Italiano

Remember back when I was searching for a hobby to help me like SF better?

And maybe help me make some friends?

Because HOW THE HELL DO YOU MAKE FRIENDS AS AN ADULT????

One of the great mysteries of life.

Well, I finally FINALLY got up off my ass...ok that's a lie I totally did this part online but nevertheless, I started moving in the right direction.

And I signed up for Italian lessons.

Ever since we went to Italy for our honeymoon I've wanted to learn Italian.

And I swore that before we went to Italy again I would learn Italian.

It's been 2.5 years since we went to Italy.

And I still haven't learned Italian.

I bought the Italian Rosetta Stone.  It works to a certain degree, but it definitely requires a lot of self discipline and I'm much better at learning when I'm accountable to someone else, not just myself.

I'm really lenient with myself =)

"Oh Jesica, you can roll your R's really well, don't listen to Rosetta, she doesn't know what she's talking about! You're kicking ass at this and I think it's time for a break now."

After dabbling with Rosetta for awhile I can roll my R's and I know like 17 words in Italian, but I don't think that's gonna cut it.

SO I START ITALIAN TOMORROW!

Outside of my house.  In an italian school.  You know, WITH OTHER PEOPLE!

Honestly I'm kind of scared shitless.

It's been...OMG 8 years!!!! since college, since I've taken a class.

There better be some young pretty married bitches for me to hang out with and not just a bunch of old men in this class.

Because I don't want to be friends with old men.  My friends need to be hot and young and married and OMG pregnant or with a newborn would be perfect!

What?  Is that too specific?  I feel like I'm writing a personal ad.

Wish me luck ladies, cause I am about to start using my brain again AND hopefully make some new friends here in SF!

Anyone else take a class like this as an adult???  Did it amount to anything?  Did you make any friends?

Thoughts on San Francisco

I have promised to give this city (and this house) one year of my life before I make a decision about moving. But right now, I'm not loving it here.

I don't understand why people love San Francisco.

I have yet to encounter a person anywhere in the world who had anything negative to say about San Francisco.

But personally, I'm finding little to make me fall in love with this city.

Even though technically it's a big city, it doesn't feel like it. Perhaps that's the appeal to many, big city conveniences without the big city feel. It is not however, appealing to me. Go big or go home.

It is very much like Portland in this respect.

I love Portland. But I chose to live elsewhere, if I wanted to live somewhere like Portland, I would just live in Portland. Then I would be that much closer to my family, ie. free babysitters ;-)

And the weather f***ing sucks. This is why we're giving it a year so that I can see all of the "seasons", but so far summer is getting a big huge thumbs down from me.

And the house, well, the house is another matter.

My husband bought this house 7 or 8 years ago, long before he met me and while I like the house there are several things about the house that I and the hubs want to change. And the more the changes add up the more we're considering that maybe a move to a different house and a different area might be a smarter option. We're seriously at the point where we're considering almost a full remodel, if there's almost nothing in the house that we'd keep, why stay?

And the area, well, the area is nice, it's a great part of San Francisco, but...

San Francisco has a weird school system where the whole thing is a lottery and you have very little choice about what school your kid ends up in, but here's the kicker, THERE ARE NO SCHOOL DISTRICTS. I think in most areas of the world your school is determined by the area of town you live in and you go to the school for whatever area you are in. Choosing homes near good school districts is a very common way to purchase a house. Here you throw your name in the mix and your kid may very well end up at the worst school in the city an hour away from home.

It's weird.

And we're right next door to a school, SCHOOL KIDS ARE NOISY.

And I'm paranoid that my cats are going to get run over.

And all the houses are SO close to each other. You can hear neighbors argue if they have the windows open. And you just know they're watching your every move. Neighbors are nosy.

I'm seriously considering moving to the 'burbs just to get some better weather and to not be so close to my neighbors.

BUT just so everyone doesn't think I'm not giving San Francisco a fair shot here are some things I'm really enjoying about the city:

The recycling system - It's AMAZING! I know this makes me sound like a total dork that the first thing I like is the recycling system, but SERIOUSLY! Why has the rest of the US (and the world) not started recycling/composting/reusing EVERYTHING like this?

The fact that it IS a big city with big city conveniences (even if it doesn't feel like it sometimes) - I was DYING in Springfield, I am just happy to be back amongst the Crate and Barrels, Williams Sonomas, The Container Stores, Bloomingdales, Sur La Tables and every other favorite store of mine that I've been missing over the last year.

Big City Crowds - I know it's ridiculous but I missed fighting my way through crowds on the sidewalk, angry honking, and people that are in a hurry everywhere. YES I am a big city girl at heart.

Being close enough to Oregon to drive - It's an 8.5 hour drive yes, but it's a drive and it's doable in a day. That's a far cry from being 7500 miles away in Sydney or even 3000 miles away in NYC.

Farmer's Markets - San Francisco kicks ass on the organic front. They have a Farmer's Market in a different part of town every day of the week. If you wanted fresh organic produce everyday, it's not a problem and it's not expensive like shopping at Whole Foods.

Midwives and Homebirthing - I could not ask for more choice or more options when it comes to a home birth. I was completely overwhelmed both by my choice of midwives as well as my choice of midwifery centers in hospitals. Not only do I have awesome midwives to attend my birth at home I also have an amazing back up midwife at the hospital should anything go wrong. I could not ask for more support than this city has offered when it comes to bringing my baby into the world. AMAZING.

So, other San Franciscans, please share, what do you love about this city? What am I missing?

Miscellany Wednesday

I know it's supposed to be Miscellany Monday...alliteration and all that jazz. But I'm feeling a little bit like bullet points are the way to go today.

So here goes.

* I just found this chocolate chip cookie recipe here, decided to try it and am now enjoying a delicious batch...so much so that I fear there will be no cookies left by the end of the day.

* For personal reasons that I will share in a few weeks, I have decided to not go to NYC for my birthday. This makes me very very sad, but I will be going in September to make up for it!

* Instead, for my birthday, I'm going up to Oregon to see the fam, where if nothing else I at least get to enjoy some summer weather which San Francisco is not providing.

* I fear that because we're so protective with our cats, ie. leaving them for 4 days to go to Oregon is KILLING me, that it's indicative of how we're going to be with our kids. I don't want to be an overprotective parent.

* San Francisco weather sucks.

* AM I REALLY TURNING 30 ON SATURDAY?

* I'm uber excited to be going to a wedding in the UK in October, just 2 months away!

* I just rediscovered how bad I am at keeping secrets. Someone told me something and I am DESPERATE to tell others...it's not even my secret to tell!

Happy Hump Day Everyone!

How to Drive Like a Californian

Just a few things I've learned about driving while living in California.

Please add any I've forgotten in the comments.

Double Park. Can't find parking? Doesn't matter, just double park. Everywhere for any reason. No one will honk at you. They will just drive around you. It does not matter how traffic heavy the area either, double park anyway.

Ignore all speed limits. It does not matter what the signs say regarding speed, just go with the flow of traffic and you'll be fine. This does not always mean faster than the signs, sometimes it's slower.

Do not use your blinkers. They are completely unnecessary and superfluous. If you need to change lanes, just do it. If you're turning, no need to let everyone know beforehand, they'll figure it out.

Don't stop at stop signs. It's called a California Stop for a reason. It's perfectly acceptable to roll through stop signs. In fact if you do stop it's like rolling down your window and screaming, "I'm a tourist!"

Obey all pedestrian traffic laws. Yep, it's true, they may be terrible drivers for the most part, ignoring almost all traffic laws, but they're very gung-ho about letting pedestrians have the right of way...without honking at them.

Anyone else live in more than one state and find driving to be a whole new experience?

Organic Lollipops and a Wax

My title sums up San Francisco nicely. Let me explain.

I went in for a wax, the really terrible kind, the painful kind, the Brazilian kind. When I walked in I was presented with a lollipop to "help me through the experience" and then she told me it was organic. If that's not San Francisco I don't know what is.

Super nice. Almost overly so. And uber worried about saving the environment.

Sidenote - In Oregon (and possibly the rest of the Northwest) we call lollipops SUCKERS. When I got to New York and said sucker, people were confused and totally thought I was some hick from the midwest. TRUE STORY.

Back to San Francisco, I have nothing BAD to say about San Francisco, other than it's not New York.

I mean more by that statement than simply the geography.

People say that New Yorkers are rude and unhelpful, the city is considered "hard", abrasive and rough. But that's why I LOVE IT.

And by the way, the only people that think New Yorkers are rude are tourists, other New Yorkers KNOW that fellow New Yorkers just know how to get where they're going or get what they want and sometimes it takes a little...brashness to achieve whatever results they're looking for. Also they're not sight seeing! They're...living and need to get where they're going quickly!

It takes a little getting used to, but as soon as I found my groove in the Big Apple I knew I was "home". The hardness suits me. I don't like extra niceties, I'd rather get to the point.

San Francisco is the EXACT OPPOSITE and I'm having a hard time adjusting.

For instance, I have a tendency to rush the elevator/train/crosswalk, etc etc. I learned long ago that people will push you out of the way if you're not moving fast enough, and that it's better to be ahead of the crowd, THAT WAY YOU'RE IN FRONT OF THE TOURISTS =)

Unfortunately, no one else does that here, SO I LOOK VERY RUDE AND PUSHY!

I also totally stole a cab from some girls the other night, BUT BITCHES WERE TOO SLOW ;-) I know the San Francisco thing to do would have been to let them have it, but seriously, I was closer and I got in the cab first, THAT'S THE WAY IT'S DONE. Even the cab driver complimented me on my smooth skills, SERIOUSLY.

Another sidenote - whenever I think of stealing cabs I think of my friend Jessica from No No You Say and her getting pissed off at some girls fishing downstream from us a a few years ago in NYC, so when she saw an open cab slowing to stop for the evil downstream fishers she booked it across the street with 5 inch heels and A BABY STRAPPED TO HER CHEST...and got herself a cab! Those are mad skills...and yet they would be totally unappreciated here.

San Franciscans also like to compliment anything and everything...randomly...on the street.

I've been complimented on my shoes, dress, hat, hair, you name it, someone has randomly told me they like it. I find this endearing, but honestly, I DON'T CARE IF RANDOM GUY ON THE STREET LIKES MY HAT. Yes it's nice to be complimented, but really, if you're driving an El Camino and you tell me you like my boots while you drive by me in your ugly El Camino I'm going to think seriously about throwing away my boots BECAUSE YOU OBVIOUSLY DO NOT HAVE GOOD TASTE.

And boy do they like to chat. Chat about the weather, chat about my hat, chat about my car, chat about the Giants, WHATEVER, doesn't matter. I mean on the bus, on the train, in the cab, EVERYONE wants to talk. PLEASE JUST LET ME READ ME BOOK IN PEACE CRAZY STRIPPER LADY, I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT HOW YOU LIKE MY SUNGLASSES AND WHERE I BOUGHT THEM AND HOW YOU USED TO BE A STRIPPER IN NEW YORK!

People don't talk to you in New York! They leave you alone!

Is this terrible of me? Shouldn't I think the niceness is GOOD?

And btw, they become rude New Yorkers when behind the wheel of a car. The niceties extend only to face to face conversations, when it comes to driving it's EAT or BE EATEN, they don't take no crap when it comes to driving!

What else do I have to say about San Francisco?

They LOVE to recycle. And I love them for that.

It's pretty amazing the amount of things you can recycle or compost here. Plastic bags are banned from grocery stores, they only use paper bags and using your own bag is HIGHLY encouraged. You also receive a GIANT recycling container and a TINY garbage container and a compost container for garbage pick up.

Remember my compost post? Well, holy hell, these people take care of all of that for you! You just throw everything into a big bin and they haul it away every week and compost the crap out of it somewhere else. It's pretty awesome.

They also have zero emission buses that run on electricity and EVERYTHING is organic ;-)

I like it. They've cut out something like 70% of their waste with the systems they have in place.

Go San Francisco.

What else?

Oh yes...the hippies.

Listen, I'm from Eugene, Oregon. LAND OF THE POT SMOKING HIPPIES. But these people put Eugene to shame. Both with their sheer hippiness and with their pot smoking ways. More often than not I smell weed on someone getting on the train and more often than not I'm deterred from walking AROUND OR NEAR the crazy homeless hippy bums. I don't know what it is but they TOTALLY FREAK ME OUT, something that I've never encountered in New York. I think it might be the likelihood of them trying to talk to you, ie. ever the friendly San Franciscan, even the bums want to chat...or get high with you if you're interested ;-) Cause you know pot is LEGAL here.

All in all, I LIKE San Francisco, but I don't LOVE San Francisco. I've been told by many that it takes 1 year (or maybe a bit more) to fall in love with this city. I find this discouraging because I fell in love with NYC when my plane touched down in the dead of winter 6 years ago. But, I'm still giving it a shot, hopefully in the next 10 months my like will turn to love.

Anyone else ever moved somewhere and taken awhile to fall in love with their new city?

What I've Been Up To Lately

I'm still in my funk.

I can't seem to snap out of it.

I blame the weather.

It's been raining and cold for days...I feel like I'm in Oregon, where ironically it's been warm and sunny all weekend.

Funk or not I've been striving to really get some things around the house done, because no matter how much I do there is always something else that needs to be done.

So, the last few days I have...

Finally put hooks on my groovy wall sticker coat rack that I bought here, so that instead of just looking like pretty wall art

it is now a proper coat rack

and now my coats have somewhere to live other than the back of all the chairs around the dining room table.

I also managed to paint this dresser that we inherited from Dom's storage unit...it was one of the pieces that we thought we had ridden ourselves of years ago but alas surprise! it was in a storage unit. I might ultimately sell it but I think it turned out rather nice. Unfortunately I forgot to take a BEFORE picture, but it looked similar to this, same color, same condition:

and now it looks like this:

I have also managed to discover the wonderfulness of the spaghetti squash, have you heard of a spaghetti squash? It's AMAZING. You poke some holes in it, put it in the oven for an hour, cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and then run a fork along the sides and it comes out in long strings like spaghetti! Add some homemade spaghetti sauce and voila! It's absolutely delicious and a fantastic substitute for pasta!

I know the rest of the world had a nice sunny weekend and you probably didn't spend near so much time indoors painting furniture and cooking, what fun outdoorsiness did everyone else get up to this weekend that I missed out on?

Blog Through the Funk

I'm in a bit of a funk lately.

I don't like to get too personal on here so I'm not going to write about it, but let's just say it's hard to find other things to blog about when my mind is elsewhere and I'm unwilling to blog about what I'm thinking about.

Conundrum, I know.

There's a few things in life that are just not working for me right now, one is that San Francisco is lonely.

I have no friends here and to be honest I already did the whole make new friends thing when I moved to New York and I just really don't want to do it again.

I want my old friends back.

And I want to be back in New York.

Having no friends in Sydney was fine because we were only there for 8 months and if I had made friends I just would of had to leave them.

But this, this is supposed to be for life, and I'm overwhelmed by the thought of having to start ALL OVER again.

Luckily one of my good friends from NYC is here in San Francisco for Memorial Day weekend visiting with her in-laws and that makes me VERY HAPPY!

Anyone have any great tips for making friends in new cities?

Brave New World

We have 13 days until we're off to San Francisco.

Permanently.

For REALS.

We're actually going to San Francisco.

Finally.

I can't believe it.

We've been talking about it and planning it for more than a year.

And now it's here.

Crazy.

Also nerve wracking.

I love new cites.

But I also hate new cities.

Things like dry cleaners, butchers, pharmacies, tailors, hair salons, all have to be rediscovered.

And that can be a giant pain in the ass.

Of course it can also be fun.

I love exploring new cities and finding new shops.

But San Francisco is going to be different.

Because I have to DRIVE.

New York is a walking city.

Sydney is a walking city.

Springfield is a driving city but I was born here and there's not much to it.

San Francisco....San Francisco is a driving city.

And I suck at driving in cities.

I can't tell you how much of NYC I discovered simply because I was walking.

I found boutiques and art and jewelry and god knows what else just because I happened to have walked down a different street.

I love that part of NYC.

I'm sad this move isn't back to NYC.

There. I said it.

I wish we were going back to NYC.

Quick, someone from San Francisco tell me how amazing it is.

Just a Bit of Complaining

I should just make this a travel blog because it seems like that's ALL we do...I'm not bragging and I don't mean that in a good way. Seriously, Jesica wants to come home now and stay in one spot for awhile, that's right I want to SIT STILL. I used to think there was nothing greater than traveling and seeing the world, and while I still believe that it's also nice to have a HOME. I don't even know where home is anymore.

Of course you can say home is "where the heart is" and as long as we're together I guess we're home. But seriously that's movie hallmark stuff. We both need doctors for a few things that we've got going on and it sucks to have to jump from one doc to another because you're always moving cities.

Next year is already all over the place, first we have to live in Oregon for a few months while our renters take their sweet ass time about moving out of our San Francisco house. Then we have to get all of our stuff from our storage unit in New York to our house in San Francisco, just to put it all back in a storage unit in San Francisco when remodel time comes, then back up to Oregon for the rest of the year while San Francisco house gets remodeled.

AND to top it all off I'm in a foreign country for Christmas, a country where you're supposed to go to the beach on Christmas and IT'S GOING TO RAIN ON CHRISTMAS, or so the weather man says. I find that depressing.

Speaking of Christmas, I want this:

Scratch-off wall map from FLIGHT 001 on Vimeo.

I figure we could put it up in our office of our San Fran house and only scratch off the places we've been together...how cute would that be?!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Our Homecoming is Imminent

Well, we've set a date!

Homecoming is Jan. 17th. My my how time does fly. I can't believe we have been here for 5 months already and we have just shy of 2 months left. But looking back through my photo albums we've managed to squeeze in an awful lot over the last 5 months and have 2 more short trips planned over the coming 7 weeks. Somehow we've managed to make 2 trips back home to the US, go to Jamaica and Singapore and see more of Australia than I ever imagined and we still have New Zealand coming up.

We've been busy.

When we return to the good ole US of A we will unfortunately be living in our Oregon house for a month or two while we wait for our renters to move out of our San Francisco house. I say unfortunately, not because I don't want to stay in Oregon for a few months but because this puts everything we have planned on hold AGAIN!

Our renters informed us about 2 months ago that they had just bought a house and were remodeling and they thought they would be out of our house by the end of the year or January at the latest. So, we planned accordingly and made arrangements to be back in San Francisco towards the end of January, figuring if we had to stay in Oregon for a week or two if there was overlap in the dates that wouldn't be a big deal, at least we had the house to stay in and wouldn't be forced to stay with friends or live in a hotel.

Now, they have informed us that March 1 is the EARLIEST that they will be out and that they don't even know if they'll be out by then!

In our ideal world we planned on living in the house for Feb-March and having our final remodel plans sent in for permitting by March-April so that building could begin June-July. Sigh. Now everything will be pushed back by 2-3 months. Our timeline of having the house finished by Christmas next year is slowly becoming a pipe dream.

Another unfortunate side effect of living in Oregon is Dom's work. He can work remotely for the most part, but I'm sure he'll be forced to travel and it's not like there are international flights coming in and out of Eugene, Oregon, which means no matter what he's going to have to travel down to San Fran to get anywhere in the world, which adds on hours to traveling.

LAME.

It is also cold in Oregon this winter, already snowed once, THAT IS NOT NORMAL OREGON WEATHER. I can only imagine how cold it's going to be come January! I am not looking forward to going from 35 degress C (that is 95 degrees F) to 35 degrees F. Brrrrr!

Anyone else feel like life keeps getting put on hold?

A Distraction from Oz

As I've mentioned before, Oz is fantastic, Sydney is fantastic, the Aussies are fantastic...

But it's not home.

We have 2 months left and we definitely have itchy feet.

The most exciting thing about our homecoming will be our house remodel. It's going to be a long drawn out process I fear, but nevertheless we are sooo excited to get started!

I've never lived in this house so it's been tough for me to visualize all the changes we want to make, so my main focus has been the kitchen.

Here's some thoughts I have about our new kitchen:

source

source

source

source

I'm definitely drawn to a french country kitchen and I think I'd really like to have it all white. Though I also really love that traditional black and white kitchen floor on the pic 3 from the bottom.

What style of kitchen are you drawn to? Anyone ever done a full kitchen remodel? Tips?

(None of these piccies are mine, sorry if they are yours and I didn't source them, I've had them saved on my computer forever)

Air Blogging

I'm at 37,000 feet right now...and I'm on the internet...it's weird.

So, I realize I've been completely absent from my blog for the last few weeks, but to be honest we haven't stopped moving long enough for me to even think about posting.

But, here I am on my way to NYC and since I have nothing better to do I thought why not blog at 37,000 feet?

I'll give a quick recap of what we've been up to and maybe while I'm in NYC I'll be able to sit down and do a proper recap.

Two weeks ago we left Sydney for our long ass flight across the Pacific and made it successfully to Oregon with no drama. We even managed to get an upgrade, yes an upgrade, not upgrades. So, Dom took the business class seat for the first 6 hours and halfway through we swapped seats and I managed to squeeze in 4 hours of sleep and Sex and the City 2, definitely not the worst flight I've ever been on.

Once in Oregon we spent 2 nights in Portland, resting and celebrating our 1 year anniversary before we headed south to Springfield where we spent the rest of the week moving ourselves into our new house!

Oh the moving.

Five years ago I left Oregon for NYC and somehow managed to convince my parents to store all of my furniture for me...indefinitely. Granted my dad had just built a barn that rivals their house in terms of square footage so they weren't necessarily wanting for space, but in all honestly I didn't realize how much crap I had accumulated over the years and was still holding onto. After a few years in New York I did start to sell some of it, but only managed to get rid of the TV's and very little else. So...moving was fun. Sense the sarcasm.

Moving was WAY more time consuming than I had thought it would be and that I led my husband to believe...I thought for sure it would just take a trip or two in the pickups from my parents house out to our new house, a mere 12 miles away.

I'm pretty sure we took a load every day and we were there for 10 days, BUT we now have a completely furnished house.

Just a quick sidenote, even in business class the food on airplanes sucks! I find myself choking it down trying not to gag each and every time. They make it look quite fancy when you fly business, with proper silverware and real glassware, but it's all a disguise, the food is still crap.

And another sidenote while I'm at it, I am a Premier Executive with United! In a way this is awesome because it means I can get my own upgrades without Dom and that I can walk down the special aisle and skip the long queue at security, but on the other hand it means I have been traveling WAY too much. I have over 100,000 miles people, that's just wrong if you don't travel for business. It's also lame because the last bit of traveling Dom and I did for pleasure and to a destination of our choice was 1 year ago on our honeymoon. Since that time we have been to tons of places, but it's always for work, or weddings, or baptisms and honestly I can't wait until the day that we are settled somewhere (and at this point I don't care where) and get to CHOOSE our traveling destination.

Anyway, back to Oregon. Where was I? Oh right, I had an absurd amount of furniture stored at my parents house and it is all now safely in the Oregon house. Which means there is an empty house in Oregon that is fully furnished if anyone is looking for a place to stay in Oregon! Seriously friends, cousins, aunts and uncles, whoever reads this that I know in real life, if you're going to Oregon and need a place to stay, hit me up.

So, the house is pretty cool, it's an A frame, 3 bedroom, 2 bath and completely liveable, it needed absolutely nothing done to it. Quite a good deal if you ask me.

Here's a little teaser photo...I have more but they're on my other cameras and I promise to post them later.

So, after Oregon we headed to San Francisco where we managed to get tons done in the 3 days that we were there. We met with our property manager to discuss the tenants move out date in our San Francisco home, visited the house to get a better idea of where the Sydney iron lace will go once we get it back to the states, met with an architect to discuss the remodel that we are planning for the SF house, made arrangements to get the sailboat (Tutu) out of the water and even had a bit of times to catch up with some friends.

Busy busy.

Now I'm on a plane to NYC and Dom is headed to Berlin for a few days before he meets me back in NYC before we head back to Sydney 1 week from today.

I'm really enjoying Sydney, but being back amongst people we know for the last few weeks...I miss "home", and will be excited to come back in just 4 short months.