Two years ago today, I moved to California.
In a period of two years, my life changed drastically. One minute I was living in wintery Washington D.C. working in an unfulfilling job in advertising and marinating my liver every night of the week with my cosmopolitan friends. Writing reviews of bars and clubs for Digital City was a wonderful way to spend all that money I didn't have on drinks that never really quenched any true need. Don't get me wrong, I was having lots of fun, and spending my time with good people. But after 5 years, it was growing old.
The next thing I know, i am falling in love with someone with the same name as me who lived across the country. As the year ticked by, I began to question everything I knew. I couldn't come up with answers for why my social life consisted of drinking on a nightly basis, why I was working at a job I wasn't proud of, and why I was living in a city 3,000 miles from the most important person in my life. Then the whole President Bush election and terrorist attack and anthrax scare and downward spiraling of the country happened. DC became drastically unappealing. It had always felt landlocked, sterile and homogonous to me, but then I had an even more important reason to move on. I remember how quickly I became angry and disillusioned with advertising and media in general when those "you're supporting terrorism when you buy drugs" propaganda ads aired during the Superbowl.
I quit my job, sold everything I owned and moved across the country without a job waiting for me, despite the many blunt comments and warning of my best friends who (rightly so) thought was I was temporarily insane. I moved in with my new, same-name significant other who also doubles as my best friend/true love/bed bug. She is my everything. It's the kind of love that you don't take for granted, not for a single second. All the warnings and doubts and unwarranted advice I received back in DC melted away. Immediately, I felt at home.
Three things struck me immediately about living in California: the weather, the produce and the people! I don't miss the change of seasons at all. Bring on the sunshine!!! Camping and exploring the coast are my favorite things to do. (When I die, sprinkle my ashes over the gorgeous coastal cliffs somewhere off Highway One.) Mission Street is lined with cheap produce markets for miles. My favorite thing to do my first month or so was to fill up my backpack with veggies for less than $5. Later, I learned of all the local farms, and I got interested in supporting organic sustainable farming. We took a cooking class together, and our diets have changed drastically since then. Learning about food and nutrition has made cooking more than just a hobby for us. The people here are weird and colorful and artistic and I love every last one of them damn liberal oddball earthy lefties! I can't even scratch the surface of the whole Burning Man experience, but suffice to say it has also changed me.
Socially, I struck a gold mine. Moving here reunited me with two of my best friends from college. They are two people who I've always had one of those rare, natural chemistry with and they struck me as people who'd always be in my life. Since then, I feel we've grown even closer as I've been able to watch them grow as parents and experience knowing their kids. In the first month I was here, I met an artist named Todd who invited us to his birthday, and we immediately became absorbed into a circle of hilarious, artistic, goofy, political, musical friends. They even "get" our zine, which is rare.
When I first got here, having no money (combined with my growing consumerism angst) changed my priorities. Having things, buying things and money became much less important to me. Garage sales, thrift stores and bargain hunting is now a sport for me. I began volunteering around. One thing led to another and I found myself employed at what I think is my dream job (for now anyway). It's the kind of place where I wouldn't even steal a paperclip. My salary is least important compared to how fun and challenging the work is, the respect I have for my boss and the organization, and the flexibility of my job. And I don't have to drive through any traffic. One less car, as the hippies say.
And so today, on my anniversary with this city, I will pause from my typically cranky posts and just give a corny shout out from the bottom of my cheese-filled heart, "I love you, San Francisco!! Thank you for helping me become more me."
The next thing I know, i am falling in love with someone with the same name as me who lived across the country. As the year ticked by, I began to question everything I knew. I couldn't come up with answers for why my social life consisted of drinking on a nightly basis, why I was working at a job I wasn't proud of, and why I was living in a city 3,000 miles from the most important person in my life. Then the whole President Bush election and terrorist attack and anthrax scare and downward spiraling of the country happened. DC became drastically unappealing. It had always felt landlocked, sterile and homogonous to me, but then I had an even more important reason to move on. I remember how quickly I became angry and disillusioned with advertising and media in general when those "you're supporting terrorism when you buy drugs" propaganda ads aired during the Superbowl.
I quit my job, sold everything I owned and moved across the country without a job waiting for me, despite the many blunt comments and warning of my best friends who (rightly so) thought was I was temporarily insane. I moved in with my new, same-name significant other who also doubles as my best friend/true love/bed bug. She is my everything. It's the kind of love that you don't take for granted, not for a single second. All the warnings and doubts and unwarranted advice I received back in DC melted away. Immediately, I felt at home.
Three things struck me immediately about living in California: the weather, the produce and the people! I don't miss the change of seasons at all. Bring on the sunshine!!! Camping and exploring the coast are my favorite things to do. (When I die, sprinkle my ashes over the gorgeous coastal cliffs somewhere off Highway One.) Mission Street is lined with cheap produce markets for miles. My favorite thing to do my first month or so was to fill up my backpack with veggies for less than $5. Later, I learned of all the local farms, and I got interested in supporting organic sustainable farming. We took a cooking class together, and our diets have changed drastically since then. Learning about food and nutrition has made cooking more than just a hobby for us. The people here are weird and colorful and artistic and I love every last one of them damn liberal oddball earthy lefties! I can't even scratch the surface of the whole Burning Man experience, but suffice to say it has also changed me.
Socially, I struck a gold mine. Moving here reunited me with two of my best friends from college. They are two people who I've always had one of those rare, natural chemistry with and they struck me as people who'd always be in my life. Since then, I feel we've grown even closer as I've been able to watch them grow as parents and experience knowing their kids. In the first month I was here, I met an artist named Todd who invited us to his birthday, and we immediately became absorbed into a circle of hilarious, artistic, goofy, political, musical friends. They even "get" our zine, which is rare.
When I first got here, having no money (combined with my growing consumerism angst) changed my priorities. Having things, buying things and money became much less important to me. Garage sales, thrift stores and bargain hunting is now a sport for me. I began volunteering around. One thing led to another and I found myself employed at what I think is my dream job (for now anyway). It's the kind of place where I wouldn't even steal a paperclip. My salary is least important compared to how fun and challenging the work is, the respect I have for my boss and the organization, and the flexibility of my job. And I don't have to drive through any traffic. One less car, as the hippies say.
And so today, on my anniversary with this city, I will pause from my typically cranky posts and just give a corny shout out from the bottom of my cheese-filled heart, "I love you, San Francisco!! Thank you for helping me become more me."
posted by Freewendy @ 1:39 PM
1 Comments:
At 2:09 PM,
Grandma said…
Aren't you glad I didn't live in Kentucky?
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