Laura and I moved to San Francisco on May 30th. That was just over 5 months ago. There are things we’ve accomplished that are pretty amazing considering it’s been a short time. There are other things that I feel aren’t coming soon enough. I wanted to write a quick post that outlines the status of our time so far in SF.
First of all, the job is going very well. I’m working more than I ever have before but that’s how it is in the highly competitive city lifestyle. Everything here is a competition and you must always be one step ahead. Laura is also doing extremely well considering her background is print graphic design. Finding a print design job in a city where every startup is web based has been a challenge. She has began branching out to webdesign and I’m very proud of her.
Things we’ve accomplished:
- Meeting 5 people we consider “friends” I have thousands of Internet friends who I see at parties around town or talk to via phone or the web but we have 5 true friends who we can depend on here in SF. You all know who you are. Our favorite person who doesn’t even live in SF is Liana. She’s our best friend and we’re lucky to have her. It makes our time in SF so much more enjoyable.
- Learn the transportation. I know the routes of at least 20 bus lines and can get home from nearly anywhere without needing to consult Google Transit
- Do things outside of tech events. We’re doing more activities like visiting parks, attending birthday and housewarming parties, going ice skating and karaoke that have nothing to do with tech. It’s the little things outside of business card swapping that make our time here more enjoyable.
- We’ve signed up for CityCarShare so we can pickup a vehicle to haul things, get groceries or get out of town at any time (with a 15 minute warning). I can get a car at 3AM for groceries or rent a car by the day. We’ve used it quite a bit actually and it makes venturing outside of the city a lot more fun.
- Taking on more projects. This sounds like a bad thing but both of us have secret projects that will progress our careers. I love this and so does Laura. We’re always working on something and it’s empowering to have something you’re passionate about waiting for you when you get off work. I’ve never been commit with punching a time card and working on a personal project all weekend is a lot of fun.
Things we still haven’t done:
- Go to the gym 3 times a week. I’m not as healthy as when I moved here. I’ve just bought a bike so that will be an improvement and this month I’m not buying a muni pass to force myself to use the bike.
- Stop eating out so much. I don’t mind going out with friends but sometimes Laura and I go out just because we’re lazy. We’re eating at home about 4 nights a week now. I want to make that 6 nights a week.
- Buy a motorcycle. I’d like to have a touring motorcycle that seats two people. I wouldn’t use it daily or weekly. It would sit in my apartment and in the event of a natural disaster, we could have a vehicle gassed up and ready to get out of town. I believe in having transportation for this even if it’s a bike that was only about $2500 and wasn’t very powerful.
- Make more money. That’s a dumb goal right? Well, 50% of the things I do every day don’t make any money. Sad isn’t it? Well they are things that might one day become profitable but for now they’re just pet projects for myself or friends. I’d love to make money doing them because right now, the city’s cost of living is really making it hard on us.
- Post a blog entry every day. I get home, work on my own things, watch a single television program with laura and it’s already 2AM. I’d like to start blogging but I’m deciding when to find time. My current schedule is as follows:
- Wake up at 8AM
- Immediately begin answering emails and catching up with the east coast
- Spend no more than 15 minutes eating and getting ready
- In the office by 10AM
- Take a late lunch around 1:30PM
- Work until 6PM
- Attend tech parties between 3PM-10PM depending on how many there are
- Get home, eat and work on my projects until I realize it’s already midnight
- Watch some TV via Hulu or iTunes with Laura Wiggins
- Sleep at 1-2AM
- Market myself. I’ve launched http://adamjacksonlive.com and have started doing more speaking engagements to help promote myself and my social media marketing. I’d say that it is the right path.
- Drink more water. Right now I drink 4 glasses a day. I was doing 12 a day in Florida. I’ve stopped drinking beer the past 60 days but I just need to drink more water.
Other than that, we’re doing well. Our apartment is too small, the neighborhood is crummy but we’re happy and love each other and our hard work will equal success one day. I truly believe that to be the truth.
So in order to eat ramen today I had to stop at Safeway and buy some tupperware bowls (and a banana cause I’m really hungry).
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