FML? More like LML!

Where to start...

Oh yea...JOB. ME. BOOM.

But before I get ahead of myself, let me update you on the last month (month? wow...talk about blog slacking). Too much has happened to fully update you so I'm going to make it quick and dirty:

- Tahoe virginity taken including a phenomenal 80's prom dance party complete with linebacker shoulder pads and side pony tails.

- Napa. Twice. Why not?

- New friends! (Read: I haven't managed to scare them away yet and yes, this means I've been on my best, most un-awkward behavior - it does exist, folks.)
- I've become an expert at interviewing. Really. If you need any tips, I'm your gal.
- New roomie! Her name is Kelly and she's pretty bomb.
- DJ and Julie left on their 6 month world adventure. Good riddance. (Just kidding - miss you guys!)
- Had a few visitors - Laura and my ma and have a few more on the books! I love showing off this sensational city.
- Speaking of which, I have entered a full on love affair with San Francisco. I can't quit you (nor would I want to try!)
- Jumped on the iPhone train and will NOT be getting off anytime soon.
- I cut my hair. Bangs making their triumphant return. We'll see how long these last.

Life is great and I wake up every morning counting my blessings and feeling SO fortunate to be at this junction in my life. I hope I don't offend any of my Seattle friends when I say that moving has absolutely been one of the best decisions I have made. Of course, I miss certain things about Seattle, but making that leap to push past my comfort zone and leap into the unknown has paid off in leaps and bounds. I can't even begin to tell you how much the phrase: "everything happens for a reason" rings true!

After interviewing like a crazy woman and job hunting for MONTHS, I finally landed a DREAM opportunity and I keep pinching myself to make sure this is real. I'll be starting at Dropbox on Tuesday as part of their Office Team. The Office Team basically makes sure the office is running...so they plan events, coordinate logistics, make sure people are happy...all things I love doing!

You can read more about Dropbox here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_(service)

They have an awesome reputation in the Bay area and are growing like CRAZY. I'm SO lucky to be getting in right now and everyone who works there is young and awesome - I just accepted the offer officially an hour or two ago and I've already gotten about 6 emails from my new coworkers welcoming me to the team and telling me how excited they are that I'm joining!

Anyway, enough gushing. Let's talk about last night.

After hearing that Dropbox would be offering me a position, Kira and I decided to celebrate with a little sushi dinner. After splitting a couple rolls, we decided to hit up a little art gallery to check out a painting of one of Kira's friends that was on display. After scouring the streets for parking for far too long (a norm in SF), we landed a sweet spot and went on our merry way to the gallery.

Upon opening the door, we found ourselves in a relatively small space with about 10 people sitting around a table all drawing with emo music pulsing quietly in the background. After exchanging awkward pleasantries, Kira and I proceeded to act appropriately engrossed in the 10-15 paintings that lined the small space, all the while trying not to trip over the various bags and art supplies being utilized by the drawing party.

We were about to bow out gracefully when one of the artists asked if we would like to join them. Being accomplished artists ourselves, we simply HAD to take them up on their offer and pulled up a couple chairs. (By the way, I realize there's no sarcasm font, so let's just keep in mind that that last sentence was rich in sarcasm. I'm terrible at drawing.)

Kira decided it would be a good time to draw my face and proceeded to do so while I played on my cell phone (in a highly sophisticated way, of course) and talked about football - sidenote: turns out the art community isn't necessarily the biggest football fans as most of my commentary was met with blank stares. Who knew?

I present to you, "Natalie" by Ms. Kira Detko:

Not sure how I feel about this one.

A good twenty minutes later, we parted company with our new BFF artist friends with promises to return to the next drawing party two Wednesday from now.

Probably not going to happen.

Just another typical night in San Francisco.

Today I Had A Real Live Co-Worker!

Another busy day in the office (the living room couch)! I'm under some real tight deadlines (meh) and the boss (me) is a real pain to work with. However, today was a really exciting one because for the first time in a week and a half, I had a coworker (my brother worked from home today). We even took our lunch break together.

-Pause to relish in the adorableness of my sibling bondery. (Yes it's a word despite what spellcheck thinks. No one is impressed with your red squiggly line and while we're on the topic, "meh" is also a word. Adjust accordingly. Thank you.) -

Some big discoveries in the last week, folks.

Get this - a mere 5 minute walk (yes...everything is a five minute walk in my world) from the apartment there is a phenomenal set of 500 (give or take) stairs that people go to for a great workout. Who needs a stair master when you have actual stairs? Not to mention the view from the top is spectacular! I would take some pictures, but I don't bring my phone with me when I go run them. I'm fairly certain my phone would withstand some water damage if I did - this girl knows how to sweat.

Word to the wise - if you come to visit me, I will most likely be subjecting you to an outdoor workout on these bad boys so make sure you pack your Lululemon gear.

Last Friday I ventured out for some quality interaction with PEOPLE MY OWN AGE. Yes, you read correctly. I hung up my knitting needles and orthopedic shoes for the evening and went to a bar with my friend Kira. We ended up running into some fellow UW alum (just now I typed slum by accident), which was pretty random! I also struck up a conversation with a man who works at Google. He proceeded to grill me about what features I would like to see added to Gmail...

Is this what bar conversation is like in SF? If so, I better stop racking up the "Bieber Fun Facts" and start focusing on more technological material. Sigh.

After I left the bar I went to go catch the bus and wound up chatting with the other people at the bus stop for awhile until unexpectedly, a stretch limo rolled up in front of us. Next thing I know, the window creaked open about 5 inches...just enough for me to see a set of dark eyes staring out. Sure enough, a moment later a finger began beckoning me to come closer. In my mind I wondered "is this what Julia Roberts felt like in Pretty Woman?"

Foreign Limo Creep (hence forth known as FLC): "you look very nice"
Me: "yes."
FLC: "do you have the liquor store?"
Me: "There's one right behind me."
FLC: "Do they have the Budweiser?"
Me: "I'm sure they do."
FLC: "Do they have the champagne?"
Me: "I don't know, sir."

At this point the door swung open and a robust man leaps out of the limo followed by his equally creepy friend.

FLC: "We are celebrating 101st birthday!"
Me: "You hardly look 101...but ok."

He was slurring pretty badly having evidently celebrated heavily prior to his limo jaunt (keep in mind that it was only 8pm...) and rambled on about God knows what before he finally went off to the liquor store.

....10 minutes rolled by....still no bus so I texted DJ and Julie to come get me.

FLC comes skipping out the liquor store with two bags.

FLC: "Do you have the glasses???"
Me: "No."
FLC: "What is your name?"
Me: "Natalie.."
FLC: "Why is it that everyone with the name Natalie is beautiful?"
Me: "I don't know, sir."
FLC: "Let's have some champagne!"

FLC then proceeded to begin opening the bottle of champagne. Thankfully, DJ pulled up at that moment and it was all I could do to keep from sprinting to the car.

Just another public transportation adventure in San Francisco.

Saturday, Kira and I went to quite possibly one of the most amazing house parties I have ever experienced. And I don't mean amazing in the way you might imagine. I could not dream up a more awkward evening if I tried. I can't even do it justice. So I won't.

OH! How could I forget my near death experience??

I drove for the first time in the city on Sunday. My GPS conveniently decided it didn't want to work properly and I was stuck navigating the one-way streets and steep hills on my own. Quite an adventure if I do say so. I arrived at Bed, Bath, and Beyond sweating profusely. I do consider it quite an achievement that I was only honked at once during the excursion. It's the small things in life.

I think that's enough for now. Stay tuned for some exciting photos of my living quarters. I've been putting it off because, let's be real, I don't feel like making the bed.

Ciao for now!

Sabbatical Life: Adventures in GTL (Gym, Tourist-ing, and Looking)

Let's discuss something rather troubling for a moment.

Every day when I walk to the gym, I pass an abandoned shopping cart that is full of barrels and other random crates. And every day, the cart is in a different spot along the path. One detail that remains consistent is the fact that the cart smells like death every single time I pass by. Pray tell, Death Cart, where did you come from? Who do you belong to? 


With mysteries like these, who needs a job?


I take that back. I clearly do if one of the most exciting moments of my first few days has involved recounting the location of a stinky shopping cart.


Sidenote: did you know you can put someone's FACE on an M&M? What will they think of next??

I made another friend today. A lovely, 70-something named Mary who happened to be taking the same spin class as me at the gym. She opened our conversation by asking if I was a triathlete so, ya know, she instantly became one of my favorite people. She proceeded to give me all sorts of tips and tricks for the classes at the gym and told me all about her recent elbow injury that makes it impossible for her to lift any weights.

Is it just me or does the geriatric population of San Francisco tend to slightly over share? If that's the case then I've found my people! I love a good TMI session.

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous and sunny so I took advantage and went on a long walk around my new neighborhood. In a continuing effort to appear appropriately jaded by my surroundings, I only snapped a few photos, but here they are in all their glory!

 The bridge, the bridge!! This is my view on my walk to the gym. 

(whose entrance is on the left where that little white sign is)

The Palace of Fine Arts - it's about a 5 minute walk away from the apartment and is SO picturesque

Another shot!

THE BRIDGE!!! 

I guess I can't deny my love affair with GGB.

The apartment is also about a 5 minute walk away from Chestnut Street which is essentially a street full of cute little boutiques and restaurants. I've been going on walks down Chestnut every day and yesterday, I think I saw my soul mate.

He might have been homeless - an assumption I'm drawing from his grungy appearance and the fact that he was pushing a shopping cart along (although, maybe shopping carts are the new "murse"? he could just be on the cutting edge of style) - but all of that is not what's important. What is important is that his cart contained jars of protein powder. And not just any protein, but the same kind I use! If that's not fate bringing us together, I don't know what is.

Also, I just noticed a trend with shopping carts in this post...

And with that said, I've got a date with Jersey Shore.

Until next time...

New Year, New City

Hi Friends,

I've only been here two days, but I can already tell I'm going to be doing a lot of smiling and nodding.

"Do you mind commuting to the Peninsula?" - Uhhh....
"There's a job in the dogpatch!" - Puppies?? Oh...it's a neighborhood nickname? Huh.
"I live by Octavia and Van Ness." - Neat...

In other news, I rode the bus (aka the Muni) for the first time today and didn't get lost! Gotta thank my smart phone for that one. What a life saver. It also allowed me to listen to some sweet Bieber tunes during my commute downtown.

I've already noticed that people in SF are definitely more friendly than in Seattle. Whenever I rode the bus in the 206, people just sat quietly without making eye contact and generally minded their own business. Not quite the case down here - seems like people are more inclined to chat with their seat mates.

For instance, I eavesdropped on a lovely conversation between Frankie and Joan today. Frankie was an adorable 79-year-old lady sporting silver chucks and some trendy cats-eyed sunglasses. She leaned over the aisle to Joan and began questioning how old she was (77) and why she looked so great. Joan seems to be quite the philanthropist - volunteers 3 days a week and walks a mile in the morning and a mile at night every day. You see, she used to be in a wheelchair, but got sick of sitting all the time and resolved to change her life around - one step at a time. 100 pounds down, she's quite the spunky lady. Frankie was quite jealous and couldn't stop gushing over how phenomenal Joan is.

...it's clear I need to make some friends. Until then...I'll just keep being creepy on the bus.

What else...

I joined a gym less than 24 hours into living in SF. A girl's gotta have priorities, right? It's only a 5 minute jog away from the apartment and I can see the Golden Gate Bridge on my way. But of course, I appropriately divert my eyes whenever it comes into scene since ya know, I'm not a TOURIST...(aka I get giddy and have to refrain from snapping a picture every time)

"New kid" moment of the day:
I was riding on the bus enjoying the sunshine (btw - definitely have to get used to actually having my sunglasses with me at all times) when the bus stopped and literally everyone got off. It wasn't my stop and wasn't the end of the line, but I got all nervous so I jumped off at the last minute only to realize I was a good 15 minute walk from the apartment still. I played it off by telling myself I got off early on purpose to explore the 'hood. Good thing I was wearing flats...

Stay tuned for more highly sophisticated adventures and Bay area observations. It's gonna be a fun ride, kids.