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First off, apologies for the extreme new years resolution fail (to be fair– at least i’m doing well on my exercising resolution. got a gym membership and was going pretty regularly… until this weekend. doh! >.<). Work has been ridiculous (that’s another story)… but other than that, January was a pretty eventful month. Which leads me to the topic of this post– (sorry in advance for the sappiness… -__-’)
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I really wish I had started this blog before I moved out to California. It’s been a huge transition, even though now it seems like I’m completely settled and have been here forever… funny how that works.
Of course there were the expected moving pains, which included:
- Finding a rental car and painfully shelling out how much it costs to rent one (a lot!)
- Buying a car (on my own!) during the whole cash for clunkers deal with no clunker = no negotiating power (::shakes fist::)
- Re-purchasing all the “day-to-day” things I had just gotten rid of in the process of moving away from Boston (involved multiple trips to and hundreds of dollars spent at Target)
- Hauling my butt over to Fremont to relieve Chsueh’s family of all the junk I had shipped over to store at her place for 3 months (thanks chsueh & fam! <3 though I still have no idea why I shipped my entire college room to California…)
- Buying a bed (surprisingly more stressful than it seems)
- Oh yeah!– did I mention finding a roof to live under?
And the unexpected moving pains…:
- Arriving on the first night, desperately wanting a shower, and realizing– shit, I don’t have a towel!
- Having my computer break down on the flight over, leaving me without internet access for a day and without my PC for a week (really computer? really? you’re going to do this to me, of all times, NOW??)
- Getting terribly lost on the way to pick up a GPS (oh the irony) that I bought on craigslist
- Parallel parking Making multiple attempts at but ultimately giving up on parallel parking on a hill (witnessed by many amused passer-bys)
But I think the biggest unexpected moving pain was the loneliness. I thought I’d be okay– even though I was moving to the opposite coast from most of my closest friends and family, I’ve never been one to feel lonely. And of course, with the power of the internet (!), it would be a breeze to keep in touch with everyone.
But things were, as they are, totally different from how I expected. I felt it on my first day– waking up in a totally empty, silent house. Going about my day-to-day activities (grocery shopping, cooking, running, eating) on my own. Finding my way around and getting lost in a new place on my own. Figuring out how what to buy for my new place on my own. Laughing at my stupidity on my own (that’s a big one ^^’). For the two weeks after I moved to Cali and before I started work, I think I passed most of my days on my own…
Of course I was living with Jo, but as awesome as he is he’s just one person. I missed was the ability to walk 20 feet and chat with a group of people hanging out in the 4th floor lounge. Even just to ask something trivial– like what’s the weather like today, or what color shirt they like better…
Friends are so abundant in college. And maybe that’s why I took it for granted that it would always be that way.
Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of awesome friends out here (and remote!). It’s just that–and this is going to sound funny, because it’s sort of a “duh” thing– it requires a good amount of effort to keep in touch with them.
I miss the luxury of being able to see someone I needed to talk to just by walking down the street. And to think I used to complain about having to walk all the way to Baker… ;)
But at the same time, it makes me really, really value the time I spend with my friends. When Ana and Vu came to visit for the weekend, it was almost as if nothing had changed…
Although I may not see or talk to people as frequently as I did in college, it just makes those moments that much more special.
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We miss you a TON. Just saying. :)
Comment by Christine February 10, 2010 @ 12:31 amI was JUST thinking about you an hour ago, there was this little girl that looked like you. I miss you! I am thinking that I want to move to SF and hang out with you when we are not busy. *hugs*
Comment by Omar February 10, 2010 @ 1:42 amI vote for leaving Skype on during evenings so we can attempt to replicate life in New House ;). We’ll add in some football noises and videogame noises in the background to enhance the imitation. Miss you and still searching for spring break flights to SF ;)
Comment by Anne February 10, 2010 @ 4:55 amYou have moved from coast to coast but you are still on the same land. I moved from coast to coast but I am in the different continent :) Speaking a language that I thought I knew (even worse).
Life has its own ways and It is how you grow up says this song
may be sometime I will translate it, but the music itself speaks as well.
Comment by ozgur celik February 10, 2010 @ 1:24 pm…at least you didn’t have to BUILD the bed! :)
Comment by Jippy February 17, 2010 @ 2:54 pm