picnic day thoughts

UC Davis had it's annual Picnic Day this weekend! This is usually an event that will double the population of Davis for the occasion. As the mobs of people who have descended on the sleepy town of Davis slowly trickle back out of town and the city recovers from the weekend's stresses, I'll bet a lot of Davis folks will be re-emerging from their hiding places (it's a good thing that this happens only once a year). With the events of the last 24 hours still fresh upon me, it's a good time to reflect on this year's picnic day.


Some random thoughts:

Wow was it hot. When we took the tour of the greenhouse (in the morning, mind you), it was exactly the same temperature as outside.

It's interesting that the Examiner's article on Picnic Day almost made UC Davis students and residents seem like victims on picnic day, as if we have no choice in the matter. We have a choice. While out-of-towners do cause a lot of havoc, I'm pretty sure students do the same.

The starbucks in the davis Target is still the emptiest coffee-shop in town, even on picnic day. If you need a quick caffeine boost, I'm almost certain it's faster to drive from U-Mall to target, get your coffee, and drive back, than it is to wait inside the U-Mall starbucks on picnic day. Thank you 2006 voters for selling out to big-business!

orange, seen here running in circles

I have to admit the dog races are pretty fun, except, I realized that I am absolutely the LAST person you want picking your winners for you. After 7 prelim heats, I picked the winner in exactly 0 of those races. As a matter of fact, my go-to lane (orange) seemed to be perfectly content with chasing his own tail. The one time orange didn't, he practically took a serene, almost zen-like approach to reaching the finish line.

Big thanks to Yingnan for guiding us through the mobs of people. There were times where we lost you, but nevertheless you managed to track us down and alleviate the lost faces we occasionally wore.

5th Street road diet...

Late this afternoon 5th St. was at a standstill (it took me like, 35 min to go 4 miles). Awesome. If you thought this year's traffic sucked, you don't want to be around for next year's picnic day (after the 5th St. road diet) when there will be half the lanes. Funsies.

The shepherding dog never fails to amaze me. The fact that, through a series of whistles, he knows exactly where to guide the mass of sheep, through obstacles and across open fields, and finally, into a pen for keeping. We should probably hire the dog to herd acacians from friday night fellowship over to OTH with the same efficiency.

They now sell personal-size bottled asian soymilk at the MU Coffee House. Where was this accommodation when I was in college?!

I will never understand the two guys next to us that have chosen the shepherd dog's owner as the object of their heckling. Really guys? You really want to mock the guy who's decent sized overly-protective dog answers at the slightest whistle? Smart.

Anyone outside of the Davis/Sac area who decides to do a google search on Davis will inevitably uncover the following three items: the recently released findings on the pepper-spray incident (where UCD cops get reprimanded), friday's traffic/manhunt fiasco (when the causeway is shut down for 6.5 hours), and this weekend's picnic day event (where all news outlets report cops cracking down for the sake of public safety). Boy, we are really putting Davis on the map aren't we?

Of course I'm being a bit facetious, but this was a pretty fun picnic day overall. I am grateful to see so many cops out to make sure people are safe. Though it was hot, we were able to walk around safely and see people on campus enjoying the entertainment, shows, exhibits, and activities. Even though at the end of each picnic day, I usually vow never to go back into the mob again, this year was pretty fun. I'm kind of looking forward to next year.