The time I had to move, Part 2

Photo by Sergio Portela via Flickr

If you missed the preamble to this story, you can click here to read that. It’s free to all. This one is paywalled, so congrats to those of you who ponied up! (I’ve lowered my prices, by the way.)

When I last left you, it was the year 2000. I had moved away from home for the first time after getting my Associates degree from Hartnell Community College, and had found a room for rent half a mile from the San Francisco State University campus. SFSU itself abutted the Stonestown Galleria, which was the location of the Olive Garden that I transferred to. (There was also a Tower Records there, so I really didn’t need anything else in my life.)

I had recently purchased a red 1986 Nissan Pulsar, which ruled, even though it sucked. (I had a moment of intense oldness recently when a gas station employee referred to my current car as “oolllld school” and I realized that my 2006 Honda Accord is now significantly older than my ‘86 Pulsar was in 2000.)

For reference;

Via Pinterest

Look at that thing, man. GoBots-ass car. Hot Wheels blister pack in an Alpha-Beta supermarket lookin’ head ass. It was so rad.

Anyway, I moved to San Francisco right at the beginning of July and into my new house.

I lived in what was originally built as a two-bedroom house, and I had three roommates who were all much older than me. A professional businesswoman in her mid-to-late 30s lived in the largest room at the front of the house, which was originally the living room. A kitchen was the only shared space. The man who lived next to me was in his early 40s and published a monthly SF-centric free magazine with a large reader base. It was in the pages of that magazine that I soon saw my first regular published writing output, writing album, movie and concert reviews along with the occasional interview. I would be awakened every morning by weed smoke, which would blow into my room via the vent in me and the magazine owner’s shared wall, which was located almost exactly parallel to my sleeping face.

The rent was $500 a month and the room was exactly as large as I needed. My room was also located directly above the bedroom of my third roommate.

As I mentioned, my subscriptions now have lower prices. Thanks to those of you who got in on the ground floor, and I hope more of you come in to join us!