First week at the new apartment
I’m writing this blog on my iPhone while I commute to work. Ill try to actually proof read this post before I publish it but please excuse the grammar and typos. iPhone touch keyboards tend to change some words with their auto correct feature.
When kink hired me on to direct for ultimate surrender, it was almost like a last minute decision. I was born and raised in souther California. I love the city I lived in. Santa clarita CA is one of the most beautiful cities in all of the west coast. With the beaches an hour west and the mountains an hour east, there is plenty to do on a weekend or holiday. Santa Clarita has some great hiking trails and also hosts my favorite outdoor gun range. Not only is the city beautiful with its accessible nature trails and activities it’s also rich with history. Newhall is a town within the Santa Clarita valley. It is famous for the oak of the golden dreams where goldwas first discovered in Southern California. It is also famous for its “western preservation” thanks to William s. hart. Yes the city is nice and diverse but the real reason I stayed in that city my entire life was because my family lived there. My mom, dad and one of my brothers lived in the SCV. Moving to the Bay Area was a big decision for me. I was leaving everything I’ve ever known behind. When I was looking for places to live in Northern California, I had to take a lot of things into consideration. I wanted a place similar to SCV with good schools districts for my son and in a safe neighborhood with trails to hike but modern enough to have a mall I know sounds stupid but sometime when you live in a place that is beautiful with nature you end up having to drive 30 miles to get to the closest mall. I have a tweenage son who loves to do the mall crawl. So it’s important to have balance. It’s important to be close to nature and still be able to do the American pass time of window shopping in stores. 😉
I looked at several places in the Bay Area. I knew I did not want to live in San Francisco. I’m not a big city kind of girl. I did live in sf for 3 months in the interim of finding a place to live. I do love the city of San Francisco. It’s like they never developed anything after 1960. It has a throwback vibe. Very retro yet ahead of its time. The gas less muni and bart transportation is amazing I’m not sure why every city doesn’t get their shit together and get on this method of transportation. I guess America is so addicted to oil and politicians get too many metaphoric blowjobs from the Middle East to make public transportation independent of oil. C’est la vie. I will say its really nice to walk around in a big city and not be assaulted my smog or pollution.
I looked high and low for a place to live. I knew I’d have to live far outside sf to find a place like SCV. I knew I’d have to commute an hour to work every day but I’m willing to do that. I decided to move to the tri city area. It’s a 53 minute bart ride to San Francisco but that also means that is 53 minutes closer to the SCV so when I go down to visit every weekend I’m an hour closer each way making a 6 hour drive only a 5 hour drive which makes all the difference 😉
So I’m officially moved in to my new place. I have to admit its pretty sad that my place is empty. I gave away most of my furniture. Actually it was involuntarily given away. I stored it at someone’s place and they decided they liked it and I decided they could keep it. Mostly because I didn’t want to move it 300 miles but also because it made them happy. So I’m shopping for new crap for the apartment. Right now I have a mattress in my living room and a TV set up with my Apple TV and that’s about it. It feels lonely in an empty place but I’m hardly home so I don’t have to deal with the solitude too much until night time. My son is still in so cal finishing school until he transfers into jr high. So I’m utterly alone when I come home. The good news is ill start doing web camming again to have some company 😉 and to help fund the new furniture and appliances for my new place. Heheh kidding kinda ;). So that’s the news of the move. I have a movie I had a scene in coming out soon ill post more about that soon.
Scott
Sounds like a trip to IKEA in Berkeley is what you need. No better way to fill an empty place. Hope this turns out to be a good move for you but like you said it is only a 5 hour drive to go back.
Since you like a nice hike here are some little ones for you near your area. Lake Chabot in Castro Valley is beautiful and has lengthy paved trails that are good for ACL recovery. Some hills but not bad. Up Dublin Blvd towards SF at the top of the hill there is a nice ridge line trail that is a couple miles out and back. Pleasanton Ridge down Foothill Blvd towards Sunol has miles of trails and some decent vertical climb. If you want a good strenuous climb then Mission Peak in Fremont off of 680 will get your cardio for the day. It is about 2500ft and is a serious quad burn coming down. If your son likes to hike too then on Mt Diablo there is a place called Rock City that has massive boulders that the kids love to climb on (and adults) At 4000ft there are great views.
If you want an evening hike in Dublin on Amador Valley behind the dog park there is a hill trail that is an easy little burn above the water tank. If you are looking for a nice little down town area then Pleasanton and Livermore have nice areas to hang out with lots of Patio restaurants and shops.
Hope this does you some good.
Whatsmyname