Quite the update

Well, it's been a while since I caught up with y'all on the blog, but I've kind of had a lot going on! When I wrote my last very short post, I was finishing up two weeks of RA Training, which means anywhere from 10-16 hour days, which gets directly followed up by move-in weekend, which I'm sure you can surmise is a lot of organization for a lot of anxious parents. Directly after move-in, is Welcome Week. At Cal, Welcome Week is a week purely for welcoming, without classes or anything, where the students mill around, get to know each other and the area and basically get trashed at night. So, not only does my staff have to plan a bajillion events for residents to go to, because they're bored and don't know anyone, at night they have to confront a ot of drunk people and send some overly drunk people to the hospital. Really, it's been fun. But, today started classes, so hopefully, things are actually for real calming down around here and I will be able to occasionally get 8 hours of sleep again every now and then.
In an effort to do so, Dan and I actually tried to get out of the apartment this past weekend. On Saturday, we went up to Golden Gate Park to the SF Renaissance Festival. Who doesn't love a Renaissance Festival? I mean, there is quality fair food, some jousting, some people in clothes that I would never wear out, and usually some sweet art. Now, there were some high points, including a women who clearly bought an outfit for her and her partner to share in the bedroom that she thought would also be appropriate for this occasion, but this Fair has nothing on the Renaissance Fair in the DC Area. If you have never been to that one, and you live in DC, you should defintely go, it's a good time. And you can get your face painted and eat a turkey leg all in the same place. Anyway, there are some photos from our outing below.

Sunday, to continue the festival theme, we went to the Oakland Chinatown Streetfest. It kind of blew. I mean, there were lots of booths, but mostly they were corporations trying to pick up some more business (like Bank of America or Western Union) or people selling lots and lots of socks (seriously...I have photographic evidence). There were however, lots of performances, which we watched a few, because I mean, can you pass up young people who are clearly performing for the first time? I submit that you can not. Well, we ended up in San Francisco again, in the Ferry Building buying yummy yummy foods - seriously, one of the best cupcakes I have ever had - and CHEESE. There is a Cowgirl Creamery out here, and since we're addicted to the stuff, we end up with a lot of cheese in the house a lot. Um, not to get heavy handed with the advice for people in DC, but if you have never been to Cowgirl Creamery (919 F street) GO RIGHT NOW. I don't care what you're doing, if you're fully clothed or not, you have not lived until you've A) tasted their cheeses, and B) eaten all of the other cheeses they sell. The end *steps off soapbox*


And the photos:

Some inappropriate dress, some jousting, a pug/noble steed (loved it!) , and some pretty hair/dress.

And from Oakland:

Orchids, architecture and socks. Quite a day.