Some Observations About San Francisco

In no particular order:

- there are dogs EVERYWHERE! On the bus, in trains, grocery stores, offices, my chiropractors office, in almost every apartment, drug stores, malls, bike baskets, baby carriages, everywhere. It's a bit much sometimes! Luckily I'm neither allergic nor scared or dogs, but for people who are SF must be a difficult city to be in.

- People wash their cars all.the.time. There's a do-it-yourself carwash next to my office and it's always busy. On the weekends gas stations set up car washes and there are lines around the block. I don't get it! There's no salt on the roads even! Benoit says maybe it's because it doesn't rain much here? I don't know.

- There's a heavy Spanish influence here (street names, for example) and I'm butchering them. I've finally learned how to say "Embarcadero" though (it's the big street that runs along the bay to the north of the city)!

- Having a stick + hills = I close my eyes and go to a happy place when Benoit drives up the big ones. I have gotten over my complete panic of hill starts because the brakes hold the car if the angle is big enough, but it's still stressful in general for me. Fun for Benoit though!

- It's pretty warm here, for me (which is saying something!), and yet I see loads of people wearing big puffy down coats. It's 50F people, not 15! It's really amusing to me still.

- Most people drive the speed limit on the highway. The vast majority of people aren't in a rush - it's stressing me out.

- There's compost collection everywhere! It's great!

- Our new licenses will have our height and weight. Heh. I'm not impressed, CA.

- There are so many very distinct neighborhoods here. I'm having trouble keeping everything straight! And sometimes the city feels very small while other times it's so big and overwhelming. I bet any new city is like that.

- So many homeless people. So many. It smells like pee in most places. Yes, we live on the forefront of gentrification in our neighborhood, but there's lots of homeless people everywhere in the city. Most are crazy and harmless, but it's still a huge problem.

- I know I've thought many more thoughts but of course I didn't write them down. I'll add as I think of more.

New Job + Moving = crazy!

We have almost moved everything into our new apartment! I started a new job! It's been a really crazy past few days!

Wednesday we went out for my birthday after my first day for burgers here.
Thursday we went to the Acadamy of Sciences for a night event with some of my new co-workers. We also packed our car up in order to leave our temporary apartment the next morning.
Friday morning Benoit dropped me off at work, parked the car in our new garage, and we stayed at The Mosser Hotel. We ate here, which was good but not great.

This morning we got a call from Door to Door at 7:15 saying they'd be delivering the pod at 7:30 even though it wasn't supposed to come until 8 at the earliest. Good thing we were 1 block away and almost ready to leave the hotel! The next adventure was trying to figure out how to get the pod to the back alley as 5th St was blocked off for construction. Benoit figured it out while narrowly missing a street fight and after some confusion with the security in the building we moved everything in! It only took us about 1.5 hours too! Too bad some of our furniture has to go right back out the door....

Tomorrow we'll be doing the mandatory "we just moved" trip to IKEA! I hope to watch the Superbowl but I don't think it's on Benoit's priority list (don't tell him I'm telling you that!). Hopefully we'll be more settled sooner than later!

1st dinner in Mint Plaza! Mushroom omelette with spicy SP fries.