But, what the hell? Anybody who wanders around the world saying, "Yes, I'm from Texas," deserves whatever happens to him.
Yesterday marks 15 years since Mr. Gleemonex and I became official residents of California. That was the day we parked our U-Haul at his sister's apartment complex in the Silicon Valley and walked into the middle of her birthday party. We stayed there for a couple of months -- Shatner bless her and our BIL for their generosity -- while we hunted down jobs and an apartment in San Francisco. To mark this happy anniversary, I give you:
A Partial List of Things About and Around Our 15 Years In California So Far
Reasons We Chose San Francisco
--It sounded cool
--It was a city, but was not NYC, which we both loved but needed a break from
--There were a shit-ton of jobs available
--Neither of us has ever lived there before
--It was about as far, in every kind of way, from Texass as we could get
--Mr. Gleemonex's sister lived nearby and could provide a home base at first
Length of Time We Expected to Stay in California
--"awhile"
--"a couple of years"
People Added to Our Family
--Kid Gleemonex
--Danger Baby
--Nephew B
--Niece A
--Sister-in-Law J
--my Surprise Adult Half-Brother
People We've Lost
--my father
--my paternal grandfather
--my paternal grandmother
--my maternal grandfather
--my maternal grandmother
--Mr. G's great-uncle L.
Years, Out of That 15, That We Have Been Married
--14
Percentage of Our Friends Here Who Came Into Our Lives Via Mr. G's First CA Full-Time Gig
--about 70%
Number of IPOs We Have Experienced In Companies We Were Employed By
--Two
--Or maybe three, one was a spinoff from a Biiiig Co., and Mr. G doesn't recall if there was an IPO
Addresses We Have Had
--SIL's apartment (3 months)
--the tiny, wonderful SF apartment in North Beach/Fisherman's Wharf (6 years)
--the little house on the edge of the continent, just south of the city (7 years)
--the big house in the burbs (2 years)
Presidential Candidates For Whom We Have Voted
--Al Gore
--John Kerry
--Barack Obama
--Barack Obama
How We and the Kansas Kartel Phrased It When People Asked Us If We Were American, On Our Trip to Europe In 2006 (Bush Years):
--"Yes -- from San Francisco!"
A Partial List of Things About and Around Our 15 Years In California So Far
Reasons We Chose San Francisco
--It sounded cool
--It was a city, but was not NYC, which we both loved but needed a break from
--There were a shit-ton of jobs available
--Neither of us has ever lived there before
--It was about as far, in every kind of way, from Texass as we could get
--Mr. Gleemonex's sister lived nearby and could provide a home base at first
Length of Time We Expected to Stay in California
--"awhile"
--"a couple of years"
People Added to Our Family
--Kid Gleemonex
--Danger Baby
--Nephew B
--Niece A
--Sister-in-Law J
--my Surprise Adult Half-Brother
People We've Lost
--my father
--my paternal grandfather
--my paternal grandmother
--my maternal grandfather
--my maternal grandmother
--Mr. G's great-uncle L.
Years, Out of That 15, That We Have Been Married
--14
Percentage of Our Friends Here Who Came Into Our Lives Via Mr. G's First CA Full-Time Gig
--about 70%
Number of IPOs We Have Experienced In Companies We Were Employed By
--Two
--Or maybe three, one was a spinoff from a Biiiig Co., and Mr. G doesn't recall if there was an IPO
Addresses We Have Had
--SIL's apartment (3 months)
--the tiny, wonderful SF apartment in North Beach/Fisherman's Wharf (6 years)
--the little house on the edge of the continent, just south of the city (7 years)
--the big house in the burbs (2 years)
Presidential Candidates For Whom We Have Voted
--Al Gore
--John Kerry
--Barack Obama
--Barack Obama
How We and the Kansas Kartel Phrased It When People Asked Us If We Were American, On Our Trip to Europe In 2006 (Bush Years):
--"Yes -- from San Francisco!"
Labels: hey kids -- don't smoke, life is beautiful, The Californians, things that are great
posted by Gleemonex at 12:52 PM
2 Comments:
2 cities that always make me happy: san francisco and austin! and as far away as i ran to college and afterward away from tx, i've always regretted i never lived in austin. but i think it's more like i wanted to live there when i was 18-23. san francisco is still another dream city of mine.
SF really is kind of a dream city, a toy city -- lovely to look at (mostly), full of oddities, so in love with itself that it's kind of obnoxious sometimes. It was always such a high, when we would drive home from SFO back into the city, to see it laid out before us from the highway. Austin, I love -- I could have been very happy there, I think, but when I chose Columbia over UT, I sort of felt like that ship sailed for me. Not that I could never do it, but -- I'd be an Old, with Money (relatively speaking), and not a broke-ass student, so the experience would be entirely different. Selah!
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