Housing, working, and more biking
Every time I move, I’m again reminded of just how awesome riding my bike is. It’s by far the best way to get to know a new place – fast enough to cover ground, slow enough to see the sights, and if you end up going the wrong way on a one-way street, it’s usually not a full on disaster if you just jump onto the sidewalk. Not that it would ever happen to me.
Biking in San Fran:
So, today, I biked to work. Which I plan on doing every day once I get settled in Oakland, and when I’m also working in Oakland, which should be about a 2-mile trip. Right now, though, I’m staying in Palo Alto and our temp office space is in San Francisco. Here’s the route I took. It was 65 miles round-trip, but felt a lot shorter, just because it was all so interesting.
This past weekend, I biked around SF to and from a friend’s party and the Caltrain. Biking in the city is great loads of fun, especially when you run into a hill that you couldn’t quite see on google maps when you mapped out the route. We’re talking hills that I had to weave back and forth to get up in my 39-25. So much fun though.
The Housing Hunt:
As soon as I got here, Dan (my roommate) and I started the job of looking for apartments in the East Bay (Oakland/Berkeley). The first day, we went and checked out seven apartments. That may not sound like a lot, but try organizing that (we had to set up appointments with all the landlords) and finding your way to all the places in an unknown city. It was about three times more tiring than a 3-hour bike ride, I’d say. Of the seven places, about 2 of them would have been OK. I gotta say though, the downright ODD-ness of some of the landlords was astonishing. We ended up applying for a 2 bedroom unit in an apartment building in Oakland, and to our surprise the “leasing agent” called us back that night and said that we could have it. So we were psyched – that was easy enough. Even so, the next day, we decided to look at one last place. It had really jumped out at us on craigslist, and it was worth an hour of our time. It was PERFECT! Absolutely adorable. A unit in a house, with all the necessities included, in a good location. So we started bargaining with the landlord. After 4 days of back-and-forth, we agreed on a 4-month lease term (we’re afraid of commitment), and he said we could have it. For those of you that know the area, it’s here. It’s about 3 blocks from a nice bike shop and 1 block from all kinds of restaurants and shops. We’re moving in on Friday.
Having a job:
My work’s going really well, except today I ordered a printer that isn’t compatible with Macs – apparently I didn’t read the specs closely, but I was dumbfounded that anyone would still make a P-O-S printer that’s NOT Mac compatible. So I sent it back and ordered a new one. Other than that, all’s well. It’s a little tough working 8-9 hours a day when my friends don’t have jobs yet – but I suppose having a salary for a job I enjoy is pretty awesome.
Biking in San Fran:
So, today, I biked to work. Which I plan on doing every day once I get settled in Oakland, and when I’m also working in Oakland, which should be about a 2-mile trip. Right now, though, I’m staying in Palo Alto and our temp office space is in San Francisco. Here’s the route I took. It was 65 miles round-trip, but felt a lot shorter, just because it was all so interesting.
This past weekend, I biked around SF to and from a friend’s party and the Caltrain. Biking in the city is great loads of fun, especially when you run into a hill that you couldn’t quite see on google maps when you mapped out the route. We’re talking hills that I had to weave back and forth to get up in my 39-25. So much fun though.
The Housing Hunt:
As soon as I got here, Dan (my roommate) and I started the job of looking for apartments in the East Bay (Oakland/Berkeley). The first day, we went and checked out seven apartments. That may not sound like a lot, but try organizing that (we had to set up appointments with all the landlords) and finding your way to all the places in an unknown city. It was about three times more tiring than a 3-hour bike ride, I’d say. Of the seven places, about 2 of them would have been OK. I gotta say though, the downright ODD-ness of some of the landlords was astonishing. We ended up applying for a 2 bedroom unit in an apartment building in Oakland, and to our surprise the “leasing agent” called us back that night and said that we could have it. So we were psyched – that was easy enough. Even so, the next day, we decided to look at one last place. It had really jumped out at us on craigslist, and it was worth an hour of our time. It was PERFECT! Absolutely adorable. A unit in a house, with all the necessities included, in a good location. So we started bargaining with the landlord. After 4 days of back-and-forth, we agreed on a 4-month lease term (we’re afraid of commitment), and he said we could have it. For those of you that know the area, it’s here. It’s about 3 blocks from a nice bike shop and 1 block from all kinds of restaurants and shops. We’re moving in on Friday.
Having a job:
My work’s going really well, except today I ordered a printer that isn’t compatible with Macs – apparently I didn’t read the specs closely, but I was dumbfounded that anyone would still make a P-O-S printer that’s NOT Mac compatible. So I sent it back and ordered a new one. Other than that, all’s well. It’s a little tough working 8-9 hours a day when my friends don’t have jobs yet – but I suppose having a salary for a job I enjoy is pretty awesome.
posted by karla at 12:51 AM
4 Comments:
For San Francisco, the SF Bicycle Coalition publishes a map that has all the grades of all the streets on it. It's pretty indispensable for those of us who bike in SF.
You can get a paper copy in most bike shops or by joining.
Welcome to the Bay Area!
haha. say hi to all the cruddy bike messengers at 1 Post for me.
you could probably spit on them from your office.... not that you'd do that.
also, go to the peet's coffee at battery/bush/market eventually they will give you free coffee.
and noah's bagels across battery from peet's has tofu cream cheese. yum.
It's a Lexmark Z845, isn't it? They sell it at MacConnection, for cryin' out loud.
I sent them an email telling them it was 100% not compatible and the never got back to me.
I hate the world.
Sasha - cool, thanks! I'll be getting one soon.
dis - I already spat on them and told them it was from you. When are you coming to visit?
cosmo - Wow. Yeah, it was a Lexmark Z845. What a piece of crap.
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