All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

These past three days were insane! Our band, Phantom Scream, had a show Friday evening. Afterwards, I must’ve been outside talking with friends for 30 minutes! When I finally left from No Future Cafe, I went home to shower and pack.

• Jordan’s sister took his PS2, so they asked me to bring mine. Little did we know that we would need an adapter for the TV. That was a waste.
• I installed Google Gears onto my laptop, but when I restarted Firefox, I didn’t see a tiny button in the top of Google Reader to download my feeds like I did on my desktop. So, I didn’t get a chance to catch up on feed reading on the drive there and back.

Saturday

We didn’t leave until 12:30am, but not before I got money from an ATM and we stopped at Carl’s Jr for dinner. Bill ordered our food at the drive-in window. Funny story about that:

Bill: I’ll have ten chicken sandwiches.
Me: Bill! What the freak? Hold on! Gimme a #16 with a Dr. Pepper.
Bill: Ok, I’ll have a #16 with a Dr. Pepper, 10 chicken sandwiches…
Teller: 16 small Dr. Peppers…
Bill: No, what!?!

We arrived in San Francisco around 7am. We went to the Golden Gate Bridge, walked around for a bit and took pictures. Then, we went to the Motel 6 in South San Francisco. Matt tried to get us checked in early, but that didn’t work. To kill time, we drove in search for McDonald’s (which Matt wanted). The GPS said there was one, but was it mistaken.

Instead, we ate breakfast at Crepes On Grand in South San Francisco. I had a hearty omelet, which was very tasty, and Jordan had a crepe. I had a taste and thought it was really good! Bill slept in the car and skipped breakfast.

We got back to Motel 6 around 9am and Jordan tried. They said they would call him if a room was ready early. So, we slept in the car until 10am, when we got the phone call. Sweet! Matt and Jordan were trying to talk us into going to batting practice at 11am. That’s nuts. We napped until 12:30pm before leaving for AT&T Park.

Our tickets were for standing-room only. I endured standing alongside Matt, while Bill and Jordan took open bleacher seats a couple rows in front of us. Lots of Dodger and Giant fans were either hi-fiving us or cursing us. It was hilarious. The game was awesome because the Dodgers won! Fortunately for Giants fans, I’m not one to rub it in their faces.

Back at the motel room, we were relaxing. Me and Matt ordered pizza for supper (late lunch, early dinner) because we opted out of lunch at the stadium. Bill and Jordan were hyped to go out, but we were exhausted. They went to some restaurant at Fisherman’s Wharf for clam chowder. Afterwards, we later found out they went to five art galleries just because. However, Matt and I were sleeping around 8pm.

Sunday

We woke up around 10:30am, dressed, packed our things, and checked out. Then, we headed to the piers by the stadium for breakfast.

Jordan and I settled on Boudin Sourdough Bakery & Cafe, while Matt and Bill got some clam chowder and fish & chips. After a somewhat hearty meal, we left for free parking a mile or two away from the stadium. We found a better free parking spot than yesterday.

Matt’s boss got us some free tickets on the third level behind home plate. At first, it was four, then just two. Since I was with Matt on Saturday, he hooked me up with the other one. Later in the game, Jordan and Bill were able to sneak down to some really good seats one level up, between home plate and first base, by asking departing Giants fans for their ticket stubs.

The view from our seats were spectacular! We had sun for the first few innings, but shade for the majority of the game. It was a refreshing difference from being sunburned on Saturday. The rough thing about the sun in San Francisco is that when it’s breezy, you think you’ll be fine.

After another Dodger victory, and couple more photos in front of the stadium, we drove home.

• Matt was possessed! He drove the majority of the time (there and back), totaling about 11 hours.
• The GPS navigation helped us see that an In-N-Out was imminent, because that’s what Bill was craving for (as opposed to Wendy’s). We knew far it was away, and if our hunger could hold for that long.
• Having comedians to listen to melts the hours away. We listened to [the late] Mitch Hedberg, Demetri Martin and Dane Cook.
• FM transmitters are lame. How much would it cost to include an auxiliary input jack in all cars? (The commercials for most cars call it an “MP3 jack.”)

My photoset of our weekend road trip to San Francisco

Jordan called me up a few minutes ago. “We have an extra ticket for this weekend’s baseball games - do you want to go?” Freddy bailed out last minute, and although he was willing to pay for the tickets he bought, Jordan’s been trying to find someone because four guys is better than three.

What ticket?

Technically, it’s two tickets. We’re going to games 2 and 3 (on Saturday, July 14th and Sunday, July 15th) between the S.F. Giants and the L.A. Dodgers.

After our show on Friday night, we’re driving up to San Francisco. (We as in Matt, Jordan, Bill, and me.) I’ve had no part in planning, but with what Jordan told me about the cost:

• tickets: $50 for the two games
• Motel 6 (near SFO): $25/night per person
• car rental: $25
• gasoline: $30
• food: $50/minimum (six meals)

For me, this is going to be insane because I’m working Friday, driving straight to Pasadena for our show, melting the faces of our fans, then leaving for San Francisco. Supposedly, Matt will be sleeping all day Friday so he can drive as much as possible through the night.

Goal for the baseball games: get our retirement money by catching Barry Bonds‘ 755^th or 756^th home runs. (That means he needs to hit 2 home runs on Friday, 2 home runs on Saturday, and 1 on Sunday to experience some craziness like never before.)

After the game on Saturday afternoon, as far as I know, we have nothing planned. I’m sure the guys will figure something out. Otherwise, if any of you up there want to hang out and give us an unforgettable road trip, here’s my cellphone number: (626) 485-5484. I’m on Verizon Wireless, so minutes and text/MMS messages are free if you have the same. Cheap Cost-effective activities are preferred - we’re not swimming in money (yet).

This is going to be a crazy weekend…

Mel posted a bunch of links pertaining to travel and packing stuff. I’m going to look through a few of these because I’ll be taking a short-distance 3-day trip on Labor Day weekend, and I hate it when I have too much stuff to carry into our hotel/motel.