Moving

People keep asking for an update. Before when I was super busy with work and life I felt I had a reason to slack. But now that I just quit my job, I guess I don't anymore. So here goes.

The big update is that we are finally getting our act together and moving to New York. We've been saying we're going move for about 6 months now and haven't made any progress, and apparently a few of our friends are even making bets on our timing (I think Maryam already won some money betting against our former claims we were moving in March).

But I quit my job two weeks ago so that was the first real tangible step. The next step is finding a place in NYC. We're thinking of trying to do a house swap for the first three months so we can get a sense of the city before committing, and we wouldn't have to deal with either renting out or selling our house in San Francisco. Plus Sep wants to come back in the Spring to teach a semester at Stanford so it will be nice to have our house back for that.

We're actually in New Jersey right now but we're not looking for places, we're going to Sep's 10-year college reunion at Princeton. Then, over the next few weeks, we have like 5 weddings and my parents and Aunt Lisa coming to visit for a week. We'll start really looking for a place in July/August.

So I thought I was going to be excited to be unemployed for a couple months before moving and finding a job in New York, but it actually makes me very uncomfortable! I don't like uncertainty and I really don't like not being super busy. I also didn't realize how much of my identity is wrapped up in my work and my career path. I think when I take breaks from work from now on, I need to be traveling so that it just feels like a temporary vacation instead of feeling like such a lofty transition. If I look at it objectively though, I know I'm super lucky to have this time off and I'm using it to do the things that make me really happy. Like spending more time with Sep, my family and friends, and also doing things like being in nature, getting more exercise, doing pottery, cooking, and reading a ton. So that has been really nice. I'm also looking into taking some computer science classes to get a little more technical and maybe also taking a Farsi class.

Anyhow, that's my update. I'm going to try to keep this a little more updated although I think I do a lot less political ranting than I used to. I do want to write some about my experiences cooking up an invasive species that we took out of Golden Gate park last weekend, walking Bay to Breakers, Maryam's wedding, and Emily's new baby, so those will be fun.

Also, if you're curious about the picture. That's me sitting here right now. Unemployed. In New Jersey. Sep is in the background. It's a crappy picture taken by my webcam, but I just think blog posts look better with pictures.