unfortunately, I just have to tell myself "YOU ARE A FAILURE. START STUDYING SO YOU CAN GET AN INTERNSHIP IN FOUR MONTHS."