That Was Fun to Sum Up

I have moved. I live in San Francisco, CA now, and I'm excited to begin this part of my life.

I keep telling myself that, because right now, for the past twenty-two hours I've been fighting off a pretty good dose of panic. Cards on the table: I don't like change, period. I don't like it when it involves moving in with (good-natured and very nice) strangers, I don't like it when it means unfamiliar noises all the time, I don't like it when it means I don't wake up and feed my dog first thing in the morning, and I don't like it when it means not seeing my family anymore.

I moved out of my family's house for the first time just after I turned 19. There was a fight, and I was out. I was back a week later, but for the first few days I was sure that was it. I moved out again in August of '05. I hadn't seen it coming (another fight) and I stayed on couches, and in guest rooms of friends for three months. I finally found a place in November, and moved in with a couple in their late-twenties, early-thirties (I'm terrible at guessing in that age range). They kept to themselves so much that they'd backpacked around France for two weeks without me really noticing they were gone. It wasn't a great situation, and it ended with me moving home quickly. I moved home to save money to study abroad, and lived at home for four months. I was in London for a little over three months, and then a month after I got home, I was moving to Santa Cruz.

I lived in one house (staying with friends secretly and hiding from the landlord) for six months, and then moved across town with one of my friends. We were there for maybe a month and a half before I realized it wasn't working: I was horribly uncomfortable with the people there, and I was spending all my time at the house of other friends up in the Santa Cruz mountains. I moved there, kind of screwing my roommate over in the process. I wasn't upfront with him, snuck around, and told him what was going on after he'd figured it out. It wasn't great. The house in the hills ended in another not good situation, one I'd rather not go into right now. Regardless, I moved out in April, and moved in with my girlfriend. After she left in August to for a D.C.-based internship, I moved in with some guys I knew from work, and after a bunch of bad experiences which anyone could see coming in a "moving in with frat guys" scenario. After that I moved home, rebuilding my relationship with my family saving [some] money, and finally preparing to transfer to a 4-year school.

So here I am. Moving out after another twenty months. It's a lot to get used to, and you can see that I'm a little once [eight times] bitten, twice shy about moving to any new place. I worry that this isn't going to end well, and that's not really a rational worry.

It feels a lot better to get that all out, thanks for reading, if you did. If you didn't, it's no biggie.

Tomorrow starts a big day of putting the finishing touches on the apartment, starting the job hunt, and practicing taking the buses to SFSU. Adios!

I'll post some SF pictures soon, I have my camera, but not the upload cable.

Title to Come Later

It's been quite a few days, a roller coaster of a week, really.

Saturday the 15th- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Day! As was expected, Scott Pilgrim was absolutely awesome. Highly entertaining, and a whole lot like the comics. Okay, technically a number of things were different, but since the screenplay was written before the final book came out, that's something you can just accept and move on from. I definitely have to go see it again, but I've been busy this week, so it hasn't happened yet. Soon!

Sunday the 16th- A pretty big day. I went with some friends (from the summer camp I volunteer at) to a church in Danville to see our campers put on their end-of-summer service to share with the congregation what all their help in funding the camp meant to them. It was a really moving experience, and I'm glad I went. Those kids are pretty amazing, and what they do with the youth program at that church is inspiring. [For instance, they just a new youth room. What is it? It's a room with some couches, a table, some chairs, cabinets and a sink. What does our new youth room have? A big tv, an X-Box, and a DVD player. Something's wrong here.]

After the service, my friend Tyler [girl] and I went with the kids to a service project they had that day. They were going to an interfaith housing complex that provides permanent housing for formerly homeless families so that their kids can be in school, even if the parents aren't in a place [physically, mentally, what-have-you] to hold down a job. The Danville group went out and entertained the kids with games and put together a big BBQ, after which we headed out for the drive home (missing most of the clean-up, oops!).

Monday the 17th- I found an apartment in San Francisco! 10th and Kirkham in the Inner Sunset neighborhood, and it was fantastic! Everything was settled, I met the landlady and she gave me her blessing. I made it home and started packing up in order to move in later in the week.

Wednesday the 18th- No response as to when I can move in.

Thursday the 19th- Email saying unfortunately I can't move in until Sunday the 22nd. Not a problem, just a few more days to get ready. A few hours later? Phonecall saying the landlady had changed her mind, wasn't renting the place out and ::BAM:: that's that. I went back up to SF and looked at two places from Craigslist, both of which turned out to be basement/garages which had [very very minimally] been turned into bedrooms. Dungeon bedroom? No thank you.

Friday the 20th- One more early AM house call, in the Inner Sunset again, only this one was nice! Told the woman showing the room that I'd give her a call in a couple hours. Two hours and one breakfast later I was drawing up paperwork with the owner, sitting in a cafe on Irving Street.

Saturday the 21st- Moving day! Made four trips from the San Mateo coastside up to San Francisco took the whole day, but with the help of my brother's past Christmas-tree-farm-roof-tying skills, mattresses and box springs [the most biggest items] were strapped to the roof of the '92 Lincoln Town Car that used to belong to my eighty-year-old grandmother. We certainly looked a sight driving up the highway like that. It was a rather large undertaking, but I made it! I live in San Francisco now, and that's something I've wanted to say since I decided city living was for me back while studying in London in 2006. It's exciting and nerve-racking, and a ton of things that I didn't want to think about which will be covered in a later post.

First Real Entry

If you're seeing this for the first time, welcome! This is technically the first entry here, but you might notice there are older posts here, too. I've imported everything from my last blog, The DailyBlerg, because I'm generally fond of what I wrote there. Just because a blog with the word "daily" in the title was feeling like a lot of pressure doesn't mean we didn't part amicably.

Moving on.

So this blog is something I felt like I should start up, mainly because I'm moving to San Francisco in a few days, and I need a place to, at the risk of sounding like a pretentious douchebag, "chronicle" my new situation. Also, I just like writing whenever I feel like doing it, so this blog will serve that purpose as well. The 2010 midterms are heating up, so things around here may heat up accordingly.

In other news, today I worked my last shift at the pizza place where I've worked since early 2007. I worked in two different locations, and I've got to say, I'm going to miss it a lot. I'm never a big fan of change, and leaving such a fun environment is a pain. I really care a lot about everyone I worked with in both places (okay, almost everyone) and I hope they know that. I'm not sure I would have grown as much, or as well, as I have these past three years without these people and experiences. There were ups, there were downs, but I'm incredibly grateful to have been a part of that community, learning to be more like myself.

Maybe I'm just being sentimental because it's late and I'm tired and listening to Tegan & Sara. Probably that's a big part of it. Good night.