Past Introductions - First Work Week

It's Friday evening and the three of us are parked on the couch in front of the tube.  Zane and I are each enjoying a glass of wine and I'm getting ready to plan out our weekend.  None of us quite have the energy for much else after a busy first work / school week.

Today, I spent the afternoon working from home.  At lunch, I was successful in enrolling Anna in SFUSD.  They have a lottery process for school assignment so we find out in March which school Anna will begin her elementary tenure.

At this point, we're past SF introductions.  I hit the ground running hard on Monday with a crazy work week.  Increased responsibility is not without its stress and anxiety.  I've resigned myself to the constant fight for balance and perspective when it comes to managing my professional life.  As I've said in previous posts, I tend to operate in extremes - on the one hand, I take some perverse passion in working ridiculously hard but feel intense guilt when I'm not as available at home.  This week - as early as it is in the year - was an exercise in fighting for this balance.  I'm chalking up the tough work week to the fact that it's the first one of the year...too much to catch up on.

In other news, we're thrilled with our dramatic change in a more active and community oriented lifestyle.    Two mornings this week, the Z & I both walked Anna to school.  On the other days, we took turns dropping her off and while I walked the remainder of the way to work, Zane has battled the roads on his mountain bike.  He has finally begun to appreciate the real edge on speed I've had on my road bike and indeed, is wishing he had one now.  That said, neither bike will give you an edge on all these damn hills...holy geez are we all building up our quads and hamstrings!

Overall, my initial impressions of this city is that it is much more relaxed than I had anticipated.  People dress very casually - even in the financial district - and the overall 'energy' and pace is quite manageable. After a few short days (realizing this impression can change quickly), the city actually feels quite small and community-like.  I've been spared from bougie douche bags to date and I'm sure the demographic of Anna's school is helping this impression.

We're still settling in at home.  We still need a few key items of furniture but despite this, we're really comfortable.  You really can't beat our location and I can't emphasize enough how much I'm loving our new walking lifestyle.  I feel more human and less.........rock!

So far, we love you, San Francisco!

The following pictures are from last weekend.  We had a delightful surprise visit from our dear Michigan friends Mina, Ramil and Ry-Ry and we toured a good chunk of the north west section of SF (namely parts of North Beach, Fisherman's Wharf and Fort Mason).  It was a relaxing way to hype us up about our first week of work / school! Click the following link to view the album / picture version :)

First Week in SF