🎵Lip-Sync For Your Life 11/23/25

Hi Everyone!

I have more birthday freebies to share with you! First, you can join Benihana’s Friends With Benefits Loyalty Program for a $50 coupon (it’s an unhinged name, but that’s like a free hibachi dinner if you play your cards right!) It was the liveliest restaurant we have ever been to on a Monday, with at least 10 birthdays (three at our table alone) and a wedding party as well. In addition, there was The Melt’s Free Snickerdoodle Shake, and a free sandwich from Ike’s Love and Sandwiches. With these, though, I think I am finally done for Birthday Freebies, but now I am getting pumped for next year!

Now, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…

Rylee had to spend the week up in Sacramento for work, so I had a lot of time alone. As we are 13 weeks into the semester, the end-of-semester assignments are approaching, so this week was a great time to hunker down and get some studying done. However, this was easier said than done. Next week is fall break, so I get the entire week off, and unfortunately for me, my brain was already in break mode.

I studied at home. I studied on campus. I studied on the way to campus. However, also studied at  Matcha Cafe Maiko, where I got a Matcha Kuromitsu Kinako, which was a matcha latte with Japanese “black honey” syrup (an unrefined dark brown sugar) and soybean powder, giving the drink a sweeter, nuttier flavor. I also studied at Barrelista in Martinez, where I got a honey lavender latte in what might be the world’s tiniest coffee cup. I have become very anti-little-coffee-cups, and it is the scourge of the Bay Area. At the very least, give me a big cup and fill it up to the brim with ice, so at least there’s the illusion of getting bang for my buck.

I will admit, though, that I did not study at Last Rites, as I got out of my last class for the week, and I decided that I deserved a nice little treat to celebrate the start of break. The bar is TV show Lost meets tiki bar, with the hull of an airplane and airplane seats, in addition to the normal vibes of tiki bars. I got a Kali Maa’s Doom, a cocktail made of gin, pisco, dairy, melon, sauvignon blanc, citrus, and vanilla, topped with a toasted marshmallow and watermelon. The guy sitting next to me was a big tiki bar enthusiast and gave me a ton of tiki bar recommendations. We also got into a discussion about “bad art”, discussing the commercial success of Thomas Kinkade, whether he is a bad artist or not, and what that means about artists that are deemed both “good” and “bad” throughout history who have made art as a means of living. I would love to hear your thoughts.

This week, students in the class that I am being mentored worked on a lip-sync video activity meant to showcase non-verbal communication, and the professor asked that the instructors-in-training also complete a lip-sync as well. For our assignment, we lip-synced to Natasha Bedingfield’s Pocketful of Sunshine, and I think our finished product goes hard. I also cameo-ed in several of the students’ videos, one of which was where I learned how to do the Griddy. I never felt as hip as I do in this moment.

This week marked the final session of the leadership training program. We started with a panel of previous alumni of the program, discussing their leadership beyond the program. When on the topic, I especially loved the following advice: “I fail, and then I eat ice cream, and then I get back to hustling.” Then, we all got to “graduate” and pick up our certificates. I hope I can say I am a better leader, but who knows? At the very least, I met a couple of cool people along the way.

I am a little worried about my research topic in my Introduction to Communication Studies Class. I originally thought tying Critical Pedagogy and Fun together would be a great idea.  However, I feel like I haven’t found a niche to study that I am extremely interested in.  I have also found that Critical Pedagogy is such a detailed field, with so many books filled with hundreds of pages, making it take a super long time to research the field. I feel so far behind, and yet I am nowhere near to full enough grasp on the topic where I feel comfortable writing a literature review on the subject. Hopefully, with all this studying, things will change soon.

I decided to go up to Sacramento on Friday to be able to explore the city and get dinner with Rylee.

The California State Railroad Museum is probably one of the coolest museums I have been to in a while. As you walk through the galleries, you are surrounded by locomotives and railcars from the 1800s. The museum builds on earlier historical ideas that I have found in previous newsletters, and continues the story of how rail transformed the United States. Familiar figures reappear here, especially the “Big Four”: Leland Stanford (The Leland Stanford Mansion), Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker (The Crocker Museum).

The galleries follow the monumental effort behind the Transcontinental Railroad itself. Starting with early proposals in the 1840s, through Theodore Judah’s relentless surveying of the Sierra, to the political battles of the Civil War era, and the final joining of the rails at Promontory Summit in 1869, the exhibits detail the enormous challenges and the transformative results of the railroad. The railroad unified the country, fueled industrialization, and turned California from a distant frontier into one of America’s economic powerhouses. The state’s rise in agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, and trade has connections back to the train.

The museum also foregrounds the people who rarely appeared in traditional railroad histories. The museum recognizes women such as Rosina Tucker, Olive Dennis, and Anna Judah, who shaped labor rights, engineering innovations, and political campaigns that enabled the railroad’s construction. Additionally, the museum recognizes Chinese workers who built some of the most difficult sections of the Central Pacific through the Sierra under brutal conditions, often facing discrimination, segregation, violence, and exclusionary laws, even as their labor proved indispensable.

After the museum, Rylee picked me up, and we went to my second tiki bar of the week, Shipwrecked Paradise Island. It had excellent theming with giant moving animatronics and a unique drink menu. Rylee got a Painkiller, made with pineapple ice cream, and I got The Triple P, a grassy yet fruity concoction made with pandan liqueur, pisco, rock candy syrup, and pineapple juice.

One of Rylee’s coworkers told her that Maydoon was the best Persian food in Sacramento, so that was where we had our date night. We got crispy Falafel Bites, chicken and steak Koobideh Kebabs, and braised Lamb Shanks cooked with a tomato and turmeric broth. I can confirm that it is, in fact, incredible Persian Food.

We spent the entire weekend packing and travelling to kick off our Fall Break. I am excited to see friends and family, eat some good food, and hopefully get a little bit of rest.

I stayed in Sacramento last week because I had a 3-day in-person design sprint. I could have driven back and forth, but I realized that my coworkers and I would prefer it if I were well-rested. My hotel was nothing special, but they upgraded me to a suite, which is great! I also took a note out of Will’s book and utilized public transit all week, so I don’t have to deal with parking in downtown.

On my first night, I explored Sacramento and grabbed dinner. Here’s my Rylee Holland food review:

Paesanos:

Blood Orange Margarita: 1.5/5

-very disappointing. Got it because I LOVE blood orange, and it was on the happy hour menu. Insane glass choice. Bitter AF.

Carbonara: 4/5

-love that they had a gf baguette!!! Pasta itself was meh. Box spaghetti broken into tiny pieces :/ Sauce was delish but definitely not a traditional carbonara by any means. Correct amount of bacon included (tons!)

Would return but with lower expectations and different menu selections.

The Rind (Wine Bar)

Gruner Veltlinger: 5/5

-was looking for a chill way to end the evening and stumbled on this wine and cheese shop. Very cute, intimate vibes with good music. They recommended the Gruner Veltlinger, and it’s delicious! Reading “The Midnight Library” was the perfect way to decompress.

Overall, it was a great week! I got to know my co-workers better, and we got a ton of great work done! I’m grateful that I get to work from home most of the time, and I had fun exploring the city that I work in now, too!

Here is the finished lip-sync video that I completed for class. Enjoy!