Happiness

It has been a very busy few months. Here are a few simple things that have brought me great joy and tranquility:

Biking with Michael is one of the best things in my life. Each morning after plenty of snuggling, we get dressed and hop on our bikes to fly down the hill and race with Muni buses until we reach Market, where we kiss goodbye and go separate ways for a few more blocks. On the way home in the evening (often after attending a business/civic/tech event together), we talk about our days as we labor our way back up the hill. Sometimes Michael gives me a few pushes to get me up the steepest parts, and I like to make sure his lights are on and that he doesn't run too many reds. Biking to and from everyday activities may seem mundane, but it isn't; I cherish this time spent together. (The pictured area isn't part of our weekday route; we were headed home from Target.)




Watching dogs play at Lafayette Park is happiness and when I can do that while sharing observations and holding hands with Michael, it's even more delightful. Also, I am convinced that Lafayette Park is the best park in San Francisco. It is well-designed and well-maintained, it has accessible bathrooms and garbage cans, it has a fenced-in playground, there are tall trees that make air you want to breathe deeply, and there are so many friendly dogs to watch (and occasionally even pet). Also, the views of the Bay Bridge, Financial District, Nob Hill, Bernal Heights, Twin Peaks, the bay, Danielle Steel's house, and Pacific Heights architecture are incredible.



My friend Lynn brought me flowers and Michael's mom brought us oranges and lemons and their perfectness together pleased me every time I went into the kitchen.



I bought this necklace and this shirt and they make me feel cute and modern. I've worn necklaces about once a year for the last ten years and I've hated gold for so long, but it was time to get with the times, and since minty greens and corals are my go-to colors these days, I'm quite happy with the choice.



I was able to help harvest bok choy, Swiss chard, kale, and turnips at a community garden at Civic Center that I've been wondering about for several years. The food went to Tenderloin residents who stopped by. The woman in this picture knows everything about the garden, and she would often start talking and none of us volunteers were quite sure who she was addressing. At one point when I wasn't sure what I was holding, she took a hearty bite of a freshly-harvested radish. The combination of her warmth and the sun and dirt and collaboration and contribution to neighbors and being able to work in a garden again warmed my soul.

Freude und Seelenruhe.

I Can See!

The last few years, I've noticed more and more that I can't see very far. This is very disappointing after having LASIK 8.5 years ago. I know it's not too out of the ordinary to need adjustments, but my siblings who have had LASIK haven't had any trouble. I'm pretty sure that working at a computer all day doesn't help.

Two years ago, I went to an eye doctor who told me that my sight really wasn't as bad as I thought it was and that I could just do some eye exercises. I've done a lot of those exercises and have just noticed my eyes getting worse. And while I know it could be much, much worse, it's embarrassing when I don't see people who know me. It's annoying when I can't see street signs before I need to get ready to turn. It's tiring to forever be squinting. It's boring to go to Michael's basketball games and not be able to see him.

I finally decided to see a new doctor about my poor eyesight—just as soon as one of us gets benefits.

And then I talked to a friend who said that his vision was really bad when he was little and his mom couldn't afford to get him glasses until he was 12. He used to get so tired from leaning right next to a book on a table that he'd just read with his head on the table. I told him about my grandpa (Clyde Smith) who had had troubles in school until his dad suggested they get his eyes checked. Once my grandpa and my friend had corrective lenses, they were both amazed to see leaves on trees and blades of grass. Whenever my mom tells this story about my grandpa, she says, "And so he became an artist." I don't know if there's really a link there, but I like that, and when I look closely at the painting that I inherited from my grandpa, I like seeing all of the colors he was able to see that make a painted face look realistic.

After talking to my friend, I started thinking about how I wanted to be able to really see India when we go for our friend Gunjan's wedding. I realized that it wasn't worth it to me to wait until we have benefits. Maybe I'll get a LASIK adjustment later, but for now, I want to be able to see! I was able to schedule an appointment with an optometrist at Costco for just a few days later. For $114, I was given a prescription and a trial pair of contacts. I was able to put them right in, and the doctor said, "It's like learning to ride a bicycle. You never forget." When I walked out to the waiting room, the first thing I said to Michael was, "I can see you!"

All through Costco and the whole way home, I exclaimed about how much I could see. It was crazy to realize how much I’ve been missing out on. I really wish that eye doctor two years ago and not wanting to pay for an appointment without insurance hadn’t made me delay the beauty of being able to see clearly. It was eye-opening (ha ha, that’s punny) to know that I could have seen signs a few streets away, that I could have seen down aisles to know what’s there without having to walk down them, to see people’s faces without having to squint! The next morning, I was again amazed when I noticed that I could see license plate numbers from our apartment. And each time I've taken out the contacts since, I take one out first and then take turns closing eyes to marvel at just how blurry my world had become.


Look at the pretty flowers I was missing out on! Thanks for inspiring me to go to the doctor, friend.
 

Yes, part of me is in mourning that I have to deal with contacts again. Yes, my eyes feel dry and I keep forgetting not to squint and lean in really close, and yes, the contacts feel a bit irritating sometimes, but I can see! And that is a beautiful thing totally worth $114.

Short New Haircut

Since my mom was in town recently and I had been thinking of finally getting a sophisticated new 'do after so many years with long hair (seriously, it's been like 10 years), I went ahead and had her cut off about 12 inches. It still feels weird, but I like the change.

Here I am, pre- and post-haircut:




Here are the ~11 inches of hair that I'll be donating:




I guess this means that 1: I actually have to do something with my hair besides a ponytail every day, and 2: I'll have to fight more with my cowlick than I'm used to because of the lost hair weight.

The first day after the haircut, I didn't really know what to do with my hair. I tried flipping it out slightly, but the way it looked made me think, "this is hair done by a person with long hair who doesn't know how to do non-long hair", so I tried curling it under with a straightener, and that seemed like a pretty good option, so I guess that's what I'll be sticking with:



(Wow, my hair looks really red in that picture, doesn't it?)

Thanks, Mom!

Update Spill

I haven't blogged for a while so I thought I'd write a little something today.

Let's see, what have I been up to?

Michael and I saw Guardians of the Galaxy, and though I didn't really enjoy the movie, the music was pretty awesome. Check out the mix here. And now Michael wants a dancing baby Groot for Christmas.

We also went to the Greek Festival just to enjoy the food, and a week later discovered a great Thai place not too far from where we live: Jitlada Thai Cuisine. I've learned to make most of my favorite meals, but I have yet to do some Thai cooking. First three on the list: pad ka prow (spicy basil) with tofu, tau hu tod (fried tofu), and gaeng keaw wan (green curry). Please, people, if you haven't found a dish with tofu that you like, you haven't been looking hard enough. Tofu can be so amazingly delicious, I promise.

I went to Django Barcamp at Eventbrite and met some really great developers, including the awesome authors of Two Scoops of Django. Now I'm reading their book and working on several Django projects. I'm also coming up with step-by-step Django instructions for absolute beginners as well as for my own reference. Technology changes so fast that they may not last long, but while they do, it will be awesome.



Hackbright reps Rosette and Michelle at Barcamp Django!


I've been practicing technical interviews with many generous friends and doing a lot of algorithms studying (I finally found a book that has algorithms in Python that I like) on my own. Several other generous friends have spent time just talking jobs or helping me with development issues. I'm pretty ready to dive into real interviews, though some days I feel like there's so much to learn that there's no way I'm ready. I'm committed to finding a company whose product I like and who is committed to my growth as an engineer. I'm definitely hoping to work in a Python shop this time.

My hero Lynn Root put on a Python workshop at her workplace, Spotify. Out of all the things they gave out in a swag drawing, I was most hoping for the socks because new socks are heaven, so I was super happy when I won striped Spotify socks. So comfy.





I also got some great new t-shirts from Keen.io and laughed when people at HTML5 DevConf thought I worked at Keen because I was wearing one of the shirts. Then someone else asked me if I was Michelle Wetzler. Heeee.




By the way—more on Lynn of Spotify. She taught herself to be a developer and now she's an expert (in my book, anyway) and does a lot for the women in tech and Python-in-general communities. She recently spoke about being a fraud (faking being a developer until she makes it) and it was amazing. She and her boyfriend have also been nice to lend me some books and give me very needed interview practice. I think we are kindred spirits because we all love chocolate chip cookies.

I made a big batch of chocolate chip cookies and put it in the freezer so I can snack on them whenever I need them, and then I realized that I've turned into my grandfather (except that he liked nuts in his frozen cookies).

I still love our apartment, but the street outside our apartment is having parts dug up for some project (probably new pipes or something) and it is so loud. And who would have thought that they'd start all the noise at 7 AM in San Francisco? Even before the construction and even after I scraped the paint off of the window latches so they could close more securely, my noise app was showing our average to be between 55 and 70 decibels because of the traffic, and the sirens that go past several times a day make it go up to between 80 and 90 decibels. Some days I re-research how to make our place quieter, hoping I missed something great the first five times I researched. I can only hope that Rudolf Stefanich eventually produces his noise-cancelling project Sono. I've thought of trying to convince the owners of our place to replace the windows or to get custom IndowWindows inserts, but I have little hope that I'll succeed.

At least Michael and I were able to laugh a few weeks ago when someone outside started yelling about Nicolas Cage at 3 AM. But when two people were screaming at each other the other night I wasn't sure if I should do something or not. My friend Hy runs a civic meetup and so I recently got to hear some really interesting stories and facts from a police commander. Ever since I've been even more focused on being an aware and responsible citizen, but I just don't always know when it's appropriate to call the police. Would they have wanted to come talk to me when I just wanted to go to sleep? Would the people have still been there yelling by the time the police arrived? Would it have been worth their time?

It turns out that having Whole Foods be the closest store to us is sometimes frustrating. Just need some eggs? Why walk ten more minutes to another store? Apparently my brother-in-law calls that place Whole Paycheck. :) At least it's good for when we want to make dishes for our vegan friends.

My friend Melanie turned 40 and had a prom-themed birthday party. I wore my Taiwanese wedding dress, only to receive my actual prom dress from my mom a week later. Sounds like we need another party!





My mom came to San Francisco and brought a whole bunch of stuff that I'd forgotten belonged to me, including my old rock collection, the clay castle and fountain I built, an enormous origami flower I made, and a desk from my grandparents' cabin! And then we discovered that her grandmother might have lived in the building across the street from me.

We rented a car from some guy on Getaround and drove down to enjoy a hike in Cupertino with Sica, my mom, Amy, and Amy's kids. It was lovely to spend time with them and to get some fresh air.

Michael and I are still taking a while to get the living room put together. I've decided that I'm probably going to paint a rug (I found some great tutorials online). This week we found a desk, some drawers, a chair, and some monitors that were just we wanted and all from the same person, but the guy who was going to sell them to us sold them to the person moving in at the last moment. Argh.

My brother bought my old bishop's business. Though I suggested he modernize it a bit, he's sticking to traditional. Weirdly (for a business of that type), they don't have a graphic designer, so I ended up making his business cards. I also helped my dad learn how to import contacts to his new Gmail account.

Happy Diwali! It's hard to believe that we celebrated Diwali with Gunjan a whole year ago. This year I again celebrated at Hult, where we were required to get a bindi, learn how to say "happy Diwali" in Hindi, and then do some Bollywood dancing before we were allowed to have some of the divine food.

While I was at Hult, a guy approached me and asked where I was from. When I answered, "Here," he said, "America? We three were discussing it and we thought you were from Russia." I'm not sure what gave them that impression. My clothes were pretty darn techie-in-San-Francisco-casual: RocketDog sneakers, not-loose-not-tight jeans, and a company t-shirt (Couple.me). Maybe it was my frazzled-looking hair? Or my nose?

Speaking of hair and nose . . . my hair is currently kind of a mess. It's somehow decided to be really fuzzy and I have to wet it down so there aren't flyaways everywhere. I don't recall having this problem before (except for with my cowlick), so I'm not really sure how to deal with it. My digital perm is growing out and so it probably looks a little weird that I just have waves/curls on the ends of my hair. I'll have to do something about it soon. And as for nose . . . I had a crazy sinus infection for several days a couple of weeks ago, but even before that, I was complaining to Michael about not being able to breathe through one side of my nose and so he opened up my nostril by pulling on the skin to the side of my nose. I was so surprised that I started coughing because suddenly I could breathe and the air felt so new in there. Clearly I can't walk around holding one nostril open all the time, so it seems like it might be time for another sinus surgery. I feel like the last one was pretty pointless. I wonder if I can find someone this time who can make so I can breathe and not totally change/ruin my nose. Add "sinus surgery" to the list of things to do when we have benefited jobs.

I've recently thought about how I really don't do my hair or get dressed up much anymore and it's not just because I prioritize comfort but also because I bike everywhere so it feels like there's no point in being uncomfortable or messing up nice clothes.

It turns out that our upstairs neighbor has a piano! We talked about our favorite musicians and songs for more than an hour before she told me that I'm welcome to come play on her piano. I've gotten my music back from my sister and now I'm pretty dang sure I have at least ten pieces that this neighbor is going to love.

Unfortunately, despite having unpacked all of our boxes and bags, my external hard drive is missing. So much of my last ten years of life is on there, so I sure hope we find it. The only place either of us can imagine it being is buried in Michael's parents' garage somewhere. Argh.

I'm planning a Hackbright Halloween party and it's going to be awesome.

Mark Zuckerberg (of Facebook) posted a video of an interview he gave . . . in Mandarin. It was fun to listen to it. I really like his comprehension, confidence, and big vocabulary, and I hope to get to where he is. I was surprised, though, to realize that his tones aren't so great. I'm not saying that because I want to rip on him. I'm saying that because although I think my tones are pretty good, I need to follow his example. Sometimes the fear of getting a tone wrong keeps me from saying anything, and clearly people who just go for it with whatever tones are still understood and make progress, so I need to get over wanting to get things right and just try to communicate, no matter how messy it is.

So there you go. A very thorough and possibly uninteresting update.

San Francisco Apartment Hunt 2014

Before even moving away, we knew that finding an apartment in San Francisco again was going to be a chore, and that prices would make us gasp because a one-bedroom is about three times the cost of my parents' monthly mortgage payment, but that didn't prevent us from getting to the absolutely-discouraged state during the process. A lot of that had to do with the drama of dealing with our quirky old landlord.

Since our previous landlord had been so sad to see us go/loved us so much, and we had loved his building, we wrote him an email very ahead of time saying that we were coming back and asking if he had a place available. It turned out that the apartment we loved the most was to be available about the time we would be back, so we said we were interested. He, however, was un-budge-able on the price, which was higher than we were expecting. His reasoning? He'd just had the building repainted and had put a laundry room in the basement (which wouldn't have happened if I hadn't cleaned out the basement for him), as if he wanted us to single-handedly pay for those things.

We finally told him that we'd go for it, but every exchange had us feeling very condescended upon. First he said that he didn't like that Michael was still in school and that at least I needed a local job first. It seemed absolutely crazy to me to ask me to quit my job to rent from him. Clearly landlords in San Francisco are feeling high and mighty with the ridiculous market. He also asked us how he could trust that we would stay for the entire term of the lease, since last time we left early. I checked, and we left just ten days early. Never once had he mentioned that us leaving early was a problem; if he had, I would have just stayed another ten days and sent Michael off to Shanghai. I felt like he'd forgotten how pleased he was with us when we left. We went more than the extra mile for him and it felt so horrible for him to have forgotten that. After seething for a few hours, we offered to pay six months of rent upfront. After Michael arrived in San Francisco and went to meet with this landlord, not only was I majorly disappointed to find out that the garden I'd worked so hard on had fallen into disrepair, but the monthly rent was being raised another $195 from the price we had already struggled with and finally agreed to! Michael and I spent several hours chatting that night, I in St. Petersburg, and he in San Francisco. We had the hardest time making a decision, and a few days later we finally emailed the landlord to tell him so. His response? "A studio would probably be better for you until you both have jobs." I wanted to write him and say, "We will still be looking for a one bedroom, thank you very much." Once he told us that the apartment was rented, there were some moments of regret, but mostly we said, "Well, at least we don't have to deal with him anymore."

Michael tore up the town looking for an apartment, but it didn't help him that I have no tangible ways to spot an apartment that is "charming" by my definition. After we lost one place due to the quickness of the market and another because we were waiting for my boss to send some documentation, we were very frustrated. By this time, I was back in California with him and we were staying at his parents' house 45 minutes away from San Francisco. We spent our mornings and evenings driving to and from San Francisco in Michael's mom's car. While Michael attended classes and meetings, I worked on my laptop at Hult and re-parked the car every two hours. We went to a lot of apartment viewings, but there was always enough wrong with the place that we weren't all that excited about taking it. We were finally happily surprised to be approved for a place that, as Michael put it, "Was really a studio with a wall installed in the middle to make it into a one bedroom." The price was great, but I asked if we could see it one more time before deciding. The manager told us that we could, but we'd have to sign immediately after or she'd contact the next person. We were supposed to meet her that evening, so we felt the pressure of needing to decide before then.

And then something unexpected happened. Michael found a new posting on Craigslist, and as we looked at the pictures, we both said, "We have to get this one." It was in Pacific Heights, which is known for being one of the nicest places in the city, the rent was lower than a lot of places we had seen in Lower Nob Hill (which is usually cheaper), it had calming green walls, the kitchen was big enough for a table and it had a large, new oven, there were lovely windows (twelve of them!) that let in a lot of light, and wood floors. To make things unbelievably good, there was parking included! (Even though we don't have car, that was an amazing plus that few in the city ever get.) Michael immediately wrote a very nice email introducing us and asking if we could see the place early. Unfortunately, we couldn't see the place until the following weekend, which was a whopping four days away, so we had to take a leap of faith and let go of the studio-with-a-wall-one-bedroom.

During the following days, we filled out the application for the place and printed it out, collected multiple supporting documents, cut Michael's hair, and nervously twiddled our thumbs. The day of the showing, we got dressed up, found a nice folder for our application and documents, and headed into the city. There was a Hult barbecue that morning, and though we left the barbecue thirty minutes early, the combination of dropping off a friend and trying to find parking made us a few minutes late. I was so worried that we'd missed our chance to make a good impression, especially when we found that the door was locked and no one was answering the doorbell. After many frantic minutes of trying to reach someone at the management company, someone left the showing and let us into the building.

The place was packed, but we could still see that we loved it, so we found the man taking applications. Someone was monopolizing his time, so we went and stood right in front of him. Finally, I stuck out my hand and said, "Hi, I'm Michelle." Michael forgot to introduce himself, but the man seemed to remember us from our email and accepted our application. There wasn't much more to say after that, so we headed downstairs to take a look at the laundry room and garage. It seemed so anti-climactic, like we hadn't had a chance to stick out among the crowd. So we went back upstairs to ask some questions. This time, we seemed to connect with the man from the property management company a little more. Just at the point when we thought the conversation was over, Michael realized that the man had jerked his head to the side to say, "Follow me." We met him in the hallway and he said, "Right now it's basically between you and one other person." I have no idea how he could already know that. I put my hands together and asked, "If I tell you a joke, will you give it to us?" At least that got a laugh out of him. Even though I had warned Michael not to ask, he threw out there, "Why is the place so cheap? Is there something wrong with it?" I winced, but the man just kindly said that he'd looked at the market (I thought, "Maybe a year ago") and it seemed fair and that he didn't want to rip people off. We sent him a thank you email with an Uncle Al joke included.

The next day, we received an email asking for a copy of another pay stub. Since I was already in San Francisco, I couldn't pull out my folder with such documents until late that evening, and when I did, I saw that I only had one pay stub; the others must have been packed away somewhere. I frantically emailed my boss, but he didn't answer the next day, so I contacted his partner, who said he'd get on it, and I sent a very firm message saying that I absolutely had to have it or I would lose another apartment. That whole night, I was sick to my stomach with worry. I tossed and turned and checked my phone more times than I can count. In the morning, there was still nothing from my boss or his partner. Michael and I drove into the city, very disappointed and quiet. After his class, Michael came and sat by me and though we were both really down, he held my hand and offered up a pleading, last-hope prayer. We decided we both just needed to look for local jobs as quickly as possible and then maybe we'd be able to find a place. We sat there, dejected. Finally, at some point, I checked my phone and realized I'd missed a call from the real estate company. I nervously called back, and the man we'd met at the showing said, "Yes, I thought I should call you, because there's a lease here with your name on it." WHAT?!? He went on to tell me that he'd convinced the company that we were a "cool couple" (his words, not mine) and that they could wait to get the other pay stub from us.

And that is how we ended up in this place:




Of course, no place is perfect. We realized after we moved in that the apartment is right on the corner of two busy streets (one of which is the street that my mom's grandparents lived on and is the surname of good friends), and because the windows are old and because those two streets seem to be on the ambulance and fire truck route, it's pretty loud. (I'm hoping to make it a little quieter using sound-absorbing furnishings.) After a week of parking Michael's mom's car in the garage (while she was out of the country), we found out that there's a building-wide waiting list, and the spot vacated by the previous tenant of our place actually goes to the next person on the list. Fortunately, the rental company then lowered our rent $150 per month to amend the mistake. Also, for some reason the place is plagued with mosquitoes, so I often have to conduct a mosquito hunt before I can sleep. The location is really close to a clean, nice park, and I love to walk around looking at beautiful Victorian houses, but it's six blocks farther away from downtown than our old place was and biking up the last hill is a killer no matter which direction you come from.





I love the calming greens and all the light (I've even thought I needed to turn off a light only to find that it wasn't on). I love the crystal doorknobs and French doors. It's great that I've been able to fill the place with air-purifying plants and that the rental company sent out a repairman to put new seals on the windows. It's so nice to have laundry in the building, and the kitchen and bedroom have more storage than we need.



You can't really see the plant on the table, but I thought it was some kind of lavender when I saw it and am now so happy to know about Russian sage. Its colors make me so happy.



(Apparently English ivy absorbs fecal matter from the air so of course I put it in the bathroom.)



This gorgeous succulent (an Echeveria "Tippy") matches the wall perfectly, and the tasteful shelf built over the heater is nice.

Quite honestly, though, I have NO IDEA what to do with a whole extra room! It seems so luxurious and it's still quite empty. Filling it up has been a slow process as I've tried to use Freecycle and Craigslist for everything and we've needed to rent cars on Getaround to pick up furniture. We still need some rugs (which are shockingly expensive!), a desk, a sofa cover that matches the color scheme, and some kind of seating, and then maybe it won't feel so empty and overwhelming. Here it is empty:

Once I figure out what to do with the living room, I'll post another picture.

Hurray for a lovely new home!

Six Weeks in London

Living in London for six weeks was amazing. I can only imagine what it would be like long-term.



We got lucky and lived in a recently-renovated, light-filled apartment in Somers Town, meaning we were really close to Camden, Euston Station, King's Cross/St. Pancras Station, Russell Square, and Michael's school. The only difficult thing was the lack of internet. We bought a wifi plan, but it was really pricey and we were always afraid that we'd use all of the data, so we both did a lot of work at Hult.




After the view from our window in China, this was heavenly.




Being close to King's Cross meant we had to make a stop at Platform 9 and 3/4.




We intended to get a gym membership, but that didn't happen. We did, however, discover this outdoor exercise equipment at the park.




One of my favorite things about London was being able to bike again. It was so nice to get places that way and the rentable Barclay's bikes were really convenient. Plus, we didn't mean to cheat the system, but it turned out that since we share a credit card, if Michael rented a bike for 24 hours in the morning, and then I went to rent a bike, the machine thought I was the same person and so we only had to pay once. Unfortunately, this meant that we couldn't ride at the same time unless we'd started out that day with two bikes because it wouldn't let us change the reservation. You only pay £2 per day, plus an extra amount every time the bike goes undocked for over 30 minutes, so we purposely never went over 30 minutes; we'd just put the bike back and take another one five minutes later. On the day I was taking care of my Russian visa, I biked for over 1.5 hours and never went over 30 minutes on any one ride. :)





Michael, Gunjan, and Fede.




It turned out that a lot of the enjoyment of London is in food. Here we are with Hult friends and Michael's sister Claire at Urban Food Fest, a gathering of food trucks. I had the most amazing grilled cheese sandwich with feta, walnuts(!), and honey.




Michael was glad that we still had some of the papadum he'd bought in India, but one night he forgot it was in the oven and this is what he ended up with.



 
The Electric Diner convinced me that I need to learn how to make eggs benedict. Wow.




Hult had so much food all the time and Claire, the woman in charge of Hult events, told me I was always welcome. We had pizza, afternoon tea, quiche, sandwiches, World Cup cupcakes, hot chocolate, and more.




This is us on the deck at Hult. Isn't it lovely? I spent a lot of time at Hult's campus working on the ChiShenMa app and even got to be friends with the security guards, kind of. One of them gave us Hult pens because I complimented the pen when I was signing out.




Michael made some great art on the whiteboards at Hult. Do you like his £8 haircut?




I organized a weekly JavaScript meetup for Women Who Code. It was kind of tough because people seemed to want an organized lesson, but we couldn't really build on each lesson because different people showed up each time. Also, I had hoped to learn a lot myself but I ended up just using the time to help others. Oh well, I didn't mind because it was great to meet others interested in tech and I've always wanted to pass on the love I've gotten. I was also able to put together a technical interview practice session at Hult.




I attended a hackathon to make a game that would help kids have more fun giving feedback about their hospital stay. Here's a screenshot of the game "Hospital Rush" that my team came up with:







I wanted to visit the Viners in Manchester, but it turned out that the cheapest way for us to get there would be via rental car. I decided that if we were going to rent a car anyway, we may as well do a bit of sightseeing. So we went to Stonehenge. I felt so curious about life here centuries ago, but there wasn't much I could learn. I did take note of the fact that only males were allowed to be buried near here. It's always sad to me that women have been put down in so many ways throughout history.







We also swung by Bath. It was so beautiful there that we stopped in awe as we drove down the hill into the city.




Since we didn't have enough time to really enjoy Bath, we decided we will have to go back some day.




I felt bad that we were so late getting to the Viners' house, but they were great about it. We had a wonderful Mediterranean dinner with Marie and Simon. It was hard for us to leave, which ended up making our rental return a bit complicated, but we didn't regret going.

I was also able to meet up with Alana, the friend I stayed with last time I was in London, and to meet some online friends.




This store was close to our flat and we really loved the variety of groceries. I even bought falafel powder and made our own falafel. I introduced Michael to halloumi and I think he liked it nearly as much as I do. There was one guy who worked there who was really friendly, and Michael thought he looked like James Bond, so we stared calling the store "The James Bond Store." One time, Michael was trying to convince me that we should buy a whole box of cherries, and when I asked if we would be able to eat all of them, James Bond walked by and said, "He's a big boy; he can handle it." Ha. We bought the cherries and ate them within two days. Yum!




Our last night in London, Gunjan, Fede, Michael, and I splurged at Dishoom, an Indian restaurant with high ratings (Gunjan told me that "dishoom" is the word said to accompany punches being thrown, ha). Even Gunjan agreed that the food was amazing, so that's saying something.

We liked London so much that we debated staying. However, Michael feels like since he's already changing his career's function and industry, changing location as well would be really difficult. I also feel like the network I have in San Francisco is really good for this early stage of my career. Maybe in a couple of years we'll move there, who knows?

Our First Year in San Francisco

Our first year of marriage was spent together in San Francisco. It was lovely.



We managed a charming and very convenient apartment building at 821 Leavenworth that was built in San Francisco in 1916. It is in Lower Nob Hill, which is not to be confused with the Tenderloin or even the "Tender-Nob." This is what West Cliffe Apartments look like immediately after the street sweepers pass by (so there are no cars parked in front). I tried to see if I could get Friends of the Urban Forest and the landlord to put a tree in front, but I wasn't quite successful before we moved.




Despite so. much. weird city garbage and having to spray human excrement off of the sidewalk, I liked managing because I could use my love for the city and the building to make my surroundings better. In addition to normal duties, I re-painted the gate (and let me tell you, that lacquer stuff is hard to clean up), shone the beautiful wood in the lobby often, added plants to the entrance, and even undertook a huge garden project that deserves its own post.




I ardently adored our studio with its wood floors, white paneling, and brick walls. When Michael's grandma first saw our apartment, she said, "The wall is broken!" and Claire explained to her that it is fashionable to show the brick these days. That painting is by my grandpa Clyde Smith, who was an art teacher at Olympus High School in Salt Lake City. I think I found the subject on Facebook, but I'm a little afraid that if I contact her, she'll want the painting . . .





I was happy to find light blue suede sound-minimizing and light-blocking curtains that are actually intended for baby nurseries on sale, woohoo! The mirror is from Uncle Al's house and it made me happy to think of him and Aunt Bev every time I enjoyed how it looked on the wall.








We made and ate so much good food—smoothies with kale (who knew I could drink veggies and not taste them?!), Indian curries and mutter paneer with naan, crepes, meals that looked like normal American meals until I realized that I'd completely forgotten about meat . . .




We took up having "burger Saturdays"—we'd go and split top-rated (and expensive) burgers in the city and see what we thought.




We loved being close to a new Trader Joe's and trying out special items there, like the mochi. This yogurt/sunflower seed bread combination made me homesick for Germany.




Even though my bike weighed a ton and a half, I loved riding it all around the city because I didn't have to wait for and feel frustrated with buses, and I would arrive wherever I was going feeling refreshed and energetic. I never made it all the way up to our apartment without walking for at least a block. You'd think I would have gotten used to that hill, but nope.




(Mostly) Michael spent a lot of time and money dealing with San Francisco parking (and of course his car was broken into once). One time I picked up his car from the shop because I thought it would be a nice surprise for him when he got back from work, but then I ended up looking for parking in the permitted parking area for two hours. My knee and wrist were sore from shifting and pushing in the clutch and I was quite riled up after that.





Some work friends also wanted to learn some Mandarin, so we hired a teacher (Abraham) to come to our office once a week and teach us.




I got to visit the art studio of a design blogger and make some cards. Cool.




We went to a lot of meetups—mostly tech-related ones where Michael was really good at networking for me. :) There are meetups for everything in San Francisco.




Love: nearby hikes and beautiful, blustery beaches with friends after Saturday morning popovers.




We were assigned to take care of the two-going-on-three-year-old kids at church. Michael was a big hit. I . . .  mostly kept them from killing each other and cleaned up messes.




I kept Michael's hair trimmed with some clippers, see? It was great being close enough to visit family . . .




and close enough to have family visit us.


See? Lovely. And that's why I'm excited to go back soon.