Saying Goodbye to My Carfree Lifestyle

Until R got transfered to their other office down in Silicon Valley, we both worked in the Financial District, a short 12mins bus ride away. For two months, he tried this public transportation thing. His commute consisted of a 45 mins bus ride, a 40 mins train ride, and a 15 mins bus ride: 1.5 hrs/each way. The commute drove him nuts and his whining drove me nuts. So we bought a car. I was so sad to say goodbye to my car-free lifestyle.

Since renting a private parking spot costs $300/month, we opted for street parking. You'll understand that it is not an easy task to find parking on the streets of San Francisco especially on the weekend. The ideal parking spot is precious. Friday afternoon, we totally scored. We found a perfect parking spot right in front our building. Great success!

We haven't used the car since then. We even walked back from the the grocery store with a million bags. No way in hell we were going to give up this sweet parking spot!

Proud Holder of a California Driver License

California does not recognize foreign driver licenses - including Canadian ones. This means that to obtain a California driver license as a foreigner (or "alien" as they like to call us), one has to do both the written and driving tests. The pain.

R got his driver license a few weeks after we arrived. I waited until two days before my Ontario license expired. Although I've had a driver license for the past 12 years, I haven't driven much in my life. I actually did not need a driver license at all. I just needed a California ID! It was a little inconvenient to carry my passport everywhere.

I studied two weeks for the written test and I am forever grateful to know that "it is illegal in California to shoot firearms on the highway or at traffic signs". The Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) is just surreal. Where the heck do they find these people??? For a moment, I thought I was in The Simpson's faced with too many Pattys and Selmas.

Once I passed the written test, I signed up for professional driving lessons. Do not laugh. Practice makes perfect! And here I am, proud holder of a California Driver License.

Alive and Having Fun!

I am alive! Corporate America has kept me away from my blog but here I am. This year has been the most eventful of my life. It was scary and stressful but worth every nervous breakdown. In a short period of time, we have made San Francisco ‘home’. There are no words to express how much I love this city. It’s young, vibrant, and entirely fulfills my urbanite needs. We eat out way too much. We drink way too much. We don’t sleep enough. But we are having fun!

Despite my heavy workload, we do manage to have a fun social life. We have a group of friends who enjoy wine, travel, and politics as much as we do. Funny enough, we have more friends in SF than we did in Ottawa! Demographically speaking, it’s much easier to find people ‘like us’. Most of our friends are single and it’s very refreshing to hang out with people who don’t care about un-matching dishware and furniture!

San Francisco feels much smaller than it used to. I don’t even need a map anymore! I feel like I am in Sex and the City every time I flag a cab when I get off work late.

My job is extremely demanding. However, I discovered that I really thrive in that kind of fast-paced environment. As crazy as it may sound, I heart deadlines! I enjoy seeing that my work is valued and used in a concrete way. My bubbliness even led to a comparison with the one and only Mary Poppins. “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and SNAP! The job’s a game!” I have identified many differences between working in Canada compared to the US:

Outsourcing: The amount of outsourcing done in the US is insane. Account Executives get mad when we process a job in the US if it can be done in India for much cheaper.

Time Zones: My company has offices in multiple states and over 70 countries. This means that I have to deal with at least 5 different time zones every day (including India). As a result, I get in around 6:30am. I also have to check my emails before going to bed to make sure everyone is set and the job will get done throughout the night (India, for example).

The rudeness. I am trying hard not to take nasty emails personal. “Did you choose those colours cuz they’re horrible I am gonna change them”. Euh, how hard is it to say “Do you mind if I change the colours, I’d prefer them lighter”. People on the East coast are the rudeness. Blame it on my Canadianess, I am polite.

Impact: Some of the biggest companies in the world are among our clients. It’s so exciting to know that the CEO of a large retail chain is using my report!

Workload: Oye. I get in around 6:30am and leave… Well, whenever I can. It’s usually around 5pm. If I do leave earlier, that means I’ll have to work from home later.

This is me in a nutshell. We’re off to Morocco at the end of the week and will celebrate the New Year in Marrakesh. What do we have in store for 2008? Honestly, I’d be happy with status quo. I am so very content right now! We’re hoping to spend a month in Africa in the fall. We’re considering buying a condo but that will depend on the credit/real estate mess the US is currently experiencing. I want to finish the certificate I started for ‘fun’ last year. I have to say that my idea of ‘fun’ has evolved dramatically and studying while working over 50 hours/week no longer qualifies as ‘fun’!

Happy new year everyone!

Lights Out San Francisco!

Lights Out San Francisco is a citywide energy conservation event that took place tonight between 8 and 9pm. Residents of San Francisco were invited to turn off their lights for one hour in oder to save 15% of the energy that is normally used on an average Saturday night and to encourage energy conservation.

I watched the lights of the Golden Gate go off from Greens, one of my favorite restaurant in the city.

On.

Off.

Even Google lit out in the Bay Area.

Rain is the New Snow

It rained today for the first time since we moved to San Francisco almost 6 months ago. Is it winter yet? Days are getting shorter, but it's not getting colder. Très, très bizarre.

It's the Little Differences: Laundry & Parking

In a city where the average square foot is $27.17 to rent (that’s $2,265/monthly for a two bedroom apartment) or $620 to buy (that’s $620,000 for the same two bedroom apartment), having space for your own washer/dryer is a luxury.

The pain of not having our own washer/dryer is compensated by the fact that Missing Sock Laundry is so conveniently located next to Bacchus, a trendy wine bar.

Here's a trivia question. How much do you think a parking spot costs in San Francisco? Here's a clue, it's about $27,000 downtown Ottawa.

... $100,000!

1st Independence Day in San Francisco

Picnic at the Golden Gate National Recreational Area

Neither of us felt like cooking tonight so we grabbed sandwiches and cheese from the local deli store and walked to the Golden Gate National Recreational Area for a picnic.

Chez-moi à San Francisco

Let me preface by saying that people in San Francisco don't take as much pride in their home as people in Ottawa. The reason is simple: They live in the city, not in their home. The weather is always nice. People walk everywhere. Restaurants and coffee shops are packed every single day. The result is that apartments are old and outdated. However, they are perfect for urbanites and I am willing to trade all the stainless steel in the world for that kind of lifestyle.

Without further ado, here's our apartment!

Welcome!


Modest but functional kitchen


Living room/Dining room


Bedroom separated from living room with French doors


Bedroom

(Kinki's giant scratching post by the window. He loves it!)


"Office" in front of the bed


Bathroom (and my attempt at increasing storage space!)


(and me trying to add some colour)

My new grocery store

Grocery stores downtown San Francisco are expensive. Spaghetti for $3. Juice for $5.95. English muffins for $5.00. Needless to say that we've been on the look out for a nice, affordable grocery store.

Last weekend, we walked over to Trader Joe's which was recommended to us by a friend of ours.



Wow. Doing the groceries was actually a fun experience. Not only their prices are great, but the products they offer kick all kinds of ass. The store is small, but full of products I want to eat. Even though Safeway/Loblaws/Sobeys are large stores, there isn't really much for me. I don't want fast food, 48-packs, kid's related products, clothes or furniture. I want variety and quality. I want exotic. I want small portions.

From Thai to Italian, they have it all. Fresh fruits and vegetables. Imported cheeses. Wine. The best part is their delicious prepared meals. I had their mixed greens with cranberries, blue cheese, & candied pecans with raspberry vinaigrette dressing at lunch today. Tonight, I had gnocchi al Gorgonzola with a bocconcini salad. Yummy.

Our furniture has arrived!

*English to follow...*

Allo et bonne fête des mères! Nous ne sommes pas assez avancés pour vous montrez des photos de l'apartment mais en voici quelques-unes de notre journée. On est fatigué et on s'en va se coucher!

Our furniture was picked up in Ottawa on April 27. When we inquired early last week about the estimated time of arrival, we were told May 23rd. The shock! To our surprise, we got a call from the driver Thursday afternoon to let us know that he will be here Saturday at 8am (this morning). Yippee! Except that we needed a parking permit for the truck which required a 3-day notice. Oops. We asked what our alternatives were because obviously we couldn't give a 3-day notice. The police told us to double park and pay the fine. Hehe... We didn't get a fine and saved ourselves $125!

Living without furniture was an interesting experience. Plastic "China" and cutlery, air mattress, camping chair... It was like camping but indoor. I realized that I really don't need any of that stuff to be happy (except for my computer!). It does make life more comfortable, but it doesn't contribute much to my overall happiness.

My neighbourhood

Russian Hill is a trendy neighboorhood of San Francisco. It's filled with cool stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and wine bars.

My intersection

My street (Golden Gate Park in the background)


Our living room is right behind the tree.


Around the corner...

The Move

What an adventure. The moving company picked up our furniture on Friday April 27^th. We packed until 1am the night before at which point we ran out of boxes and I had to be creative. Who knew a laundry basket could be such a great ‘box’ for pillows? Thursday was also the first night we started sleeping on an air mattress using towels as pillows (man, my neck hurts).

My last day at work was quite emotional. I’ve always been ready to move on whenever I resigned from a job. Not this time. I loved my job and the people I worked with. I was not ready to leave. My coworkers were so thoughtful. My immediate team prepared a “me” gift basket which included a beautiful necklace, a bed for Kinki, baby food (my favourite!), an electric toothbrush (I brush 6 times a day), and the soap my manager uses (to remember her!). I also received four books about San Francisco from my extended team. My manager and I were both crying like babies when she escorted me out!

We needed to vacate the condo for the tenant on Sunday so we went to a hotel. It was an interesting experience with Kinki. We wanted a convenient, cheap hotel that accepts cats. Let’s just say that it was yucky, but Kinki made himself right at home.

We drove to the airport Monday morning with our 9 luggages and Kinki. We’re usually light travelers so it felt quite weird. We had to reorganize the luggage at the airport because one was 35kg (limit 32kg). I think the computer and the three bottles of wine inside did it, oops. I was not leaving without my computer! Kinki was checked in and all was good.

I had the scare of my life in Toronto. Kinki was beyond traumatized. When they returned him to us, he was rolled up, hiding in the kennel as much as he could, not moving. I thought he was dead. It was the worse feeling in the world. R started yelling “Kinki” and he finally moved. He was shaking and not meowing. He was completely traumatized. I guess the flight training should have involved airport chaos, not just take off. He had peed all over himself. The water and food had spilled all over. The kennel needed a make-over, but I didn’t have time to fix it. We had to go through custom.

By the time we were done, it was 3 pm. Getting our visa was extremely stressful. We gave the paper work to a custom officer and waited until we were called. Two hours later, R was asked a couple of questions, his degrees and our marriage certificate. After that, it took about an hour to get our visa. It was a smooth process, but still stressful as the custom officer has the power to deny your application for pretty much any reasons. Although we had a strong case, there was no guarantee we would go through easily.

By that time, Kinki was feeling much better. He even ate a bit. I cleaned up his cage and we were off to US security. They asked that I take Kinki out of the kennel to X-ray it. Fine, except that the kennel was clearly too big for the machine and BROKE. I was almost in tears with a traumatized cat in my arms in the middle of the busiest airport in Canada. How the heck were we supposed to catch our flight to San Francisco without a kennel for Kinki??? Even if the kennel was fixed, there was no way AC would allow it on the cargo as it was not in perfect condition. I’ve seen a lot of incompetence in my life but the airport staff was by far the most incompetent people I have ever encountered. They were standing there doing NOTHING. They were like “oh well, too bad”. Needless to say none of us needed this extra stress. Thanks to wonderful Air Canada staff, we managed to buy another kennel. While I was holding Kinki as tight as I could trying not to burst into tears in the middle of the airport, R and an Air Canada person rushed out of the terminal to buy another kennel. The Air Canada person was so amazing. Once you clear custom, you are theoretically not allowed to come out. She escorted him to the store and back in 30 minutes. Then we had to put the kennel together. I felt like I was in a bad reality show. Kinki was so scared and I was about to have a nervous breakdown.

When the drama was over, there was about 40 mins left before boarding. We had a bite in the AC lounge (like I was hungry). The five hours flight went smoothly, but I was dead worried about Kinki and the condition I was going to find him in. When he came out, he seemed in a much better shape than he was after the Ottawa-Toronto flight. The kennel was a mess, he was shaking, but at least he was moving. If we have to move again, I don’t know what I am going to do with him. I never want to put him through that again.

We grabbed a mini-van taxi for our giant luggages and Kinki. We made it here at 20:45 pacific time (so 23:45 Ottawa time… about 15 hrs after we left Ottawa). I was nervous about seeing the apartment in real life. The location is awesome. The architecture of the place is very cool, but it’s a bit old (like 1920s old!). It’s got character, that’s for sure! I’ll post pictures after I am done with the make-over and we get our furniture.

We were exhausted. The air mattress had never been more comfortable! I can’t believe we’re finally here.

We're "home"!

And getting here was the most stressful experience of my life. More details to come!

Hurdling our way to San Francisco

Now that the “big stuff” has been taken care of, I am taking a moment to update my blog.

Move: Our move is scheduled on April 27^th. More packing for us. Our one way flight will be on April 30^th.

Immigration: Not much on that front. We have an appointment with our lawyer next week to discuss the interview process.

Apartment in SF: We rented a one bedroom apartment in Russian Hill, a dreamy location downtown San Francisco (picture).It’s not stainless steal fancy, but it’s very charming and has lots of character (think Carrie’s apartment in Sex in the City).

Condo: As most people know, we just moved into our brand new condo. Our contract with the builder stipulates that we are not allowed to “advertise”, “offer to sale”, or “sale” our unit until they have sold all of their units up to a maximum of year after our closing. We were aware of that when we purchased our place. But between July 2005 and now, some called "life" happened. As of now, they have three units left for sale. We attempted, unsuccessfully, to negotiate our way out of this clause. The builder did not grant us permission but we did get something. Instead of allowing us to sell in February 2008 only, we can sell as of October 2007.

We were faced with the dilemma of leaving the condo empty for five months (and pay for it) or rent it out. We were concerned about renting it out for a couple of reasons. First, there are several tax implications (especially as non-residents). After studying the Canadian Tax Act thoroughly (oh the pain), it appears that renting it makes sense financially. We were also worried about the material damage a tenant could potentially cause.

After much consideration, we decided to rent. We advertised and signed a 5-month lease within 24 hrs. We believe that we have found the perfect tenant: 40ish, divorced, lobbyist. I still can't think of myself as a "landlord".

We’re still planning to sell privately as soon as we are legally allowed. Flying twenty times (round trips) between Ottawa and San Francisco is still cheaper than giving 5% away to a realtor. It’s going to be exhausting, but worth it in the end.

Car: Note to self, selling an Audi is not an easy thing. We had two very interested buyers. The first deal fell through because the idiot didn’t know that he had to pay PST, duh. He basically wanted the car with the PST included in the price we agreed on. Right. The second buyer had much more realistic expectations. We closed the deal this morning. Whee.

Job: Since I can’t work until my work permit is processed, I found a great place to volunteer at. I am starting as soon as we arrived. Keeping busy is the key otherwise I am gonna go to the dark side.

I think we’re all set!

Now Boarding Flight to San Francisco

Hubby was in Las Vegas on business last week and he is San Francisco this week. We both despise Las Vegas so meeting in San Francisco was a no-brainer. In addition, we had to go apartment hunting, whee!

With the storm we got on Thursday/Friday, I was scared that my flight was going to be cancelled. All flights to TO and MTL were cancelled. Luckily, I was going West. It was delayed, but I got to Vancouver in time to catch my SF connection.

On Friday night, we met with R’s friend. We had dinner at First Crush. I was exhausted/completely jet lagged by 1 am. We were staying across the street at the Renaissance Hotel Parc 55 in Union Square. Union Square is definitely the place to be. I’d love to live there, but R finds it too busy. Nothing is ever too busy for me!

On Saturday morning, we were off to Napa Valley. The weather was fantastic: Sunny and 20 degrees. Our first stop was Darioush. Persepolis was the inspiration behind the architecture of the winery. The stone was quarried near the region of Persepolis (Iran). It made me feel like going to Iran…in a few (ok, several) years from now. Our second stop was Clos Duval. Not the most impressive winery, but definitely the best wine (Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2002) I’ve had during the whole day.

We had lunch at Bouchon. As usual, we were not disappointed. Bouchon is one of the best restaurant I know. After lunch, we drove to Sterling.

Sterling is famous for its tram car that takes you up to the winery. We were there about three years ago, but I still can’t get over how breathtaking the views are from the top. Our last winery was Luna. We had a complimentary tasting so we stopped by. The winery and the wine were nothing to write home about. We made it back to SF around 6pm.

We spent Sunday hanging out downtown. We had brunch in a little café in Nob Hill and checked out two apartments. One was an awful one bedroom for a mere $1650/month + utilities. The other one was great, but there was nothing in our price range available. Call me crazy, but I just can’t bring myself to pay $2,750/month for a one bedroom apartment even if it has ocean view (see picture)! We had a totally yummy dinner at 1550 Hyde Cafe and Wine Bar.

I went shopping in Union Square on Monday while DH worked. I am not a shopper. I don’t enjoy shopping aimlessly. I never liked Macy’s. Seven floors of clothing is just overwhelming. They should sort their stuff by price, it would make shopping a lot more efficient! I ended up with two lip glosses from Victoria Secret. I know, I am just wild. R left to Monterey after lunch. I headed to the airport. I took the red-eye back and was at work by 10am. That’s dedication.

It’s weird to think that my next trip to SF will be one-way. Ack… It seems to be more real now that I came out of the closet!

Extra, Extra! The Big Announcement

I revealed The Secret at work today so it’s time to share with the world. Oh, and congratulations to those of you who have guessed already (*Waving at Phat and Foxy*).

Hubby and I are making the move, literally. We are moving to San Francisco in May!!!

We’ve had this project in mind for a couple of years now. We wanted to do it right in order to maximize our relocation success. The last couple of months have been crazy busy. His company has taken care of all the legal issues. The paper work is now completed. We’re going on an L1 and L2 visa (company transfer) which will allow me to work in the US. That being said, my EAD (employment authorization document) will take approximately two months to process. During those two months, I am neither allowed to work (in the US or Canada) nor leave the US. It’s an annoyance but I can’t complain. It could have been a lot worse. I’ll use those two months to find a job and finish my marketing research certificate.

As you all know, we just moved into our condo. Anyone needs a condo? It’s going to be for sale shortly. It’s a lovely condo, but at the end of the day, it’s just ‘stuff’. I live for experiences, not ‘stuff’. And we’re also selling the car. It’s a nice car, but we just don’t need one downtown SF.

We’re planning to buy a property as soon as possible, but we need to build our credit first. For the next six months, we’re hoping to rent a one bedroom apartment while we familiarize ourselves with the different neighborhoods. We spent the weekend in San Francisco looking at apartments. For anyone familiar with SF, we’re looking at Union Square, Russian Hill, Nob Hill, North Beach, and Embarcadero.

ETA: I am adding a map! We want an apartment inside that circle.

In the next month or so, I have a million things to wrap up at work. As mentionned, we have to sale the car and the condo. And the obvious, pack and move AGAIN! Thankfully, I didn’t unpack everything. We also need to get Kinki’s shot up-to-date for his arrival in the US.

I am excited and terrified (if that makes sense), but we live only once, right?!?