MOVING SUX

I need to move again. At first I was not too happy about this because I thought that we would need to immediately find a house like we first planned. LUCKILY Nickolas tells me last night that he would rather have us get another apartment in the area and wait till we can afford a home. What a frickin' relief, BUT it hasn't been as easy as I thought to find a place.
This will be the 10th place I've lived since I've moved to the bay area. WTF??? Let's start from the beginning:
Potrero Hill, San Francisco: 3 Months-August '02-October '02
After graduating from college I made sure I had some fun before I went out to the real world. I backpacked through Europe for a month and then shortly thereafter I went to Hawaii for a wedding for 10 days. I moved into my parents' house in Yuba City and about three weeks later my mom was already kicking me out. "Go get a job! You're living with your sister in the city." So I packed a huge suitcase and set out to SF. Living with my sister was actually pretty fun. It was her ex husband who was the pain to live with. He was 11 years older than me and would accuse me of not cleaning up after myself, but it was actually HIM that was a slob. I was like "I need to get out of here." Luckily my college girlfriends were looking for a place to live so I jumped on that train.
Western Addition, San Francisco: 1 1/2 years-November '02-May '04
At first there were three of us, Stephanie and Renee. Stephanie was my good friend in college and Renee was this chick I met while interning @ Levi. The day I first met her she was a total wreck. She had just found out her live in boyfriend was cheating on her and she needed to move out. VOILA! Insta-roomate. The three of us found this three bedroom place. Two of the rooms were created from a huge living room (split in the middle with this ghetto wall) and the third room was the only room in the house with a closet. Stephanie moved into one of the living rooms, Renee moved into the room with the closet and I moved into the office. We saved the second half of the living room for our potential new roomate (we ended up getting this chick that Steph worked with who was cray-cray and then our dear friend Shelly moved in from college). My room consisted of four walls, a door, and a window. I had a garment rack as my closet and my double bed took up the whole room. I lived like this for 1 1/2 years. I paid $510/month on a $1700/month salary so I wasn't complaining too much. How did I survive making $25,000/year???
Laurel Heights, San Francisco: 1 year-June '04-June '05
It was time to move on and mature so I moved in with one of my closest friends from home Matthew Miller. This year was awesome. I met a lot of new friends, including Maria, Jenn, and Caity. My partner in crime for the first half of that year was Jennie Lieu. I had met her in college through Amber. Matt was the best roomate. Surprisingly, we didn't see much of each other because I was on a different time schedule, working odd hours at my Visual Merchandising job and him @ Wells Fargo. Our home was beautiful and clean and in a cute neighborhood. Drama free this year.
Lower Pacific Heights, San Francisco: 2 Months-July '05-August '05
After a year of living in LH, Matt and I were approached with a huge some of money to basically move out. Our apartment complex was turning into individual condos. We both weren't about to throw down a shit load of money for our place so we took the money and ran. I therefore moved in with my coworker at the time, Shayla Miller. My life living there was cut short because of my stupidity and not because of Shayla. I loved living with her, especially in the most random house you would probably ever lay eyes on. It was a rundown victorian with carpet (that I did the centipede on while drunk, don't you worry) and a winding staircase...and I think it only had one bathroom upstairs for three people.
Laurel Heights, San Francisco: 10 Months-September '05-June '06
I was young and stupid and needed some more guidance in my life. I moved in with my boyfriend after a month. I didn't know him that well and majority of the time I was depressed. To make this short, I moved out after 10 months. Yay me!
Japantown, San Francisco: 1 Year-July '06-July '07
After the break up it took me about 3 hours to find another place to live. Luckily, my friend Albert had an extra room in his place that he owned. I moved in with two boys, Albert and Justin. Now I said that I had an amazing year in Laurel Heights w/ Matt, BUT I have to tell you, I think this year topped it. I was late bloomer...didn't drink in high school, hardly in college, so when I entered my Japantown home I turned into a professional drinker. I went out a lot, met a lot of new people, and spent majority of my time on Amber's couch. Good times all around, except my liver and lungs hated me.
Marina, San Francisco: Almost 2 years-July '07-April '09
Sooooo...yes, I moved to the Marina. I moved to Beach and Fillmore and I have to say it was NOT that bad. I had to do it. I had two groups of friends and both lived in that area. It made it very convenient since I was single and this was the first time living alone. Having a whole apartment to myself was incredible. Eating, dancing, and watching tv in the nude in my studio that backed up in a corner of an apartment complex was the best time for me. Plus, if you know me well, I'm pretty lazy when it comes to staying at home and eating and watching tv. It was like my own little cave that I didn't have to leave for anything except for work and maybe a quick stroll down to the Safeway.
SOMA, San Francisco: 1 Year-April '09-April '10
This is the year of a lot of new beginnings for me. About a year before I moved into this apartment I met Nickolas. We lived in the studio apartment for 6 months till we realized we wanted a bigger place. We thought "If we can live in a studio for that long and not kill each other than we are golden." It was a one bedroom with an open patio in a brand new building. It was nice, but super expensive. It became even more expensive when they decided to mark the streets next to us as "two hours zones from 7 am to 10 pm", forcing us to get a parking spot in the garage. URGH. Oh and of course the city hadn't zoned off the area yet and/or given us permits to park on the street. To make things even more costly, we got a puppy. We both love Huckleberry to DEATH, but having carpet, living on the third floor, and not having a private patio was HELL. He basically fucked up our carpet by peeing/pooing on it and we were not able to let him out on our patio because we would fear he's just jump the wall. Anywho, it gave me anxiety all the time so it was time to move.
Redwood Shores, Redwood City: April '10-Present
So here we are now...living in the RWC. We chose to move out here because Nickolas works out here and it would be best for the puppy. We live in a two bedroom, two bath w/ a private patio that is $600 cheaper than our one bedroom. The place wasn't our first choice, but we didn't have an option since we started looking way too late. Thinking that we would want a house soon, we signed a 5 month lease.

This takes us to our situation now. Our 5 month lease is up in September and we have to go look for something else or we end up paying over $600 more a month. Is there anyone out there that would want to give us about $500,000 to help us with buying a home and never EVER have to m over EVER again??? OR, does anyone have a home that has two bedrooms, hardwood floors, a private backyard, washer and dryer, and that is puppy friendly for under $2100??? DAMN IT!!!

MUSIQ WHORE

As some of you know I'm obsessed with music. My favorite thing to do is listen to new sounds. If you are into music just as much as me, I would love to be your best friend so I can steal all of your tunes. I go through phases. Some of you Muusies (just made that up, it comes from the word Foodie) will probably think I'm not a legit music fan when I tell you that the song of choice right now is "I love the way you lie" by Eminem and Rihanna. The song starts out with Rihanna singing alone...very melodic, very smooth. Then the beats drop in and Eminem starts to rap. That part makes me feel motivated, which is a good thing that this song is popular because radio stations play it about 50 times on my commute to work.
That is not the only song that I am choosing to listen to right now though. I've been playing "How to Destroy Angels", a mix tape by Trent Reznor on repeat on my way back home every afternoon. This is not for someone who is suicidal and who wants to drive their car off the freeway. You have to be SEMI stable to listen to it. BUT, it is a good tape to put on when you are feeling kinda moody and dark.
What I like to do when I hear a full album that I enjoy is create scenerios in my head. This is why I love to drive in my car alone on long trips. I sit and stare at the road and put on an album and create dance routines, music videos, or a short film. Lately it's been music videos.
How does one create a mix tape? What are your motivations? When I made Nickolas a mix tape I didn't just think of what songs I would THINK he would enjoy, I picked the songs that I could see him in a music video or a short film. Do I sound crazy? Perhaps, but take for example the song You! Me! Dancing! by Los Campesinos. Every inch of that song is Nickolas and me together. The beginning has us sitting in a cafe, drinking wine and smoking a cigarette...the music starts to get louder and happier and we both stand up, knock the cafe table over and run towards the door with us holding hands. We run into the street then we run into a field of daisies. We finally make it to the beach and splash each other...still holding hands.
If you were to be given a mix tape wouldn't you rather be given that description than just saying "I thought you'd like this song"?
I can go on and on about music, but I'm going to st0p right now and leave some for later. Being a music whore can get tiring ;).

I am not a Sheep, I'm a Monkey

So I thought that I could have gone the rest of my life without letting everyone know that my zodiac sign is a Sheep. If you know me well you will know that this is something that I am not too happy about.
I've always been a Monkey. I've identify more with being a Monkey. I AM A MONKEY. My Grandma is also a Monkey and that is what we have in common. My best friends are Monkeys so I have to be one too.
Finding out for the first time I was not a Monkey left me with a lot of emotions. The first few moments I was in denial, then shocked, then sad, then fucking PISSED, then in denial again. I called my mom after I had put in my birthdate on horoscope.com and found out that I was a Sheep and not a Monkey. The Chinese New Year starts in February and my birthday is in January, therefore not EVERYONE born in 1980 is a Monkey. Do you know how horrible it feels to not be able to be what you have always identified with? It's traumatizing. I've collected everything that had to do with Monkeys since I was little. I've even been told I look like a Monkey. There are nicknames; Monkey Face, Curious George, just plain MONKEY.
You are now starting to think I'm a crazy person. Or you are thinking "Who the fuck cares?". Or you probably just don't give two shits about this blog, but it's starting to make me angry.
Since I've started this blog, I have now been outed. It says in black bold letters across the top of my blog "Zodiac: Sheep".
I'm not going to make this upset me even more. I think I should pretend this never happened. Then again it's too late huh? I'm already blogging about it.
I don't know if I like this blogging thing. I'll take it for a spin. And I'm not a Sheep.