Happy Day! We are here!

Well we are now BOTH official residents of San Francisco! I arrived Saturday early evening after an emotional week and day leaving Chicago. Work was a whirlwind - closed out the year successfully (over 100% my goal), got to spend some great time with friends, packaged it all up and then the snow started! I loved spending 2 weeks with my friend Sarah and Nick and their sweet kids Eli and Ruby. I got to play, read books, cuddle, laugh and spend some wonderful time with Nick and Sarah. I am truly blessed to have them in my life. The only remaining item in Chicago is to rent our apartment! Hopefully that will be resolved shortly as it will be nice to not only have someone taking care of it but also the extra income. So I got on my flight in the middle of a snowstorm and landed in 50 degree weather. Not a bad upswing. Unfortunate timing had Kurt out of town with a friend watching the beloved Blackhawks so I arrived by myself. The apartment was already unpacked for the most part and looked really cute. Much bigger than I expected! We still have lots of work to do since we don't own dressers and need more organizational stuff. It will be a challenge which such a tiny bathroom but we will figure it out! You don't realize how spoiled you are in Chicago! I found out I will be reporting to a woman named Lynne Zaldonis who runs a West Coast territory so I will cover most likely LA. I'm really excited for a new team and have new challenges. I haven't met with any of them yet - hopefully this week. It is typically really slow this week with managers being off site and people taking some time to relax from the past year. My back started acting up before I left Chicago - I blamed stress and had thought (hoped) it would go away which the pain did but the leg numbness did not go away. I went to the ER in Chicago and Madison to get pills/relief and unfortunately it is still there so I spent my first Monday in SF at the UCSF ER. Not my first choice but now have some answers. I do have a herniated disc that according to the DR is very large. It is actually on the same disc that I had operated on just a couple years ago. The disc is pressing on a nerve which is causing the drop foot in my right leg. They are completely tied together so I need the disc to go down to relieve the nerve. There is a small chance that the nerve can feel better on its own but unlikely. So I held off the Dr from doing surgery yesterday (crazy right?) and agreed to do one more course of steroids to see if it will help. I am also going to try acupuncture. If all that fails, I will head into surgery next week. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my first few weeks here but it makes sense to knock it out now work timing and life timing. I want to feel better so I can enjoy everything this city and area has to offer. On other sad news, we just learned of the passing of Kurt's beloved Aunt Maxine. While I never had the pleasure to meet her in person I have enjoyed the many stories of this beloved woman. On a happier note, Kurt and I will be living in the same city at the same time again by Monday! :) We also hopefully will have a bed in the 2nd bedroom soon but the aerobed is always available! Get out of that nasty cold and snow and come visit! One last note! We picked a wedding date! We will be getting married on August 30th at the Edgewater. More info will follow. We love you!! Address: 2960 Polk St #8 San Francisco, CA 94109

Hey you want to go for a walk?

My second big week/end in SF started on Wednesday. Kurt and I met at the airport as he was coming back from Dallas. I worked two days at the office which went well, people talked to me! I went out for lunch with a guy who has the possibility to be my new boss, if all goes well. His name is Dean and he could not be more polar opposite from Bob, my current boss. He is super low key, very process oriented, lower energy and does not believe in bothering his people past 5 pm. Would be totally weird for me but I think would help me grow my procedural skills. Plus it would get me out to SF quicker. Lots of details to work through both from a Salesforce stand point and a condo/moving standpoint. With all to discuss in that regards we headed out to get a glass of wine. There is a really cute wine bar just a block away, stopped in and got some California wines and a little cheese place (please note happy cows still come from WI not CA). Friday night we went out with our good friend Joe to a German restaurant (tally 2 German restaurants in as many visits), it was cute and decent food. And then went to a ridiculous bar that looked like something out of pirates of the carribean but on the outside was just a boring plain building. Saturday we set out in the late morning for a visit to Golden Gate Park which we decided we would walk to and give ourselves a chance to see some other neighborhoods. We walked about 6 miles to the park through Pacific Heights (which we have already been to and liked), a quick farmers market, a trip through Haight Ashbury (my inner hippie was very happy), then picked up some lunch for our picnic. Golden Gate Park is over 1,000 acres, 3 miles by .5 mile, created in the 1800s, very similar to Central Park. Inside there are beautiful gardens, lakes, large trees, sports fields, including equestrian fields and windmills! I think you could spend weeks in there and always see something new. We ended up having a nice little picnic in the rose garden and enjoyed watching SF people in their natural environment (our own personal zoo!). In typical San Francisco style it was both hot and cold and windy and not depending on how many steps forward you took! We walked the entire length of the park, climbing to the top of Strawberry Hill which we will all do when you come to town! So if you are keeping track of the mileage we are at 9 miles. Well we decided to walk down the beach and enjoy the being by an ocean, a really cool space with lots of people out having campfires and picnics (all bundled in their finest winter coats). We wandered through Outer Richmond and checked out an open house - not a good fit for us - I think the kitchen had the same refrigerator (using term loosely) that I had in my college dorm room but the place had a really cute backyard and was a house! Gives us a little hope we won't be living in the smallest apt on the face on the planet. So after our wandering we decided to head home since it was about 4pm. Well we decided to walk back! There were moments of debate about a cab home. My legs hurt (oh I was wearing Tom's not real running shoes). BUT we persevered and walked the entire way home! It really wasn't that bad, I think we felt pretty proud of ourselves and both were really excited to see what the Up Band had to tell us about how far we walked! Up said we walked 40,000 steps and just shy of 20 miles! I told Kurt we should have just gone half way back so we could say we walked a marathon. Needless to say we ordered some food and I was sound asleep by 9. HA. Today we took a cab (re-read how far we walked yesterday) to go to an event called http://offthegridsf.com well we prematurely got out of the cab. We accidentally got out by the America's Cup which meant we had to proceed to walk to and through Crissy Field which is a large beach (not really a sunning beach) that is under the Golden Gate bridge, has beautiful views and filled with lots of exercisers and sports. We ended up having to walk about 3+ miles to get to where the food truck picnic actually was. Probably the last thing either of us wanted to do but we did find a really cool area by the Presidio that is filled with beautiful big trees and a paved trail. You don't feel like you are in the city at all. Very serene. The food truck, farmers market was neat. They had a ton of food and drink vendors. Lots of people came with blankets and coolers and games. We had a couple of items (I had tacos - fish and pork) and Kurt had a Crab BLT. All were good. It was a fun little Sunday event. I could definitely see us getting some friends and spending part of the day in the park hanging out. Tonight we have Kurt's first hockey game with a new team. Then we are both back to the airport tomorrow for flights to Chicago and Newport Beach! Will keep you posted on the move! Love, Kim

Our Day One: Days of Observations

Today (Yesterday really if we are getting technical) was our first day living together in San Fran - I'll try to get Kurt to give us all an update on his first (almost) week. 

First day for me at Salesforce San Fran, which is our headquarters.  I felt a big like it was my first day at school.  I just happened to walk in with someone that works in the same area as I do.  She was pretty nice, she showed me a desk and introduced me to two of her co-workers.  Everyone seemed very nice but it was SO quiet. The Chicago office is loud and filled with energy.  To say it is the antithesis is an understatement.  I could hear a pin drop! And it was pretty empty, not sure if people were on the road or perhaps just don't work Fridays (something I can totally get on board with btw).  I worked Central time zone hours but also PST time as well, which was exhausting especially since my computer was on CST so I kept thinking it was 2 hours later than it really was!  Pretty uneventful day at work, the office is really cool.  Here are the highlights:  More snacks and drink options than mine (I didn't think that was possible), there is a napping room (yes you read that right, must figure this out), there is a vending machine that has electronic accessories such as power cords, headsets, etc, (need to explore this further), the views are incredible, we are on the 35th floor and over look the bay. 

I went to Kurt's office when I was done - it is an awesome space!  So cool, set up to look a bit like a kitchen.  I met a couple of his co-workers and a couple of people that report to him.  All were really nice and welcoming.  Seems like he is a good fit and popular already!  

We then walked home, a few more observations:  People in SF are sort of rude walkers, they bump into you a lot and don't seem to honor the natural flow of a sidewalk (aka walk on the right), Chinatown is bustling all the time, there are a lot of hills here and I need to get used to my shins and calves hurting all the time.  It took us about 20-30 minutes to commute.  I would like to try the trolley but just heard it is $6!   

We went out in the neighborhood, had a quick drink at the local watering hole then went out for a German dinner, really cute place with surprisingly great food (I don't always love German food- although I did suggest we go there).  It was packed and lively, complete with a TON of people drinking out of boots!  Pretty funny, there was a couple sitting a two tables over who had his and her boots!  She seemed to be fairing pretty well after finishing, he seemed a little worse.  Then we went to a sports bar Kurt's co-worker recommended where we sat next to a new friend who is from Boston (in fact very close to Todd and Marissa!).  Small world.  The bartender is also from Boston, just can't escape!  We talked about the Hawks/Bruins series and they welcomed us to watch the game with them, we'll see, we have fancy dinner reservations tonight (Tomorrow if I am keeping the proper time representation).  Can we really watch the game with the "enemy"?

Was a fun night.  

Today (Tomorrow) we are headed out for a hike across the bay then some lunch on the other side.  Probably a little wandering around and seeing what we can find.  Tonight we are celebrating six years together, Kurt made reservations at a french restaurant near our house.  So we will watch the Hawks game (romance at its finest) then go to dinner.  Can't believe it's been six years, where did the time go?!  We are lucky to have each other (and all of you).

Well that's it for now!  More observations to come!

XO
Kim

The Adventure Begins - The First Good-Bye

And so it begins...

Kurt leaves for San Francisco tomorrow.  Tonight is filled with packing, planning, thinking, discussing and quite honestly worrying and keeping tears held in.
We know this will be a great adventure for us so we are very excited but the fact that we both won't live there for the next 6 months is tough.
Last night we had some friends over to say good-bye and watch the Blackhawks game (they sadly lost- hopefully not an omen).  It was a nice night out so got some good hanging on the porch in as well.
Today we took Kurt's bike to get packed up as we are shipping it out to SF to a local bike shop.  A new burger place - Paramount Room (review perhaps to come - poor Pickles and Grease blog).  Delicious and I had fried green beans on the side! Amazing.  And enjoying some down time on the couch watching the Masters (a Kurt and his dad tradition).

Tomorrow Kurt will leave late morning, our friend Joe is picking him up at the airport so there will be a friendly face to greet him and take him to our new apt.  So far he has 3 bags packed with me probably bringing at least one more on Thursday.  He found a hockey team so it looks like I am bringing out the big hockey bag - as long as I don't have to smell it - I'm fine lugging it.

The Apartment:
The apartment is fully furnished so we don't need to bring anything but ourselves.  The apartment is in a really cute part of town called Russian Hill, we are down the street from an area that has lots of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, gyms, shops, etc.  There is a tennis court across the street so I plan on getting back into the swing of it (pun intended).  We are both about 20 minutes from work.  We can take a trolley to work (can we get anymore San Francisco)?  We are also close enough to walk - not sure about the hills between the two locations so that will determine if I will be walking much, I mean have you seen those hills?  Brutal.   Amenities: We have a really cool roof deck that you can see pretty far (as long as there is not any fog), it is shared with our other 5 neighbors but it's fairly big.  The apartment has a washer/dryer which we discovered is a bit of a rarity, a brand new kitchen that is a decent size and acceptable to the cook in the family.  The apartment really looks like the quintessential SF apartment - bay windows and a fire escape at the top of a hill (small one).

Future Plans:
We are planning on each traveling to the other city at least once a month.  I can work out of the San Francisco office as need be.  Kurt can be remote so he can come back and work as well. We will plan on officially moving in January.  That will give us enough time to figure out what neighborhood we like and get accustom to it all.  We will rent out our place here in Chicago - more on that as we closer as we will need some renters and people to help manage!  I will start work February 1 at Salesforce in San Francisco.  Not sure yet what team I will be on, where I will be covering and all those details but will have a job so that's a good thing, especially considering the rental cost there!

We are in the process of getting bids for the full move - Open Table is paying for it so that is really nice.

We only have a one bedroom right now but we would love to see all of you.  There is a standing invitation.

We are going to attempt to keep the blog up-to-date so you guys can know what is going on and we can have a permanent record of our adventure!
I will also take some pictures of the condo this weekend and post them on here so you can see where we live.

I'm really excited to get out there this weekend and start exploring.  We are also celebrating our 6 year anniversary.  A fun way to kick off our 7th year being together.

XOXO,
Kim