I’m glad to be gone… not to belabor the point, but the weather was killing me. Even the last couple of days in Seattle (Aug 1 – were chilly… I was wearing a jacket almost every day. In August folks, August in the Northern hemisphere is supposed to be hot.

Look, I know that everyone is getting sick of me complaining about the weather, so I promise not to do that soon. I probably won’t even notice the weather in San Diego after a month or so of blissing-out about the difference between SD and SEA.

One more thing about my moving away from Seattle: I was surprised about how many friends I made, and how quickly. Most were nascent friendships, but I plan to keep in touch with a few people. They’re great people… maybe we can visit each other sometime. Or maybe I can be the cruise director for San Diego (Kelli was mine for SEA) and get them to relocate.

I am also in conversations about my new life in San Diego. Although I am working with my current employer for the next two months, it is a transition and will come to an end. Consequently, I am in conversations about new jobs and I am excited about one opportunity in particular. More information will come later, if it all turns out.

There’s so much going on right now that I can hardly put it all into coherent thoughts, let alone logical sentences on a blog.

My boss is letting me stay on the boat for a week, then I’ll be headed down to San Diego (perhaps by way of Boise (to visit Ralph) and Vegas (for DefCon’s White Ball).

I’ve been asked why I would attend DefCon… people say something like: “Really? I didn’t know you were into hacking.” My answer is… that, while I’m not a hacker, my current job role/title (Director of Application Security) has made me marginally competent to carry on relevant security-related conversations with hackers. A few months back, I managed to fall in with a whole big group of Seattle security guys and hackers. And yes, they are almost entirely guys. There are only a few girls in the group and, as far as I can tell, I’m the only one that isn’t dating any of the guys. They are good guys though. All of ‘em are super smart and very kind. And they aren’t evil identity thieves either. While some of them may have done some black-hat stuff in the past; I’m pretty sure everyone in this group is on the right side of the law currently.

Anyway… back to my upcoming plans. By Monday Aug 10, I should arrive in San Diego. I have a warm and generous offer from Carl to use his guest room until I find a place in San Diego. Hopefully, I can get that situation figured out quickly since fish and houseguests stink after just a few days.

When I do figure out a place to live, I will have my Door-to-Door storage container delivered. It has all my stuff in it and it is packed to the gills! I got rid of a lot, but I still have a lot of stuff.

I had that awful, sinking feeling in my gut. You know, that rush of adrenaline that makes you think “oh, shit! how in the hell am I going to get out of this mess?”

Well, for the first time ever, I’ve been happy to be living by a really active Alcoholics Anonymous meeting location. There are people coming and going a good chunk of the night, and they loiter outside smoking. Michael recounted some of these characters in his Meet My Neighbors post.

Anyway, I was able to call down and get the attention of someone named Daniel. He graciously walked over to the apartment and called the emergency contact number for the landlord, who came into the apartment and unlocked the door to the balcony. The whole ordeal only lasted 20 minutes total, but it felt like an eternity. Apparently, I am not the first person that this has ever happened to. The landlord said it happens a few times a year.

I can only say that I was mortified. I was really, really wondering what sort of Macguiver trick I was going to have to play to break into my own apartment. Thank goodness for the smokers! Long live the smokers!

After the folk music fiasco, I went to see the touring broadway production of High School Musical. It was fantastic: so heartwarming! There was a totally fun vibe in the theatre: lots of happy tweener girls playing hand-clapping games during intermission. It seemed like the most of the audience was dressed in pink; really cute.

So, I love hanging out in a coffee shop on Sat afternoon.

When we moved here I had no idea that I’d be a candidate for Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I found myself experiencing a slight case of SAD this winter. With the sun out more, I’m sure I’ll have a sunnier disposition.

Despite the move to Seattle, life isn’t much different. The birds have changed: I see gulls or bald eagles every day. The route has changed too: now I see the birds when crossing the 520 floating bridge. The birds seem to play in the wind currents, and occasionally I see them dive for fish that must rise to the surface in the choppy waters.

But it struck me today, as I saw 2 bald eagles soaring just beyond my front windshield: I can measure my days in bird sightings.

(Seattle PI image)

This means that we will not be attending my niece’s wedding in Houston. The plane tickets from Seattle to Houston were around $700pp, which means that the trip would be $2k or so total. I want to go someplace really cool if we’re going to end up spending that kind of cash. The concrete jungle of Houston just won’t do it for me in that scenario.