Wanted to go up to Irvine this weekend to catch #4 Cal water polo in action, but alas, it is not to be.  C’est la vie.

Going to have to let my alumni spirit be pumped by last night’s high school outreach session.  These college fairs are always fun events, with the alums working the table to talk to high school students about Cal, what it means to be a Bear, and why Cal is Cal and not just another UC[FillInTheBlank].  There were three of us at it last night: an attorney, a banker and a Marine officer with graduation years from 1984 to 2001, and it was a blast.  As always, there were just enough kids that had the right attitude and class that I can really hope to be seeing them at alumni events in six years or so.   There were a lot of others too, mostly being towed around by their parents, but I’m just tuning them out.  Looking for leaders and hope, not more sheep.

Need more positive thinking and hope for the future.  California, and Cal, have huge problems facing them.  Years and years of chronic mismanagement have led to a state so gridlocked that it can’t keep office doors open for forty-hour workweeks and courts have to take furlough days to keep their budget balanced (and it’s not like they were providing timely services in the first place).  Really having a lot of doubts about the future of this state, and not yet seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

Maybe one of these kids will have the answer.  Unfortunately I think they’ll have a shot at solving the problem.  I don’t see the current officials in Sacramento (or the self-proclaimed outsiders positioning for office) having the answers, and certainly don’t see anyone paying down the massive public debts before these kids graduate and enter the work force.

Sorry this is turning so serious.  Maybe I should’ve been irresponsible and headed up to Irvine anyways.  Fiscal extravagance is the California way.  Then I could be sitting back in the bleachers saying ‘oh, that’s pretty‘ and watched Cal dominate the way Bears should.

It’s been a long week.  I’m ready for the weekend.  Big thoughts are just depressing me, so, to paraphrase Buffy “fire pretty.”  If I remember right she meant fire literally, but I’m just thinking of the hotness and the glistening light.