Anniversary and Fearlessness

Happy Sunday! We have officially celebrated our 1 month anniversary of living in San Francisco (on Thursday) and have had many first times so far, and still many to go!! When we moved here one month ago, we both agreed that we would turn a new leaf and try new things, conquer our fears/anxiety, and be more outgoing when meeting new people. So far, I feel like we have surpassed all of our expectations of meeting those goals :)
In my opinion (and I think Dan will agree) this weekend was among the most substantial in "first times". As most of you know, Dan is a little obsessed with sushi and has been known to say "I would eat sushi everyday if I could". I, on the other hand, do not eat seafood nor do I like weird textures of food at all. So, living up to this new leaf thing, Friday we went out to a sushi restaurant and I decided to not order my usual fried rice. Instead, I didn't order anything so I would be forced to eat sushi with the others! So I tried it...and LIKED it! So much so, Dan and I went out the next night for more! What a relief for Dan since the seafood out here is unbeatable and I think he thought he would have to eat sushi alone forever.
On top of this amazing sushi discovery, we also took a trip to Half Moon Bay Beach for the day. This was one of the warmer weekends so it was about 63 on the beach (yes, that is warm for a beach here!). We quickly learned that a beach is a beach, you can still get VERY sunburned if it is 63 and overcast. On our way home from the beach, Dan decided he was up for driving on Highway 1! If you don't know, this highway is along the coast of the ocean and has a lot of curves and little between you and the cliff that leads to the ocean so it is very intimidating. Dan, very impressively, pushed all of his anxiety aside and drove up Highway 1 like a pro!! Along the way, we saw many incredible views and breathtaking scenery...it is hard to capture the experience in a picture but I tried.
After all of this weekend's productivity, I begin my new teaching career TOMORROW! Well, sort of, I get to meet my students tomorrow morning and have training Tuesday through Thursday! Lets hope this week goes as well as the past month has been for me...

Love, love, love :)

Dogs Dreaming, Congratulations, and moving music

Do you ever wonder what exactly it is that dogs dream about? I do, especially now with Bailey laying on the couch next to me running after, or away from something. Do they always have the same dream? Is it like the one we have where we feel like we are falling? When they wake up, how do they feel? Angry? Sad? Happy? or just sort of mediocre? These are the things that I am thinking about at 12:13 am on a Thursday morning, and unfortunately, I'm pretty positive my queries will go unanswered forever.

Moving away from my nonsensical dribble and towards a topic with a little substance, in case you haven't heard, Michelle got an amazing job offer as a teacher of autistic children (take that shitty job market!). If you know ANYTHING about her, you already know this is pretty much a "dream job" for her and I couldn't be more proud, excited, and grateful for her. In completely unrelated news, I have started planning for my retirement, which, due to the aforementioned shitty job market may be coming much, much sooner than expected. Parents and Michelle, I'm kidding of course......sort of......hopefully

Of course, this wouldn't be a blog about the San Francisco Bay Area and why we moved here if I didn't take a few moments to brag about some of the things we have been doing that, well, you...just aren't doing (sorry!). The most exciting thing for me over the last week or so has been the Neil Young concerts (yes, the "s" is supposed to be there, I went twice) we went to Sunday and Monday evenings at the historic Fox Theatre in Oakland. Let's just start off with the setlist shall we? My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue), Tell Me Why, Helpless (with a KILLER harmonica solo), You Never Call, Peaceful Valley, Love and War, Down By the River, Hitchhiker, Sign of Love, Leia, After the Goldrush, I Believe in You, Rumblin, Cortez the Killer, Cinnamon Girl, and an encore of Walk with Me. Un-effing-believable. It was really some of the most moving live music I have ever seen. This was a solo show as well, no band, just him on stage with a few guitars, pianos, an organ, and a harmonica. I was hoping for a little more audience interaction a'la the '71 Massey Hall concert, In fact, the only thing he really said to the audience was right before playing Leia. He mentioned this song was "for a lovely little thing, and if we weren't quiet and respectful, we'd scare the hell out of her". It seemed as though he decided to communicate through his guitars and timeless vocals. Definitely a little slower moving around these days, the man can play guitar like only someone of experience can. The huge sound of the guitars left vibrations in your chest like the two of you were sitting in a well insulated garage. Really, if he ever comes close to you, you NEED to see his show live. Yes, tickets will be expensive, but I promise it will be something you will not soon forget.

Goodnight all, Pictures of something will be up in the near future so stay tuned! Also, yesterday was Alice Eagle's 3rd birthday, so if you haven't already, wish her a happy birthday!

Love.

Correction.

Hi everyone! I have to correct Dan's comment saying that I've "retired" from blogging...I have not. I do, however, believe he is better at telling the stories of our San Franciscan journeys.

Anyway...we have had a busy couple of weeks going to county fairs, drinking wine, concert going, trolly riding...you know, the usual (also, still job hunting). It is really frustrating that, although we do something new and exciting almost every day here, our list of things that we want to do or see keeps growing!! It is overwhelming because it seems as though every time we turn on the TV, the host of a travel show or food explorer is somewhere in Northern California. We then look at each other and say "we should do that!" So we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place; we have so much time to enjoy all of these new places (rock) but we have that time because we are not working and, therefore, have no income (hard place). Hopefully all of that will change soon with the few interviews we have scheduled this week! Once we both begin working, LOOK OUT WORLD!

Until then...carpe diem!

New pictures are up, enjoy!
We send lots of love to all of you :)

Long time, no see...

Hello again compadres....it certainly has been a while. I think unfortunately that Michelle has officially "retired" as a blogger and accepted a new position as "picture poster", so from here on out, it will be my duty to describe to you all what it is that we have been doing and instill mental images while she is going to be responsible for actually showing you the pictures so you don't have to rely on my (sometimes meandering) words. Think of this as two people co-authoring a children's book with much better subject matter (save for the book about the caterpillar laying an egg on a leaf in the light of the moon).

Anyway, since we have been together last, many things have transpired. The most noteworthy things have been the Fillmore Jazz festival, a house party an Pacific Heights, and the Marin County fair on the fourth of july. Jazz is a tradition on Fillmore street dating back many many years. All of the jazz musicians used to hang out in clubs and even on the street itself collaborating with other artists making music with one another. This event, like many others in San Francisco, is completely free to attend, and is so rich with culture and music. Following the Jazz festival, we walked to Pacific Heights, only a few blocks from Fillmore street to see some friends play music at a party. Walking there was like walking through a post card. Mountains, ocean, sailboats, bridges, beautiful homes, steep roads, and a whole slew of other picturesque subjects. The Marin county fair was also a lot of fun. We got to see the The Del McCoury band play some tunes with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band out of New Orleans all for the price of admission. Michelle also satisfied her insatiable desire for fair food by eating a funnel cake. Shortly after doing so, she felt a little ill (surprising I know after eating deep fried batter), but I'm sure the next time a fair rolls around she will forget all about feeling sick to her stomach and back to NEEDING a funnel cake or cotton candy or caramel apples.

So here we are on Monday, taking a much needed day to relax (read not be hungover from wine anymore). We (or at least I) find myself with a new problem. No, it isn't "what am I going to do for work", or, "how many resumes can I send out today?" although we both do have promising prospects so parents worry not. No, the issue I am speaking of is where am I going to get a bag of fresh coffee beans. I know the general response will be, "go to safeway, or whole foods, or someplace like that.", however, i am a coffee snob in a city that will allow me to be a coffee snob so unfortunately, regular coffee simply wont do. Time for me to figure out what exactly I am going to do about my issues. Cheers all. Oh, and don't forget to tell Michelle you miss hearing from her!