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There are two reasons UC Davis alumni go to Picnic Day every year:

1. You are an alumnus looking to reminisce,
2. You are looking to party like you did in undergrad, or
3. You REALLY like the Doxie Derby (and who wouldn’t?).

To be fair, #2 is probably be a subset of #1, but partying with undergrads is reeeeally weird. We steered clear of  that.

For me, being in Davis means that I should buy a Memorial Union burrito, a one-dollar 750mL mug of coffee, and complete half of the daily crossword puzzle. I might even go to the Games Area and yell at drunk frat boys for playing Human Bowling Ball down the slick bowling lanes. Being in Davis as an alumnus feels strange. It’s not “home” anymore, even though you used to know all the shortcuts around campus and the best place to take an undisturbed nap. You feel like a visitor and you wonder when downtown Davis got so rowdy with fist-pumping frat boys. And you also wonder who those unfamiliar people in the Wushu club are and if they feet the same sense of commaderie with their club members as you once did.

Aye, there’s the rub. Wushu defined my time at Davis, and 3 years later I still have trouble letting go of the one competitive sport I ever enjoyed. It was the first time I ventured alone outside of my comfort zone to try something new, worked to excel at it, and actually stuck to it regardless of who else was doing it or what others thought of it. It’s not really Wushu in of itself that I am attached to, but the fact that I loved what I was doing and was proud of the effort I put into it and the results I got. I just don’t have the energy nor motivation to dedicate the time that I would need to reach a personally-satisfactory level, and because being unable to is frustrating, I quit altogether. As you might guess, with the nostalgic sentiments appearing on this blog every so often, I still wonder about that decision.

For old time’s sake, here’s the last Picnic Day demo I participated in from 2008. Yours truly at the 0:59-seconds mark. It’s not my best, but the shoddy zooming makes it look more exciting than it really is. Plus my hair looks kinda cool.

I drove up to Davis this past Saturday to revisit my old haunts in conjunction with the 95th Annual UCD Picnic Day. I don’t remember quite so many people participating in the festivities on Picnic Day, but then I realized it is UCD’s 100th year anniversary. Woo, go Aggies!

While I normally don’t have too much school spirit, I did want to return as a UCD KungFu Club alumna and perform with some of my other KFC alumni brethren. It was then that I realized I hadn’t done a whole half-form with any sort of intensity since the last Picnic Day; as a result, Wushu felt incredibly awkward, as my body has acclimated to a soft easy lifestyle, yet kind of familiar and exhilarating. I’m still feeling the sore hamstrings 4 days later, so I don’t think I’m in any sort of rush to return to old training days. In any case, it’s good to see that the club is still alive and kicking (pun intended! haha!) with new members–those cats were fast as lightning!–it makes me feel a bit less guilty that the club has diminished a bit since our good friend and founding member Alan left a 50-member roster in our hands when he left Davis.

Unfortunately, we missed the annual Doxie Derby, where tons of little dachshund hounds race against each other. How is it that I’ve seen the races only ONCE since I started attending UCD? Ri-diculous. We actually missed a lot of events that we had hoped to see, but I was content just to do the things we used to do–sit at the lounge, eat subpar-yet-expensive baked goods from the MU Bakery, eat bagels, drink Arizona Sweet Tea at the MU in between classes while working on crossword puzzl homework.

We also visited the MUGA (Memorial Union Games Area), where Eric and Linda used to play SUPER. SEGA. GT. everyday while waiting (and thus, missing) the bus. I used to work as a student manager there, and the bowling customers would say things like, “I think your lanes are tilted; my ball keeps rolling to the right.” WELL! MAYBE, you suck at bowling! (I’m terrible in bowling too, but you don’t see me blaming it on the lanes!) Ah, good times.

I finally picked up the “UCD Cow Tipping Team” shirt I had been wanting for a year. Since there’s never much to do in Davis, people tend to ask if I used to tip over unsuspecting bovines in the middle of the night. I might as well advertise that I’m part of a very elite, competitive team.

The one thing I discovered this year is the Battle of the Bands, where different university bands come together and play in rotation starting at 8am. Each band drops out of the rotation when they run out of new songs to play. They do this until there’s a winner or 10pm, whichever comes first.  Stanford played a 30-minute piece and all the university bands joined in; the percussionists took turns with solos while running across the lake, lying on the ground, and pulling a bunch of other stunts. There were an insane number of people at Spafford Lake watching on the lawn, and the atmosphere was really fun and crazy. I’ve been totally missing out!

Anyway, it was good to be back for just the day, from the all-familiar KFC demo to the post-Picnic-Day red-cup parties. I do miss having so many friends and peers close by everyday, since I took it for granted when I was still in school, but if given the choice, I don’t think I’d go back to that life; I’m definitely enjoying work and the “real world” more and always excited to see what’s coming up next.

…Speaking of which, I came down with a fever yesterday while flying to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a 4-day business trip. THIS part of the “real” world, I’m not enjoying much. :(

Started off the weekend very nicely with an amazing Moroccan-Mediterranean Californian fusion dinner at Aziza in SF! The piquillo-almond spread on flatbread was especially delicious, and I can see why the lamb shank comes so highly recommended.

Headed to Local Kitchen & Wine Merchant shortly after dinner to meet Kim and company, and then to Kate O’Brien’s, where the entire bar busted out singing along with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” - all kinds of awesome!

On Saturday, I attended (for FOURTEEN HOURS) the 17th Annual Chinese Martial Arts Tournament. As always, I regret not participating in the competition. But I wouldn’t have been able to compete anyway, since I haven’t trained since the the 16th CMAT last year and have virtually quit since then, due to changes in priorities and the frustration associated with the lack of drive and thus, the lack of improvement. Perhaps if I can pick up Wushu recreationally and just constantly remind myself that I can train without the competitive edge and simply for appreciation of the art.

In any case, Linda performed really well. I am amazed that she was able to recover from a torn ACL two years ago and train to compete again! Eric did very well, too; solid performances all around, and especially impressive in the advanced division of staff and broadsword - respectively, 2nd and 3rd place winner! WINNARRR!

Friends have really improved in the past year, and I was especially impressed with Evelyn, gold medal winner in Intermediate Female Changquan, and Ashley, who medaled in the Intermediate Female jianshu (straightsword) event!

In any case, tournament and afterparty were fun for the most part, nice to be reunited and it feeeeeels so gooood with lots of old faces! (Cookie for the person that can identify title and artist of that song!)