How All Of This Happened (Part 1)

How in the world did we go from this:

To this:

(I really need to get some other pictures of the outside from a distance)

Over the years, Jeff and I had talked (lots) about where we'd want to live if we could just pick up and move.  The San Francisco area was always number one our list of places. In some ways, then, it's not a big surprise that we ended up here.  

How we ended up here, though - that's the story!

I always said that I could never move away from New York - what  I really meant, though, was that I could never move away from Nicholas. I mean, seriously?  

So. Moving wasn't on our minds.  At the end of 2010, we had three big things going on:

1. Our amazing stay in New York City to celebrate New Year's Eve.

2. A quick trip to Las Vegas to celebrate Jeff's graduation from his Fancy School for Math Geeks. 

3. Getting back home, Jeff focusing on finding a full-time job (he'd already been looking and working with me at Brush Dance part-time), and just . . . living. A boy, a girl, a dog. Ahhh.

Our trip to NYC was incredible - we'd been planning it for literally 363 days. We saw shows, walked in the slush, and had a room with an amazing view of Times Square. A real once in a lifetime experience. Bella was comfy cozy in her usual boarding place.

Vegas was just a week later and because of busy-ness at work (and laziness), we didn't unpack from the NYC trip.  The night before we left for Vegas, we decided to not take any clothes or toiletries with us. None. We'd shop in Vegas and call that part of our adventure.  We each packed one bag and those were mostly filled with computer and work things since we'd have to work some of the time we were away. On the way out the door, we each rolled up an extra shirt and trucked them into our bags.  We dropped Bella off (again) at the boarding place. And we were off!

Off our rockers!

Vegas was great.  We saw some great shows, did some fun people watching, gambled (and lost) a little, ate too much, all of the usual Vegas things. Oh, yeah, and we each picked up a few articles of clothing, but not much - maybe 2-3 shirts and an extra pair of pants each. 

A friend in the San Francisco area had been having some health issues and wasn't doing well.  Jeff was in the process of buying wheels for his bus.  Oh...here's the bus. It's a 1963 VW Transporter - another whole story that maybe he'll share some day. (The short version of the story is that right after Jeff's last day at his Fancy School for Math Geeks in mid-December, we drove down to his aunt and uncle's in Virginia to pick up this beauty. Hi Suzanne! Hi Robert!!)

I digress.

Our friend in San Francisco wasn't doing well and needed some help just getting to and from appointments.  Vegas is (sorta) close to San Francisco.  We would rent a car and drive the 12 hours to San Francisco. Along the way, we would stop at some desert town and pick up the tires.  The plan was to either ship the tires to where the bus was (in a Pennsylvania repair shop) or (get this!) drive them across the country after we were done in San Francisco.

In my defense, I've never driven across the entire country and it's been a huge fantasy of mine forever.  And, "Really, what better time is there to do this since my work schedule is somewhat flexible and you're not working full-time yet." (This is also the logic that got us to Vegas so quickly on the heels of the Virginia and NYC adventures, by the way.)

cRaZy

So. That's how we ended up in San Francisco.  Hang in there with us to find out how we ended up staying here!