So I’ve been out here in the Bay Area for about 3 weeks now, which is way too long to go without an update when you’re moving across the country and starting a new job and all. Here’s kinda sorta what’s been going on with my life in general:
- LinkedIn now identifies me as “Laura Nicholson, Design Engineer at Inventor Labs.” I couldn’t have dreamed up a more awesome job title if I tried. How awesome does that sound? In reality it’s almost as awesome as the name implies…it’s been a little slow getting started but basically my job is to come up with cool ideas and try to make them work, which is great because we all know how I feel about rules and boundaries. My coworkers (all 2 of them) are also pretty awesome, and an intern about my age is starting next week, so that will be even more fun.
- I moved in with Sarah and already made all of the requisite trips to Target and Ikea, so now I have my very own futon and one bookcase with all of my stuff on it. I left pretty much everything in NJ. I am sad to be parted from all of my wonderful books, but…
- Last week I finally got a library card! Odds are maybe 50-50 that I’ll only be around for the summer, but three months without access to a library was an unbearable thought. The two and a half weeks between moving out here and getting a piece of mail to prove “residency” were bad enough. Also, two branches of the county library system are directly on my route to and from work, so there’s a decent chance I’ll be spending more time in libraries than is even usual for me. Yikes.
- The fact that I only have a definite job for 3 months and am still sleeping on a futon demonstrate that I don’t really have a real job yet, but I did apply for cheap health insurance so maybe I’m like 1/4 of the way to being an adult. But I also have a feel that whatever happens, it’s going to be a long time, possibly never, before I settle down enough to have real furniture and a stready job in one place and all. I’m ok with that.
Here are less important, but amusing things about my last 3 weeks:
- You can buy bus tokens for a discount at the customer service desk of the local grocery chain, and today when I asked the clerk for some, he looked at me with a slightly quizzical look and asked, “Youth or adult?” Seriously? I am getting a tattoo or something, because I am seriously sick of this shit. It wasn’t cool when the saleswoman tried to sell me a dress for my “8th grade dance” when I was a senior in high school, and it’s not cool now. And no, it will not be cool when I’m 40 and people think I’m 35, because I’m the kind of person who goes around proudly flaunting the things women are trained to be ashamed of. (I weight 160 pounds, thank you very much.)
- I went for a run today along the “Bay Trail,” where the bay bleeds into something like a small wetland area. It’s not nearly as beautiful as running through the wetlands on the Henry Hudson Trail (in yes, NEW JERSEY), but the air smells like saltwater, which is acceptable as a small comforting reminder of home.
- Sarah just bought a new desktop computer, which got me thinking about replacing my laptop. Mine is about 4 years old, and it generally works alright, but hasn’t been cooperating so much lately. I was forced to wipe the entire hard drive a few months ago, and now it’s freezing somewhat regularly again. (I may just need to get some compressed air and clean out the fan; it’s been overheating a bit lately and apparently I have the laptop with the hardest fan removal process…the fan is basically the least accessible part of the whole assembly. You have to take out the keyboard, hinge, screen, and motherboard to get to the fan. Gah, poor design!) But it got me thinking about computers, and since I am constantly self-conscious about my lack of geekiness (I mean hey, if you’re going to be a geek, there’s no point in doing it halfway and being shunned from both sides of society), I have decided to build my own computer. The point isn’t going to be so much to get a new awesome computer out of the deal but to learn about all the parts, so I might just make a really cheap/basic one and run Linux on it or possibly refurbish and old one I find on ebay or something. In any case, this is a new adventure I am looking forward to.
- At the end of the day on Friday, one of my honorary coworkers (there are 3 of us in the office all the time, and another 2 who may jump in if the company ever gets off the ground) asked me about my plans for the weekend. Sarah and I had tentative plans to go to a festival being held down the street from us, but upon further questioning my coworker seemed appalled that I wasn’t out partying every weekend, exploring San Francisco and the beaches and the mountains and the whole deal. As he left the office, he admonished me, “Don’t be a nerd this weekend!” This comment was made extra depressing by the fact that I had just used my shiny new library card to check out a book about building your own computer from the library, and was really looking forward to two fulls days of free time to read it.
- I might be like 13 years behind the times here, but I recently discovered the awesomeness that is Buffy. Thank God for Netflix instant streaming!