The last part of my trip went perfect.  After sleeping in the shadiest motel I could find i spent most of the day crossing Arizona.  It was even more desselit than New Mexico where you could go 100 miles without an exit.  Setting the cruise control at 95+ is a pretty nice feeling and the speed put me in to southern California way earlier than I expected.  By 3pm I was already in Bakersfield where I was planning to stop for the night.  After looking at the map I thought I could push it and get in to San Francisco by 10pm so I kept going.  I was pretty much a wreck after getting in but was conscious enough to park the car, inflate an air mattress and pass the f out in my empty apartment.  Coming in a day early helped me get some work stuff tied up before going in to the new office on Friday which was nice also.  I don’t have much more than an air mattress and some tuperware that I’m using as dishes, it’s going to be like Christmas when my stuff gets here.  Friday night some guys from work took me out for an Ivy League mixer in which I pretended to go to Penn (the closet Ivy league school to the Big 10 I figured).  Afterwards we went to the Mission district where we hung out at an outdoor beer garden (in January!) at a biker bar – about the polar opposit of being up on Nob Hill with the Ivy Leaguers.  I also got to grab tapas with my friend Leah on Saturday and lunch with Wipert today (Sunday).  I’m settling in well and still have a bunch of painting to do since I only got the bathroom done today so I’ll be saving that for next weekend.  It’s kinda liberating not having a TV and I hope to get internet this week since I’m sick of the Starbucks next door.  I can’t even begin to explain how nice the weather is too – 65 and sunny every single day and the forecast stays that way almost permanently.

Well I’m 2 days in to my drive out to California and it’s been an eventful trip so far.  At least as eventful as sitting in a car by yourself for 10-hours a day can be.  I left Monday morning about 8:30am after staying up way too late trying to pack last minute things.  It wasn’t that bad even with some lack of sleep since I was still all pumped up from the weekend.  What an incredible group of people I’m leaving behind (geographically at least).  I made it out of Minnesota and through both Iowa and Kansas to arrive in Oklahoma where it was starting to sleet pretty bad.  I finally called it quits at about 9pm and checked in to a Holiday Inn Express (yes I feel smarter today).  This morning I woke up to find my car completely encased in about an inch of ice.  They also did a terrible job of plowing in Oklahoma by just laying down a bunch of salt and letting the slush accumulate.  So it took me awhile to get out of the state but I eventually made it in to west Texas and listened to only Explosions in the Sky while there.  When you get bored on a long trip you do stupid things like that.  Texas was a frozen wasteland still but once I started getting in to New Mexico things warmed up in to the 40′s and I finally got to see sunshine for the first time all trip.  I listened to a bunch of TED talks and did conference calls all day so I feel particularly accomplished when you throw driving another 800 miles on top of all that.  Tonight I’m in Gallup, NM and checked in to the cheapest motel I have ever stayed at, $23.  The walls are all painted cinder blocks and I had to turn the heater off since it smelled like burning but it is a place to crash and I figured it is an experience I should have on this trip.  If all goes well I should make it in to southern California tomorrow.

I spent the last week in San Francisco looking at apartments flying in and out of Chicago from Christmas day to New Years Eve.  My parents also came along since my Mom just put the finishing touches on her book and neither of them had taken vacation this year yet.  So we turned the apartment hunt in to a family vacation as well.  It was pretty exhausting since we stayed near the top of Nob Hill and looked at a bunch of apartments each day we were out there.  I also worked the 2 weekdays we were open at Symantec down in Mountain View so I got to try the mass commute again.  After all the searching I did find a place and it’s in SOMA instead of Nob Hill which will be closer to the train and save me from having to go up a massive hill every day.  It’s a newer building built in 2006 and only  a few blocks from Whole Foods so it should be a less abrupt transition than going from my condo to a 100-year old apartment on top of Nob Hill.  It has a gym inside so I don’t have to go out for that and I even negotiated parking in so I’ll still be able to keep my car.  I’ve also heard Nob Hill referred to as “snob hill” so at least I don’t have to deal with that reputation.  I get enough crap being from Brookfield when I run in to someone from Wisconsin.  I’m back in Minneapolis now just tieing up loose ends.  Need to get the condo sold or rented, pack, and finish the last few lectures in the MBA program.  The move is definitely pending so much over me that I’m thinking about it constantly but in a good way.  I can’t wait to be out there and the going away party is shaping up to be a blast.

I’ve rode the Megabus twice from Minneapolis to Milwaukee and both times were awful. The bus was over an hour late the first time (while waiting in below 0 temp) and the second time they left 30 people on the side of the road since it was already full. They did send an overflow bus after we all put our bags in front of the bus to prevent it from leaving without us. The bus driver told us it was already in Milwaukee and would be there in 5 minutes so we let the bus go. After calling dispatch though we learned the bus would take 3 hours and would be coming from Chicago. BE WARY. It’s not bad if you can actually get on but you pay for what you get.