An Expat Moves Back

Backstory. I lived in San Francisco from 1996-2006, then I moved to New York City. Now I'm back. San Francisco has changed and so have I. I'm older, hopefully wiser, and certainly more comfortable with myself. I came out of the closet and recently began wearing a more masculine wardrobe. I'm super excited about it, and just want to get dressed up, get out there and show off my new dapper self!

The problem? I'm working from home! This could ruin me in a hurry. The vision of fat pants and watching Dukes of Hazzard reruns is not that far fetched. So I decided that he best way to keep my sanity, stay productive, and also enjoy being back in The City, is to work from various coffee shops all over town. This blog will be a chronicle of that experience.

I don't have it all figured out yet. I'm just going to start writing and see where it takes me. I imagine it to be part review/ratings system - for example is it too noisy? Are there enough outlets? And how long can you sit and work before they kick you out or you have to buy something new?

But I also imagine it to be a chronicle of my observations on the changing city and my re-acclamation to it. In other words, "An ex-pat moves back." I've only been here for a couple of days and I can already see how much it's changed. For one thing, it's much younger. Where did all the old people go? And by "old" I mean over 30. I already feel like telling anyone my real age (41) will subject me to age discrimination for housing or employment.

But I digress. Because for everything that has changed, a lot has remained the same. Just stepping outside of my apartment you can smell the eucalyptus trees coming from Golden Gate Park. It's a scent I had completely forgotten about, and even when I lived here I had grown so accustomed to I stopped noticing entirely. But now smelling it again is like an old friend from childhood calling me up to play.

Like me, the surface may seem different, but the heart and soul of the city remains. The fog still rolls in, the city lights still glisten on the hills and the views of the Bay still take my breath away. For me, that's more than enough.