Alumni Event and Jason Mraz

Thursday:

After work, I went up to San Francisco for a UCLA Alumni Event. I left pretty early so that I wouldn’t face the brutal SF traffic. Turns out 3PM is still not early enough to avoid traffic once you’re past the airport and in the city.

I got some work done at Philz Coffee in the Civic Center (probably one of the reasons that I am SO glad I live in NorCal). SF Weekly voted Philz the best coffee in SF. And I definitely have to agree. Not only is the iced coffee the best tasting coffee I have had, but the experience itself (the workers and ambience) is so comforting and nice. Only downfall was that in my attempt to rush out of work, I left my laptop charger at my desk. So I could only work for about an hour and a half before I had to call it quits.

The event was held at Chambers Eat + Drink – which was a really nice venue, but it was really crowded. Gotta love that Bruin pride though 🙂 It was so good to see some people I haven’t seen in YEARS. A couple of us left a bit early to celebrate Ananth’s birthday. We made our way over to 222 Hyde – a bar/restaurant/basement/lounge? There was comedy going on when we got there. Not going to lie – those things make me feel so uncomfortable. There’s like 6 people watching and they pick on you if you get up or move even an inch. AND they weren’t that funny.

Anyway, fun night. But let’s just say it’s hard to function 100% the next day when you don’t get home until 2 in the morning!

Friday:

We went to see Jason Mraz at the HP Center! I can’t believe I’ve never seen him live before. I remember when I first fell in love with him in high school. He wasn’t too popular at the time, but I used to be obsessed with listening to his live performances at Java Joes – a coffee shop in San Diego.

It’s funny – I look at my students and it makes me laugh when they obsess over One Direction. They know every single song in their album – what order they come in….the history behind each artist. But after the concert last night, I’m reminded that I was once an obsessed-fan. I would follow Jason Mraz’s blog religiously.  I would know ALL his songs – not just the songs that were on his album. And I would know everything about his life. This was not during the Twitter era – which means it took an extra effort on my part to do some stalking 😉

But anyway, back to concert. It was amazing. Christina Perri opened for him and it was beautiful. They’re both such great artists – both recorded and live. Our seats weren’t the best. But it didn’t matter.

My favorite part of the concert was when Christina Perri said “I’m going to take you back to a moment in my life 9 years ago. When I was at my parents house…17 years old….sitting by my window. Dreaming that some day, maybe…I could sing with Jason Mraz.” I loved it. Such a positive message to send to everyone….dream big – it can happen if you work hard enough.

After the concert, we went to Sino – a restaurant/lounge at Santana Row.

 

Now, time to organize my life. It’s such a good feeling waking up on Saturday knowing you have nowhere to go, no obligations to attend to. Just me, some iced coffee (It’s National Coffee Day – gotta celebrate!), and my lesson plans.