Back at Long Beach and up to San Francisco

Last week classes started back up at Long Beach. This is awesome because:

• I got into the Nonlinear Control Systems class I wanted.
• The class is taught by the professor who is the graduate adviser for the program I am applying for. He also gave me an A last semester.
• My two best friends (also my only two friends) from classes at The Beach are in it. I have not had a class with them since 2011.
• This will hopefully be the last semester I am taking classes in the grey area of being non-matriculated and working toward a masters degree.
• I get to see the people from the Long Beach Catholic group and make some new friends.

Last weekend I was in San Francisco for the West Coast Walk for Life. Someone from the Beach Newman group is from Concord and her family offered to host anyone who was traveling north for the event. A group of seven of us drove up. Someone else did the driving, so this was the first time since 2005 I traveled to Northern California by car but did not do most or all of the driving.

I met some interesting people. One of the people we were staying with is a brony. He is a male fan of the TV show My Little Pony. I have heard they existed, but never met one before. I met someone who is a lot like Juliette from the Berkeley Newman group. As I said on the Facebook, "She has a whimsical personality, loves coloring with crayons, picks flowers to put in her friend's hair, shares [her] fashion sense, plays a harmonica, and laughs at everything." The next time I see her I should ask if she has stuffed animals of the entire cast of Finding Nemo or will be inviting 30+ people to a sleepover in her apartment.

As for the Walk for Life itself, it was good. It started at the Civic Center with some speeches. I ran into Sean who was filming things for the Salesians. Then the march went down Market street and ended at Justin Herman Plaza. Afterwards, we walked to Fisherman's Wharf and enjoyed crab sandwiches. Then we went to the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi and attend a celebration of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, which is the proper way of saying we went to a Latin mass.

One of my favorite things about trips like this is how I get to observe and live someone else's life. We eat the same food, sleep in the same place, and are together all the time. This happened before when I visited Sidney, Amanda, and Chris (which I could not find a good post about).

I got to see what life is like for the family that hosted us. I saw what they normally do, watched the same TV shows, and meet one of their friends. After everyone got back on Saturday we all watched that day's episode of My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic. Our friend's mom was kind and made us breakfast both mornings as well as strawberry shortcake one night.

That is all great stuff, but the most exciting thing happened a few days later on Wednesday night. I talked to a girl at the Beach Newman meeting and we are going on a date next week. I have seen her at meetings for the last semester and she was on the trip to San Francisco.