Category: Life

You can’t find everything on Craigslist. In San Francisco, you can find everything in life on Craigslist–furniture, apartment, job, lover, moving supplies, etc. There’s no need to go elsewhere. For me, that’s the place for apartments. I don’t think more than a handful of San Francisco apartments aren’t listed on Craigslist. I bought my scooter, found my apartment, sold my guitars and extra bike, found my roommate… all via Craigslist.

Here, I found six apartments in Capitol Hill on Craigslist within seven blocks of Bellevue and Olive, where the express bus to MSFT stops. Walking within just two blocks from said intersection, I found six buildings with "for rent" signs posted.

Of course, most of those buildings, it turned out, won’t know if they have anything to rent until 10-AUG-06, because tenants, apparently, only need to give twenty days’ notice. Even better, all these buildings expect to show their apartments during normal business hours, and not on weekends and evenings like in San Francsico.

So many little differences in the way things work…

Internet access is insanely expensive. FedEx Kinko’s charges $0.20 per minute. A coffee shop on Denny charges $0.14 per, but the first 30 minutes is free with a drink. This other copy place in Capitol Hill charges $0.10 per, which is the best I’ve found. I think I spent $24 yesterday for computer rental and internet access. True, I had more tasks than normal–from changing my address to getting my credit report to uploading pictures of Heather’s twenty-eight-clawed, polydactyl, skittle-picking-up, opposable-thumbed cat Darwin (only managed one, the connection at FedEx was SOOO slow).

At these prices, if you can’t afford the upfront cost of a computer, you simply can’t afford to access the internet. I’ve read about the "Digital Divide," but I never quite undestood the economics until computer-less and homeless in Seattle.

I tired out the 545 ST Express Bus from Capitol Hill to Microsoft this morning. Traffic-wise, the problem–at least at 9:15am–is getting out of Seattle, onto the 520, and then onto the bridge. After that, there was little, if any, traffic until the Microsoft exit (just like the persistent "Oracle Mile" traffic jam on the 101). Traffic into Seattle was stop-and-go all the way in, even on the bus ride back at 10:30am. The HOV lane was better, though. Maybe it’s different before 9am.

I experienced the lovely reality of bus travel on my first trip: the Bus Paradox and Bus Bunching. That is, that a) you are more likely to choose a long bus inter-arrival time than a short one, and b) that buses bunch together in twos or threes. Basically, if buses leave the depot every thirty minutes and you arrive at a later stop at a random time point, you’re likely to wait, on average, more than fifteen minutes for a bus to arrive. This morning, the first bus was fifteen minutes late, and was followed by a nearly empty bus just 30 seconds later. The first bus was SRO, the second nearly empty.

Final thoughts:

• People use their damn cellphones on the bus, just like Caltrain.
• I can load my bike onto the front of the train.
• There is a bike path that runs along the westbound side of 520 for part of the way to the floating bridge. I’m curious if it runs all the way to the bridge itself.
• The bus doesn’t stop "on" Capitol Hill on the return route, which is odd. I stops three or four blocks down at the base of the hill and on the other side of the 5.

I ditched the Crown Vic!

First thing on my agenda this morning was to track down a smaller car from Avis. Quite challenging. The phone number for the Avis desk at SEA-TAC doesn’t connect to the desk there. It transfers to a variety of national 800 numbers. Hit zero, you get directions to the airport, then it hangs up. Hold on the line, you get directions to the airport, then it hangs up. Dial one of the "unassigned" menu options–seven or eight or nine or pound or star–you get directions to the airport, then it hangs up.

The Bellevue office asked for my number so they could call me back. Never did.

Downtown Seattle only had SUVs.

So I chose the Lost & Found number back at SEA-TAC, and they transferred me to the desk. Nothing but SUVs and land boats, and they were totally sold out for the next two days. But I could come in and wait, and maybe they could get me a small land boat. I brought a book and prepared to camp out.

First, I was pointed to a "small" SUV. No way. On the walk back, I noted the parking spaces of all the Toyota Corollas and Ford Focuses and other small cars on the lot. Supposedly, those were "reserved." I didn’t point out I had an intermediate "reserved" for yesterday and got a land boat instead. I just smiled back sadly & hopefully, and said I could wait. A minute later, she found "the last" compact car hidden on the lot.

Victory!!!!

That’s all it took to make me realize how much I will miss San Francisco and my small circle of friends there.

The Crown Victoria was the only car available from Avis. It’s the kind of car used by taxi drivers and the police. It is a boat. It is longer than a standard SUV. It is so wide I can’t keep it in one lane. It is a land boat. I can’t drive it. I’m terrified I’ll swipe a parked car. I hate it. Sorta pathetic, actually.

Queen Anne is a neighborhood. I was supposed to be in Belltown, Denny Regrade specifically. That’s just north of downtown Seattle. Instead, when I got my keys, I’d been switched to Queen Anne. For my San Francisco readers, this would be equivalent to thinking you’d be in South Beach a couple blocks from the ball park, and ending up in Pacific Heights. The edge of Pacific Heights, way away from its little commercial district.

When I arrived at my sterile, bland corporate housing [photo right] last night after trying not to crash the Crown Vic into parked cars, I started to cry.

Pathetic.

Welcome to Seattle, MAO!

[Below is the view from my porch. Not bad, actually]

I took everything down from the walls today in preparation for the packers arriving Thursday. All my pictures and wood masks and posters. I replaced the relatively expensive polished chrome electrical faceplates with cheap white plastic ones that cost just $0.50 a piece. I have even taken down most of the drapes and related hardware. It feels naked. My apartment feels stripped and bare and not like a home.

Friday night, I’ll be back to sleeping on an air mattress in an empty room. Which is how I spent the first weeks in my apartment in September 2004.

It’s all happening so quickly.

For the past week, my stomach has been bothering me more and more. Every meal has been a chore, no matter how hungry I am, and each meal has been harder to eat than the last.

I think I know why, now. I was worried it was just the malarial meds that I’ve been on since last Wednesday. But last night was the first since then that I haven’t had a drink, and my stomach feels gloriously normal today.

I’m not looking forward to four more weeks as a near-teetotaller, but I’m glad I’m back to normal and on the meds. I’ve been at Campamento El Sombrero for all of ten minutes, and I already have a mosquito bite. I’m sure there will be more.

I’ve been thinking of "Last Times" these past few days.

• Wednesday was the last lunch with Kevin.
• Wednesday was my first and last developer marketing meeting with Michelle and Andrew.
• Thursday was my last Caltrain commute, and my last long bike ride along the Bayshore trail.
• Thursday, much to my surprise, was my last lunch with Rick, an old boss with whom I am on the outs, and with whom I haven’t spoken more than a few words in seven months.
• Thursday was also my last lunch with Dennis and Brian.
• This morning was my last marketing meeting with Engineering, and the last time I’ll talk with Regis and Shay and Mike L and Doug and the other usual Java suspects all together.
• Today was my last lunch at Oracle. I had lunch with family: my second cousin, Christian Shay.
• Today is the last day I will wear a black Oracle button-down shirt.
• And, of course, today is my last day at Oracle.

The real "Last," will come around 31-JUL-06, when I leave San Francisco. The "firsts" will then begin, like 7-AUG-06, my first day at Microsoft.

Andrew–

Each day this moment has come closer, it’s becoming harder and harder to do. But I have received an offer from the Visual Studio team at Microsoft, and have decided to accept it. It’s a very good career move for me, an offer I can’t turn down.

The reason I am leaving is entirely personal. In the months after my father passed, the need to be closer to the family I still have has become much stronger. That, and a few months after my father passed, I realized that, if I remained in California, I would never be able to afford for my (as yet still hypothetical) children what my parents were able to offer me growing up. So with the rest of the family moving to Portland, Oregon, the Pacific Northwest was the answer (there just aren’t many big software companies in Portland, but Seattle’s only a few hours away).

I didn’t expect this to happen so soon: I figured I would starting researching my options in September or October, but a recruiter contacted me for this job in early May a few weeks after my mom decided to make the move…

I love Oracle, warts and all, and I loved my experience here working for both Mike and Andrew. The three of you provided me a place to grieve, to regain my confidence, and to feel proud of my contributions to Oracle again. I will never forget that, nor can I ever repay it. Thank you.

–Michael

Told my boss this afternoon that I plan to leave Oracle. I find out Monday if I’m getting walked.

I hated every minute of it. It feels like breaking up with someone. You know they’ll be disappointed. And it feels even worse when you care about the people you work with, about the work you’re doing. Yeah, it’s been slow, and I’m not all that challenged by what I do anymore. But I know I could have found good things to do. It’s more about life, and family, and career.

Of course, it also felt horrible because, on top of the fluttery stomach from giving notice and saying goodbye, I also have a smashing hangover.