First Ramblings/A Move Across the Country

Yes, I've started a blog. I'm guessing many of you weren't surprised. I decided to start the blog because 2 weeks ago yesterday I moved 3,000 miles across the country to San Francisco, CA, leaving many of my family and friends behind (hi guys!) to venture into the land of burritos, liberal thinking, and birkenstocks. I had a job (more on that to come) lined up, no house, and managed to make the move with 3 suitcases and a backpack.

Let's break this up a bit better for organization's sake.

First day:

I get to San Francisco at 1pm PST after 10 hours of traveling. Needless to say, I'm exhausted. Apparently though this makes little difference in my day's activities, as I hop on Adam's bike as soon as I get in to go check out an apartment, the first of 2 viewings that day. The place was...eh. Dirty, living with a somewhat strange younger couple who talked about chore wheels and greenhouses. I have nothing against either, but it just wasn't a right fit. Fast forward about 20 minutes later and I'm at the corner of 19th and Valencia. I call the guy to view the 2nd place, and I look up to hear a phone ringing on a guy standing on a door stoop. Good timing. Adam's come along for the ride/I made him, and we take a tour of the place. It's bright, sunny, hardwood floors, and the guy showing it is pretty cool. Adam asks if he goes to The Phoenix, an Irish bar next door where Erin works. He does, and he knows Erin, even saying to Adam, "Oh you're the roommate who's moving out?" This connection is what gives me the In to this place, and on Monday I hand over my first rent and deposit check, with a movein date of June 1st.

Some quick photos....

My room. Yes, I have a bay window. It's a gorgeous room, with a big closet and Craigslist-acquired furniture. It's also in the best location I could ask for. 3 blocks to the BART (SF's metro), and within 2 blocks of some of the best food, bars, and boutiques I've been to. I'm living in the Mission district, with a heavy Hispanic population, balanced out by hipsters. I am neither, but I'm loving it regardless.

Oh right, roommates. There's Westin, who is 26ish?, works as a pizza cook but wants to get into tech stuff, is very tall and quiet with the occasional sarcastic zinger in there. I've seen him maybe twice in the past week, but he's a cool guy.

Greg is 27, works in construction, and is also quite laidback. The construction aspect has come in handy as he built a soundproofing thing on one side of my wall (which would have sliding doors, but is now just sheet rock). We got a beer together earlier last week, but beyond that haven't seen him too often.

Adrienne is 20, an anthropology major (that's right) at SF State, and works at Nordstrom. She's really sweet and also just moved in, and we're getting along well so far. In general I couldn't be happier with my living situation.

This is the view from my room, looking out onto Twin Peaks. It's pretty beautiful. It looks hilly here, but the Mission is actually really flat, which is useful when....
I'm on my bike! Yes, the red Schwinn was left behind on the East Coast, and the Centurion has taken its place. Besides some asshole stealing my bike light it's been a positive experience. It's light and fast, and more importantly teal, and is basically how I get everywhere around here.

I guess I'm still supposed to be writing about my first day. It can be summed up rather quickly. After the apartment viewings me, Adam, and Matt went to go see an Oakland A's game against the Red Sox. A's won, and it was a one-hitter. Pretty great.

Day 2:

We wake up and get breakfast at St. Francis, a delicious and historic soda fountain place 3 blocks away. This is also the day of Carnaval in the Mission, so when we walk outside one of the first things we see is 12 or so scantily clad girls rehearsing a dance routine. This is also the slowest moving parade ever, as it took them the entire time we were at breakfast to move 1.5 blocks. I guess everything really does move slower in California.

The rest of the week was nice and low-key. After the fair we went to Taco Sunday at Matt's house, where I ate my body weight in mini-tacos and played beer pong. For those of you who don't know, I'm terrible at beer pong, and graduating from college hasn't changed this. Monday-Thursday was spent finding my bike, stalking Craigslist for furniture, and exploring the city.

Friday was....BIRTHDAY DAY. It kicked off with getting more brunch at St. Francis, followed by a trip to Thrift Town to find a costume for Matt's house's SpeakyEasy themed party. I decided to forgo the flapper dress and went for the Jersey housewife look, complete with velour one-piece jumper, tacky belt, and gold chains. Maybe I was more 80s than 20s, but it worked. The party was really fun, and I even had friends there! This being less than 1 week into Operation: MATC (Move Across the Country) I was pleased to not be awkwardly standing in a corner perusing the bookshelfs and making smalltalk with the landlord. It was kind of a non-birthday birthday, but I can't complain seeing as how velour jumpers and french toast was involved.

The rest of the weekend was kind of a blah blah blah sit around and eat blahblah move into the new apartment, and was too uneventful to relate here.

The next Monday, June 2nd, I started my new job. I'm working at a tiny boutique tech firm right in the heart of the Financial District, literally 20 steps from my BART stop. So far I'm loving it. It's only 6 other people, and they're all incredibly nice and laidback. The president is kind of a Steve Jobs/geeky dad figure, who is pretty soft-spoken and easy going. My supervisor is an early 30s mom who is totally the "cool mom" type...fun, nice, and relaxed. The other VP is your standard sarcastic woman who I can't tell if she's a lesbian, living with her dog and commenting on everything going on in the office. The media director is an ex-cheerleader/the girl who interviewed. She's predictably sweet and bubbly. The intern is 22, insanely talkative, but really nice--we've gotten lunch and gone on food-finding adventures this week, and she's given me lots of good suggestions on places to go in the city, as well as the office gossip (obviously). The people are cool, and so far the work has been easy and low-pressure, so I'm pleased with how it's going. Hopefully it'll stay this course and not turn into a crazy, high-stress environment like where I was before. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but am optimistic.

I still have so much more to write about, but will hold off for now. I don't want to get carpal tunnel, and I don't want yall's eyes to bleed from reading so much. I'm hoping to keep this thing updated a few times a week so that you can all keep e-tabs on me and so that I have a place to tell all the little stories that happen to me, so let's hope I keep to that timetable.

Alright, first entry....done.