I guess I should talk about the fact that I went to Oakland two weeks ago. They were still on my list of teams I haven't seen at their home, and the White Sox were in town that weekend, so I dragged my brother over there. Had it been any other team, no way I would have done it. Spent more time driving then actually enjoying the Bay Area. And, in case there ever is a contest for most boring interstate, my vote has to go to I-80. And I don't think it's that close. As soon as you leave Chicago, there is nothing worth seeing until you get to SLC. From there, you have absolutely nothing until Wendover (and calling Wendover something is very generous) and then even more nothingness until Reno. After Reno, you go through the mountain range, and then its a stream of cities leading up to Sacramento and then Oakland. But for the vast majority, you just want to self-medicate the trip. I kid you not, it might have been worth it to ride a train or bus, just so you wouldn't have to be awake through that nonsense.
Once there, things went well. Yes, my White Sox lost, but they played alright. Gavin Floyd was on the mound, and I knew from the first couple batters we were in for trouble. He couldn't keep the ball down at all, and you can only survive so long throwing up in the zone. They broke through for a crooked number early, and that was during the stretch where we decided to leave all of our bats in the dugout, so we could never catch back up. I wasn't happy, but it happens. No one wins them all. And right now, we're still losing more than we win. At least we're hitting the ball again, and winning more than once a week.
After the game, we realized that the San Jose Earthquakes, local MLS team, was playing that night, and that San Jose was only about an hour away from Oakland. Why not? Nothing else really going on in the Bay area, so we trekked down there and caught the game. Side note: Northern California has substantially different weather than Southern California. I had packed a pair of jeans because I knew jeans worked in all situations. What I should have packed was my snow board pants, a sweater, a jacket and a beanie. So cold. Got a hot chocolate, which helped a little, but not enough. Went to their merchandise trailer (yes trailer. The field was a college's field, and the stands looked like they were from some high school football field. It was ridiculous knowing one team played here, and another team in the same league played at Rio Tinto. Like having one twin look like Reese Witherspoon, and the other look like Rihanna after Chris Brown let the hands go on her) and asked if they had a beanie. The only thing they had close was a beanie-scarf. It's exactly what it sounds like. And I wore it. And it kept me warm. No complaints.
On the drive home, it started snowing outside of Sacramento. I'm told it snows in that region maybe once or twice a year. I guess this was that once a year. We ended up having to put chains on. Now, I've heard of this practice, and I know people have done it, but I've never even seen it happen, much less had to do it myself. Thankfully, my brother's car had chain in the trunk, and some guys were there willing to put them on for us for only $25. (Huge rip-off, but we didn't know how to do it, so we figured better safe than sorry. Trust me when I say, save your money. This ain't hard to do. I can walk you through it over the phone if you need it) We had to drive about 25 mph up the canyon for about a half an hour. All in all, added about 3 hours onto our travel time. Ridiculous. Just another reason why I don't like the snow.
Also, this trip was done so close on the heels of the cruise because I was going to start teaching an MCAT class shortly thereafter. This is the one that they assigned me after the first one was canceled because no one signed up. The first session was last Wednesday night. I show up about 20 minutes early to prep and what-not. With about 1 minute to go, two people walked in. That was it. Yesterday, I was told that the class was canceled again because only three people total had signed up. So now, I'm more or less back in a holding pattern. I do have a potential GMAT course coming up in a month or so, but who knows now. It's getting to the point where all the re-scheduling is more than the job's worth. I'm not using this job to pay rent, I'm using this job to play golf.
So yeah. This post, not too exciting of a read, but I figure two weeks was a long enough absence. I'll probably throw something up again soon. Have a BBQ tomorrow, and have to get a new Driver's License on Tuesday. Turns out, those things expire. Who knew?
Word.
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