🎂Cake Duty 7/13/25

Hi Everyone!

I have been on a couple of plane flights this week (as you will soon find out), and it has got me thinking about the concept of an “airplane movie”. As Reddit user jon_dwayne_casey writes on the Blankies subreddit, “you are not choosing to spend two hours of your free time watching it, you’re watching it because you have to burn two hours”.

I think growing up, I often would relegate B-tier movies and classics that I could watch repeatedly to the role of “airplane movie.” One flight coming back from Europe on a high school field trip, I specifically remember watching the Kung Fu Panda trilogy to determine which Kung Fu Panda is the best. Things have changed, though.

I noticed that throughout this flight and the past flights, I have been watching more mainstream and blockbuster movies on planes. I have been making an effort to go to the movie theater more often, but because of the ease of streaming and the segmented streaming ecosystem, I miss the theatrical runs of movies, and ultimately, I can’t watch them until an opportunity arises. And the only time that the opportunity has arisen has happened to be on airplanes.

Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. When’s the last time you went to the movies? What’s the most recent movie you watched on a plane? Or even what’s your favorite “airplane movie”?

And with that out of the way, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…

Another day, another day trip to San Francisco! I got another couple of free tickets to some museums this past Tuesday, so I decided to head back into San Francisco. I can justify this as a way to warm myself up to my commute to college, but I think I just really like exploring.

First on the agenda was the Tenderloin Museum, a museum that is dedicated to explaining the history of SF’s Tenderloin district.

The museum covered the Tenderloin’s rise in the 1900’s going from development emphasizing single-room occupancy hotels after the 1906 earthquake, its initial rise as a hub for vice activity, its importance in the Civil Rights Movement, and LGBT history, as well as it providing a model for tenant rights with zoning controls and being one of the birthplaces of supportive housing. The history of the Tenderloin is filled with ups and downs and gets a bad rap, but it was fascinating to see just how culturally important this neighborhood was to both San Francisco and the world.

By the way, the Tenderloin’s name comes from a quote from an NYC Police Captain who, after being moved to a station in the heart of a red-light district, described how he was able to eat tenderloin instead of chuck steak because of all the bribes.

As I finished the museum, I felt like snacking a little, and walked to the bakery Ariscault, where I had this beautiful chocolate croissant. The chocolate was decadent, and the pastry itself was so light, fluffy, and flaky. I think a good hallmark of a croissant is that you are going to make a mess when eating it. I for sure did.

I then realized that a single croissant, no matter how good, was going to cut it for me, so I walked over to a pizza place called Outta Sight Pizza for a slice of pepperoni. It was a pretty solid representation of New York-style pizza, and the basil leaves were a nice touch.

As I was walking to find a spot to sit down to enjoy my pizza, I stumbled upon some live music right in the Civic Center. The music was a part of a free concert series called Civic Center Soundtrack, and is one of multiple concert series in the city during lunchtime as a way to promote activity in the city. I am actually kind of excited about these programs, as I think it will be a fun activity to go to before graduate classes.

Finally, I stopped at the San Francisco Botanical Gardens, which is free to everyone on the second Tuesday of every month. The gardens themselves are quite extensive, having plants from the Mediterranean, Australia, Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, and even some California Natives like Redwoods. It was a truly beautiful garden, and I was able to just let my mind roam free as I walked around. Unfortunately, I did get too lost in thought at one point and got soaked by one of the sprinklers.

The next day, I was in the air headed to Auburn. I flew from San Francisco to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to Montgomery, because for some reason, it was vastly cheaper to add another plane flight than to just take the singular flight to Atlanta. I will never understand the economics of airlines.

Along the way, I stopped at the SFO exhibit on the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915, where one of the biggest new technologies on display was the airplane. This exhibit showcased photos of the planes on display as well as some of the pilots, including Arthur Roy Smith, an aerial acrobatics pilot from Fort Wayne, Indiana, of all places (Hey, I’ve recently been there!).

I spent the entire day travelling, so I was starving by the time I landed. After being picked up by my parents, I convinced them to take me to Waffle House. Waffle House is a chain that I grew up on, but they don’t have a location in California. This, in my opinion, is California’s biggest downfall. Sometimes all a man wants is hashbrowns smothered, covered, chunked, peppered, and capped (depicted above).

Now, the question you have all been wondering, Why am I headed to Auburn? Well, I was flying into town because my brother Daniel was getting engaged!

The plan was for me to fly in for a couple of days to celebrate and attend the engagement party. However, to avoid suspicion by Hannah, I was under the guise of coming in for two weeks to help out my dad with one of his books that he had just released. It might have been obvious that I was going to be there for the proposal, but at least, she would be unaware of what day it would happen on.

When I arrived, I was notified that my mom and I were on cake duty. So the day before the party, we were off to the Publix bakery to find a proper cake.

We started by looking through the cake book for inspiration, but there were no cakes for an engagement. The closest thing I could find was wedding cakes, but we were quickly informed that those would’ve needed to be selected a month in advance. I was personally in favor of the dinosaur cake in the picture above, but my mom shot that idea down.

We eventually just had to talk to the cake decorator. As she was asking us questions about the cake, we both quickly realized we didn’t know either Daniel’s or Hannah’s cake preferences. I went with my gut and selected a vanilla cake. As for the design, we selected a white frosting with an off-gold color trim, and a ring in the center with the words “congratulations!”. Unfortunately, though, because there was no reference picture to go off of, we had to put our trust in the decorator.

The big day had finally arrived, and I felt a sort of frenetic energy around the house. Everyone was running around trying to get things ready. We waved goodbye to them as they went out on what was supposed to be another “usual” date night.

As soon as they left, we went back out to Publix to pick up the cake. I became increasingly stressed out that the cake wasn’t going to be good. What if we ordered it for the wrong day? What if the deorator messed up? There were so many things that could go wrong.

They did have the cake, though, and when I opened it, I found it to be exactly like I wanted it. The ring, trim, and writing were great, and they even added a set of white flowers on the side to balance all the negative space.

With the cake secured, all that was left to do was wait. And lo and behold, Hannah said “Yes!”

The party was fantastic! I got to meet a lot of both Daniel’s and Hannah’s friends for the first time. It seems like they have a great group of people surrounding them. I also asked Hannah if she knew the proposal was happening tonight, and she told me that she didn’t know for sure until it happened.

I am so proud of Daniel! I am so happy to see them get engaged, and that I was able to make it out for this day. I’m getting teary-eyed just from writing this.

The only thing I can’t believe is that my younger brother got engaged before I did. How did that happen?

I made it back to San Francisco just in time for Rylee and me to go to Sunday’s SF Giants game against the LA Dodgers.

I came to this game for one reason, and one reason only: The giveaway. Today’s giveaway was an SF Giants Spirit Jersey. The minute I saw this giveaway online, I knew I had to go there. This being said, tickets were expensive, but I found out that I could join the cheapest ticket membership and go to almost one game a week for the rest of the season for the same price that I could get two tickets to this one game. So I might be a full-on baseball fan by the end of this season.

I have found that the most exciting thing about sports isn’t the game itself. Instead, and I should qualify this as just being my personal opinion, the best thing is the moments that they create. Take, for instance, this game. It was low-scoring, and at the bottom of the 9th inning, the Dodgers were up by two. The Giants weren’t hitting that well, so everyone in the crowd assumed it was over. But then Luis Matos hits a home run with a man on second to tie things up, and the crowd roared. Everyone was high-fiving, dancing, and clapping. And the energy shifted dramatically for the next inning. While the Dodgers still won 5-2, the thing that I am going to take away from the game is not the loss, but instead that moment.

On the way back home, we stopped at the Ferry Building as it was celebrating its 127th Birthday. They had live music (I saw an incredible group called Magic School Busk), and had special deals at the stores inside. One of the deals was a wellness shot for $1.27. If that’s what I have to do to live to 127 years, then sign me up. I will say, though, that that wellness shot burned way worse than any shot I have taken in my life.

I don’t want to give anything away, so please enjoy watching this review of a 2012 review of Guy Fieri’s Times Square restaurant: Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar.