What a difference a week makes.
Seven days ago today I was in Camarillo, packing my things and having dinner with my parents at Enoteca Toscana (where we were served by a girl I had a P.E. class with in high school.)
Now here I am in San Francisco, three days into my job at The Bay Guardian, two apartments visited, one 30th birthday celebrated (not mine), a half-marathon watched and one afternoon wasted at Zeitgeist.
Already, Southern California seems so far away. The parties I'd vowed not to miss, the freelance jobs I stressed about, the small jealousies and connections that seemed so big when they were nearby.
I am glad I had an appropriate goodbye, though. Last weekend was a bittersweet farewell: A sushi dinner with new friends (who are quickly becoming old and dear friends) in Long Beach, that city that represented so much of my last four months' transition time. A lovely brunch at the Long Beach Museum, which was supposed to be the site of an unfulfilled date so long ago. One last hurrah with sweet Andrea and the girls, getting dressed in her Echo Park apartment before embarking on our rock'n'roll adventure in Hollywood. Another fantastic show from Poets and Pornstars, with the pleasant surprise of Jeremiah and Bethany's company as well as the all-too-rare chance to spend some quality time with my sister. Drunken text messages. Girl bonding over pretzels and salsa. And my last caffeine-fueled drive North from Los Angeles to Camarillo as a Southern California resident.
Though I'll probably see all of these people and all of these places fairly often, there seemed to be something momentous in saying goodbye last weekend. Perhaps it's the awareness that this is a new phase of my life — not just a change in my basic life details, as it would've been had I moved to L.A. — but a whole new era. There was college. There was Ventura County/Santa Barbara. And now there's the San Francisco portion of my development. Growth. Passion. Fulfillment. Manifesting my dreams.
I'm ready.
congrats on the new job, but I'm sorry I won't (occasionally) run into you.
Posted by: robert | February 05, 2007 at 12:08 PM
thanks. i'll miss sometimes kind of briefly seeing you too. ;) (I was actually hoping we might finally up the hang-out time to once in a blue moon instead of once in every other blue moon, but alas.) Eat a thousand grilled cheese sandwiches for me...
Posted by: The Management | February 05, 2007 at 03:06 PM