moving to san francisco

“How are you feeling?”
“Are you excited?”
“How is your family taking it?”
“What an exciting adventure and beautiful city!”

These are the top questions/comments I’ve gotten prior to moving to San Francisco. After going through our entire house, cleaning it for real estate pictures, selling furniture, and movers packing up everything, today is it. I get on my one way flight with bags (4 to be exact) and a dog (who has to go in cargo, excuse me while my heart breaks a little) to move from Dallas, Texas to the city by the bay.

While I’m curious to see what this new adventure holds, I’m also nervous with a side of every other emotion you could possible hold inside one human being. I know a couple of things already:

– it gets really, really cold come 5pm
– the hills aren’t “stupid hard” (as my husband puts it), but kind of a bitch (I’ll be the judge of that)
– people really like to recycle here
– there is a lot to see and do, a daily “mini vacation” if you want it to be (according to a new friend)
– Trader Joe’s is here (and I LOVE Trader Joe’s)

Once I arrive, I plan on spending the rest of the week exploring and getting semi-settled into our housing situation. We’ve got corporate housing for a month and then it’s off to find a new place, so the clock is ticking as soon as I get in. The company is putting us up in the heart of San Francisco. When we looked up the price of the place, it’s almost as to say “here is the beautiful city, but you can’t afford to live here”. It might be the story of my life in the first coming months.

Where to look and how much to spend are all important questions with no answers at the moment. I’m in deep hopes that they will be answered soon as we have time to explore and find a place that we like (or we procrastinate and then hustle to find the first place that has availability. I’m hoping for the first scenario).

So here goes, a new adventure filled with different people, ideals and way of life (composting vs. throwing it in the trash, organic vs. preservatives, Kroger vs. Whole Foods). I’m getting ready for all the newness. This should make for some very good story telling…

Any advice when moving to a new city? San Francisco advice? I’d love to know!