Riding the Rails

Feeling nostalgic on my last day commuting from Sunnyvale before I move to SF. My daily commute has been extreme: a two-mile bike ride to the Sunnyvale Caltrain station, then a train ride from Sunnyvale to San Francisco that can take anywhere from 45 to 76 minutes (assuming no delays), and then a mile-long walk to work. All told, I have been spending 3.5 to 4 hours per day commuting.

In the past six months, I have traveled 9,801 miles by train, 484 miles by bike, and 242 miles by foot.

But, it hasn't been all bad. I have loved having a bike ride built into my day. The train is perfect for reading, and way more relaxing than driving to SF. I enjoy that I've become a regular at the Bean Scene, my favorite cafe in downtown Sunnyvale.

All the same, I am looking forward to my new roundtrip commute of 0.4 miles!

Apartment FTW!

I finally found an apartment in San Francisco!

For over two months, I have been compulsively checking Craigslist for new apartment postings.  I even had an RSS feed in Google Reader.  As I learned after my first couple of weeks of hunting, you have to respond extremely quickly to get a place.  If you don't show up to the open house with all of your paperwork filled out, you don't stand a chance.

Nine weeks and 30 apartments later, I had truly honed my apartment hunting skills.  Open houses are for fools, having to compete with so many other people.  So, when I saw a posting on Wednesday for an open house at 10 am on Thursday for a cute little studio with bay windows and hardwood floors two blocks from work, I immediately emailed the broker--Pam the Rental Gal--to see if we could schedule something for 9:30.  She was available!  I got her to send me a copy of the application form, and filled it out completely, putting together a packet with a cover letter, the application form, some supplemental applicant information, my resume, and my most recent pay stub.  I didn't include my credit report because they wanted to run the report themselves.

I met Pam Thursday morning, walking those two gloriously short blocks from work at Powell and Market to the apartment on Mason at Eddy.  The building is tall and narrow--eight floors, but only four units per floor.  The neighborhood is full of hotels, hostels, restaurants, shopping, and tourists, because it's so close to the cable cars and Union Square.  I felt perfectly safe walking there, which is more than I can say for some of the apartments I viewed in the Tenderloin, or even lower Nob Hill.

Pam and I took the elevator up to the fifth floor to check out the apartment.  Here are the photos from the Craigslist ad to give you an idea of what I saw.  This is the main space of the studio, with those gorgeous bay windows for which I hadn't been daring to hope:

Here's the other side of the room, looking at the big closet:

You can see the hallway and the front door, and those black stripes are in the tiny, tiny kitchen:

There are about six inches of counter space next to the sink.  I'm going to have to put in some sort of pantry organizer rack so I have somewhere to store food, a microwave and a toaster, I think.  You might be wondering, where's the fridge?  Well, they creatively installed it in the hallway, with the back of the fridge capitalizing on a bit of dead space in the far right corner of the closet:

The bathroom is through that door to the left:

So, after inspecting the apartment, I turned in my application to Pam, who quite literally squealed in delight at how organized I was.  She told me that she was doing the open house at 10, but assuming that my credit and eviction reports looked good, she'd give me a call that afternoon to offer me the place!

It was very difficult to focus on work on Thursday, waiting for Pam to call.  But, call she did, offering me the apartment, and telling me that I was lucky that I turned in my application first, because two other people handed in applications at the open house.  My cunning strategy had paid off!  I signed the lease electronically that afternoon, turned in a cashier's check Friday morning, and by 10:30 am on Friday had the key to my new apartment in hand.

It was a rather whirlwind experience, to search for an apartment for so long, preparing myself to make so many compromises on location and features, only to get an apartment fewer than 48 hours after first seeing the post on Craigslist.  Now, I'm packing, and plan to hire my brother and one of his friends to help me move next weekend.  I'm so glad to get Veterans Day off to start setting things up!  I need a number of things for my apartment, but I'm not going to rush to buy them all at once.  Rather, I'm going to take some time to start living in that space, and think creatively about the best ways to take advantage of my small space.  For instance, my biggest debate right now is whether I want to loft my full-size bed to free up more floor space.

I am so excited for this new chapter in my life.  As much as starting my new job has been a major turning point, I think that finding this apartment signifies officially becoming an independent adult.  It is a wonderful feeling, and I am definitely counting my blessings.

Let's Catch Up

Hey gang, I've been on a blogging hiatus for a while!  So many things have happened in the past four months:

I became a full-time, permanent staff lawyer at HomeBase.

I took the CA bar exam, and it felt good.  (Results coming in mid-November.)

I went to Yosemite for Siobhan & Sean's beautiful wedding.

I went to St. Paul for work, and went to the Minnesota State Fair with Molly.

I saw Jim Gaffigan do stand-up at the Mountain Winery for my birthday.

I went to Lake Tahoe to celebrate Morgan's birthday.

I began my San Francisco apartment hunt, which is ongoing.

I went to Seattle to visit Jaki and David (and ran into Saleema).

I went to the Big Game with my dad, and we had fun even though Cal lost.

I could spend an entire post on any of these events, but I think this will have to do.  I'm hoping to be more frequent in my posts in the future!

Phoenix

Last week, I took my first business trip.  I was a last-minute add to the trip.  I was working with two colleagues to prepare for some meetings in Phoenix, and they said, "You know, it would be easier if you would just come with us...  Let's look up some flights!"  And so, I found myself in Phoenix on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.

The intensity of the hot weather in Phoenix cannot be overstated.  It was 108° when I was in town, which is extreme.  As I exited the airport for the first time, I was shocked to learn that even one's eyeballs can feel hot.  And yet, it was freezing in all of the buildings with air conditioners blasting, so my Bay Area instinct to dress in layers nonetheless proved useful.

We stayed at the Hotel Valley Ho, which is a historic hotel in Scottsdale.  The architecture was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and it has an awesome "Jetsons-in-the-desert" feel--that very 1950s concept of the future, mixed with Arizonan elements.

Our meetings went well.  Having spent a lot of time preparing the materials for the meetings, it was great to see our work in action, and meet a lot of our clients.  I should be heading back to Phoenix in early August for another set of meetings--hopefully I'll be able to spend a little more time there and explore the city.

Settling In

I've been at HomeBase for six weeks now, and it's been awesome.  Having been an intern, it was easy for me to jump right into the work and start taking on responsibility.  It's a bit frustrating to have to study for the bar exam while gearing up in my new job, because I'd love to be able to pour 100% of my energy into work.  But, in another six weeks, the bar exam will be over, and things will really start to fall into place.

The nature of my work is very fast-paced and eclectic, which I love.  In a single day, I might research pending legislation, draft a grant proposal, write a memo on some best practices, or facilitate a meeting with clients to brainstorm how to improve their system.

While most of our work is in the Bay Area, we also have some national technical assistance work for HUD, which takes us all over the country.  Indeed, I will be going to Phoenix for a couple of days next week for some meetings. I am excited by how quickly I've begun to feel like a valuable team member with things to contribute.

Last week, I gave a presentation at our regional steering committee on Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.  It felt a bit like a "fake it 'til you make it" moment, because I'm by no means an expert on heath care reform, but I think it went well.  I, like most folks in the policy world, am awaiting the Supreme Court's opinion on the ACA with baited breath.  My hope is that they'll leave the entire law in effect, but my prediction is that they'll sever the individual mandate.

Today was lovely, because it was the annual intern hike, which is like our version of a company picnic.  We all carpooled out to the Marin Headlands for some hiking, followed by a BBQ picnic near the beach.  What a fantastic way to spend a Wednesday.

Third Time's the Charm

I learned on Friday that I was unsuccessful on the February administration of the California bar exam.  I was on my way home from work when the results came out online, so I spent an hour sitting on the train with my sunglasses on, feebly attempting to hide the fact that I was crying.  When I got home, both of my parents were waiting for me, and enveloped me in a huge, long hug.

We talked for a while, and I admitted to myself and to them how much of an emotional toll this exam has taken on me the past year.  I explained how the pressure to do well, especially the second time, left me feeling paralyzed with fear.  I acknowledged that I really struggled with studying for the exam full-time because of burn-out, worrying excessively, and the lack of human interaction.

I will take the bar exam again July 24-26.  I am feeling confident that I will pass this time for a number of reasons.

1. The pressure to succeed is greatly reduced, because I am employed.  A large part of my trepidation about the exam has been how closely it was linked to my chances of finding work.  Now that I'm employed, the bar exam has less of an impact on my well-being and sense of self-worth.
2. I will not be studying full time.  The fact that I'm working while studying might seem like challenge, but I think it will actually be helpful.  When I had all the time in the world, I wasted hours and hours just worrying.  This summer, I will be too busy to worry.  Having a limited amount of time will cause me to focus on what's crucial.
3. I will be taking a different bar prep course with a visual learning approach.  Barbri has not worked well for me because there is no interactive learning or accountability.  This summer, I will be using the BarPassers tutorial program, which relies on flowcharts, weekly live classes, and a ton of personalized feedback.
4. I came maddeningly close to passing the February exam.  I got my scores in the mail on Saturday, and they made me feel really good.  A passing scaled score on the exam is 1440.  My score was 1417--so close, they had to grade my essays and performance tests twice.  My MBE (multiple choice) raw score, which was the main reason I didn't pass last July, jumped up by 25 questions.  If I had done just a tiny bit better on any section, I would have passed.

The next two months are going to be crazy busy, but worth it.  Although I am still lamenting* not having passed this time around, I'm feeling good about this summer.  I like being busy.  I thrive under the pressure of deadlines.  This is exactly the type of situation I need to get into the zone, that frame of mind where everything happens efficiently and passionately.  This is it.  The time is now, the place is here.  I am ready.

* A word on lamenting.  My discussion group is currently reading Quest for the Living God by Elizabeth A. Johnson.  The most recent chapter that we read discusses the age-old question of why God lets bad things happen.  Johnson presented a number of different theories from different theologians, but one in particular, Metz, stood out to me.  Metz suggests that, rather than explain away the tension between the good of God and the evil of the world by trivializing it or ignoring it, we should embrace the contradiction through remembering and lamenting.  Remembering Christ's death, his solidarity with humanity, stimulates hope for the future.  And, lamenting to God, despite what bad things have happened, also keeps hope alive, while maintaining a certain awe about the mystery of God.  In my current situation, then, lamenting is good because I am in dialogue with God through prayer, even though I know that I am not ready for the explanations that I demand.  Until such a time, I must rely on faith.

Coming Home

This week has been exciting, unexpected, and a bit nostalgic.   On Wednesday, I began a three-month staff lawyer contract position with  HomeBase!  I am extraordinarily fond of HomeBase, as it was the location of my first legal internship.  I interviewed for a position with them back in March (in fact, on the day after the bar exam ended), but they weren't able to hire me at that time.  Then, on Monday, I got an email from my old supervisor asking me if I'd be interested in some contract work.  I said "Absolutely!" and got a call from the executive director on Tuesday night, asking me to come in Wednesday.  So whirlwind!  For now it is a full-time contract position, but there is serious potential for it to turn into a permanent position.

It all happened so quickly, I didn't even have time to let it sink in and become really excited about it.  It's strange, because it doesn't feel like a "new" job; having already worked there for a summer, I mostly just feel nostalgic.  Indeed, reading over my posts from the summer of 2009, I realized that the last time I did Bay to Breakers (which I'm doing next weekend), I was working for HomeBase!  It's all coming full circle.

This changes everything.  I have an income (and can buy stuff).  I have a plausible path to a permanent position, which would enable me to get my own place and reassert my independence.  I can start repaying my student loans.  Most of all, this gives me a huge psychological boost on my bar exam results coming out next week.  Even if I don't pass, knowing I am employed makes me feel a lot better about it.  (And, because HomeBase mostly does policy work, bar admission isn't a requirement to work there.)  My heart is full of joy and thanksgiving.


Sing a new song to the LORD,
for he has done marvelous deeds.
His right hand and holy arm
have won the victory.
The LORD has made his victory known;
has revealed his triumph in the sight of the nations,
He has remembered his mercy and faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.


Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth;
break into song; sing praise.
Sing praise to the LORD with the lyre,
with the lyre and melodious song.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
shout with joy to the King, the LORD.


Let the sea and what fills it resound,
the world and those who dwell there.
Let the rivers clap their hands,
the mountains shout with them for joy,
Before the LORD who comes,
who comes to govern the earth,
To govern the world with justice
and the peoples with fairness.

- Psalm 98