The move to San Francisco is complete and I’m beat. Jen, Stella, Happy, and I are really loving the new apartment (we took a bunch of photos, which I’ll post here once the DSL is active at home). The last time I can remember having a weekend this busy was December 9 (Jen’s birthday!), when I quoted Margaret Thatcher and was reminded of the dog poster that now sits on my desk (I just brought it in last week, so I haven’t yet hung it up).
Although the last time we moved was just 6 months ago, it seems like it was ages that we were living in Marin. One weekend down and we’re much happier in SF.
We both took Friday off work and woke up bright and early for last-minute packing. The movers arrived at 9am sharp. (Two for two in satisfaction with Delancey Street Moving! Those guys are great). We really planned well this time, selling our excess furniture, throwing lots of stuff away, taking the time to sort through junk rather than just jamming it in boxes, and having everything ready to go when the movers arrived. Last time we moved (following 3 years on Treasure Island), we ended up doing at least 12 round-trip car trips to move all the stuff that we thought didn’t amount to much! This time we only had to make a handful of trips (one on Thursday night, one with the movers on Friday, then a final trip with both of our cars filled up following the cleaning and dog pickup Friday night). Cleaning was much easier, too, since (A) we kept it so much cleaner than TI, (B) it was just the two of us living there, and (C) we lived there 1/6th of the time we lived on TI.
I think we must have set some kind of unpacking and decorating record. Aside from our handy sideroom (the room that leads from the living room to our backyard) and a few stray boxes, our unpacking is done. And our wall hangings are up. Yup, somehow we managed to move, unpack, and decorate all in the same weekend. Taking Friday off was key.
But what was great about the weekend was how much fun we managed to have amidst all the moving and unpacking. The more we unpacked, the more we loved being in our new apartment; the more we walked around our cool Inner Sunset neighborhood, the more we loved being in the city and knew we had made the right decision moving there; the more company we had, the more we knew how much fun it was going to be having people over (and that friends would be able to come see us much more easily than in Larkspur).
Yes, all of this in one weekend. (We even crammed in a couple episodes of Buffy Season 3, the first-ever Sopranos episode, and a 9pm Sunday night conference call I had with Neuchatel and Japan.)
Saturday we had DirecTV installed, had PG&E come over to look at our gas stove and make sure it was functioning properly (we smelled gas and will have to use a lighter to use the stove), and did a great deal of unpacking. (I also discovered that we have roof access when the DirecTV installer needed to get up there for the install.) We had lunch at Naan ‘n Curry on Irving St. (415.664.7225) and returned to our place to find that some jerk had squeezed his big ol’ Jeep Grand Cherokee into the spot behind my car and had left it pressed against mine. There was a dent in the bumper that pissed me off. Luckily, the dent somehow expanded itself out and the jerk actually did call. Turns out the guy is a neighbor of ours in the building next door (I realized I had met him), so it’s good that it’s probably a non-issue.
Saturday night Dad came over for dinner, and we ate at a ’70s pizza parlor on 9th Ave. that looks pretty much like our apartment (right down to identical wall hangings!). Later that night, Ben, Jess, and Enoch arrived for some drinks. After a few rounds at our place, we walked to Yancy’s Saloon on Irving St. (here are the urinals there) and played Ms. Pac-Man into the night. We really had a blast as we capped off the night with the requisite stop at the 24-hour doughnut shop and the climb to the roof of our building.
It was a great first weekend in San Francisco and one I won’t soon forget.
