I had a very fun time in San Francisco (If you want to get technical, I was actually in the nearby city of San Jose). On Friday morning, I finished packing last minute things and, after checking my email, made my way to the train station. I checked in at the airport and went to one of the restaurants there for lunch. I then made my way to the gate. As the airlines are now taking extra precautions, the line to enter the terminal was longer than usual but not unreasonable; it took about five minutes.
After the flight, I met Fred and we went to pick up my luggage. As you could probably gather, I was a tad nervous, but also excited. He showed me some printouts of things he thought we could do. We then got in his car and drove over to meet his friend Rita, who is an engineering student. She gave me a copy of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and the three of us headed over to a coffee shop. After talking a bit, we took a walk in a nearby park. We dropped Rita off and (eventually) found the bed and breakfast where I was staying. The room was really beautiful, with lots of nice decorative touches.
Being on PA time and all, I woke up relatively early the next morning. Once we both were ready, we went down to eat and met the owners/decorators of the bed and breakfast. We then made our way over to meet Nicole, another friend of his. However, there was a miscommunication with the times, and she wasn't in her room. After walking around a bit, we found her at wrestling practice and agreed to meet up later. We then headed over to the art museum at Stanford and took a tour led by a woman who, for some reason, reminded me of an ersatz Carol Channing. We returned to Nicole's dorm room and she gave a quick tour of her college; afterward, the three of us headed to lunch and chatted. We then dropped off and headed back to Stanford. Unfortunately, the visitor center was closed by the time we got there, so we went back to our room. We had a discussion and then went to a play called The Voice of the Prarie. Upon returning to the bed and breakfast, we borrowed their video of Wag the Dog and watched it. Unfortunately, I was pretty tired by that time, and we didn't end up getting through the whole movie.
Though we had a later start than we intended, we decided to make our way to the visitor center at Stanford. They weren't much help; they just told me to look at the website when I asked for information. We quickly looked at the nearby Hoover tower and headed to the airport. When we checked me in (about 25-30 minutes ahead of time), the woman expressed doubt that I'd get through; there was a long wait to enter the terminal. She tagged my luggage but told me to carry it on, just in case I didn't make it. Fred waited in line with me as long as he could, and once he could go no further, he bid me a fond farewell. I fortunately made it on the plane in time, and made it back to my dorm room later that night.
Today was pretty laid back. Aside from putting my Halloween costume together and getting a bit of reading done, I didn't really do very much. I did get some Halloween care packages from my mom, though. I'll never be able to finish all that candy. It's kind of funny... my mom sometimes is overly concerned about me gaining weight, yet she sends me these treats. Ah well.
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