Status Update

I know it’s been over a month since my last post…

• Went to LA to celebrate March family birthdays. My nephew, Sebastian, was one of the celebrants, celebrating his FIRST birthday! Too cute! Got to hang out with my family (and some friends that I also consider family). Went to a couple of my favorite eateries, of course (Daikokuya, Jessie’s Mexican Food
• When we got back, some cousins came for a visit. Despite having just received our new couch and ottoman, making the sofa uber lounge-comfy, we managed to keep them active the whole time they were here. The threat of rain pushed us to get out and go out and see the sight “before it rain(ed)”, but it never did rain and we managed to see a whole bunch of the San Francisco tourist highlights (Chinatown, Lombard/Crooked Street, Union Square, Painted Ladies, Golden Gate Park, Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, Haight/Ashbury) along with a couple of our new favorites (Coffee in West Portal; 9th & Irving; BiRite Creamery). We even made it to Muir Woods and Sausalito one day and San Jose on another day!
• Then, last week, I went to Crafty Crafty night at Counterpulse and crafted with a bunch of strangers for a couple of hours. VERY PRODUCTIVE and fun to meet new people. Beats crocheting in front of the TV for a while.
• The following day, I went to Make SF and took my first Arduino lesson. We made a temperature clock (details on the MakeSF Wiki) and I got to play Rock, Scissors, Paper with a computerized glove.

I WAS going to round out the week by going to Forage SF‘s Underground Farmer’s Market, but when driving up to the place, the line pouring out of the building and nearly wrapping around the closest corner was enough to convince me to keep moving and just wait for the next one… I’ll be there earlier next time.

Somewhere between all of this I also found a drop spindle at the thrift store and made my first yarn (still debating taking a picture or using it for stuffing); I’ve been making some hair accessories (soon to appear on Esty, I hope), I made my first (and second) Shepherd’s Pie; and made it through an iPhone Hello World tutorial. My food log has been slack since the last LA trip and I have been unmotivated (I’d say too busy, but I would be lying) for anything more than Sun Salutations. I am grateful, overwhelmed and excited.

A Short Walk from Home

The only way to come back to this blog is not to try catching up. It’s been an incredible, hectic, fun, happy, frustrating, anxious, excited couple of months and I don’t even know how to put it all on one message that can sum it up without writing a whole blogvel (blog/novel). All I know is that more stuff happens every day and if I even think about catching up, I will probably never blog again. That’s that.

It’s been really foggy right in the middle of summer, but I can’t really complain. I live 5 blocks away from Golden Gate Park (2 museums, botanical gardens, Strawberry Hill – where this picture was taken!, Conservatory of Flowers…..), about 3 miles from the Pacific Ocean (but it has been too cold for me to really even take off my socks before i even make it anywhere close to water) and just a few blocks from a really fun neighborhood called 9th and Irving (centrally located, well, at 9th Ave and Irving St) in the Inner Sunset neighborhood. As if that weren’t enough, there is also a park 5 blocks away and 10 flights of stairs up called Grand View Park that offers near-360 degree views of SF – on a clear day you can see Marin on one side of this small park and Daly City on the other.

‘Meeting all kinds of great people, exploring parts of SF I didn’t even know existed. Just having tons of fun amidst the move-in/setup madness. See you soon.

A New Hello, World

How can I even begin this post? There is so much to say and very little organization in my head to say it, so I’ll just start here: We’re Moving.

It probably feels so sudden in some respects, but in many ways, this was a long time coming and I’m not sure from where to explain this story. Here’s my attempt (warning: this post is a little cheesy, but I really just can’t help myself today):

So, a couple of years before I met McKay, I spent a good solid year going to the Bay Area just about every weekend. I had a couple of friends who I routinely visited and during those visits I got to have a lot of time in personal reflection as I explored San Francisco: I really enjoyed walking the town, exploring the tourist traps, the trendy streets, snacking from the sidewalk markets, sitting for hours at some random cafe or bookstore. It always felt like the city was a big hug opening up to me for a cozy snuggle. I decided I wanted to live there someday, but didn’t really take that thought seriously. I had a toddler waiting for me and I couldn’t just leave her behind and I was just getting my career started.

Eventually McKay and I met and we talked many times about moving out of L.A.. It seemed that every town we visited was more appealing, but there was always some event, project, career opportunity, or -insert all excuses not to move here- that kept us from leaving. McKay also felt a special bond with San Francisco during his visits there and eventually we started having a shared fantasies of moving there.

Meanwhile, reality was happening and we eventually established ourselves in our neighborhood (Atwater Village), McKay built a studio on the main drag and we even made a home out of the old nightclub building behind it. We’ve made lifelong friends of our neighbors and our planted feet really grew some great roots. Then, a few months ago, the moving bug returned a new strain with a louder voice and it seemed that despite our resistance, it was more persistent this time around. I remember just over a month ago, sitting down to talk about moving and deciding to hang out in L.A. a little longer. We created some markers that would help us decide when would be the right time and it seemed like just as quickly as we thought them up all of those question marks were being answered with all the arrows pointing to an exit!

If you have been spending time with us and suddenly noticed that we suddenly disappeared, sorry about that – almost as soon as we realized this was our time to move, we headed straight for the bunker for some strategic planning time. After many long and thoughtful discussions, we decided that now is the best time to move and the best choice is San Francisco (no big surprise if you’ve heard us fantasizing about it over the last couple of years). I believe I can say with 98% certainty that we are moving there. I reserve the 2% for when we actually have moved there, but the picture is pretty much all in focus so I think I can say it out loud now. Why San Francisco? That would take an entirely new blog, but in short we both love this town, feel equally inspired by it. Bonus: we’ll be close enough to LA that any business we need to continue will not be interrupted and the people of SF seem to love their bikes!

So, over the next couple of weeks, we will be in a mad dash to move both our home and studio to much smaller quarters in our new hometown (I’m not even really in that process yet and I’m already overwhelmed – it’s a real test of how attached I am to my material possessions) and there will certainly be plenty of stress and excitement along the way. So, if you don’t hear from us anytime soon, put your ear to the ground and stay close to your computer so you can eventually hear the humming of our machines again as we start to stir in our new hometown.