California So Far
A lot of people have asked me how I like living in the Bay Area so far … and I’ve been responding enthusiastically - “So far I really like it. ” Of course, I pretty much expected that, but you know, change … it’s hard and unexpected, especially when you leave somewhere that you really liked and had lived for (most of) the last 11 years, and deciding to do this (and executing it) certainly wasn’t without stress.
But I really lucked out in finding this apartment, which is starting to feel like home (there’s a few more things to do in the office/spare room that I hope I’ll finally get to over the 4-day Thanksgiving weekend). It’s a spacious 2 BR/2 BA apartment (according to my building manager it’s 1400 square feet, which is bigger than my townhouse in Seattle!) in a building with about 30 units. The neighbors I’ve met so far seem really nice. The more I get to know my neighborhood, the more I really like it. This morning I checked out the new coffee shop at the end of my block, and as you can see from my Yelp review, I really liked it.
So far most of the restaurants I’ve checked out have been really good as well. There’s a great sushi place a couple blocks down. Across the street from that is a Mexican taqueria, with good food at good prices. Closer to home is a Thai restaurant I’ve liked so far, and nearby are Ethiopian and Korean BBQ restaurants I’ve yet to try but hear good things about. That’s just on the near side of the freeway - cross over and there are a lot more options, most of which I haven’t had a chance to try yet (though I have had gelato from one of the two gelato places).
I can walk to Trader Joe’s, Safeway and two drugstores, in addition to my bank, a post office, and many, many other shops and restaurants. There’s a great farmer’s market on Saturday mornings. I have yet to hit the Grand Lake Theater since I’ve moved in, but I had gone before I moved down and really like it. Again, maybe next weekend there will be time.
Things have been crazy busy - work has had more travel than expected, so that many of my weeknights have been spent in Pasadena. On the rare nights that I’m here, cooking at home and cocooning has felt like the right thing to do. Fortunately, my kitchen was renovated right before I moved in. Although it’s not incredibly large, it is very functional, with granite countertops, a ceramic cooktop stove, a built-in microwave, and a dishwasher.
And of course, the dropzones are great - I am so happy to have several dropzones within an hour and a half that have great planes and great people - places that I genuinely enjoy going to. When I was living in Seattle, I’d stopped jumping at Snohomish altogether for various reasons, and although I made some friends down there, Kapowsin never felt like home, no matter how often I went. It’s nice to have so many good options here (not to mention more consistent weather!).
Work is … well, work. There’s a lot of things up in the air right now, not least of which is the future of my project. The full program (of which my project is a part) had its budget cut by 40% next year. What that means is that we can’t do all the work planned for next year, and some pieces of the program will get cut. I have been assured that even if my project does get cut, I’ll just get moved over to another project, not lose my job altogether. The 40% cut means no net new hiring - we’ll have the same budget in 2009 as we did in 2008. In this economy, it’s just good to have a well-paying job at a (relatively) stable organization. Now, if only I could sell my house in Seattle!
So yeah, it’s a good life I have set up here. Sean’s only 3 miles away, and it’s funny how quickly our perspective on how often we see each other has changed. He recently took a skydiving trip and was gone for about 11 days straight. I picked him up from the airport last Sunday night and promptly got on a plane to southern California myself the next morning. I came back Tuesday night just so we could hang out and have dinner (even though I needed to be back down south Wednesday morning). For 3+ years, we dealt with once a month, now a week seems too long to go without seeing each other.