✍️ Keeping Up With Myself 4/27/25

Hi Everyone!

So much happened this week, that as I am looking back on what happened, I keep on saying to my self “Wait, I did that too???” Who knew living life to the fullest was so exhausting? And from the looks of it, the next few months are shaping up to be just as wild. Buckle up, because there is going to be a lot to keep up with!

Anyway, without further ado, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…

Rylee had a very important meeting Tuesday afternoon, so she kicked me out of the apartment. That was okay though because I decided I was going to go exploring. I found free tickets to the SF MOMA, so I went into the city to get lunch and culture myself. 

As I was walking through the Embarcadero district, I found that STK steakhouse does a $10 burger and chips deal during lunch. $10 for any meal in the city is a great deal, but when I picked it up, the lady said they ran out of chips so she gave me an order of fries and a cookie too! I took my meal to the ferry building to eat looking out on the bay. 

Since it was earth day, as I walking around the ferry building, there was a free make your own succulent planter arts and crafts activity going on, and as some of you know, and some of you will now know, I love an activity.

As I assembled the planter, I talked with the people running it, and they told me that they are a group of artists who are contracted by SF to provide arts and crafts opportunities to the community. They said that while they normally only do Sundays, the city wanted to do something special for Earth Day too. One woman asked if I was an artist, and I said “no, but I do like supporting them”. I also told her about my plans to see the MOMA, so I think she was okay with that answer.

The SFMOMA had a special retrospective exhibit of Ruth Asawa, a local Bay Area artist who focused on natural and organic forms. It contained works throughout her entire career, but I was most mesmerized by her intricate crocheted metal sculptures. 

Also at the SFMOMA was some of the works of Yayoi Kusama, including one of her Infinity Mirror Rooms, Dreaming of Earth’s Sphericity, I Would Offer My Love (2023). Infinity Mirror rooms are very Instagrammy, but sometimes, things that are viral live up to the hype. This is one of those things.

After the SFMOMA, I figured that enough time was past that Rylee would be done with her meeting. Instead, her meeting was rescheduled to Thursday. Oh well… more adventures for me!

A lot of change is going to be happening within the next few months. One of the biggest is that we are going to have to move somewhere else. Right now, it seems like Rylee might be working in Sacramento, but I unfortunately only applied to grad school in San Francisco and San Jose. Both places are historically known for being far away from Sacramento. Because of this, we are looking for a good middle point between the two of them. 

On paper, Vallejo or Benicia looked like a good option as it is a good middle point as well as being significantly cheaper than where we are now, so we scheduled a couple of house showings for later that day. While some of the houses were interesting, we were not thrilled by the area. While it’s a little disheartening, I think we learned that Vallejo and Benicia probably aren’t for us, so I would consider this house-hunting trip a success. 

We stopped at an Italian place called Venticello’s, where we had excellent pasta and half-off bottles of wine. Cheers to knowing where we aren’t going to be!

Rylee had a very important meeting on Thursday afternoon, so she kicked me out of the apartment. Wait a minute, this sounds familiar.

That’s okay, though, because I was prepared. I scoured online for things to do during that time, and found free tickets to the Exploratorium and the Beat Museum. So here I was off to the city again.

I was unsure if I was going to like the Exploratorium, as I could see it being catered towards kids. That being said, the exhibit was filled with a ton of interactive science experiments. I especially enjoyed learning about reverse masks, building up electricity, and looking at myself through the overwhelming amount of mirrors that warped my image (it felt like I was in a fun-house).

The Beat Museum was alright. The museum itself was tiny, and explained the rise of the Beat Movement after World War II. It had memorabilia from the Beat Generation and the Movie adaptation of On the Road from 2012, as well as diving into SF’s local Beat scene (which included Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights and his trial over publishing Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems). I am going to let you in on a little secret: I am not the biggest Beat Generation person. In fact, I don’t think I have even read On the Road. This being said, I imagine if you were into this, you would appreciate this museum more than I did.

When I arrived back home, Rylee told me that her meeting went great!

Later that day, the Bay Area Georgia Tech Alumni Association was hosting its “Ramble the Night Event”, a set of meet-ups across the globe connecting Georgia Tech graduates together. One of these events was in Oakland! It’s always exciting to meet other Georgia Tech alumni in the wild.

Rylee is going to be busy for the next few weeks because she is wrapping up her finals, so I decided it was high time to get brunch with Ken and Peter in SF. After some deliberation, we decided on a French Restaurant called Zazie located in Cole Valley. 

Unfortunately, when we got there, there was a 50-minute wait, so we pivoted to going to Crepes on Cole, another French restaurant a block away. Peter ended up bringing two of his high school friends along, and we all had a great time. I ate an Eggs Benedict dish, except, get this, the english muffin was replaced with a crepe. What a world we live in!

I saved some room for dessert, so I forced everyone to follow me to the aptly named Ice Cream Bar down the street. Inside the 1930s-style soda fountain, I got a Guinness float with caramelized Honey ice cream, chocolate syrup, and a tawny port float. Oftentimes, I am disappointed in ice cream combinations with alcohol, as it ends up being a too much of a good thing situation, but this might of been one of the better concoctions I have had.

My plan for Sunday was simple: hop on an Amtrak to tour San Jose State University, one of the grad schools I applied to. I didn’t have much mapped out for the day, but somehow it turned into quite an adventure. I got sidetracked multiple times before I ever set foot on campus. As I was texting Rylee my updates, she joked that she fears that I will never make it to my classes. I have a feeling she might be right…

As the train rolled south, I realized I’d be passing right by California’s Great America, a local amusement park in Santa Clara. Since I had visited once before last year, it technically made financial sense to buy a season pass if I went at least twice. Girl Math. Plus, they threw in a $25 loyalty reward. It would’ve been irresponsible not to stop. I rode some rides and got this cute little plushie that I am going to name Striker. Unfortunately, they only had clear bags, so everyone could see me carrying around my new stuffed animal everywhere I went for the rest of the day.

After my pit stop, I got on San Jose’s light rail to campus. On my way though, I saw an ad for the Nikkei Matsuri Festival in Japantown, so I  made another pit stop. 

Nikkei Matsuri San Jose is an annual festival that celebrates the achievements and contributions of the Japanese American community. There was music, arts and crafts, vendors, and food (I got a yummy teriyaki marinated Street Dog). While in line for food, I talked with someone who was a former community college professor and said he loved his job which I feel like bodes well for a future in academia.

Because of the festival, the Japanese American Museum of San Jose was having a free day. The museum detailed how many Japanese citizens immigrated to the U.S. in pursuit of better financial opportunities. Japantowns like San Jose’s began forming in the early 1900s as vibrant hubs for these new immigrants.

The museum also addressed a darker chapter of American history: the forced relocation and incarceration of about 120,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II. Though I remember learning about this briefly in school, standing there made the heartbreak and injustice feel painfully real.

After I finished walking through the museum, I boarded the light rail once again, and this time I made it to San Jose State University. The campus was quite nice, and in some ways it had a distinct Georgia Tech feel to it.

When I was walking back to the Train station, I stumbled upon another street fair, the SoFA Street Fair. It seems that there are a lot of street fairs and festivals in San Jose. 

The fair had a whole line-up of musicians throughout the day. As I walked through the fest, sipping on my blueberry cheesecake sour, I heard soul, country, rock and roll, and screamo. They also had a bunch of sofas to sit in around the event, very much in line with the street fair’s name.

Finally, after a long day, I rushed to catch my Amtrak back to Oakland. I was tired but very happy from a great day trip, and I was still carrying Striker in my clear bag.

Finals week always seems to follow Murphy’s Law for me—“everything that can go wrong will go wrong”—and this semester is no exception. I am currently in the midst of my last (and somehow, worst?!) finals season of grad school, and the senior-itis is hitting hard. I have 2 exams, 3 final papers, 3 final presentations, and 5 assignments due in a 3 week span. Yikes.

While that has, obviously, been awful, I’m also reminded of the incredible support system I have around me. William makes finals week possible—from picking up my prescriptions to making sure that I have coffee every morning and a snack midday—he keeps me grounded. My classmates and coworkers always graciously listen when I vent and give me advice when I need it. My friends force me out of the apartment to see the light of day (shoutout to Jessa). She convinced me to go out for some much needed girl talk this weekend. We ended up at The Avenue—a year round Halloween themed bar—where the decor is spooky but the drink prices aren’t (I just made that up; they should pay me for their new slogan). 

In honor of going to an amusement park, here is a video I found earlier this week detailing how a traveling carnival ride is put together. While I still don’t like the idea of riding this ride that was put up in a day, at least I know that they use new bolts and screws every year. Furthermore, I liked seeing the amount of design and engineering that goes into making these attractions.