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Three Whole Years!Munch on this: I've now been writing this journal from California for a longer time than I wrote it in Wisconsin. Today I've lived in California for exactly three years. Long-time readers may recall when I moved out here in February of 1999, to work for Apple on their WebObjects product. I still remember stepping off the airplane around sundown and thinking how California air just smells different from the Midwest. (Maybe it was the smog. I don't think so, though.) I lived in temporary housing near work for a few weeks, then found my apartment in Campbell, where I was delightfully unhappy for two and a half years: It was far from my friends, far from all the interesting things I do in the area, not close to the freeways, and on top of it all someone broke into two cars in our parking lot (though not mine) and stole their stereos a couple of weeks after I moved in. Geesh. To be fair, the rent was relatively cheap, the place was in good shape, and the landlord was good. (I've always had great luck with landlords.) And over time I came to appreciate a few things about the place, notably the nearby bike trail. However, I did want to get out, but 2000 was the height of the Dot-com boom, and finding apartments in the area was nigh-impossible, never mind finding affordable apartments. So I was stuck. Nonetheless, my friend John - who recruited me to Apple and to Silicon Valley - still talks about how a year or 18 months or so after I moved out, I described living out here as "a wash", with good things and bad things about the area. (The best things were my friends and my job.) Lucy sometimes said that she was sad whenever I talked about the things I didn't like out here, and how I expected to move away at some not-too-distant point because of them. In retrospect, it's clear that beyond my unhappiness was greatly based in homesickness. It took me quite a while to adjust to living in an urban area, developing my routines of places I liked to go and things I liked to do, and so forth. Where I lived was certainly a drawback, but by the time mid-2001 rolled around, it was one I'd more-or-less overcome. Still, many things have changed for the better since I moved out here. I'm dating someone (for more than a few weeks) for the first time since 1995. (Heck, I've dated more women in 3 years in Silicon Valley than I did in 8 years in Madison!) I've moved out of QA and into development at Apple. And I've moved to the peninsula and bought a house, which has just done wonders for my overall happiness with where I am in my life. Aside from the sheer convenience of location, I feel more a part of my community than I have since I moved to California (not that there's been a tangible change in how I interact with my community; I think I just care about my surroundings more now). I'm still not used to the weather out here, particularly how the long summer gets brown and dull towards September and into October. The fact that I can't easily walk most places I like to go, and that mass transit is haphazard at best, is also disconcerting. Then again, it's been pretty easy to adjust to having two Major League Baseball teams nearby, not to mention the wealth of shopping opportunities. And the cats seem to like it out here well enough. Of course, I'm sure they can't even imagine that they're 2000 miles away from where they were born. But what the cats think is the most important thing, right? (Boy, they are so spoiled...) My house purchase signalled my intention of staying out here at least several more years. I try not to think about the earthquake thing (I have yet to experience one I can actually feel), but otherwise I feel comfortable with this decision. Unlike some, it's not that I can't imagine ever living anywhere else (indeed, I'm sure I'll move back to the north someday), but I don't really worry about that. I'm a homebody, and I'm happy to have a home base that I feel comfortable in, and can share with friends and guests. That's very important to me. Still, three years. That's quite a while. I think I'm entering that period when life really starts speeding up on you. Before I know it, I'll be fifty. Or something. It does sort of give me pause, make me think I should pay more attention to what I'm doing, and whether I'm really satisfied with how my life is going. Of course, I've thought that before, and haven't really acted on it! I've always been a "live in the moment" sort of person, worry-wart nature aside. So check back in a few years and maybe I'll be saying the same old stuff. Or, maybe not. Who knows!
Anyway, Matt left on Wednesday morning, off to Washington state to visit my old roommate Ed, who now works for the Evil Empire. Pretty smooth, all-in-all. Friday my friend Karen came to town. She was visiting Lawrence Livermore Labs on business with a couple of her grad students, and they all came by Apple Friday morning where I gave them a tour and we had lunch in the cafeteria. (Hey, even in this economy it's always good to try to recruit new folks, right?) Her students left after lunch, and Karen shared my office for the afternoon, and then spent the night in my spare room. Debbi joined us for dinner, and then we all went hiking the next day up in the Santa Cruz Hills, and drove over to Half Moon Bay to walk on the beach. It was a chilly day, with intermittent sun, but we all had fun. Karen took off shortly after we got back. So my house has now been christened by my housewarming party and by my houseguests. So it looks like I'm really here to stay! Now to look into buying curtains for my sliding glass doors...
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