Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
"HATE" not "HEIGHT"
For a long and arduous 10 weeks of the summer I followed the same daily pattern:
wake up, go to class or study at 9, bart to work by 11, come back around 7, swim, study, write secondary essays, sleep. wake up and do the same thing M-F and try not to fall behind. It was pretty hard trying to manage all of that in my waking hours, and I was pretty sad I didn't get to hang out with my litto roomates more :\. The balance between full time work/school/secondaries was a full time job but luckily an expiration date dangled ahead: August 12th. On this sacred date, my anatomy final would be over, my secondaries would be pretty much complete, and my summer internship would end.
All of these events were great news except for the last one- I really loved my internship and was genuinely sad to leave. So when my awesome bawse invited me to stay until next spring, I literally jumped out of my seat in surprise. I felt blindsided by a roundhouse punch to the stomach, except it was awesome and exciting instead of painful! I was not expecting it at all. Now that I was done with the school/application work, I could finally put all my eggs in one basket and focus my resources on something I really enjoyed.
Despite the great news, there was one splinter in the plan. My lease in Berkeley was over. My work was in San Francisco. My home is in San Jose. With only a weekend (in vegas!) before my full time work started, I got my ass on craigslist and find a place to live...
And SO began a very messy situation. After Vegas/LA, I packed up all my belongings from bittersweet 2121 Durant and moved them back to cupertino. I joined the 3 hours commute club to SF all while trying to kiss ass of the leaseholders in SF. The commute became such a pain I ended up temporarily crashing with my cousin in the marina district (loveley view, by the way), still spending a considerable amount of time on craigslist/going to open houses, etc.
During this time, I learned a valuable lesson. Not having a home base really fudges with your lifestyle. Lacking the resources and free time that comes with having a home made me feel really unhealthy. I couldn't cook so I ate out most of the time. In addition, with mornings and nights now committed to transit, I rarely had time to run. This totally put my schedule out of whack and made me seriously reconsider whether I could pull off a marathon in a month -__-
For about a month I was in really shifty housing, and was getting super desperate to find somewhere to live. After dealing with about a hundred failed craigslist fiascos I finally found my love. It was a cute flat by duboce park, sandwiched by the golden gate park only a mile west and work a mile east! The neighborhood is called Lower Haight, which unbeknownst to me a few weeks ago, is pronounced like "HATE."The roomates seemed chill, the price was ridiculously handsome, and the location made it golden. While it was still within the vicinity of exciting city life, my neighborhood itself pretty much fit the definition of quaint.
Little did I know what tease this would be. For 3 weeks I waited on the girls to give me green light. They insisted they liked me, but had to meet up with some other potential tenants before they could make a decision. FOR THREE weeks they kept me on edge. This is eternity for someone who is looking for a place, really. My cousin even said "if they liked you, they would have given you the place on the spot." Harsh reality sucked. I was just about to fold after waiting for so long...but alas! On a random groggy night after watching Captain America, the girls called me over again and within a few days we had sealed the deal.
Fantastic.
-------
Saturday
This weekend I finally moved in. Yesterday my family helped me turn in an empty room into my very own niche, complete with a queen size bed, dresser, armchair, and good ol' carpet. To celebrate we had some deep dish pizza from little star :).
Then, I finally had my first "real" night out in the city yesterday and came home to my new... home :)
--------------
Sunday:
This morning I walked to safeway (yes its walking distance!) and explored some of the castro area before heading out to last minute race at golden gate park. Made some new friends and met some cool people.
---
Monday
25 minutes. It takes 25 minutes to walk from my place to work. Not SUPER close, but good enough to get a breezy walk in :). After a pretty good day at work
I headed to the golden gate park to get some miles in. Despite marginal blindness (contacts are still @ home) I got another taste of just how excellent this city is. Well aware that I am a new San Franciscan, I'd like to state my humble opinion that what makes San Francisco so excellent is the full spectrum of personalities. San Francisco is so diverse. Each neighborhood has such a different feel that as you go from east to west, north to south- you feel like you're traversing a small country. For instance, although they are separated by just a few blocks:
Cow Hollow- land of old couples, doggie grooming salons, and post grad sorority and frat boys. If you are rich and white, you may just fit in great here
Civic Center- Judging by the title, you may assume that the Mayor resides in a district of luxury...or at least pretty decent sidewalk sanitation? While the civic center plaza itself is nice, human defecation is spotted quite regularly on the sidewalks. If there is a strip club on your left, a liquor store on the right, and you are wondering if that's urine you smell, it probably is -__-. Hey this is where I work!
In addition, SF is really a collection of microclimates. Golden gate park/richmond/sunset is notorious for its cloudy weather although the fog's been lifting more generously these days. I hear the summer in San Francisco comes around about now, and gets really warm for a short few weeks. South of market/mission is sunny side up, and if you're walking down van ness the wind might just hit you from behind and knock you over (either that or a mugger will!) heh heh...sorry, that was in poor taste.
I really love it here. I hope I never forget how lucky I am to have this. I guess it worked out, and I guess good things happen to people who wait. And I hope I am right to have faith in this.
wake up, go to class or study at 9, bart to work by 11, come back around 7, swim, study, write secondary essays, sleep. wake up and do the same thing M-F and try not to fall behind. It was pretty hard trying to manage all of that in my waking hours, and I was pretty sad I didn't get to hang out with my litto roomates more :\. The balance between full time work/school/secondaries was a full time job but luckily an expiration date dangled ahead: August 12th. On this sacred date, my anatomy final would be over, my secondaries would be pretty much complete, and my summer internship would end.
All of these events were great news except for the last one- I really loved my internship and was genuinely sad to leave. So when my awesome bawse invited me to stay until next spring, I literally jumped out of my seat in surprise. I felt blindsided by a roundhouse punch to the stomach, except it was awesome and exciting instead of painful! I was not expecting it at all. Now that I was done with the school/application work, I could finally put all my eggs in one basket and focus my resources on something I really enjoyed.
Despite the great news, there was one splinter in the plan. My lease in Berkeley was over. My work was in San Francisco. My home is in San Jose. With only a weekend (in vegas!) before my full time work started, I got my ass on craigslist and find a place to live...
And SO began a very messy situation. After Vegas/LA, I packed up all my belongings from bittersweet 2121 Durant and moved them back to cupertino. I joined the 3 hours commute club to SF all while trying to kiss ass of the leaseholders in SF. The commute became such a pain I ended up temporarily crashing with my cousin in the marina district (loveley view, by the way), still spending a considerable amount of time on craigslist/going to open houses, etc.
During this time, I learned a valuable lesson. Not having a home base really fudges with your lifestyle. Lacking the resources and free time that comes with having a home made me feel really unhealthy. I couldn't cook so I ate out most of the time. In addition, with mornings and nights now committed to transit, I rarely had time to run. This totally put my schedule out of whack and made me seriously reconsider whether I could pull off a marathon in a month -__-
For about a month I was in really shifty housing, and was getting super desperate to find somewhere to live. After dealing with about a hundred failed craigslist fiascos I finally found my love. It was a cute flat by duboce park, sandwiched by the golden gate park only a mile west and work a mile east! The neighborhood is called Lower Haight, which unbeknownst to me a few weeks ago, is pronounced like "HATE."The roomates seemed chill, the price was ridiculously handsome, and the location made it golden. While it was still within the vicinity of exciting city life, my neighborhood itself pretty much fit the definition of quaint.
Little did I know what tease this would be. For 3 weeks I waited on the girls to give me green light. They insisted they liked me, but had to meet up with some other potential tenants before they could make a decision. FOR THREE weeks they kept me on edge. This is eternity for someone who is looking for a place, really. My cousin even said "if they liked you, they would have given you the place on the spot." Harsh reality sucked. I was just about to fold after waiting for so long...but alas! On a random groggy night after watching Captain America, the girls called me over again and within a few days we had sealed the deal.
Fantastic.
-------
Saturday
This weekend I finally moved in. Yesterday my family helped me turn in an empty room into my very own niche, complete with a queen size bed, dresser, armchair, and good ol' carpet. To celebrate we had some deep dish pizza from little star :).
Then, I finally had my first "real" night out in the city yesterday and came home to my new... home :)
--------------
Sunday:
This morning I walked to safeway (yes its walking distance!) and explored some of the castro area before heading out to last minute race at golden gate park. Made some new friends and met some cool people.
---
Monday
25 minutes. It takes 25 minutes to walk from my place to work. Not SUPER close, but good enough to get a breezy walk in :). After a pretty good day at work
I headed to the golden gate park to get some miles in. Despite marginal blindness (contacts are still @ home) I got another taste of just how excellent this city is. Well aware that I am a new San Franciscan, I'd like to state my humble opinion that what makes San Francisco so excellent is the full spectrum of personalities. San Francisco is so diverse. Each neighborhood has such a different feel that as you go from east to west, north to south- you feel like you're traversing a small country. For instance, although they are separated by just a few blocks:
Cow Hollow- land of old couples, doggie grooming salons, and post grad sorority and frat boys. If you are rich and white, you may just fit in great here
Civic Center- Judging by the title, you may assume that the Mayor resides in a district of luxury...or at least pretty decent sidewalk sanitation? While the civic center plaza itself is nice, human defecation is spotted quite regularly on the sidewalks. If there is a strip club on your left, a liquor store on the right, and you are wondering if that's urine you smell, it probably is -__-. Hey this is where I work!
In addition, SF is really a collection of microclimates. Golden gate park/richmond/sunset is notorious for its cloudy weather although the fog's been lifting more generously these days. I hear the summer in San Francisco comes around about now, and gets really warm for a short few weeks. South of market/mission is sunny side up, and if you're walking down van ness the wind might just hit you from behind and knock you over (either that or a mugger will!) heh heh...sorry, that was in poor taste.
I really love it here. I hope I never forget how lucky I am to have this. I guess it worked out, and I guess good things happen to people who wait. And I hope I am right to have faith in this.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
my commute today
home, bart, work in oakland, SF, all in a day's work. first time lasso-ing the bay in one day! good thing i didn't get lost and drive it again halfway then not make it back home.
heh heh
Sunday, September 4, 2011
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