I told you and I told you but somehow very few of you listened (Kim and Byron listened, they visited, they had a great time), and when you did not come to visit I was forced to take all of my saved-up fun and shower Jamie and Brook with it. I can still see the look of shock and awe on their faces. Good times.
They came into town like a cool Portland breeze, and two days later they vanished like change on the floor in a laundromat. We had a great time, and since they are now on their way back North, I will try to relive some of our adventures to comfort myself.
The first thing I did was finish up some work while they laid around and played Guitar Hero. Work was unplanned and for all you future visitors it will not happen. Partly to make up for that work and for denying them of my fun personality for a time I made them germies. I think these turned out pretty great. The Gin Blossoms put it best I believe when they said, "hey, jealousy."
The only sad part of this trip was that food did not factor in as the most important part of the trip as it should in any Harrison outing and especially when we are in what is quite possibly one of the best food cities in the world. There is one thing that Harrisons prize more than free food we discovered, and that is volleyball. I am getting ahead of myself, however, let's take it from the top.
So Friday afternoon was our first chance at my pitching S.F. to Jamie and Brooke as a future home and I made the most of it. Three o'clock found us wending our way downtown on the Muni train ready to see the sites. I took them shopping. H&M suitably impressed them with its size, but after they assured me that they were very close to having an H&M of their own, I realized I had to bring out the big guns if I wanted them to move here. It had to be Zara. Yes, that place of mystery and magic out of Europe that takes plain Janes and turns them into Fashionable Freddies. It is a really cool store, I read online that if they have stuff that does not sell they take it off the racks after a couple of weeks. They are committed to staying on the cutting edge of every-day fashion. So far mission accomplished. Zara is a little more expensive than H&M but it has a similar philosophy, and with a sale in place (like there was when we went) it is a great store to get the perfect outfit that will have all your friends gushing about it to your face and hating you behind your back. So get out here and get you something. That is about all the shopping that we did.
We also tried to go see Wicked, but we did not win the lottery and had to settle for sausages in the Mission. Jamie and Brooke got to see quite a few sides of our wonderful city out here, and if they were not all flattering, they were at least interesting. We met up with a few of the kids that I know from church at the sausage place, and then spent a few hours at my friend Camille's lovely apartment in Pac Heights. After Jamie fell asleep on the couch I knew the tykes were tuckered and we headed for home, all the better to prepare for a new day.
I feel that I spoiled the girls on Saturday, and I must confess that I do not usually have quite this much fun every weekend, but they got lucky. After a breakfast of German Pancakes we headed to the east bay for some fun in the sun. A friend of mine from Berkeley had invited us over to swim in the pool and hot tub and it was really great, plus Brooke had the opportunity to showcase her Rock Band skills, and all her beaus were suitable impressed. It was a lot of fun and I think I fulfilled my goal of showing them how many cool people live in this area.
This post is getting long. Now to the main story. I always thought that food was a Harrison's main kryptonite, but I learned this weekend that for Jamie and myself it is actually volleyball. We got to a young single adult party maybe about six-thirty or so and began to play some volleyball. For the next three hours we did not quit for a moment. People left to eat. We stayed. People left to socialize. We chided them for their lack of competitiveness. People left because it was getting dark. We razzed them for being poor losers. Not our finest hour. Brooke played at the beginning, then went to the pool, met people, had a little food. Jamie and I continued to play non-stop. We missed the food. We met no one. We had a great time.
The next day we went to church and they met a lot of girls that they want me to date as well as (in their words) "so many hot guys." I think my work here is done.
It was a lot of fun to have the girls here and I hope that they had a good time and that it was worth the drive. Some other highlights of the trip: Brooke brought her new kitten Javier (pronounced with a smoky Spanish accent, of course). Not only am I less and less allergic to cats, but my roommate and his girlfriend fell in love with little Javie and would play with him while we were gone, so he did not have to stay in the bathroom the whole time. He is a fun little critter and so social. Way better than a boyfriend, Brooke. More highlights: Jamie and myself showing our skills on the v-ball court. Making Jamie and Brooke tell my friends all of their dumbest jokes, and finally, randomly running into two girls that I know on a midnight run to Bob's donuts, further reinforcing my point about what a fun city I live in and how many friends (15) that I have here. That is also a plug for Bob's, if you come, I will take you and I will pay. For one doughnut. Each.
I am sure that we did way more fun stuff, like watching MacGyver on DVD. The only fun I like is the non-stop variety. It was really a lot of fun to see these girls though and I hope that they will not be strangers. It is always good to get together and reforge those family bonds. I am sure that I will be returning the favor in Portland soon enough.
The important thing now is that I rest up for Puls and Chad this weekend (Giants game and a trip to Sacramento), and for Mom, Dad, and brothers the following week (Dustin Blodgees wedding). Happy summer (or what passes for summer in fogsville)!
As Bill and Ted would say, this was a very triumphant weekend. My good buddy Puls from my BYU days came into town and we got together with our old roommate Chad, who is living in Sacramento, and all my wildest dreams came true. Not to mention a few dreams that were a little wild even for me. Puls came into town and we hit up some of the tourist spots, you might recognize this bridge, it is the Golden Gate to the West. Puls had not been to San Francisco before so of course now he wants to live here. I think.
We had some good Naan & Curry for lunch, then we headed for a Giants game. Puls and I are huge baseball fans, and Chad is always down for any type of good times, so we had a good time. It was a 1-0 game and pretty exciting. I am proud to say that I have not lost my ability to yell crazy things throughout a game. When even the little kids in front of you are starting to get bugged, you know that you are a good fan. I don't know if they were actually bugged, but they did turn around and state at me every time I yelled something crazy. I offered to fight a Mets fan, but I was only half serious, I don't fight women. Usually. Anyway, we met up with a couple friends and had angel food cake with strawberries and whip cream. This is my life. I am getting jealous of myself. 
The next day was the time for Chad to shine, and shine he did. He took us to Sac Town and around a hundred-degree temperatures. Needless to say, I was loving it. Chad had the idea of going to the California state fair. I was skeptical at first, but then I started remembering all the good times we used to have at the Utah State Fair and I got pretty excited. It was all I ever hoped for. I think that is clear from the picture below. 
We started off the adventure with hay-bale bucking broncos and it only went up from there. The state fair is seriously so much fun. We started out small with looking at the animals, sounds lame but it is pretty fun, there is a little 4-H in all of us I suppose. Then we moved on to the food. Chad and I had huge sno-cones and Puls had a reindeer corndog. The fair is so cool, and there is more coolness to follow. 
Some of the other sights that we saw were lawn-mower racing, dog jumping, and city kids milking a goat. That was pretty funny, the look on their faces was somewhere between "this is cool" and "this just is not right." Gotta love those city kids. There is one story that I have to tell though. As we were sitting eating some fried foods that I will talk about in a second there was a karaoke performance going on. It was a pretty run-of-the-mill group, but then something happened. The MC announced that a little eight-year-old girl had been asking him to sing all day and he was going to let her. He announced that she was going to sing A-Capella and then he asked her what she was going to sing. He did not tell the crowd what she said though, which I thought was a little weird, until I heard her song. She got up there, and bravely starting singing "I love to see the Temple." It was pretty awesome. At some point we all get a little afraid I think of letting people see who we really are, but this little girl was not afraid. She sang the whole song, which is obviously one of her favorites since she had been begging to sing it all day, and then the crowd applauded. I was really proud of her. 
As a Harrison I like to eat. As a former employee of Hot Dog on a Stick I like to eat fried foods. Believe me when I tell you, I LOVE THE FAIR! Below you can see a few of the many healthy offerings that the fair provides. You have fried twinkies, fried snickers, fried cookie dough (my favorite), fried brownies, and fried oreos. I would say that I felt sick, but that was just my stomach, my tongue felt like it was walking on sunshine. That was not the craziest thing though, we found a place that sold chocolate covered bacon. It is pretty good, more of a novelty item sure, but that sweet salty chocolaty bacon-ey flavor is nice every once in a while. The fair is so great, we should call it. 
I just wanted to say one more thing about the fair. Little kids can ride sheep there and it is awesome. I made a resolution last Saturday, and that is my kids are one day going to ride sheep, and they are going to like it. What you cannot see from the picture below is that the sheep is in a full-out run. It is pretty funny because the sheep do not really buck, they just bolt, and all the kids slide to the side, but that just pulls the sheep over with them. It does not look very dangerous from outside the ring, but judging from the death-grip that some of these kids had on the sheep it must be a little scary when you are back there. I gave the winner a high-five. I still have not washed that hand. 
All in all it was a really great weekend. It is always good to see friends that I spent so much time with in the past that like my jokes and I get along with so well. It was a little weird because we have not all hung out together in about three years, and getting together made me realize that I have changed quite a bit in the last few years. Like it or not I am not a kid anymore (but not and adult either, never that!). It is good to see how far you have come though, and I am pretty happy with the result. I may have lost a little of my jokey attitude (not that anyone seems to notice) but I have gotten a little more responsible and take-charge -ish. I can tell that I have more of an opinion and don't worry about what people think about me too much, I am just living my life and as long as I am good with who I am I don't worry that someone else is not. Just live your life.
