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I’m back in San Francisco after a week of kicking it in the mountains with my bro. On Sunday I drove back through Yosemite—mighty gorgeous—and arrived in gloomy, cloudy, and chilly San Fran that afternoon.

I immediately went to check out an apartment in Inner Richmond. I was really hoping it would pan out as I could move in immediately. However, it didn’t really suit me. That left me homeless, which turns out to be quite a normal thing here.

I had a rental car so I drove around the city checking out neighborhoods for about three hours. Around dinner time, I decided I needed a place to sleep for the night.

My backup plan was to get a suite for a week while I looked at other places. So that’s what I did. I am currently living on Post street, which is kind of close to Union Square, around a lot of other hotels and shopping. Seems like a lot of the people in my hotel are internationals. I’m here until Saturday, which is great incentive to find a sublet before then.

But today I didn’t have much lined up, so I walked to Golden State Park, which is about three miles away. Along the way I hit some shady neighborhoods, or blocks, I should say. Shadiness seems to exist on a street-by-street basis.

When I got to the park, I came across an international footbag tournament. I ended up watching the entire third-place set (best out of three). I bought a beer, sat in the grass, and relished a sport closely related to soccer that I would definitely suck at (I’m terrible at hacky sack).

I also got a call from a SF native, a friend of a friend. He picked me up from the park and drove me around several neighborhoods—he’s in real estate. We then grabbed some dinner at Brandy Ho’s in Chinatown. I got the smoked ham and garlic gloves. Good stuff.

Finally, I had a sublet interview in the Mission District at 9 pm. That seemed to go well and the people were nice. The neighborhood also seemed pretty vibrant, although very, very Mexican. Not that that’s a bad thing.

On Sunday, and even at points today, I felt a bit stressed and longed for the comfort of my own place in Pittsburgh. It’s hard to give up the security of what is known for the unknown, and to be on your own. It’s exciting and good for growth. But it does make you appreciate what you’ve established and the people around you.

Before I had a place to stay yesterday, I was feeling pretty low and lonely. But just 24 hours later, I’m starting to feel like I know what’s up. (It’s only a matter of time before I know every cake shop in town.)

Tomorrow is my first day at Adaptive Path. Tomorrow evening, I’m looking at another apartment.

After a bit of a mix-up, I made it to San Francisco this morning.

On Sunday, I went at the airport for my 10 am flight. I entered my flight info at the check-in kiosk only to find out that my flight was not Sunday May 20, but Sunday May 27. It had been booked incorrectly (not by me, but I neglected to see the error previously).

These things happen. What can you do?

So yesterday I spent the day figuring out a new plan, which ended up calling for me to wake at 3:30 am to be ready for my 4 am cab to get me to my 6 am flight. I flew to Washington, DC, then to San Francisco, where I arrived at 11:30 am PST. I then rented a car and left SF around 1 pm for Yosemite National Park.

The original plan was to meet up with my brother and his wife in Yosemite on Sunday and spend the night and day on Monday. Instead, I met up with them around 5:30 today (Monday), had a beer, and took some pictures. A half hour later, we were on our way to back to their home in Mammoth Lakes.

We stopped along the way for some grub (at a Mobil gas station that cooks up jambalaya and lobster taquitos). My brother new the guys who ran the place and we got free beers.

At 9:30 pm PST (12:30 EST) I arrived in Mammoth, a mere 21-hours later.

But by golly I don’t mind driving through Yosemite. Beautiful place. My brother and I will likely go back over the next few days, as it’s only a couple hours away.

So I’m here in California for the next couple months. I’ll return to SF sometime this weekend. And I will start my internship at Adaptive Path next Tuesday.

All in all, can’t really complain. As the t-shirts say, life is good.

The end of the semester sucked up all my time. And while that was going on, my comments got corrupted. When I tried fixing that late one night (or early one morning, depending on your perspective), I only succeeded in breaking the site more so that I could not access the admin section. Hence, no posts.

The good news is, it’s fixed! The bad news is, I lost a couple months of comments because I don’t back up too often.

I’ve got a million things I could write about, like CHI, Motorola, Info Vis, my seminar 2 paper, the end of the semester and my first year in general, going to San Francisco on Sunday, but I am still busy.

Did I mention I’m going to San Francisco on Sunday?

The short news is after flying into San Fran, I’m meeting up with my brother in Yosemite and then hanging out with him for the week before I start at Adaptive Path. I still don’t have a place to live, as not being there has really hurt my prospects. But I’ll figure something out, right?

At any rate, I’m still alive, done with school, and moving on to another adventure. Stay tuned.

On Sunday, I attended a CMU alumni get together at Adaptive Path in San Francisco. The event coincided with CHI being in San Jose this year. And CHI was the reason I was in SF.

Dan Saffer was our host, so I got to talk with him a bit. One thing everyone seemed to mention was that Dan looks different, due to non-thick black glasses and longer hair. So if you think he looks as he does on his site, think again.

Overall, it didn’t feel too much like a networking opportunity, which was part of the motivation for attending. I met one other Adaptive Path member, and talked to a handful of alumni, including some recent HCI graduates. But I struggled to maintain conversations due to two hours of sleep the night before and a cross-country flight that morning.

For me, it was more about seeing the Adaptive Path space and chatting with Dan about my internship there this summer. The layout of the space is very open and looks like a welcome and collaborative place. My classmates were jealous.

It’s spring break and I haven’t been on my computer much as I’m in Mammoth Lakes, California, visiting my brother, Matt. I’ve been snowboarding, bouldering, rock climbing, and also just hanging out and doing nothing, and sleeping!

My brother has been totally impressing me with his climbing skills. When I arrived last weekend, he was working as an ice climbing guide. And this week we’ve gone to the Owens River gorge in Bishop a couple times for some rope climbing, where I have received private lessons.

Matt

Apparently climbers like to name their climbs with bizarre names. Matt finally conquered Sex yesterday. Here are the climbs I’ve done:

• Stella
• For Patricia
• It’s a Gaaazzzz
• Crotalulsley Challenged
• Silence of the Poodles
• P.D. Time

Silence of the Poodles was my first crack climb and removed a lot of the skin on my hands. Evidence of effort and accomplishment.

I’m heading back to the ‘Burgh on Sunday night. Madness continues on Monday.