My little girl is growing up

Tonight, my 6 month old Boxer puppy has her first puppy class graduation.  I am kind of sad about it, because it's just another sign that she's not the super tiny snuggly ball of fur that she was back in December when we first laid eyes on her.  I love her to pieces and I want her to stay an adorable little puppy forever.  Alas, she finished 8 weeks of puppy class at Hidden Valley Obedience Center and is ready to move on to her next class.

There will be pictures taken.  But for now, here's some shots I took of her over the weekend.

Where Should We Live?

I'm trying hard to fall in love with San Francisco.  This is the place where my career would flourish.  The culture fits me well.  There are beautiful green pastures that my horse would love.  Napa Valley's amazing wine country is close by.  Back in the day, I would have loved to live here.

The problem is, I'm in love with San Diego.  I love the Mexican influence, I love the warmth, the beautiful sun, the cleanliness of the city, the restaurants, the place my horse lives and the people I ride with, the fact that my boyfriend and I could realistically buy a house in the next couple of years, the ease of driving around, just about everything.  In fact, I can't think of anything that I don't like about San Diego.

However, it's a barren wasteland for the game industry.  There are only a couple companies, and none of them are social games.  The one social games company down here is the one that I left last summer and I have no intention of going back.  The job I have is remote, and they want to move me to San Francisco.  I could basically have my pick of social game companies and the sky would be the limit as far as potentially moving up in the industry.

Also, I don't really have many friends in San Diego.  My best friend Caitlin (who also lives with me) is of course a huge reason to stay...but everyone else I know has already moved up to SF.  Luke and I don't really hang out with many people because we don't know anyone and we're not good at making friends.

We could try Los Angeles, but it's basically San Diego except dirtier, more crowded, and more expensive.  I don't know what the point of that would be other than giving us a change of scenery.

Sigh.  We're feeling like something has to change.  I don't want us to leap into the decision to move to the Bay Area and then regret it.  I hate life decisions.

I left my heart in San Diego....

I'm up in the SoMa area of San Francisco for the week, as I am for a week out of every month.  My company's office is located up here, so I come up to get things done and remind them that I exist.  It's nice to get to see my coworkers, and to hang out with friends who live up here.  However, it's pretty hard on my relationship to be away for a week.  Plus I have two dogs and a horse that I miss like crazy when I'm gone.  So, I'm a bit mixed on the whole frequent travel thing.

There are some advantages though.  Such as this beautiful view in our regular outdoor lunch spot.

This is apparently Mission Bay, but not be confused with the Mission Bay down in San Diego.  Curiously, there is an old sailboat anchored in the middle of this 'channel'.  I asked about it, and I guess it's been there for weeks.  Apparently, you can anchor a boat wherever you want in the water in SF, as long as you're not in the way of a major thoroughfare.  I thought this was interesting, since I know in San Diego people pay a shitload to dock their boats.  But I guess this isn't technically docking, so who knows.

It is neat to see the train cars though. I call them "San Francisco Treats".

Two more days until I go home.  Tonight I'm treating myself to a foot, head, and hand massage at a place in Chinatown.  I need some R&R.

A new blog for me.

Lately, I've felt inspired to actually talk about my life.  Yes, I realize that not everyone wants to read about it.  And you know, I'm not one to think that I have some totally awesome life that needs to be shared with the world.  And no, I don't care if it seems like an online diary.  I need to get beyond this 140-character nation of status updates and fake reality, and really start blogging about what I want to talk about.  I need to not give a fuck who reads it, and just enjoy speaking my mind like I used to.

I owe this sudden resurgence to Ivonne over at Beans & Ink.  She is this uber-creative, uber interesting person who just blogs about whatever is going on in her life.  I love how she just speaks her mind, showing who she is regardless of who might be reading it.  I love having a glimpse into someone's real life, instead of stupid Facebook status updates where people only share things they want to brag about or heartaches and catastrophes.  Life isn't so up and down.  Sometimes we just LIVE. 

So that's what's going on here.  I'm just living.  Sometimes I may have interesting things to say about politics, feminism, pop culture, tech, media, animals, or whatever.  Other days I might just tell you what I ate for lunch and show you a picture.  I might just share tidbits about my day.  I might just send you links to things I find interesting.  But I need a place to write for me.  That's what I'm doing here.