Apparently I’m a Tea Drinker…

I’ve never been a fan of drinking tea. It just never appealed to me. But since I felt a new cold coming on and it was my third week at my new job where I was officially in charge of projects that were transitioned to there was no way I could start taking sick days.

So upon the pseudo medical advice of a friend of mine who prides himself on having once been a “health minor” in college I started drinking tea, water and really any fluids I could get my hands on to flush the germy cold out of my system.

I reviewed the tea selections in the kitchen of my floor at work and they were all the usual suspects, earl gray (boring), chamomile (sleepy), peppermint (gross), green (too Asian) and then like a ray of sunshine there was I Love Lemon.

This tea was magical, extra Vitamin C – just what every broken down immune system needs – light, refreshing and not too stuffy like a musty afghan from your Grandma’s attic – which really, is the general viewpoint I have for tea. Maybe that’s just a bad stigma I have given it but much like Ricola cough drops and garggling salt water there are a few “cold remedy recommendations” I have my hesitations about taking.

It’s Day 4 of JDub vs. cold and thanks in part to I Love Lemon, and taking decongestant before bed and also going to bed pre-10pm each night I think I am on the mend. Who knows, perhaps I’ll just continue drinking tea…I am getting older…

Only in SF.

I’m introducing a new feature to the blog about the daily occurrences that remind me that I do live in a pretty random city and “Only in SF” will x-y-z happen. Enjoy!

• Only in SF will a street kid ask a random middle aged dude if he has any pot and when the dude does, the street kid will then ask “can I have some? or can you smoke me out?” – mind you this is on a 6:30pm crowded bus out of downtown.
• Only in SF can an Asian halfie get away with pretending to not speak English and have it passed off as believable. That’s right, my white friend will be taking all your requested photos today tourists.
• Only in SF will you see tiny elderly people hauling their body weight in strange foods/live animals on rush hour transit. (Well at least Only in the USA, I’ve seen some strange things in Asia….)

That’s installment one, based mostly off events from the last 72 hours. Stay tuned for additional segments to come!

Game On SF.

There has been a lull for sure in my blogging, 10 days, but don’t think that I haven’t thought about blogging most days. I need to be better about actually jotting down my blog thoughts – most of the time some wacko thing happens and I say to myself “Oh, I am TOTALLY going to blog about that” and then life interferes and it’s lost in my mind ether only to become no where to be seen once I have some time and am in front of a computer.

So instead you get the boring life update today.

Things in SF have been going really well. Work has taken off pretty rapidly. I’m currently leading an existing project, as of today, that was transitioned to me from a colleague who is switching clients within the agency and I have two new projects I kicked off and am leading from the start. I’m still office homeless, which means I haven’t been assigned a desk. It’s not too bad, mostly I jump around to people’s desks who are on vacation or out of the office and for the first two weeks mostly I sat in my boss’ office which isn’t as horrible as you would think, she’s actually awesome.

Beyond work life is good too. It’s an adjustment not having a Fall season here in the Bay but it was nice to have gorgeous weather all weekend when The Sox Fan was in town. I’m talking 70′s every day. In mid-November. Amazing. We had a great time sightseeing, going to see the Ducks play Cal and just generally running around SF showing my first time tourist and first official SF visitor all the Bay has to offer.

Here’s my favorite picture of the weekend:

Golden Gate from SF

Officially not crazy.

If you’ve ever felt like life is getting the best of you and you are losing it, go ride a bus.

There are ALL sorts of crazy on public transportation. I watched a shirtless man in a windbreaker try to hit on a frumpy middle-aged office worker. I’ve seen two young thugs get into a fake fight to see what people’s reactions would be. I’ve seen an older Chinese woman leaving Chinatown with a paper bag with holes punched into it stored inside of a plastic bag that contained what I am pretty sure were LIVE frogs (based on the jumping/movement coming from the bag).

Those are just the highlights. I don’t mind the bus or MUNI trains. I find it somewhat entertaining to people watch and the only time it really bothers me is during super crazy times (which have happened a few times) where people get way inside my personal space and when I am cramped/a.k.a. people step on me, pretend I’m not standing there or try to walk literally on me.

Please believe I’ll be keeping the blog updated with more “best of” for my commuting. For now, just know this: if you think you are having a bad day, if you need some cheap entertainment or if you want to feel less crazy take a little cruise on some public transportation and realize it’s not a big deal.

Home Sweet Apartment.

Slowly but surely I am settling into my new place. The kitchen is fully set up including grocery shopping at both a supermarket and Trader Joe’s. Which is of course a nice change from feeling forced into take-out and leftovers 24/7.

As of today all of my clothes and shoes (with the exception of coats) have a home. That being said, the first step is always find a spot for things but in true nerd fashion the second stop is final re-folding and putting things into their exact homes. Of which all shoes, dresser items and bin storage is done. All that remains for tomorrow is sorting my hanging clothes by style and then color.

Yes, you read that right. Do my underwear need to be sorted and folded by style? No. Do I need to separate tights with patterns from solids? No. Do I do all of these things? Yes.

What can I say, I just like things a certain way. I like knowing where exactly something is and I like the order of it all. It’s calming.

I hung this cool antique style posterboard/metal circle thingy up today of which I include concert and sports tickets, photos, cool postcards, just random stuff that makes me happy. So there is officially something on these bare walls.

Remaining items (besides a storage option for coats) includes sorting my makeup and putting that into it’s new home, decorating the top of my dresser, hanging more items on the walls, the aforementioned sorting of clothes by style and then color and some serious laundry.

By this time next weekend things will be in less chaos/cardboard and I’ll feel like I’m settled in and ready to not have to think about packing/unpacking for a year. Thank goodness.

Work Newbie.

I survived my first week at my new agency and I’m a fan. Literally, on Facebook. But also in real life.

I’m working in a nerdy role as basically a professional organizer and pusher of checking items off lists. I’m working on a telecommunications client with a massive team of peers, creatives, producers, etc.

I have yet to be assigned a desk so I spent most of the week camped out with my boss literally sharing a desk. But she is literally awesome. She’s smart, motivated, respected and I’m really looking forward to working with her as a mentor and also I’m just grateful for having a really cool boss. It’s been a while since I’ve had either in my life.

Most nerve racking part of the week, getting my headshot taken for the agency website, internal directory, basically it will be the one thing everyone/anyone sees on a regular basis at this monster agency. No pressure. The upside is that I get to pick my top two shots and after a first round of review yesterday I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to make a final decision Monday.

Also, additional perk. 1/2 days on the first Friday of almost every month. Hell. Yes. Luckily things with my new project and the transition of a current project to me are in a state that I was able to take advantage. 4.5 days in my first work week..I’ll take it.

I also am obsessed with all the dogs that roam the office. Everything just feels like a breath of fresh air after my last work experience. I’m excited to go to work, ready to put in the time and every time I see one of the TV spots I just can’t believe it.

1.5 Weeks In – The Overview.

There’s been quite a few developments over the last 10 or so days since I moved to SF and many of them deserve their own dedicated blogs. There’s just no getting around that. So in lieu of one monster I’m going to go for it and do a multi post session. This way you can either read about one topic or all topics but you won’t be forced to be drowned into one epic posting.

Specific Topics to be covered:

1. Work
2. Settling into my new apartment/neighborhood
3. Public Transportation

As a sidebar, yes I am having a lazy weekend. Yes, I am blogging on a Saturday night while my upstairs neighbors have a LOUD discussion on whether or not they should wear X,Y,Z and whether or not the dude one of them is dating is “worth it”. Yes, I do love iChatting as I have done so many times today with my Mother.

Have a topic you want covered? Leave a comment. Also, have suggestions on things/places/sites/restaurants in SF you want to send me and know that I will blog about? Leave those comments too!

College Reunions

First let me say that after 2 trips to IKEA, one trip to Target, getting lost in a sketchy part of the East Bay, a few hours dominating the craftsmanship and assembly of Swedish home furnishings and a lot of breaking down cardboard boxes I am feeling like serious progress has been made on settling into my new apartment and into SF in general.

That’s the boring stuff that I know you all care about but let’s get real, fun blog posts are not made about my intense and well thought out organizational plan for my new 8 drawer monster dresser or my closet which utilizes all sizes and types of plastic storage containers and drawers.

Saturday was the Ducks game. Not the Ducks vs. USC mind you. The Ducks game. Blondie and I set out for the Duck alumni bar in SF and met up with a rowdy college fraternity friend. Turns out the bouncer of said bar is a USC fan. Also, turns out that after a few tall boys of Bud Light I become aggressive and just start verbally abusing that man’s team to his face. In the bar. I don’t care. FACT.

On the opposite screen at the bar was the Giants game. Literally at one point the Ducks scored a touchdown and then seconds later one of the Giants hit a solo home run. It was a fantastic elated sports atmosphere and I wouldn’t of wanted to be anywhere else.

Even though it pains me that my Red Sox are not playing in the World Series it is an electric atmosphere here with the Giants as of this post being one game away from being World Series Champions. Had you told me in April that this year’s World Series would be the Texas Rangers vs. San Francisco Giants I would of laughed in your face. Just bold faced laughter. But this is happening and while I am a firm believer that wearing black & orange means you are an OSU Beaver I will support passively this city being the home of World Series Champions. Hell, I think going to the parade alone would be bananas and I want in on that.

Post Duck game win Blondie and I did a drive by to the Castro for 1. spying on the epic Halloween costumes (SF goes bananas for Halloween) and 2. for AMAZING salted carmel ice cream from Bi-Rite Creamery. Seriously, there is a reason this is on the 2010 Big Eat SF 100 places to eat. So delicious.

Sunday was spent unpacking like it was my job and then going over to Le Jamera’s apartment for soup and panini night with her, my Big Sis and Blondie. These are some of my favorite girlfriends hands down and having them all together, in one room and further more in one city is one of the most comforting things about this move. From the in same room texting sessions, to the cyber stalking to the pure hilarious story telling it was just what a Sunday night should be.

My first day on the job will be tomorrow’s post because the Giants just hit a 3-run homer and people are going crazypants outside my apartment right now.