InterfaceThis

Job: check. Apartment: check. Internet: check. TV…working on it. Megan: visiting Friday. Things could be worse. The sun is shining and I’m writing from my cushy seat on the Yahoo! commuter shuttle bus.

Despite the rumors, hunting for an apartment in San Francisco isn’t really that different from hunting for an apartment elsewhere, with a few twists. It’s handy to have a copy of your credit report on hand, and applications are universally non-binding so it’s often in your interests to fill one out if you have even a vague interest – particularly if your time is tight.

I spent my first two days (January 31 and Feb 1) climbing up and down the hills, visiting apartments from Craigslist and calling numbers on For Rent signs. The third day my legs hurt. There is perhaps no more efficient way to see a city than to hunt for apartments in it on a schedule…but it’s not necessarily the most enjoyable form of tourism.

By Saturday afternoon, I was nearly assured of an apartment. Due to various procedural hurdles I didn’t actually move in until late in my second week (last Thursday), but I’m more or less settled now. Here’s the inside of my apartment:

As you can see, I’ve actually put clothes away and stuff. Here’s the view out the window:

And, if you lean out a bit:

Here’s the street in front of my building:

And now the best part. Behind my building is a 24-hour Safeway (which is nice in and of itself). Behind the Safeway is this:

‘Course there’s also this:

In the midst of all this I picked up my muddy, muddy car and gave it a bath. There is something surreal about flying across the country to have your car waiting for you…a strange mix of the familiar and unfamiliar.

Over the weekend my Mom was in town:

And then it was time to start work:

(Yahoo!, not Lockheed Martin.)

The job’s great so far, but I’ll save details for another post. In the meantime, you can take a look at the product I’m working on (Yahoo! Messenger for Vista); but bear in mind that nothing you see is my work just yet. Stay tuned for that…

And just for Lapidus:

Posted Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 11:25 pm under General. (RSS)