My trip to San Francisco

I'm on caffeine life support right now after the marathon drive home. I had two cups of coffee late last night--big mistake because I couldn't sleep at all; I finally fell asleep around 2:00 and kept waking up every 45 minutes or so. Around 6:30 I was sick of it and just got up. The second hour of the drive, on the 152, was the hardest--I was reading braille a lot more than I'd like.

Anyway... I looked at three places this weekend. The first was a slightly shabby, but not too bad, three-bedroom. The living room bookcase was full of 1st edition D&D books (including my favorite, Manual of the Planes), as well as the TORG box set and various other books--unfortunately I didn't meet the owner since he was moving out. The girls I interviewed with were a little younger and I didn't feel much of a bond with them so I essentially wrote off that sublet as soon as I left. I comforted myself by stealing some dude's tacos. It's a long story.

The second place was a nice studio in Noe Valley (a very sunny, and somewhat expensive part of the city), a house divided into two apartments and shared by an architect and an artist. The rental studio is the living space of the artist, who will be gone for October and a few days of November. Part of the sublet is caring for her two cats, cute tabbies with floppy bellies. They are normally indoor cats but can be let into the small backyard provided that they are placed in their harnesses and tethered to the striped croquet pole hammered into the grass. The studio is really large and contains a mini-fridge, microwave, and lamination press.

The third place was a not-so-nice two-bedroom in a transitory spot between a very chi-chi area and some projects. This was a very interesting interview. The leaseholder/roommate was a thirty-something who was a former attorney and an embittered survivor of the dot-com era who lost thousands of dollars of stock options basically on a technicality. She's now working as a masseuse while trying to figure out her next job. She was probably 130 pounds but her grip was stronger than mine. She also had cats, three of them, one of which was so fat that it looked like a round, black, velvety ball. Anyway, that was an interesting conversation but I didn't feel great about the place.

So... I took the studio sublet. Unless there's some unexpected problem, I'll be catsitting for most of October! I'll have to scramble to find something else for November, and I still don't have a job yet, but it might be easier to find something once I'm up there. If my savings run low I can always come back to LA and Panasonic to replenish... the one nice thing about my temp position is that there are no hard feelings going in and out, and my boss is a big fan of my work so I imagine I'd be able to work there again.

Many thanks to Johnny for the futon, Cocoa Pebbles, Malaysian malt liquor, Chinese toothpaste, and Jell-O shot (singular), and Aaron for the rides, bus instructions, game store visit, and sex shop recommendations. See you guys soon!

Some final points:

1. San Franciscans think they invented Trader Joe's. Wrong, fuxors!
2. When you tell your typical San Franciscan that you're looking to move from LA, they nod knowingly. When you tell them that you actually like LA a lot: barely-restrained incredulity.
3. Mass Transit > driving all the fucking time.
4. SF Weekly < LA Weekly.
5. SF weather > LA weather, sort of.
6. Urban environment with copious amounts of free wireless networks = good!
7. Urban environment with copious amounts of babes walking around = good!

OK, I'm done.