“I’m telling you, all roads, all roads lead to Oberlin.”

This past weekend was the pinnacle of my entire summer. One week ago, I was sitting in the San Francisco International Airport awaiting the arrival of my family. Let me tell you, the arrival gate is a great place. The best arrivals of the night:

This girl was sitting across from us and waiting and waiting and finally, this Marine comes out of the terminal. She jumps into his arms, they hug, and she refuses to let go. At first I thought she was his sister, but I’m pretty sure nobody kisses their sister like that.
Then, there was this little man and his dad. And this little man was dressed to impress. He had to be picking up a woman. Unfortunately, my family showed up before said woman (presumably his mother haha) made an appearance.
Having my family here was fantastic, really. They’re just as batty as ever, but still great people. It was nice to have them here, but still have my own space. After work Thursday, we went to the Golden Gate Bridge and Twin Peaks, cutesy touristy stuff.

Friday, I took the last vacation day I could manage and we drove up to Napa. It was a nice day trip, mostly for my parents to do some wine tasting. Really, just being around them was great.

The real fun started on Saturday when my best friend, Taylor, arrived. Home girl actually came out to the West Coast for Brave New Voices in Los Angeles, but she was sweet enough to swing through. That evening, the whole lot of us (my family, Megan’s family, Taylor) had dinner at Megan’s mom’s house.

I only have that one picture from the night and there’s no way it accurately portrays the amount of love in the house that night. So much love.
Sunday, Megan, Taylor, Aldo (Megan’s brother), and I did a mural tour in The Mission, which I believe is my favorite part of San Francisco. It’s warm, there’s beautiful artwork all over the buildings, and it’s a predominantly Spanish speaking area.

So pretty much, it’s either going to be The Castro or The Mission for me.
After an odd poetry/one art play reading thing and a short walk down Haight Street, we retired to the house for the night. Aldo went to dinner with his father, my mother came over, and out came the wine and champagne. The drinks were quite good, but the conversation was great. We talked about religion, the state of our various love lives, and decided that all road ultimately lead to Oberlin. All of them, ya heard?
Now it’s Wednesday night and I’m currently watching Miss Congeniality with Megan and Emiliano (classic). Taylor headed to L.A. Monday afternoon, and family headed back east that same night. I miss them, but it won’t be long before I’m sleeping in my own bed. Next week is my last week of work and before then I have to write an abstract of my project (due Monday), finish and prepare a Powerpoint presentation for lab meeting next Thursday, create and print my poster, and ultimately prepare my presentation for this shadigs in Atlanta. Oh, and I don’t have results yet. So the rest of this week/beginning of this week should be interesting. Go me.
The summer’s almost over, but there’s still more fun to be had and many people I love to be seen.

chinwee