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.

The Frat Boys Are Back

Russian Hill is a peaceful neighborhood.

There are no teenagers.
There are no drug dealers.
There are no prostitutes.
There are no beggars.

But we have our very own annoyance: Frat Boys. Drunk Frat Boys to be exact. Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, they come back to haunt us.

I would be indifferent if my windows weren’t made of tinfoil. Oh Frat Boys, please party on another street and let me sleep!

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!

Oh Belinda

I am really trying hard to like that woman, but it’s not working.

The world needs more successful women in business and politics. No doubt. The double standard she experienced during her short political career was despicable. She stood up to Harper for what she believes in and that’s admirable (although I presume that a dangling cabinet position influenced her decision a little. Just a little, of course.)

I still don’t like her. She reminds me of Paris Hilton.

Annoyance #1: She dropped out of university in her first year. Too much effort, Belinda? You mean you can’t buy yourself a university degree???

Annoyance #2: How many twenty-two years old with a high school diploma become member of a twenty billion dollar company’s board of directors? Without family connections, my guess is none. As Warren Buffet would say, she is part of the Lucky Sperm Club.

Let’s put it that way, I have a lot more respect for successful Average Sperm Club members than successful Lucky Sperm Club members. Maybe she is exceptional at what she does, who knows? The fact is that there are millions of intelligent, hard-working people who excel at what they do. It takes them years to climb the corporate ladder while Belinda Stronach rode the private elevator next to it.

Four myths about travelling

1. I don’t have money

It’s a matter of priority. People don’t realize that the little things they spend money on add up. We have no personal cell phones. We have no TV so no cable/satellite bills. We have one car. We have a small condo rather than a house so our gas bills/maintenance cost are low.

We assess the necessity of every potential purchase. It is one of the reasons why we don’t own a TV (beside the fact that is useless and ugly). There are a million places I would like to visit more than owning a TV. The average cost of a wedding is 22K. Now that's many trips!

2. It’s expensive

Think outside the box. Typical North American destinations (e.g. all-inclusive resorts, cruises, Walt Disney World, etc) are extremely expensive compared to less popular destinations. Our two-week trip to Peru a few years ago was much cheaper than a week at Sandals. Asia is super cheap. A meal is $3-5. Local transportation is very inexpensive (12 hrs overnight train =$16). The most expensive part is to get there, but once you're there it's dirt cheap.

Take advantage of your credit card. We get a couple of free flights per year with our CIBC Aeroplan.

Generally, company loyalty pays off (airline, hotel, car rental, etc). You accumulate points that you can redeem for free flights, nights, etc.

Travel off-season. If I did not hate Christmas so much, we would always travel in the Fall.

3. I don’t have time

Think red-eyes. Why waste your whole day flying when you can fly at night? Not the best sleep, but the best use of 24 hours.

Plan (itinerary, restaurants, hotels, etc) and book ahead.

Use a tour company.

4. It’s dangerous

It’s usually not unless we’re talking about Afghanistan or Iraq. Do your research.

My Easter Weekend

I can’t say that I despise Easter as much as Christmas. It is, however, at the top of my list of most hated holidays. What is the most logical explanation to the disappearance of Jesus’ body? Resurrection, of course. And someone please explain what’s the link with the Easter Bunny again?

We drove down to Toronto on Friday to meet with friends we won’t have a chance to see again soon. We stayed at the Hilton and had a kick ass view on the CN tower. Friday night, we had dinner on Queen St. with a friend we met in South Africa in September 2005. His girlfriend is studying to become an osteopath. She explained that if an osteopath can release the scar tissue around the "c-section" I had last year, I may just get my abs back. I am sure going to give this a try when we are settled in SF. I kept an eye open for Foxy all night, but alas no renard for me!

We spent Saturday/Sunday with a couple extraordinaire. We met them on our South East Asia trip last December. P is a seventy-five years old man. He is the former CEO of a company owned by a large multinational corporation. Not that I hang out with CEOs on a regular basis, but I can totally understand how he became one. Beyond his intelligence and passion for his field, he is incredibly charismatic. Why is it that some people, no matter what they say, are interesting to listen to? We talked about his career, his travels, his family, and everything under the sun. Of course, we did get a couple of free career advices for ourselves!

Two steps forward, one step back

There is so much going on right now, I really don't know where to start. My life is a real estate/tax/immigration/HR chaos. We've had many major, life altering decisions to make in the past few weeks. I am stressed out and exhausted, but I have to say that it has been an empowering experience.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most responsive to change" (Darwin) has never been more true.

More details to come...

Flying Lessons for Cats

Some may think I am crazy. I am just applying my basic psychology knowledge to prepare Kinki for the Big Flight.

I started playing the sound of an airplane take off. If he hears the sound everyday, he will get used to it and won't hyperventilate when we actually do take-off. We just started his training. It will get louder and louder. I am planning to also add movement in a few weeks. Notice that I put the speaker right on the kennel - bulldog size kennel!

(Sorry about the lighting.)

CRA Lottery

I don’t buy lottery tickets and I don’t gamble. Doing my taxes is as close as it gets to winning the lottery. Every year, I anxiously wait to find out how much we are going to get back. Today was a good day.

What are we going to do with our jackpot? Save it for next year, ah. Our accountant explained what is going to happen when we move in May. Among other things, we’ll have 60 days to either pay back the RRSPs borrowed as first time home buyers or pay taxes on it. Le joy.

The Move in Progress

We’ve got some big things checked off our list, but there’s a lot more.

Done:

-Opened US account through RBC
-Cancelled our trip to Spain/Morocco as I am not allow to get out of the US for a while :(
-Received our immigration papers from the lawyer
-Booked a vet appointment for Kinki

In progress:

-Select a moving company. I never thought moving would be so complicated. I just wish we could sell everything and go! It’ll take approximately 2-3 weeks to get our stuff down there. Before the moving truck crosses the US, we need to be in the US with our visas in hand. What are we going to do for three weeks? Air mattress and sleeping bag it is!
-Research immigration requirements for Kinki

To do:

-Sell condo & car
-Talk to lawyer and prepare for immigration interview (3-5 hrs we were told)
-Booked our one-way flights
-Rent a place in SF (through email!)

Things to do before I move to SF!

Since I can't come up with “100 things to do before I die”, I created another list of things to do before... we move!

• Have lots of Tim Horton’s and Second Cup coffee
  
• Go home to Quebec City to visit my family
  
• Eat: Poutine (while in Quebec City), Shawarma (from the Shawarma King), and Gabriel’s pizza (never tried it)
  
• Do wine tasting with friends at our favourite restaurant
  
• Visit the War Museum
  
• Shop at Simons
  
• Get a haircut (I finally found a hairdresser I like, damn!)
  

Hmm, that’s it!

My college/university notes are finally gonzo

For the past 10 years, I've been moving around with my five boxes of college/university notes. Now that we're moving to SF, every box counts. It's a waste of money to move those boxes with us, again. Today, my goal was to be down to one box.

Interestingly, I feel liberated. I don't feel one bit of nostalgia. I am slightly annoyed actually. I am annoyed at the ton of useless stuff I had to research, study, and write over the course of my student career. Now that I have been working for five years, I wish university would have prepared me more for "real life". I know liberal arts are meant to develop critical thinking and yada yada yada, but how much critical thinking does a person really need? Very few courses I took (like five) are useful to my career. I can't help but to think how much better I would be in my job if I had only studied relevant subjects.

I first felt annoyed, then bitter as I was reading some of the feedback provided by teaching assistants. Holy sense of superiority. Dude, it's just a graduate degree that you have (and not even a completed one for most!), not a Nobel prize. University is really good at making grad students believe that they are exceptionally smart. Once they start working, they realize that they really aren't all that. At best, they're among the smart ones.

So I am done. Down to one box, disillusioned, and with a very low tolerance for uselessness!

The sociology and psychology of urbanites

I always knew I was the urban type, but I learned today that I am in fact an urbanite. The demographic and psychographic characteristics of the urbanite (as provided by Wikipedia) are totally me.

Demographics: 18-44 years old

Attitudes: They are time-poor, city-proud, media-literate, brand-centric, trend-sensitive and culturally-aware. They are affluent consumers with an optimistic outlook on life that is very different from those who live in “small town” or rural areas.

Motivations:
1. Expecting to live a meaningful and experience-rich urban life
2. Expecting to succeed in multiple areas of life (not just career)
3. Expecting to get substantial fulfilment from work (not just cash)
4. Expecting to be at the hub of a large friendship network
5. Expecting the traditional ideal of “true love” in the modern world
6. Expecting to have to “make time” in order to have and enjoy time
7. Expecting to avoid the use of debt to have what they need or would want
8. Expecting to have a progressive government that delivers results
9. Expecting to live in a pleasant “urban village” area of their city
10. Expecting to live a responsible life as an urban consumer.

Fits me to a tee!

Flying with a cat...

One of my main worry about moving to San Francisco is having to fly with Kinki.

While Air Canada does not allow cats on the plane, United Airlines does. We're obviously going to fly United. There are no direct flights from Ottawa to SF. On United, we're likely going to have to fly through Chicago. Every time I have flown to Chicago there has been a problem (usually weather related). I hope there won’t be any delays.

Clearing custom is going to be enough of a delay in itself. If we go through Chicago, we’re going to clear custom in Ottawa which is a good thing. However, it will take more time than usual as we need to apply for our visas. It’s a fairly simple process, but Kinki will have to wait for an hour while we are being interviewed. He needs to go through custom too with his medical record!

He freaks out in the car, I can't imagine how much yelling he is going to do on the plane. I wanted to give him Gravol, but I read that it’s not recommended. He’s going to be starving by the end of the day… And won’t have any bathroom breaks!

I am so stressed out. Anyone has experiences to share?

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?!?