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.”

Semi smashes into freight train, derails train cars

The semi-truck’s trailer was ripped into pieces and its load of frozen pizzas and cakes were scattered about.

I think this is the most hilarious thing I have ever read in a serious news story. Nobody was badly injured (the trucker and the conductor had minor injuries) so I don’t even feel bad for laughing riotously.

Seriously. A semi full of pizza and cake?! That sets itself up for a laugh!

Recently, one of my favorite websites to read has been The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. I sent in my own submission - a sign at a coffee shop advertising “lemonade.”

It was, I’m happy to report, good enough to make it onto the site! Behold the photo and the caption bestowed by Bethany, Chief Executive Quotation Mark Wrangler:

“House Made”

The caption is a riot. I’d also like to add that I love how it seems like Raspberry Pink is the color of the alleged lemonade which may or may not be made by or in a house.

Go on over to “House Made”, the entry featuring my submission, on The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks, to see the bigger version of the photo.

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.

MOVING

Readers of this website have figured out by now that I have moved to the Bay Area. I posted, when I left. Well, I’d like to share a few stories and photographs from the drive down - it’s by no means the FULL STORY, or ALL the photos, but it’s the “highlights” of the trip.

DAY ONE

Erik and I loaded up my 1999 VW Jetta (named Vex) with as much stuff as I felt was necessary and drove down I-5 until we were too tired to continue. The adventures between Seattle and Corvallis mainly consisted of making silly faces, singing along to music, recording ourselves having stupid conversations, and videotaping EVERYTHING.

I told you we were making stupid, goofy faces.

One of the highlights of first part of the trip (pre-Oregon) was when we pulled off the slickest tire-squealing, spy-movie wannabe turn-around ever in Vader, WA. I’d been distracting Erik and he had taken the wrong turn, so we ended up driving down a country road and needed to flip a u-turn and go in the and even though the house looked like the type of place in which someone who would SHOOT TRESSPASSERS would live, we turned around in the driveway and BURNED RUBBER, SQUEALED THE TIRES, and took off like a missile. It was very funny and not too mature, but who cares, right?

While driving through Corvallis Erik called Caz to let him know we were near his place and he seemed amused. He’d have been more amused if he some of the dorky faces we were making shortly before calling him. While Erik was talking to James, I photographed those really cool dust devils - there were more of them, too - many more!

In Albany, OR, we stopped at Santiam Rest Stop and I shot some arty photographs of flowers and a portrait of Erik, we used The Facilities (so to speak) then headed back onto I-5. While looking for a gas station near some middle-of-nowhere town called Sutherlin, we accidentally took a totally surreal, freaky back-road detour that had the steepest banked offramps and onramps EVER and no actual gas station.

We ended up at the “BEST BUDGET INN AND MINI MART” which shared a parking lot with a Shell station in Sutherlin, OR.

Incidentally, I bet you didn’t know there’s a road called Dude Mask Lane in Sutherlin, OR. o_O

We were too exhausted to continue by the time we made it to Mt Shasta, CA. We made it from Seattle, WA to Mt Shasta, CA in under 12 hours, which isn’t bad.

We stayed at the Best Western Tree House Inn and ate ice cream for dinner (since the only thing in the whole town that was open at 11:30PM was the Chevron Mini-mart) and promptly fell asleep watcing Law and Order reruns on the hotel TV.

DAY TWO

The next morning, we shoved ourselves back in the car and took off for San Francisco, but got distracted when we reached Redding, when we saw a big road sign for THE CALIFORNIA WELCOME CENTER. We had to go in and demand to be welcomed.

Just before splitting off I-5, we stopped at a rest area to trade drivers so Erik could nap. First, I photographed the trunk of the car with my awesome InSoc magnet, and took artistic photos of a flower and a faucet. I’m so avant-garde, aren’t I? Heh, I supose not.

I think I need to alter the name plate on the back of my car to say “VEX” instead of “JETTA.”

In Vallejo we stopped at BevMo! and Erik goofed around with a clear plastic mini-keg labeled “MR BEER!” We also found “PURE ENERGY” energy drinks, which was hilarious - of course we had to try them. They were in pleasing glass bottles had a name reminiscent of an Information Society song - how could we not?!

The most beautiful rest stop on I-5, as far as I’ve ever noticed, is one just north of the Bay Area. It’s on a hill from which you can overlook the ENTIRE San Francisco Bay Area, from the Pacific Ocean in the West to the mountains in the East, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge on a clear day, it’s just gorgeous.

I was finally at the end of my journey when everything started to get screwed up - we got to the Oakland exit(s) and realized that NONE of them were the exit for which we were looking. Uh-oh.

The road signs were a little confusing (so many of them! and not enough warning to make the right exit!) and it was sort of hard to find the place (the directions were far, far less than clear) but we were able to get there, unload my stuff, move it into my new room and collapse from exhaustion. The next day, Erik flew home to Seattle and I was, like it or not, on my own.

WHERE AM I NOW?

I’m now living in Oakland with two roommates, temporarily, as I don’t like the East Bay very much but I’ll live with it until I can find a place in the city. It’s been sort of rough trying to start over from scratch in a new state, a new city, a foreign environment… It’s scary and lonely but it’s going to be okay. That’s what I keep telling myself.

I’ve been trying to keep busy - Kurt has been giving me a lot of advice on things to do and see in the area, and I’ve been extremely grateful for that. It’s nice to know someone who knows the city so well. San Francisco really is a beautiful place, and every time I feel really desolate, I leave Oakland and drive into San Francisco and do something. Invariably, I feel better afterwards - it makes me remember why I moved in the first place.

If you want to read my bitching and moaning about how hard moving is, you can read Everything is Wrong and I Hate It Here, my blog about trying to get used to life in a new place.