5 Years of Living in San Francisco!

August marks my FIVE YEAR anniversary of moving to San Francisco! Yes, I realize that by now, August is basically over, but the whole blog renovation held up blog posting. Time has both flown by and at the same time I feel like I’ve been here forever! That also means this blog is over five yrs old, since I started it less than a year before I moved. Five years ago at the very end of June, I left my job, my first one out of college, where I’d worked for 6 yrs, donated and threw out most of my stuff, packed up maybe 2 boxes and my 2 suitcases, took my cat Jax and my roommate, and left Boston, the place I’d called home for the past ten years. Jax and I stayed at a friend’s house in Providence, RI for the month of July. This was my first real time off since I was a kid, where I had no expectations, and I had fun being lazy in the 90s and 100 degree heat wave, walk

August 2006 by the GG Bridge - Starting on the SF Chapter of My Life

ing around the city, reading, going online, hanging with friends, and looking forward to my new life. On one of the last days of the month, after a traumatizingly long airplane ride, Jax the cat and I arrived in Reno, NV. The outlying areas, with the mountains, and over to Lake Tahoe were beautiful! This was home base for a week or so while my best friend and our other friend we moved with and I looked for a place to live in San Francisco. It was August when I first set eyes on SF. It seemed really, really big compared to Boston. And less historic. And COLD!! I NEVER expected that CA would be cold, especially in the summer, and especially after coming from a giant heat wave! BRR! The beginning was rocky…I couldn’t find a job, our apartment, when we got one, was not in a great spot (Parkside), the whole living situation was off, there was never any sun (hi fog!!), I didn’t know anyone, I was POOR, all of us were poor, we could only afford small, bad meals, there was lots of drama, I felt like maybe I’d made a mistake. But I couldn’t go back!! I was done with new England, and plus, after making SUCH a big fuss over moving to the other side of the country, I couldn’t admit defeat! So I stuck with it. I created a social group with a few hundred women, which didn’t work out in the end, but got me involved for the time being. I found a temp job, which turned permanent. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but money is money and the people were nice. I joined a gym again (those few months with no gym were torture!). I moved to a better neighborhood (castro). I met people. I could gradually afford a computer, better food, better clothes… I learned about the culture here… and I got a bit integrated. Lots of drama has happened since that first year or so when I was getting broken into SF. Lots of good and bad things. I’ve lost friends, made friends, lost friends again, kept the most important ones. My kitty Jax died an early death. I got healthier, in better shape, and better looking. I felt worse, better, both, neither. There are LOTS of things that annoy me about this city. LOTS. But I still really like living here! I don’t know if I’ll be here forever, perhaps not. I think I’ll always have some east coast-ness in me, so I’ll never fully be a San Franciscan. But when I went back to boston a little over a year ago, I wasn’t a Bostonian either. I certainly wasn’t a NH’ian when I visited back there this month. I’m weird, but so is SF. So maybe I fit in after all.