November 30, 1995 Big Game and Thanksgiving

My Favorite Week of the Year

Big Game week is my favorite week in the whole year...Back when I was in Rally Comm, I always said that this was the week the entire year of Cal Spirit revolved around. More spirit activities take place during this one week than occur during the rest of the year.

Anyway, unfortunately for me, I had to teach (third straight year this has happened), so I had to restrict my activities to the evening ones. The week kicked off with the 10th annual Cal-Stanfurd Sing Off (which features the best a'cappella singing groups of both schools). This year it was at Stanfurd, so I got together with a few friends and carpooled down to the Farm from the City.

I Feel Jilted

We arrived in time to get some dinner at one of the restaurants in Palo Alto, and then got to the performance "hall" (actually a small gymnasium) before the doors opened. We were able to get floor seats fairly close to the stage (it was a good thing too, because the sound system was terrinle). While I was sitting, wearing my Blue and Gold Cal Rugby, this woman walked up to me and asked "Excuse Me, but are you from Cal?". I said "Yes." and pointed to the embroirdered script Cal on the rugby. She then asked "So, what's your name." I said "Sean". She then introduced herself (a singer in one of Stanfurd's singing groups) and asked if she could use me to help introduce a song. I thought about it for a few seconds (pondered the possibility that I could be the object of ridicule) and then said "Sure." She then said that before the song, she'd ask if "Sean from Cal" was in the audience. I would then stand up, and she'd sing to me. Unfortunately, later on she changed her mind and jilted me for a Stanfurd student instead. (oh well)

Aside from the rotten sound system, the show was quite entertaining. The only thing missing was Stanfurd's best all-male singing group, The Fleet Street Singers. I later found out that the organizers at Stanfurd, had decided not to invite Fleet Street and another Stanfurd singing group without consulting anyone (Stanfurd used to use a weighted draw to pick its representatives). Stupid morons. (Oops, what was I thinking, these are Stanfurd students.)

The Rest of the Week and the Game

The rest of the week went very quickly. But during the class I received two pieces of excellent news. The first was that PG&E scheduled one more class with us (coming up in a few weeks) and the second was that our client in Phoenix had scheduled a full slate of courses for next year. The best part of the second bit was that one of my classes fortutiously coincides with the Cal men's team's games at Arizona State (in Tempe) and Arizona (in Tucson).

Not much else went on in the way of Big Game Week activities. On Thursday night, Cal's Ice Hockey team defeated Stanfurd. On Friday night, I enjoyed the bonfire rally and Rally Comm alumni gathering afterwards.

The next morning I picked up a friend in Berkeley and drove down to the Farm. I should mention that I met Cathy, the friend, a little more than a year ago. She happened to attend a party thrown by a mutual friend. Over the year I found out that she had a lot of Cal spirit in her and so I was trying to get her to join Rally Comm. Unfortunately, I was never succesful...

But back to my story. Once down on the Farm, we attended a few tailgates (the best one featured a roasted pig--yes a whole pig) and then made our way to the stadium, expecting Cal to get its butt kicked. Surprisingly, the Bears played decently, but not good enough to beat the Cards (drat) who won 29-24 and took back the Axe (sniff).

After the game ended, we went on to the house of Tom Edwards, a former Rally Comm chairman who lives in Portola Valley, in the hills behind Stanfurd. Mr. Edwards has done this after all of the Big Games held at Stanfurd, and so it was a great gathering of Rally Comm members and alumni. Afterwards Cathy said "It's too bad I'm graduating, otherwise I'd have enjoyed Rally Comm."

A Little Bit of Sightseeing

One other thing I enjoy about Big Game Week is that old friends often return to Cal just during this week. This time, Rich, a friend who lives in New York City, came out for the game. He wasn't leaving the Bay Area until Monday, so he, Samantha (another friend who lives in San Jose), and I decided to have some Dim Sum and do some sightseeing on Sunday. The restaurant that Sam wanted wanted to eat at was closed, so we picked another place on Clement street out in the avenues. We all thought it was just o.k.

Following the Dim Sum, we jaunted off to Union Square. Shockingly I was able to find a spot on the street across from the square. We then went over to Macys and were shocked to see the Christmas decorations already up. Rich commented "NO! You don't think of Christmas until Santa makes the turn onto 34th Street". Sam and I agreed. Still, it had been a while since I'd been in the store in San Francisco, so I enjoyed looking around. We then wandered into Neiman Markups--I mean Marcus. They also had their big Christmas tree up too. After suffering sticker shock at the prices, we went back to the car.

One of the things Rich said he wanted to do was to get a close shot of Sutro Tower (he majored in civil engineering). We went up to Twin Peaks. This was the first time I'd ever gone up there. The view was great even though the skies were a bit hazy. We didn't have time to climb to the top of either peak, but it was fun to point out landmarks to people.

Our sightseeing jaunt came to a conclusion when we decided to get some ice cream sundaes from Just Deserts...I opted for a Caramel Sundae (Sam suggested it, and it was delicious).

On to Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week itself was much slower. First a little setup. We used to always spend Thanksgiving Day at my godfather Grand Uncle Bill's and Grand Aunt Evy's house in San Jose. However, after Uncle Bill died two and a half years ago, that all changed. Last year my older brother Joe and his girlfriend Lynn invited my mother and myself for dinner...and that was a lot of fun. This year, they went to visit Lynn's family in Connecticut, so we decided to visit my aunt Alice and uncle Roy, who have lived in Willows, a small town located along I5 in the Sacramento Valley, for as long as I can remember. At the same time, a long time friend of the family, my "aunt" Amy, who lives in San Rafael, was also invited to join us.

Aunt Alice and uncle Roy had six kids in the same time span it took my parents to have three; As a result they have a nice big house that can accomodate quite a few guests. This time only the three unattached kids were going to be there, so with only eight of us (my three cousins, my aunt and uncle, "aunt" Amy, my mom, and myself), I knew it would be pretty quiet.

In order to beat the traffic, I wanted to get out of the Bay Area by 2pm on Wednesday. My mom works in Novato, so she said she'd work during the morning, and then pick up aunt Amy on her way home. As all good plans go, this one didn't. Work delayed my mom, and we didn't get to leave until just before 4pm. Surprisingly, the traffic wasn't that bad (only two bad spots--between Pinole and the Carquinez Straits bridge, and just before the 80-680 connector in Farfield). We ended up arriving in Willows at about 6:30.

By that time, my three cousins had all arrived. I wasn't surpised since it was time for dinner. Given that we were going to gorge ourselves the next day, dinner was pretty light, but still good. After a good night's sleep, I woke up in time to watch parts of the Macy's parade before the football fans got out of bed. After my Uncle Roy, "aunt" Amy, and Mom came back from church, everyone was ready for some football and breakfast (My Uncle makes a mean omlette.) I knew that you were happy when the cowboys won. I was indifferent; The Niners fan in me wanted the Cowboys to lose, but the Raiders fan in me wanted the Cheifs to lose. Oh well.

During the Cowboys game, my Aunt started cooking the turkey. My cousin Duard and I prepared the table. Other people watched football. My Aunt must have wanted lots of leftover turkey as she had a 25 pound bird. The rest of the dinner was very simple-- mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, and cranberries--so it didn't take too long to prepare. After the football game ended, we all waited for the turkey to be ready (the smell was starting to make our mouths water). It was worth the wait as the turkey was near perfect. Somehow I managed to save room for the apple pie...mmmmmmmm. After such a scrumptious meal, I had no problem getting a good nights sleep.

Friday was another lazy day. We slowly awoke. I got up in time to say goodbye to my cousin Duard, who had to be at work in Sacramento at 11. Eventually we all said our goodbyes as I wanted to be home by about 3pm so I could hook up with other friends at the Cal-USF women's basketball game. I had no problems going home.

After that, it was a typical weekend. More Cal Basketball on Saturday, and then the 'Niners game on Sunday. It was nice to J.J. Stokes finally show some of the moves that made him great at UCla.

A Lucky Find...

This week's been pretty slow too...but I have got some writing done, and I found a CD that I had been waiting a long time for...the soundtrack to "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". It not only includes Boris Karloff reading my favorite Christmas special with the songs at the appropriate places, but it also includes the songs as seperate tracks.