Surprise! I'm moving! I'm moving to San Francisco!
The SparkNotes version:
Who: me (and future roommates Laura and Dave)
What: MOVING
Where: San Francisco/Bay Area (Palo Alto-ish, to be specific)
When: June 1!
Why: ...see below.
The worst-kept secret in the Twin Cities is finally out, and I am ecstatic, giddy, terrified, discombobulated...you name it, I've felt it over the last FIVE months.
It all started in late January, when I was browsing a website of national opera job postings. The San Francisco Opera had a role open for a production accountant, and I, fresh off the holidays in the Bay Area/wine country, applied before I had even really thought about it. Then I found out that life coach/dear friend Laura had accepted a job at Facebook (nbd), and our mutual friend Dave had matched for a medical fellowship at Stanford (also nbd, my friends are really dumb). They would both be in the Bay Area starting late spring/early summer.
Despite the lack of success in landing an opera job, suddenly, my on-a-whim desire to relocate seemed not soooo totally out of left field, and I spent a few weeks in February soul-searching. Could I do this? Could I really completely uproot my life, for very little apparent reason, and relocate to the West Coast?
While this space is 90% sunshine and roses...while I do my very best to present the happiest, brightest possible picture of my life in writing, the truth behind the blog screen is that I've been pretty unhappy for the last several months in the Twin Cities. 2017 has brought increasing stagnation in the actual work part of my job, leaving me frustrated and bored for a large portion of every work week. My social life has really fragmented, with unnecessary angst and drama with friends increasingly leaving me left out of social functions or, at best, an afterthought. While I count myself lucky to have a few of the best people in the world by my side here, socializing at large has gotten harder and less satisfying (my favorites obviously excepted). And relationships? HA, let's not even start that one. Dating in the Twin Cities has been incredibly hard for me...the community is small and insular, most men I've gone out with have been horrifying mismatches on numerous levels, and I'm finding it near impossible to actually connect with guys.
By the end of that soul-searching period in February, I realized that I'm not content anymore to be comfortable and accept mediocrity. I could sit in this job for ten more years, hang out with the same group of people drinking and watching sports in the same basement on Saturday nights, eat at the same five (amazing) restaurants, visit the same theaters and see the same orchestra. As ungrateful as that sounds...my life IS wonderful...it's not good enough for me anymore.
The more Laura and I talked, the more it seemed like I could do this. So we texted Dave...and the wheels were set in motion for ND Band Bay Area Family House, as Dave dubbed it. She house-hunted in March, we signed a lease in early April, and I've been job-hunting pretty hard since February. I was out there last week for a final round with an organization I'm really excited about, and I'm hopeful that I'll have good news to share soon on that front. Laura moved into our brand-new, very fancy and fabulous apartment complex in April, and I'm in the process of packing up and getting organized to make my own move in June. Dave will be out at the beginning of July...which will 100% for sure guarantee ridiculous stories and shenanigans galore.
This is a move of epic proportion for me, and is incredibly out of character. I am the kind of careful, Type-A, risk-mitigating person who never leaps without looking, who always has a plan (and a backup plan). I am not the kind of person who one would ever describe as "devil-may-care," "spontaneous," "adventurous." For me to be moving across the country, with no job in pocket (yet! fingers crossed!), and really no true plan, is akin to jumping out of a plane without a parachute. To be honest, I still don't entirely know what impetus ultimately drove me to take this very not-Lizzie leap. But I do know that it's necessary, and it's exciting, and it's right.
I need the challenge of being totally out of my comfort zone. I need to not be a big fish in a very small pond anymore. I need to force myself to take risks, to live more boldly, and to keep building a life I'm proud of and excited to wake up to every day. And while San Francisco may not be the panacea for the problems I've found myself facing lately, it's sure as hell going to jump-start me...in all the best ways.
So, long story short, stay tuned! While I haven't decided if I'm going to rename the blog (MinneapoLiz becomes SanFranLizco, maybe?!)...but I will for sure be sharing as much as I can find time to over the next several weeks as I prep for the move. And once I'm out there, it's no holds barred on adventures, and adjustments, and all that jazz.
EEEEEEEEK!
