Social experiment time

WOOOOOOOO inauguration. A little girl kept saying Obama was a present, not the president. Perhaps a bit of both.

In the spirit of "yes. we. can." the roommate/housing saga has progressed to a whole new level. Apparently when someone says "I'm committed 110%" it actually means that they can then tell you the day before you're supposed to sign your lease that, well, ummm, he's backing out because there's something he likes better that's possible. On Friday (and it's Tuesday evening). And he wants the biggest room (though the two that share one are paying equal rent to all other house members).

Today I told customers I was full of ire. They seemed taken aback.

But, wait, you say. It's the time of CHANGE. Of NEW direction. So Mike, Sarah, and I did what anyone sane would do - we signed a lease tonight and have started looking for a roommate. It's cheap, centrally located in Hayes Valley. Our landlady is wonderful already - she said she was hoping that we'd come back after Sarah and Mike had looked at the house weeks ago. She even spontaneously hugged Sarah when she found out her job as a chef. And our idea of having a rack of ribs bbq once the back yard renovations are done. (Yes, we have a yard. In the middle of the city).

I posted not even a half hour ago, already two responses from responsible sounding grad students. Woot! Feel free to guess how many I get in one day - I'll post the answer soon!

Take that to people who aren't honest. And taking destiny into own hands... Now to start making our home. It's heady stuff - the day has gotten much much better.

But ask me about describing tea tastes. I may or may not have said to the trainer that since I don't eat leather (or hay or other fodder) that I can't quite get to saying the brew tastes like that. It was silly, especially since another attendee and I discovered that if you squint right you can make anything sound serious when it comes to descriptions. "Composty" "Wet" "Woodsy" "Complex"

Just try it. Think "blue steel" and run with it.

Delicious.

Happy, um, mid-January?

We threw a party Thursday night because, well, we live in a dance studio. It was surprisingly good times, though not everyone came that said they would we had some new guests and a whole lot of yum chili and snacks. Mike, Sally, and I also rigged up the projector to hit the disco ball and then thought one better - put movies on it! So the original Batman with Adam West provided ceiling entertainment. It was a good party and I'm glad my strategy in Belgrade - invite everyone you know and then see what fun ensues - carried across the ocean.

Housing hunt is demoralizing. But we've found another roommate that allows us to look for bigger places, which has been a success so far. He's a graphic designer, been in the city awhile, and appears to be entertained by our antics. Whew.

I've now gone to a coffee training for work - we tasted SO many and talked about body, if it was dry and lingering or a clean finish, origins and why they make a difference. After that I BARTed over to Berkeley and met Sally and Sarah, ran off to help Cole move a couch. And yes, that's more excellent news - Cole, my old college roommate, has moved to the Bay! His partner, Al, will be going to law school at Berkeley come the fall and currently is working for a non-profit that assists those on death row. Cole's way into bikes and we have plans for riding, gallivanting and general chilling.

Which will be infinitely easier once we have a new house. Lease ends 31st so time is counting down... Unfortunately I've become a bit one track about it. So hopefully this week we'll get things wrapped up.

And the days go by...

My only excuse for silence has been adapting to this early to bed, early to rise schedule that is then complicated by my attempts to continue having a life and look for another job. However, the time passes so quickly only because it's so good (we'll think on it that way).

Thanksgiving had me working in the morning, then heading to Oakland with Mike to celebrate at Harry and Michael's house with Nate, Alojzya even came down from Tahoe. We ate some excellent chicken (there were 3 of them, a decent ratio), enjoyed delicious sides and even apple pie (courtesy of Harry, a musician magician). The evening ended with a string jam session - ukulele, guitar, 12 string guitar, and bass, which kept the spirits up even as we got stuck in Bay Bridge traffic trying to get back to the city (I had to work at 6 a.m. the next morning). The next day Mike and I road tripped (so California) to North Hollywood to spent time with his folks. It was quite the adventure, our rental lady talked faster than I ever can imagine doing myself and warned us about cows equalling tickets and cops, that we'd need a tank down and a tank up. Overall she was right, though it made for a long day. The weekend was chill fun, Mike got a suit for interviewing, we all went out to dinner, I heard family lore. A very different kind of holiday cheer than the usual Qualls clan gathering, but a decent holiday nevertheless.

I am trying to stay culturally sensitive as people keep trying to convince me that it's cold. It's in the 40s as a low, damp, but still. There's no wind chill. I point this out not to flaunt but to give context - I've started asking where people come from before discussing the winter. Mike and I couldn't believe it the other week when we went on this nice long bike ride through Golden Gate Park all the way to the beach (where there's ocean!). And all this in December. We then biked up a HUGE hill to cut back into the city, went down Geary to find a yummy Chinese place with Dim Sum (he'd never had it) and restore the tissues. Yum. In total the loop was about 15 miles - that and my biking the Berkeley hills last weekend is making legs try to complain though it's a good kind of pain. Standing at work was a bit dodgy but one survives.

Espresso bar is a stressful job; I've been training and it wears me out. But I can now make delicious drinks, which is pretty exciting, and my colleagues have been great helping me out when I am trying not to flounder. I also have discovered the San Francisco Center for the Book, full of binding and printing classes, studio space, and various other amazing things. I've started volunteering there this week with an eye to get into a class (you can trade hours for workshops) and manned the front desk as well as sorted spacers for 24 pt font. I can now tell you the difference between a em and a en space (the first one is square, the second exactly half size), and loved getting my fingers dirty with type once again. Tomorrow there's a Holiday Craft Fair that I'm going to work at - it's been also a fun way meeting new people (like a conservator at one of Stanford's libraries and a woman who raises her own silk worms).

I can't believe it's almost mid-December.

you've been out of the country too much when...

I just got an alert from the US embassy in Serbia about Georgia having a runoff election and my first thought was that it was Georgia the country, confusing me as to why US citizens in Serbia would need to know about such an event.

Also, today I entertained (at least I hope so) a colleague at work with my exclamations over the "new" nickels and George Washington dollar coins - there are vikings thinly disguised as Lewis and Clark on our money. Curious. Her "where have you been?" was abruptly stifled when she realized that, in fact, I've not been here.

Oh, and it's been in the 70's this weekend.

Other exciting news has me hanging out with a Serb (from Belgrade) I met at the coffee shop a few weeks ago, he's working in catering so we munched on leftovers from his most recent job as I tried to put the past few years into a succinct chronology without too many digressions. I'm excited to have someone to chat about Beograd with, he's not been back for awhile so hungry for news. Plus he knows about a big gathering that happens monthly with trumpet music, the whole party atmosphere. Woohoo ex-pat communities!

And Mike is here this week - what joy, what bliss.

These are a few....

Some things I have done:

-Worked morning shifts at a coffee shop for a week, starting at 5, 6, or 7 a.m.

-Bought a bike (that wasn't stolen) and subsequent gear (helmet, lock, lights)

-Seen Halloween costumes throughout the Mission District and had Snickers bars thrown at me in Oakland.

-Had lunch with Barb (stopping by on her cross-country trip) and Sarah at 900 Grayson in Berkeley. Chicken and waffles with gravy equal incredibly good.

-Biked practically across San Francisco (over 4 miles, it's roughly only 7 by 7 miles square) in the rain becoming super-saturated with water (I dumped water out of my boots where it was standing inside at the end), though my trusty messenger bag stayed dry on the inside (huzzah!).

-Had a job interview with a fairly major publishing company for their World Languages division (also on Halloween).

-Raided thrift stores for interview appropriate clothing that fit and came away victorious.

-Ate peanut butter M&Ms.

-Turned the clocks for daylight savings and was NOT late to work.

I'll leave you to decide what I'd do again and what I'll try to avoid repeating. Feel free to post your guesses.

Coffee and 60s...

I am now one of the gainfully employed. Got hired last week and started today slinging coffee at Peet's, a venerable coffee chain that has been around forever and sparked such things as Starbucks. Soon I will wow crowds with my espresso machine skills, but today I focused on dealing out beans (ground right then and there or whole) to the masses. And filling out paperwork.

Pretty awesome. I'm still hunting more work, but I'm excited about learning to barista.

And just in case you were wondering, it's in the 60s F here. Low in the 50s. Ahhhh, glorious.

This weekend too was fabulous in that we did everything you can think of that makes up a good weekend: going to the beach, eating out, taking a ferry ride across the bay, more good food and then ice cream, bar-hopping in the Mission with baseball and huge geeks that work for tech companies, dancing to live Brazilian music and then getting invited to a wedding afterparty in Sarah's building when we came home, dancing some more and meeting some neighbors. Exhausting and invigorating. Add to that I got to hang out with Alojzya on Thursday and Friday and actually talk for what seemed like the first time in years; doesn't get much better. I'm excited too because Barb is going to be around Thursday, my dad from Sunday to Weds and Mike moves here 19 Nov!

Now to figure out Halloween plans.