Hello Everyone!

Kara recently posed the following question to me: “What’s the most boring thing you’ve done recently?” I thought it was interesting, and I’ve been pondering over it, to the extent that I asked my students it as a check-in question last week (I feel like it’s not too often where someone says, “thank you for sharing such a boring thing” and it is a compliment). For me, my answer to this question would be that I ate oatmeal with blueberries and almond butter, just like I do every single day.

Each newsletter, I talk about the highlights of the week, going through the most humorous, thoughtful, and otherwise fantastical parts. I used to think of the “boring” moments as a nuisance to get through to get to the bigger, more interesting parts, but I am slowly beginning to rethink my relationship with these moments. Instead of time wasters, what if these are meaningful moments worth celebrating? What if the “boring” moments are essential to making these bigger moments even more gigantic? All I’m saying is that whenever I get to wake up and eat my oatmeal, I have a smile on my face. Maybe that’s worth noting. 

What that said, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…

It’s Spring Break! I spent the first half firmly on the couch, gaming the days away (I’ve been locked in on the Mass Effect Trilogy recently). While gaming is a great de-stressor, it’s a far cry from the Spring Breaks of a stereotypical college life. Where’s my William’s gone wild?

I brought this up with Rylee, and she stopped me in my tracks to say that this was the least stressed that she has seen me since starting the semester, and she was right. I was making the most of it. A wild spring break, I guess, is actually pretty tame. 

I did have some school work and work work to do, though. So I took inspiration from one of my older newsletters, “eat ice cream, and then get back to hustling”, stopping at Tifa Gelato and Chocolate on National Gelato Day no less (I know ice cream and gelato are completely different beasts, but it’s the principle of the matter). 

Tifa was running a special for National Gelato Day, by upgrading my small to a medium for free. So I grabbed a scoop of Strawberry Balsamic, Pistachio Lemon Curd, and cookie butter, all of which were recommended to me by the ice cream scooper. I can see why they were recommended, as they were truly top-notch. My only complaint was that even with the free upgrade, it was the tiniest cup of ice cream gelato I have ever received. 

The tail end of Spring Break was when things started to pick up. My parents (especially my dad) are big New York Yankees fans, so when we saw that the opening game of the 2026 baseball season would be the Giants Vs Yankees, my parents decided to fly down for the weekend. As happy as I was to have them come visit, this forced me to answer an impossible question: which team do I root for?

I grew up a Yankees fan, and even though my interest in the sport was measly at best, we watched countless games together. I would go to bed with my dad, telling stories about attending Yankees games growing up, and getting into fights with Red Sox fans. I knew the names of the greats throughout the years, like Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Aaron Judge. Whenever someone would ask me who was on my team, I would tell them it was the Yankees. 

Over the past year, though, I have found moments with the Giants. I remembered giveaways, crazy plays, screaming crowds, and quality time with friends. I realized that in many ways, the stories my dad would tell me about the Yankees, I had that now with the Giants. I’ll always be a Yankee fan, but I realized that if I was going to wear a jersey, it was going to be a Giants one.

The day of, Rylee and I met my parents decked out in Giants gear, and we made our way to Oracle Park. 

Every opening day, every employee of the San Francisco Giants would wear an orange carnation. This year, they gave out a pin of an orange carnation for everyone to take part in that same tradition. They also rolled out an orange carpet for the team to walk out on while shooting off fireworks. I also got to try the Loaded Baked Brisket Potato, a new menu item for the season. I also rooted for the home team, but they lost 0-3, which was a shame.

The next day, we decided to take a day trip up to Napa, and because it was my dad’s birthday next week, we surprised him with the “birthday baddie” sash. Our first stop was Hagafen Cellars.

Hagafen is Hebrew for grape vine, and they had an eclectic variety of grape vines, including Riesling, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Syrah, in addition to the Napa Valley staples like Cabernet Sauvignon. Over the course of our tasting, I believe we tried 8 or 9 different wines, which was incredible bang for your buck. I love a Riesling, but I was particularly drawn to the Cabernet Sauvignon, barrel-aged for 32 months as opposed to the normal 12-24 months. This mellowed out the tannins of the wine and made it taste older than it was, as the longer the wine is barrel-aged, the more mellow the tannins become (I thought I just had expensive tastes, but now I know I just need to look for red wines that were barrel-aged for longer!) We also got to walk around the property, where we ran into some chickens.

Afterwards, we drove downtown for a tasting at the Robert Craig Tasting Salon (or Saloon, as Rylee called it). It specialized in wines from the Howell Mountain AVA of Napa. I was excited, as the one time I tried a Cabernet Sauvignon from Howell Mountain, I fell in love with it. (Side note: there is this term in wine known as the “epiphany bottle”, or the bottle of wine that makes you become a wine aficionado. A Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon was my epiphany bottle for Cabernet Sauvignon specifically.)

Unfortunately, I don’t think the wine makers at Robert Craig’s style lined up with our preferences. I was not impressed by any of the wines, but it just goes to show how you can end up with a drastically different result using similar grapes. I want to clarify that this wine wasn’t bad, but it was just someone else’s style. That’s okay, though!

For the last day of Spring Break, Rylee and I wanted to show my parents Walnut Creek. Our first stop of the day was the Walnut Creek Farmers Market, and I was blown away by how grand it was! There was live music, vendors, fresh produce, and practically every single booth handed out free samples. There was even a winery that was doing free tastings out of those tiny condiment cups. This was our first time at the Farmers Market, but it most certainly won’t be our last. 

We also took them to the Lesher Center’s production of “Lost in Yonkers” by Neil Simon, to show off our wonderful performing arts center that’s nearby. “Lost in Yonkers” follows the life of two brothers who are forced to live with their stern grandmother and aunt, who has a cognitive disability. The performers here are top-notch, and this theater, while not as extravagant as the theaters in SF, has its own quaintness to it. The Center Rep (Walnut Creek’s professional theater company) was also celebrating 35 years at the Lesher Center, which corresponded to “Lost in Yonkers” 35th anniversary.

On our Napa Trip, we uncovered a new movie about wine, this time recommended by my dad. Once we got back we had a MOVIE NIGHT! (On Friday nights growing up, my parents would start running around the house singing the words “MOVIE NIGHT” repeatedly. It’s something that I frequently do now whenever Rylee and I have our own movie nights in the house.)