😴 I Dreamed Big... 8/24/25

Hello Everyone!

With school around the corner, it isn’t surprising that I recently had my first school nightmare since finishing undergrad. It went a little something like this:

I was walking into the classroom, and then all of a sudden, I was being chased by one of my classmates. After quite a bit of huffing and puffing, I managed to escape and run into another classmate who told me that he also had been chased by a fellow classmate. The two of us started talking, and together we realized that grad school is actually Squid Games. If we wanted to graduate, for the next two years, we would have to survive…

Anyways, fingers crossed I didn’t sign myself up for an educational battle royale, and if it is, wish me luck. Now, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…

You know me, I love a good deal, and I love dreaming big. So when I saw $2 Tuesday for an Oakland Ballers game, I bought a lot of tickets and immediately started planning a group outing. Luckily, I was able to get 6 people together, which isn’t too shabby for a Tuesday night event.

I have always thought that the Ballers’ name was a tongue-in-cheek nod to the A’s leaving town, but I figured the Ballers deserved the same level of academic discovery as I have been giving the Giants for multiple weeks. After doing some research, the origin of the team feels like the set-up to a joke: a movie producer and an education entrepreneur walk into Oakland…

The story of the name, though, is quite sweet. Bryan Carmel and Paul Freedman, the owners of the Ballers, became friends through pickup sports games with a mutual friend named Bobby Winslow. Bobby, who jokingly called himself “a baller,” was the one who instilled in them a love for Oakland sports. Bobby passed away at 22 from a heart complication, so when Bryan and Paul later joined forces to make a team, it felt only natural that Bobby’s memory would be at the heart of their effort.

Tonight, the Ballers decided that, in addition to being scrappy like they always are, they were also going to be classy by making it Oakland Symphony Night. This meant that the walk-up songs became classical music, Scrappy conducted an orchestral fugue, and I got to play a violin at the instrument petting zoo. I also enforced a rule on myself that I had to drink my beer with my pinky up to be extra classy. At the end of the game, the Ballers beat the Boise Hawks 6-2!

After going to the Galindo Home and Gardens last week and learning about the significance of the railroad, I decided to take a midweek detour to the Museum of San Ramon Valley. Housed in what was once the Danville Railroad Depot, the museum featured an exhibit called “The Danville Depot: Creating Change, Preserving History” detailing the history of the train depot.

As I have already mentioned in previous newsletters, this region’s rich and bountiful soil led to the development of a robust agricultural society based on cattle, fruits, and vegetables. However, getting the crops to the ports took days, if not weeks, because the fastest mode of transport at the time was horse-powered carts. So when the Southern Pacific Railroad completed the San Ramon Branch Line from San Ramon to Martinez in 1891, it exponentially shortened the time that it took to ship goods. For decades, the line regularly served passenger and freight trains. However, as it was only a branch line, when the automobile became more popular, the need for this route disappeared, marking the end of the widespread use of trains in the area.

While I was happy with what I learned at this exhibit, I was hoping for a more fantastical history of the area’s railroad. That’s the thing, though. Sometimes you pull at threads, and they lead to nowhere exciting. But on occasion, you will stumble into something fantastical. I also imagine that there is more of this story to be told elsewhere. On the bright side, this museum had quite an elaborate model train table and a fake locomotive car where I could shovel coal into a furnace (which sounds a lot less cool when I write it out).

Since there was no orientation for the Communication Studies department at SFSU, they organized a Welcome to the Master’s Program Potluck instead. It turned out to be a great way to meet our graduate coordinator, several of the professors we’ll be taking classes with, and both first- and second-year students. When asking professors what their best piece of advice would be for an incoming student, the most memorable response was that I needed to “learn how to properly read”. Rylee always makes jokes about me needing to go back to learn communication, but after hearing that advice, maybe she’s right???

Jokes aside, I loved getting to meet everyone, and the vibe of the program is incredibly supportive. Going into this degree, my biggest question was whether or not I would do a thesis, as I do not necessarily have a topic in mind. However, talking to both second-year students writing their theses, and professors about their research helped me broaden my perspective of what research in the humanities could actually be. One professor discussed using bio-linguistics to analyze reality TV shows, another focused primarily on how to better implement conflict resolution, and a third looked at how to teach students more effectively. I don’t have to decide immediately on whether to do a thesis or comprehensive exams, but my mind is at ease knowing the amount of flexibility I have for research.

Rylee’s parents, Mike and Daina, decided to visit us this weekend so that we could show them our new area. The only issue was that we just moved, so we haven’t had the best opportunity to scope everything out. We spent the week scrambling for ideas of things they could do during the day, but when they arrived, they told us that they already had plans. We met up on Friday night before dinner, and they showed us photos of the beautiful view from the top of Mount Diablo State Park and the Historic John Muir Home (two places we haven’t been to yet). It almost felt like they were already locals!

On our way to dinner, we walked around downtown Walnut Creek, pointing out the places we had already been. On the walk, I realized that while we haven’t been here long, we have made the most of our time.

Our dinner spot was Teleferic Barcelona, a Spanish restaurant that was actually recommended to me by one of the second-year students I met at the potluck. Alongside our Patatas Bravas (one of my favorite tapas), we ordered our paella socarrat, using the crispy, crunchy, caramelized rice at the bottom of the pan to provide even more flavor and texture to an already amazing dish. Afterwards, we stopped at Residual Sugar Wine bar for a post-dinner drink. Despite the name, there was no sugary wine on their list, focusing primarily on organic and biodynamic wines.

Both Rylee and I have enjoyed going to Oracle Park for SF Giants games this season. The view is spectacular, the gluten-free options are top-notch, and the relaxed atmosphere of a ball game is perfect for hanging out. Because of all this, we wanted to take Mike and Daina to a baseball game. Unfortunately, when I looked for tickets, the Giants were away while they were here. A swing and a miss. My next thought was to take them to an Oakland Roots Soccer game at the Oakland Coliseum, as it could be cool to take them to the old home of the A’s. Again, though, the Roots were out of town. As a last-ditch effort, I even looked into an A’s game in Sacramento, along the way showing them Rylee’s city of work, but even they were gone.

Just as I was about to give up, though, I stumbled upon a Women’s soccer league match between Bay FC and Washington Spirit at Oracle Park! Rylee and her family love soccer, but specifically women’s soccer. According to Rylee, men’s soccer is full of a bunch of prima-donna crybabies, and if you want to see real play instead of a bunch of amateur actors, you should go to a women’s game.

At the game, Washington took an early lead, but Bay FC started to make a comeback. Ultimately, though, Washington won 3-2. While Bay FC might of lost, history was made that day. This game broke the record for the most attended US women’s professional soccer game in history, with a staggering 40,091 attendees. We also got to teach Rylee’s parents about Hyphy music, as the halftime performance was Bay Area Rappers P-Lo and Too Short.

Rylee’s parents had to leave Sunday night, so Rylee and her mom went shopping for the day. This meant that Mike and I were going to go on our own adventure. After some deliberation, we decided to visit the Blackhawk Museum.

The Blackhawk museum was created originally as a place to preserve automobiles and showcase them as works of art. Over the years, they also acquired exhibitions on the history and culture of the western frontier, and collections of Chinese and African Art. It was this interesting hodgepodge of exhibits meant to emphasize both craftsmanship and history as fine art. As a special exhibit for the automobile collection, they had some of Willie Mays’ legendary cars.

I have to say, society has taken a monumental step back in car design over the years. I’ll take a light purple car with a spoiler and external exhaust pipes any day. We didn’t have too much time at the museum, but Mike and I have already agreed to take everyone back on their next visit.

After that, we picked Rylee and Daina up from shopping and took them to the airport. We were super happy that they were able to come out to visit us, and we all had a lot of fun!

Why is Georgia the Peach State, especially when California produces more peaches? This peachy-keen video is a historical analysis that dives into the origin of Georgia’s famous moniker. It also felt fitting as we had people from Georgia visiting us this week.