California, 2007

Quit my job two weeks ago, and I’m finally having some time to myself. My old company hired two people to replace me, and they complained about the workload, so they hired a third person. Three people, to do my old job. And they never listened to me when I said I was overworked. Hah. Not my problem now.

Haven’t been around the city much like I planned, except for a couple of trips to the Palace of the Legion of Honor and the mall, and lakeside walks in the afternoons.

And here I am, in much the same situation I was two years ago. No job, no income, in an expensive apartment in an expensive city. Oh, which is why I’m giving this up - the lease expires this month, and I can’t afford another year-long lease. Between the rent, the food and the taxes, I haven’t managed to save as much as I’d liked over the past two years. People look at how much I make and say I must be rich by now, but it’s interesting that I haven’t been able to buy any computer stuff in over a year. Back in UPLB I had enough money to upgrade my rig every six months or so, with enough left over for eating out or going to the bar two, three times a week.

Here? My checking account keeps sending me "low balance" email every week or so. Ramen for lunch. I’ve only eaten out maybe three times over the past year.

Living in the Bay Area, tech center of the Western world, and there’s all these technological wonders in the shop windows, but I never have any money to buy anything. And no, with the way things were going, the situation wasn’t going to improve.

I’ve decided that life in the big city isn’t for me. Never liked cities, not even Manila.
So now I’m going back home for a few months while I reconsider my options.

So. Flying out of SFO early Tuesday morning, landing in Manila at around ten AM Wednesday next week.

Packing. Packing two years of my life and all my worldly possessions in two bags and a 24×24 box. I find it interesting that by volume, I have more books than clothes.

Backing up my files onto three hard disks and two computers. Still deciding on whether to ship my computer home as ocean cargo, or bring it as checked-in luggage.

I had a brief flash of irrational anger when my brother suggested leaving the computer behind. This is the only thing I have of value here. I’m paying for the ticket, I’m paying for the shipping and I’m damn well paying to bring it along.

I guess I’m closing one chapter of my life - can’t say I enjoyed my stint in the IT startup industry, but it was… instructive. I learned a lot.

I’ve lost a lot of my faith in humanity.  I guess this is part of growing up, learning the hard way that the world is a cruel, hard place and people are going to take advantage of you if you let them. There was a time when I thought sacrifice and hard work would pay off eventually, but now I know better.

I’ve learned that money can’t make me happy. I guess I’m fortunate - a lot of people never get the chance to figure that out for themselves.  Money doesn’t buy happiness - but then I’d known that since I was a child.

My sister tells me I shouldn’t worry - I can find a job anywhere I choose. I don’t share her optimism, but she’s been right so far.

Anyway. Life goes on. Time to get on with mine.

Well we’re finally in Fairfield, smack dab in the middle of the Capitol Corridor, exactly 42 miles from both San Francisco and Sacramento.

Which means both cities are an hour’s drive away. And there’s the whole getting to learn a new transit system thingy. I’m still digesting the Amtrak, CalTrain and BART brochures.

So.

The trip was pretty fun. Woke up at 5 AM Sunday morning, and spent the rest of the morning madly cleaning everything in the apartment (in the vain hope that we don’t lose too much of our deposit). Sunday morning, and the first thing I do is spend most of it elbows-deep in the toilet.

Cooked up a batch of pasta for the trip, plus a few snacks and eight-packs of Coke and Gatorade. Like I mentioned, I’m a last-minute packer, and we had to chuck quite a bit of junk to fit everything in the car.

Bags, mattresses, icebox… making sure we could still see out the rear view window.

As usual, I’m the navigator, with road maps on my lap, feeding
directions to my brother. "Right, err I mean left, no, the other
left…"

We swing onto the 405, which merges into the 5 north of Los Angeles, around Lancaster.

And onto two hundred miles of farmlands of Central California. Really hot 100-degree weather, too.

We stop for lunch at a rest area past Bakersfield. Unfortunately, there isn’t a gas station at the rest area, so we have to look for the next exit, about thirty miles down the I-5.

Pulling out of there, we get hit by a stray pebble kicked up by a truck we’re following. It leaves a nasty-looking crack in the middle of the windshield. A few frenzied minutes spent scrabbling through the rental contract indicates that yes, we did spring for the Loss Damage Waiver add-on to the vehicle insurance, and no, we weren’t going to pay for damage. Whew.

So. Two hundred and eighty miles north of Los Angeles, and we pass a couple of signs that remind us of home.

Near Tracy, I-5 continues on to Sacramento, while we merge onto the I-580 heading northwest to Oakland.

And from the 580, we head north on the 680, past the windmill farms of Livermore.

More farms, hilly country. Still pretty hot, and we’re halfway through our second tank of gas.

We get our first view of the Bay, and the Naval Reserve Fleet.

North of the 680, and the sign "Fairfield City Limits" greets us as we attempt to get onto the I-80. We take the Green Valley  exit by mistake, and spend several minutes fiddling around looking for the onramp.

We miss the correct exit, and have to backtrack southwest on the I-80 before we finally get ourselves to the correct street.

Finally arrive, unpack, and settle in for some rest after four hundred miles and six straight hours of freeway.

Something tells me this is going to be nothing compared to the commute I’ll be facing once I start working. Ah, well. Someday we’ll all look back on this and laugh.

Or cry. It depends.

So we’re in the final stages of packing. We leave early tomorrow for Fairfield. 400-plus miles, seven or eight hours of driving. I’m not driving, of course, my brother is - still don’t have my license.

The local Hertz office loves us - this is the third time we’ve rented from them. Sure, they seem more expensive than Enterprise or Rent4Less, but the others don’t have service up to Northern California, and Enterprise doesn’t allow one-way trips. With judicious use of web discounts, it all evens out.

We lucked out though - that’s a pretty new car. 2005 Ford Escape. Ohio plates, which means someone took it on a one way trip cross country.

As I’ve mentioned before, I hate packing. I’m a very disorganized packer, everything at the last minute. This time is no exception. I’m almost done, which means I have no idea where half my things have ended up.

So. Time to hit the sack early. Time to bid Torrance and Southern California goodbye, and time to hope we find better luck up north.

Time to pack it in and be optimistic for a change.