cybergeisha

So, rather unexpectedly, I have moved back to Seattle. I’ve been back since Saturday night.

I know this is pretty sudden and some of my friends are probably going to be rather surprised and possibly alarmed.

Life in San Francisco started unravelling VERY fast. In February, I lost my job. Then, I was EXTREMELY ill for the entire month of March. I found out on April 1 that I had to move out of my apartment by April 30, and I decided that faced with having to find a job and a new place to live in less than a month, that it was time to pack it up and move back to Seattle.

I miss all my friends down there, and I hope I will be back sooner rather than later, hopefully at some point back to stay. But right now, moving back to my hometown and taking a break while I regroup and get my life back together is what’s most important to me.

The hardest thing was making the decision to move without getting to say goodbye to most of my friends down there, without getting to go to Death Guild one last time, without getting to do any of the stuff I wanted to do before I left. But, it was better that I left once I had made the decision to leave, rather than hang around.

Erik came down on Thursday, April 3, and we rented a moving van, helped my friend Kurt move a desk, and rested up to do the Big Move the next morning. On Friday, April 4, we packed the van up, cleaned my room, stopped for a bite to eat and hit the road. By that evening we were at the California/Oregon border (in Yreka), where we stopped for the night. We made it to my mom and dad’s house by 21:00 on Saturday night and unpacked a bunch of my stuff on Sunday. We finished unloading the rest of my stuff Monday and returned the truck.

Living with my parents is taking some getting used to, that’s for sure. Their house is beautiful and comfortable, I don’t have to pay rent and I dont’ have to worry about IMMEDIATELY GETTING A JOB, so that’s good. But giving up the independence I’ve had the last 8 years has been a tough transition. I live out in the middle of nowhere (seriously - pizza hut doesn’t deliver all the way out here!) but I have my car.

At least I’ve been able to get some of my decorative items out of boxes and put them up to make my space a little bit more “my own.” I am happy with how my dresser has shaped up with all my postcards on it. The lamp (on which I’ve hung the goggles I wore at Burning Man and several necklaces) and dresser are both antiques and I have had both of them since I was young. All in all my space here is pretty nice. It’s clean and quiet and I have room to spread out a bit.

Other than cleaning and decorating, I’ve been trying to keep myself happy and amused. I’ve been doing a lot of laundry. I’ve also been making efforts to eat better.

The best thing I can do right now is focus on myself and get my life back in order. So that’s what I’m doing. Even if “focus on myself” means “go out on the front porch and blow soap bubbles for 20 minutes.”

I moved home from San Francisco. I will write more about it soon. In the meantime, I leave you with a picture of my buddha statue wearing my sunglasses, sitting next to my new purple orchid.

Comparative Weather Studies

In which the author discusses the weather in San Francisco vs. Seattle

I grew up, as many of my readers know, in Seattle, WA. I lived there for 25 years, until I moved to San Francisco, CA. When I mention that I am a native of Seattle, without fail, the first thing about which most people inquire is the rain. The common misconception is that Seattle is the target of a constant deluge of near-biblical proportions. Not so. It is overcast, cloudy, and rains quite a bit, but you generally can get by without an umbrella, as long as your coat or sweatshirt has a hood.

Seattle has nothing on the weather we’ve had here in the Bay Area today. When I woke up, the wind was howling and it was raining so hard I couldn’t see across the street. The patio furniture we had on our roof was, somewhat amusingly, mangled and twisted all over the sidewalk outside our front door - four stories below the roof. I’ve never seen rain like that before. It was pouring down huge, heavy droplets and felt like I was in a cold, wet, uncomfortable shower wearing all my clothes and carrying bags.

Travel, Rain and Irony

Or, a funny thing happened on the way to the airport…

Ironically, I was out in the weather because I am on my way to Seattle for the weekend. When I got off the subway in downtown San Francisco to take the rent money to my roommate, there was a cascade of water pouring down the steps as I walked up to the street level. As I waited to cross Market street, someone drove by and sloshed what seemed like a tidal wave onto me, soaking me from the waist down. Fantastic.

Rent paid, I went back down to the subway to catch the BART to Oakland International Airport. MUNI service, I found out, had been stopped through downtown because of the weather. The BART line I was going to take directly to the airport was also stopped. Thankfully, they were letting through a different line, so I took that one and transferred in downtown Oakland to a line that WOULD get me to the airport.

Waiting for the Flight To Come

Live from Oakland, it’s Friday Night!

While waiting at the airport in Oakland, my friend Ian text-messaged me and asked me if I was alright - apparently the news is covering the storm down here and saying there have been hurricane force winds! I’d believe it. The weather is off the frickin’ hook, that’s for sure. The weather in Oakland seems to be tamer than the weather in San Francisco - it’s a little rainy but the airport seemed to be functioning as usual.

Ian told me that there is a mandatory evacuation order in place for Orange County and that wind speeds are topping 75 miles per hour - incredible that I have to rely on a friend in Seattle for information on what’s happening RIGHT OUTSIDE MY WINDOW. I can’t get over how funny that is, actually - we really are living in an information age! I saw a sliver of the blue sky out over the bay, though, so I was pretty sure my flight would be able to leave.

I was standing by for a flight at 4:40 and ticketed for the flight at 5:30. It actually sort of surprised me - they let me right through security, no questions asked and no problems given. This is a bit surprising because I have a lot of electronics parts, metal, glass and other stuff in my hair extensions right now. Tele-destruction hair!

Hometown Advantage

For once, the weather sucks less in Seattle than in San Francisco!

For a moment, I wondered if I’d make it out of California. However, I got on the earlier flight and even though the flight took off half an hour late, I arrived in Seattle at 19:30 - earlier than the flight I’d been scheduled for. Erik was there a few minutes later, but holy crap, the weather here is great! Far better than the weather in San Francisco - clear and a little windy, but not raining at all - not even coat-wearing weather.

Tomorrow, I get to chill out and possibly meet up with my friend Lindsey (who is offering to teach me to knit), hang out at Dragonfire Imports (my family’s antique shop, where Erik is the shop manager) and make last minute preparations for the Information society show on Sunday night. Many of Erik’s siblings and both of his parents are considering going to the show - and my mom wants to come, too. Incredible! I don’t know how I feel about my mom going to a electronic music show - but it’s sure a trip thinking that my suburbanite, lexus-driving, shops-at-nordstrom mom wants to go see InSoc. I hope she likes the show!

More information about the concert is available on the Information Society website or by clicking the image above, which also has information about the Philadelphia, San Francisco and Austin performances. The show is at at 8PM on Sunday, 6 January 2008 at El Corazon in downtown Seattle. Tickets are available at TicketsWest.

There are actually pictures of Erik and I from Halloween this year (click for make bigger!).

My outfit should have left no reason to guess who I was supposed to be (The Devil), and most were able to figure it out, but nobody gave in to temptation or sold me their soul. Lame.

Erik time traveled back to when he was 17 and dressed like that but ended up saying he was a “80s New Wave Punk.” His hair was incredible. He has amazing powers of styling his hair to be The Sex.

The rest are below, please click to go to the larger version!

Stripey Legs, by rivetgirl.

Sometimes when I get bored of working I take random snapshots of myself and my surroundings with my camera phone. I took a pretty good picture of my legs kicked up on my desk. Yes, after a certain time of night I occasionally put my feet on my desk - I work a late shift and everyone goes home around 3:45 besides myself, Erik (yes, I work with Erik) and our supervisor, who is awesome and laid back.

I like that instead of looking bad my legs look delicate and cute in this pic. I also SERIOUSLY am in love with the shoes I’m wearing, a recent gift from my mother. They’re EXTREMELY sexy and very stylish and fun. Love ‘em.

I also have taken down my braids and realized my hair is almost to my chin (click the thumbnail to see the larger pic!). I don’t know what I’m going to do with it next, it’s really long (for me). I don’t know if I want to keep growing it out or not, maybe I’ll put extensions in again. I want to color it or something but I don’t know what color or anything - I’m feeling very indecisive about it!