Adventures in The City

My sister and her Nick came to visit me this weekend, and it was an amazing weekend, as all weekends in San Francisco seem to be.  There was lots of craft beers, good food, and sights being seen.  I was feeling so very refreshed for this week ahead of me until I spent the day interviewing, applying, and getting a rejection from an interview last week.  The job application process is on the list of worst activities possible right under Chinese torture and above cramming for finals.  But...

"Nothing good, ever came easy."

"Success is sweet and sweeter if long delayed and gotten through many struggles and defeats." -Amos Bronson Alcott

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will. " -Vince Lombardi

My two little lovebirds at Dolores Park.

Newest Nor Cal Resident

I am now officially a resident of Berkeley California!  Last night I made the 7 hour drive up by myself in my Prius.  There is nothing like making the drive to your new home.  I was excited, scared, anxious, and a little sad.  Definitely a whirlwind of emotions throughout the long drive.  Today I walked to a local coffee shop around the block from my new house.  I love that I can simply walk from place to place.   Berkeley has so much character, from bookstores to cafes to record stores and cottage style homes.  I can't wait to start getting to know this city, as well as San Francisco, and blogging about along the way.

Restaurant Week in San Diego

So it's apparently restaurant week in San Diego, which means a lot of really great local restaurants offer deals to show case their food.  Since Jon is in Carlsbad for business, I met him down south and we ventured out to a local restaurant participating in restaurant week called Prepkitchen.

The deal was 3 courses for $30, which for this place...was a steal.  We kind of picked all the courses together so that we could try as much as we could!  Great food.  Jon loved his huge burger, I loved the decor of the place.  Books in shelves, candles in jars, pebbles, desert plants...adorable.

And though we were stuffed, we still had desert coming so we loosened the pants and soldiered on!  Gelato and a toffee pudding...oh goodness.

If you are in the San Diego area, make a trip out for restaurant week. My friends, you won't be sorry.

And the hunt continues

While the applying to jobs is getting exceedingly tedious, the discovery of the thousands of different jobs that are out there keep it interesting.  Did anyone know that there is actually a job out called a "Social Media Manager?"  This job is pretty much what I do on a weekly basis...blogging, Twitter, Facebook, etc...but you get paid to do it!  With this job hunt, I'm becoming more and more unsure of what it is I actually want to do, career wise.  To be truly honest with myself, what I really want in a career is a job that pays well and is somewhat enjoyable to do.  That doesn't really narrow it down.  The variety of jobs out there is just  astounding.  But while there are many jobs out there, there are not many I seem to be qualified for yet.  Of the around 10 jobs I have applied to...I've received zero responses.  Its very discouraging.  

On a more encouraging note...here is a taste of my spontaneous trip to SF last weekend to move up my mattress.

Road Trippin'

John Muir National Redwood Forest.

Napa Wine Tasting

First Stop: Domaine Carneros

The two glasses to the side were the first of many free glasses to come, needless to say, we ended up staying at this winery the whole afternoon.

Yes, more free wine please!

A word of advice for those interested in Napa; while the weather might not be as nice during the winter, you have a lot less tourists to compete with for tasting at the wineries.  This, for us, lead to great service and conversation and tons of free wine!!  Our server even told us that had this been the busy season he probably would have set down our tasting set and left and that would be it...as opposed to the hours he spent educating and talking with us.  He even showed us the coolest trick--we equated with magic.  He poured the same bottle of wine into 4 different shaped glasses, swirled them around for a bit, and then let us try them.  All four tasted like a completely different wine!!! So it turns out all the fuss over wine glass shape is a real thing!

3 Things I'm Thankful for Lately

With the frustrations involved with finding a job, I think its a perfect time for me to think of three things I'm thankful lately.

1)  A beautiful ocean view for my Birthday Brunch.  The boyfriend took me to The Rooftop Lounge in Laguna.  Only in Southern California could you have an outside ocean view brunch in December.  I'll definitely be missing the almost always perfect weather in SoCal when I move.

2) My dog.  I think I'm always thankful for my dog.  I love the time I get to spend with him and I wish I could take him with me when I move.

via

3)  My new Droid Razr mini. I switched over from the Iphone because I broke the screen...yet again, and I wanted a change.  So far I love it.  I'm not big on apple products to begin with and I'm a big Google lover, and this phone is owned by Google.  It was already set up to connect to my gmail, Google+ and Chrome.  I'm still figuring out all the things I can do with it, but I love it.

Best Christmas Present

Between work Christmas, my birthday (on the 30th) and the New Year I've been happily busy.
My next conquest: finding a job up in San Francisco.  If any of you have had to look for a job in the past few years then you feel my pain.  Everything is online nowadays which seems like a convenience but it's not!  Just as you finishing inputting all of your work history (which you've done many times for every single job you've applied to) the website has an error and after screaming for a little bit you have to do it all again.  Or what about the cover letter you need to edit and rewrite for each specific job?!!  Not to mention the many interviews I will soon be going on.  Yes, finding a job is quite a conquest indeed...so wish me luck!

In the meantime, for your comedic relief, I'm going to post my absolute favorite Christmas present ever!  My sister and cousins and friends reenacted one of my favorite SNL skits.  Here is the link (watch it first if you've never seen it, so that you can see how much they nailed it).

http://www.hulu.com/watch/116580

And here is their version:
Hilarious!!

By the way my sister and cousin are the hams of the show...I bet you can guess which ones.