I’m gone already. How did that happen?

Props:
- my friends who live there. It feels like (surprise) a city of transplants, but the nice thing is, I’m a transplant, and I know a lot of those transplants. It was great reconnecting with some old friends, and staying connected with others.
- my roommates at Vegetable House. (I’ve named it that to distinguish from Pretzel House, where I live in Pittsburgh.) I still like having roommates. It’s a good way to make deep connections when you’re all transplants at some level or another.
- okay okay the coffee, look, it’s absurd how good the coffee scene is there. There are at least 4 world-class roasters, so I get to decide that I dig Ritual and Four Barrel a little more than Blue Bottle and Sightglass. Also I’ve got my little rolodex of small roasters, and I can decide I don’t like a coffee shop for no reason other than that it’s not awesome enough. Short list includes Haus, Linea, Philz, Sextant, Papa November, Saint Frank, Matching Half, Workshop, Coffee Bar, Grand, and Wrecking Ball, but that’s only the top tier. Honestly, I’ve got to make a map of these.
- and burritos, it must be said, I will put a Taqueria Cancun up against anyone but really anywhere you go it’s quite nice.
- bikes, yes, a lot of people bike and it’s pretty easy to get around, and more than that, it’s a lot of fun and very pretty.
- nearby mountains and forests and other pretty places
- Caltrain. Not as nice as sitting at home or even in the office for those 45 min each way, but surprisingly not terrible. The ability to put a bike on it makes it all possible.
- occasional… things? that happen? that are just generally interesting? hat tips to the Long Now talks, Maker Faire, MacroCity, and a handful of other things that I couldn’t even go to. It’s the center of some world. I appreciate that.
- Scoot. Zipcar for electric scooters. So good.
- the ability for Tati and I to both get internships out there. I mean, I put it down here at the bottom, but I want to make sure I don’t take for granted how wonderful it was that we were together out there.

Slops:
- feeling bad about being a gentrifier all the time. Okay, so one solution is to just stop feeling bad. But then you’re just ignoring a problem. (also, it’s hard when there are flyers all around your neighborhood that say “EVICTED” with a picture of a Google bus. Or, you know, when this graffiti shows up literally on my house. arguably this is a good thing; better to confront our problems than ignore them. but it does put me in an uncomfortable spot.)
- um, commuting so long does get old. (gotta get a job with some Google buses! … ideally without evicting anyone.)
- working three jobs is hard. (internship, preparing for teaching a class, and keeping up with my main line of research in a little way.)
- uh, it’s crowded? I started looking for bars or parks or just places that had no other real qualifications besides being quiet. I mean, I don’t like wanting the same things that a lot of other people want, and there, there are definitely a lot of people that want a lot of things. Some friends and I made a reservation for brunch a month in advance! A month!
- and, you know, the rent is too damn high, etc, see #1

but overall it was a super rocking summer. Hope to be back soon. Yes. Thank you San Francisco, it’s been (ahem) hella sweet.

Comments:

Aaron - Aug 5, 2014

are you in India now?