The past week has been exhausting, but really exciting. On the 31st of May I closed on the sale of my house as expected. That was a huge relief. On the 1st my best friend Jeremy helped me load the 16′ moving truck I rented, and the morning of the 2nd my Dad and I, along with Maddie, set of for the west coast. The drive was long, but a great trip. We did it in 3 days, stopping in Grand Island, Nebraska and Salt Lake City, Utah. The 3rd night (Monday) we drove to San Francisco and stayed at a hotel for the final night. Tuesday morning we drove into the city where I met the building manager to get the keys.

As we started to unpack it became clear that the truck I rented was about 4′ too long; after emptying it into the apartment there was barely any room left to walk.

Wednesday evening my Mom flew in from Indiana, and we spent the rest of the week working on the apartment. A trip to IKEA, two trips to the Container Store and several trips across the street to the thrift store (carrying things I didn’t have room for), and the apartment is finally feeling like a home.

It is a little surreal; for the past three years I frequently thought about moving to the city, but mostly as an escapist fantasy. Now here I am, actually _here_. After a week off (and two previous weeks really preoccupied with the move) I go back to work tomorrow. I’m really excited about being in the office on a daily basis and what the next year will hold.

This change in position at work has led to the second big change in my life, one that was given away by a commenter “back in April”:http://yergler.net/blog/2007/04/05/1132-westover/. Next month, I’m moving to San Francisco. I’ve actually been working from the office in SF this week, getting up to speed on things. I was intending to look at neighborhoods so I’d know where to look when it finally came time to move out here. I assumed that the sale of the house would be a lingering, drawn-out process, and that in July or August I’d finally convince someone to take the house — “please!” — and be able to move. It’s been a bit faster than that.

The house went into MLS(Multiple Listing Service) on Monday, April 30. On Tuesday we had two showings, and by Tuesday night I had an offer. Wednesday I countered, and by the end of the day my counter offer had been accepted. So yeah, the house sold in under a week[2]. The buyers have already sold their home, and are closing May 24, so our agreement calls for us to close by May 31, with possession 7 days later.

So this week I’ve been actually looking for an apartment for “Madeline”:http://flickr.com/photos/nathan_y/tags/madeline/ and myself. Finding an apartment in my price range that will take a dog has been a bit of a challenge, but this afternoon I’m signing a lease for a one bedroom near “Duboce and Church”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=duboce+and+church,+san+francisco,+ca&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=65.263254,113.554688&ie=UTF8&ll=37.770308,-122.42913&spn=0.008125,0.013862&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1. I like the location a lot, as it seems pretty close to lots of things (including a park for Maddie) which is important since I’m selling my car before I leave. So yeah, barring something unforeseen, I’ll be living in San Francisco in less than a month. Wow.

fn1. Sure, there were things about being a Software Engineer (my original CC title) or a Technical Support Specialist (my official title at “Canterbury School”:http://canterburyschool.org) that were new to me, but generally, I knew what to do.

fn2. Barring some horrible, intractable issue coming up at inspection next week.