Operation: Make Some Friends!

I am so happy to report that Greg and I met an awesome couple.  We spent the first Saturday in February with them - first meeting for lunch at this cute place in Noe Valley (pronounced No-EE) called Fresca.  They have an awesome brunch menu and you can get bottomless mimosas for $10!  Have to remember that for when friends come to visit.  So anyway, we met Maggie and Rado through a friend of mine from the Chamber - Roseann.  She used to work with Maggie and connected us through email before I left.  Maggie and I finally made plans and she was a refreshing reminder of home.  Rado is from Manhattan and they lived in Ardmore for a few years before deciding to move to San Francisco.  Maggie works for Pixar and Rado is a musician.  He and Greg share a love for music among other things.  Rado had a gig that night, so we decided we would check it out.  At about 10:30 we went back to the city and met them in the Mission District at a small venue where Rado was playing guitar with his 11(?) person band.  They had a latin dance music kind of sound and there was an interesting crowd - mostly hippies, that filled the place to the brim.  We found Maggie and a spot in the back and watched with a few beers.  I figured out when we were there who Maggie reminded me of every time she spoke.  It was bothering me the whole day because I couldn't put my finger on it.  Finally it came to me...Tina McKnight!!  Maggie is from Clifton Hights, which is close to Springfield.  You Delco girls all sound the same!  :)  She didn't know Tina, but I was just glad I figured it out.  The band was done playing around 11:30, so we followed them to another party around the corner.  A house party I would find out.  The house was on the corner and you walked into this room from the street (doors were wide open) and there was a DJ in the corner playing music from an macbook and white paper lanterns hanging from the high ceiling.  The floors and walls were all white and next to the DJ was an old organ. Everyone was just dancing and having a good time.  I had to use the facilities, so I walked to the back with Greg towards a hallway and opened the first door - oops, a bedroom.   Then we walked through the kitchen and found a short line for the restroom. I was a little grossed out and couldn't believe people lived here.  We danced a little more before deciding we were tired and headed home.  Definitely an interesting day - discovered a lot of culture and had a great time with Maggie and Rado.

We were very excited for Sunday since it was Super Bowl time!  The game started at 3:30 for us and we were heading down to Matt's in Redwood City.  I was making Rox's Buffalo Chicken Dip for the first time so I was excited to try it out and a little nervous it wouldn't come out as good as hers does.  We woke up kinda early as usual and since it was a nice day we decided to take a walk around the water.  Sausalito has a little boardwalk along the bay where all the boats are docked in the marina.  At the end of the boardwalk near the ferry is a park with some benches where you can sit and watch the sailboats floating by on the water.  There a a few awesome houseboats that we were admiring and imagining our life if we were always rocking on the water.  Here are pictures of some of our favorites:

The Wooden Shoe - beautiful stained glass windows on the sides and the faux wood deck.

Other side of the Wooden Shoe with the owner staining his railings.  Good move getting the deck re-done so no more of that!

The Taj Mahal houseboat at the end of the dock.  So ornate and cool from the outside!

We also walked to the Sausalito Farmer's market and got a fresh roll of French Bread and some fresh tangerines and oranges before walking home to get ready for the Super Bowl.

Here is a pic from our little party at Matt's house.  He is taking this pic with his phone.

From Left to Right: Lisa, Simon, Emron?, Me, Saiad? (Matt's Roommate), Greg, and Rich

The Buff Chicken Dip is in the center surrounded by Tostitos, Carrots, and Celery.  It was a hit!!  Thanks Rox! As you can see...no real fans here.  Where is the fanfare and all the gear?  HA.

I have been trying to find some ways to volunteer to meet people and network.  Maggie told me about this awesome website, onebrick.org that gives you a list of organizations that are looking for volunteers for a few hours.  The kinds of volunteering you can do ranges from serving and bussing tables at soup kitchens to helping organize wine festivals.  The first one available was to help a local community garden - Corwin Community Garden in the Castro district.  They said they would supply us with all the tools and gloves, etc and told us to bring some cash for socializing after.  It sounded like something we would enjoy so we signed up.  It was a bit of a cloudy drizzly morning, but thankfully the sun ended up coming out.  The garden was kept up by this couple who lived in the apartment complex next to it.  They had put so much love and effort into it over the past 15 years and this was the first time they had a group of people giving their time to help them and they were so thankful.  It was a fun day and we did meet many interesting people.  Greg and I got to weed and prune some trees.  We met a girl named Lily who is really cool and we hope to hang out with her again. Here are some photos from the day:

Garden had awesome views of city

Me working hard while Greg plays paparazzi

Pruning a tree - attempting to give it a pyramid shape.  Ha yea right.

When our time was up, Reggie gave us all incense and we said a blessing to the garden.  He insisted that the power of positive thoughts and everyone saying the same thing at the same time can make significant impacts.

We went with a group of 8 people from the volunteer group to the Sausage Factory  (fitting name for a restaurant in Castro district) a couple blocks away and got some lunch and a beer.  Greg and I were going to go find somewhere that was participating in San Fran's Beer Week, but we found out we were an hour early still for that.  We felt a wave of tiredness at the same time and decided to head back to Sausalito and take naps and try to make it out for the night.  The naps were great but we did not feel like heading back to city.  We still had the gift card Michelle gave us to Sushi Ran so we decided to take advantage of that.  We sat at the Sushi bar and Greg got the Chef's Sampler.  We got great treatment because every piece of Sushi Greg got was explained to him in detail.  He ate like a king - all of these crazy fish delicacies.  I stuck to my standard rolls which were delicious and I was happy too.  Thanks Michelle!  Greg was definitely loving you this night!!

The next day we got up and took a drive down to Santa Cruz.  Greg brought his surf gear and we planned on checking out this Mystery Spot since I had it on my bucket list ever since Shannon Harder went there and told me about it.  Check the website out for more information, but it is this 150m diameter area in the woods that can't be explained.  Things are not level even though they appear to be and trees that should grow straight grow in a corkscrew.  Greg is skeptical, but the feeling you get there is so weird.  I have a strong stomach and it made me queezy.  Here are some pics of what I am talking about:

I tried this and I almost threw up.  He is standing on a ledge that is level, but as you can see, he has to lean forward to keep from falling backward.  Weirdest feeling ever.

Volunteers lined up in height order starting from 5'3" and working up every 2 inches.  I am 5'7"  so I had to go in the middle.  The tour guide demonstrated that the board we are standing on is level by putting a level device on it for everyone to see.

And then we had to switch order (I got to stay in my same spot).  Look at what happened to our height!  We are now all the same!!

So after that experience we drove out to the beaches of Santa Cruz.  The waves were going off! as Greg would say.  Matt was on his way down to meet up with us so he was very excited.  There was a high school surf competition going on and there were girls and guys doing amazing things in the water.  It was very windy and cold so I stayed in the car while the two crazies got in the water.  Luckily we found a parking spot facing the water so I could watch them from the comfort of my vehicle.  I did get out a few times to take some pictures.

That's Greg right in the center.

That black dot is him taking a wave down to meet Matt

After they were done surfing we got a bite to eat at this placed called The Reef in the town of Santa Cruz. They had a huge movie screen playing surf videos and a live band.   Another fun weekend in the books.

'Tis the season - Job-Hunting and Football

Un-packing, Job-hunting, Football, Explorations, and Cooking are a few of the major things going on in my life.  As of now, I have squeezed my stuff into a closet, a new wardrobe from Ikea, and a bin under the bed.  I am still waiting for a shelf to be put up in my closet, but we are waiting to borrow some power tools.    Greg had the apartment set up very nicely before I even got here, so except for some area rugs, extra things for the bedroom, and a few kitchen accessories, we are good to go with all the essentials.  It is very comfortable and cute, our little one bedroom, one bath place.  The kitchen is a very good size and the bathroom has a glorious rain shower head.  If you know about my habit of taking too long in the shower, you can imagine how bad it is now.

The hunt for a job is still on.  It was looking very promising in the first 2 weeks I was here as I had gotten interviews for two positions I was very interested in.   Unfortunately, neither panned out.  I have been spending a lot of time working on improving my resume and sending it out to job postings I find on LinkedIn, Craig's List, and specific hotel company websites.  I have also been looking for volunteer opportunities to start networking.  It has been exactly a month that I have been here, and I am starting to get a little anxious about finding something.

So enough about that boring stuff.  We have had some fun weekends here in the Bay Area.  Greg and my first weekend alone together was fun.  We had a nice little Saturday at Ikea where we picked out my wardrobe/armoire thing, a plant for the living room, and some other little things.  On Sunday we took a drive to Mt. Tamalapais, better known as Mt. Tam here, and went up and up, around and around until we came to a spot along the road to park.  We got out and took a steep hike up a hill and came upon some beautiful views.  From up here you could see all the way out to the Farallones.  I just finished reading The Devil's Teeth, which is all about these treacherous, uninhabitable islands and the Great Whites that feed there every year. 

If you can zoom in on this picture, the tiny dots in the center of the ocean's horzion line are the Farallones.

Martin Luther King, Jr weekend we had more visitors from home.  Ryan and Greg stayed with us for a few days so they could do a little surfing and skiing.  They drove to Tahoe the first full day they were here and stayed overnight.  Unfortunately there was no snow for them, so they just went on a hike and did boy things.  After some drinking and gambling, there was a little mishap and Minnis's shoulder got dislocated or something, so he was in pain the rest of the weekend here.  Some things never change.

We got up early one morning to head down to Santa Cruz, meet up with Matt and his friend Simon, so they could do a little surfing.  Santa Cruz is a great little town with a lot of things to do.  Here is a picture of the waves.

It was a little too crowded and the waves weren't the best that day -  which was fine because there were football games on that afternoon.  We went over to The Crow's Nest and got a table in front of some TV's and next to the window overlooking the coast, and watched the 49ers play the Saints.  The place was filled with spectators, but definitely not the showing of fan fare you would see during an Eagles game.  There were a few jerseys and some people wearing red here and there, but that was it.  Since Philly's playoff dreams were over, I decided to root for the 9ers and join in the excitement of this city.   It was nice to see them win.

The next day was the Giants/Green Bay game.  Greg found a NY bar in the city, so that is where we went.  We took the ferry and then hopped on the California Street Cable Car to get to Ace's.  It was my first time on a cable car!

They were excited too!

We got to the bar on Hyde Street.  If you are a Giants fan, this definitely is heaven on earth on playoff day.  The place was packed long before kick-off and we were glad we got there when we did.  They have great drink specials - Bucket of 5 - 16 oz Bud Lights for $12 that come with koozies.  And then they started grilling burgers and sausages outside and bringing them in to feed the crowd.  We had a good time and the Giants won.  This made for a happy group.

Ryan and I are the only non-fans, but we had a good time.

The rest of the time they were here, we hit some Sausalito local spots, like Bar Bocce and Smitty's.  It was nice to have guests and I know Greg was very happy to have his BFF's here to get crazy with.

The next weekend it was back to just the two of us - but it was filled with football fever!  The Niners were hosting the Giants for a fight for a spot in the playoffs.  I was able to hook up with Lauran and bring Greg and Matt to meet her and some of the Giants and their fiances.  We also met Tuck's agent and Mike Silver who writes the sports column for Yahoo!.  Everyone was so nice and friendly to us, that I felt compelled to root for them against the 49ers.  Had the Ravens beaten the Patriots, it might have been a different story, that and being back at Aces for this game I was catching Giants fever (only because my team didn't make the playoffs!).

Matt, Lauran, Justin, me, Greg

Ace's was even crazier than the week before, which we suspected.   We did not expect to meet so many New Yorkers who were in town just for the game.  Small world that NY is, Greg ended up meeting people that he had worked with on projects at other companies while he was working with JP Morgan.  Thankfully a bus was coming to pick a lot of these people up and drive them to the game.  It made for a little more room and an opportunity for us to grab a seat.

No one was grilling food for us this time, so Greg ordered 5 large pizzas, walked to pick them up, brought them back, and charged $10 for anyone who wanted to eat some.  He made all his money back in about 10 minutes and made a lot of people happy.  It was actually delicious - it is hard to find good pizza in San Fran.

PIZZA, New Yorkas, and Me.

The next weekend Greg and Matt wanted to capitalize on their season passes and the precipitation that had come down during the Giants/49ers game and go to Kirkwood.  Saturday morning we woke up early and Matt drove us in his new Acura the 3 hour drive to the mountain.  It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and the resort was bustling.  They hit the trails and I hit the fire in the lodge.  I did some reading and worked on the blog until we met up for a great lunch and spicy bloody mary's.  After lunch they took a few more rides before we left.  I drove us home since they were exhausted.

Sunday Greg and I decided to take a bike ride along the coast to Tiburon.  Here is a map of our ride.

View Larger Map

Some photos taken along the way:

We wanted to get lunch and bloody mary's on the deck at the infamous Sam's Cafe.   Their website has a live camera of the deck at all times.  It was packed, but we were able to get a small table and some drinks and apps and watch the water and sailboats.  We rode about 15 miles total on Sunday.  Another good weekend.

And that's January in a nutshell...Thanks for reading! xo