Goodbye Madison, hello San Francisco

I know I haven't updated in a while (my cousin is getting bored re-reading my old posts!) Right now I am writing to you from next to a recycling can, in the corner of baggage claim ...in San Francisco! Why am I next to a garbage can you ask? Well, I'm tired and this was the closest to an outlet to charge my very dead phone. I have about another hour here at the airport before I board a BART to take to my friend Christy's work. She's helping driving me around town today looking at apartments. Then tonight, we will meet up with my friend Kevin (aka Vinh) for dinner and whose home I will be staying for a few days until I find a place to live. Thank goodness for good, reliable, supportive friends that I am lucky to have in my life. I was supposed to start work tomorrow at UCSF but since it is a university holiday and my new boss is not in town, she's told me to come in on Monday instead. Which is probably helpful, I can dedicate all day tomorrow to apt hunting. So far, I have 2 appointments today to look at some downtown studios. So expensive. And I think christy mentioned that these might not be in a good neighborhood, but really, I think this is the max I can spend on rent ($1200 for a studio! That's 3x what I paid in Madison for my place!)! Anyway, we'll just have to see.

I got back from Singapore last Sunday and have spent the last 3 days packing, cleaning the house and the lab, archiving my work in lab, and spending all available moments with the people I love in Madison. I've made some wonderful friends that I will truly miss. I don't think that I have necessarily absorbed the finality of my move yet...I am barely trying to keep afloat with everything I had/have to do. Yesterday was a long day. I was exhausted and was struggling so hard to just keep up. I shipped 3 big boxes of clothes and shoes, 2 small boxes of books, and 2 medium boxes of random items to my parents' house in Stockton, CA to be picked up later once I find a place to live. The shipping only costed about $250, much to my surprise! I was really expecting it to be at least double the price. I threw away 2 garbage cans worth of trash and recyclables, so many of which were pictures and momentos I had treasured for years but now don't seem to mean very much anymore. I made 3 trips to a St. Vinny's donation drop off site (probably 5 big boxes worth of donations) and gave away 80% of my ceramics to people at work. I guess this move could've been a lot worst.

On Tuesday night, I got together with some friends at a grad student favorite bar, The Library, for some drinks and bittersweet goodbyes. I loved that so many people made it out on a Tuesday evening to say bye to me...it means the world for me to see them one last time. I felt so loved, thank you :).

Not having a computer has been difficult, I haven't been able to get as much real work done as I would've liked to. Turns out my hard drive is completely shot --death by thesis (did I mention it died less than 24 hrs before my thesis defense?!). Luckily I can just replace the hard drive and the computer should be okay. One less monetary obligation for me to worry about.

Some have mentioned that my blog is hard to follow bc I don't have pictures...hang in there, once I get my computer working, it should be easier for me to include pics. But for now, I've been blogging through an app on my phone. I'll leave you with a pic of the mess I'm sitting among. Hopefully the next time I write, I will have found a new home. I miss you all in Madison already, but I'm excited for this new life in San Francisco.