Carly's Bananas: Happy One Year, San Francisco.

This past week marked the one year anniversary of moving to this outrageous place I now call home. In true Millennial fashion of commemorating everything possible, I am celebrating by posting some pictures and writing a blog post.

SF, what have you done to me?

But really, I have learned a lot from this place and time in my life. Here I present a few take-home points that the past 365 days of living in this city have taught me.

1. When in doubt, bring your winter coat.
Even when not in doubt, bring your winter coat. I learned this fast and furiously last June when I arrived to the city during what the rest of the world refers to as the "beginning of summer". Not the case in San Fran. Even if the average daily temperatures look pretty reasonable, June in SF means a bone-chilling fog that rolls in more suddenly than your latest Tinder fling ends. It often sneaks over the Twin Peaks hills in the late afternoon or evening, but it's not unusual if it sticks around through the night into the next morning. What this means is that outside will look fairly harmless, maybe even sunny, and then suddenly you're walking home from work in your sleeveless blouse, shivering to your very core. It means you should unpack the stowed away running clothes that you would normally reserve for rainy runs during Portland winters. It means you shouldn't be alarmed on the 4th of July, when all your normal-climate-dwelling friends are posting lakeside pictures, you're wearing your down jacket squinting at fireworks through a drizzly vapor of fog while the group next to you is scheming about getting hot chocolate.
Everyone I've talked to says the same thing-- summer is cold, but the rest of the year we enjoy warmer weather than the rest of the country blah blah blah. Look-- it's awesome here, but can potentially get cold at ANY time. Keep that winter gear at the ready.

2. Probably, just walk.
SF is infamously 7 x 7 miles. Even though it's rather small, it takes eons to travel across those 49 miles squared. Between traffic, hills, lack of direct routes, more traffic and more hills, driving 2-3 miles can take anywhere from 10 mins to an hour (apologies to my soccer teams for the numerous post-work games I've been disastrously late to). I've found that if you're trying to get somewhere in a reasonable amount of time, it's close to the rush hour(s) and it's kind of far away but doesn't require freeway travel: JUST WALK. Maybe ride your bike, if you have one and it's not a problem that you arrive to your destination dripping with sweat and completely disheveled from grinding your rusty gears up 8% grade hills. Otherwise, just walk.

3. Everyone is cool.
Unlike Seattle and Portland, where there are specific archetypes that are clearly at the top of the verbally unacknowledged {but actually real} cool-ness hierarchy (Seattle-think Microsoft hipster, Portland- think unemployed hipster); in San Francisco, many archetypes are quintessentially cool. In the few circles into which I've gotten social glimpses, everyone shares some underlying traits of intelligence, commitment, and a certain grittiness. If you're not part of the inherent hyper-educated citizenry, you make up for it by being innately smart and/or good at what you do. It's expensive to live here-- obviously-- so you don't see the aimlessness that is typical of my generation. You can't afford the through-the-roof living expenses without some real commitment to a job, even if you don't like it. But what's more, is that most people do like their jobs. It's like they've bottled up their intelligence and perseverance and are digging into something they're passionate about and getting sh*t done. Even though it's the most expensive city in America, there's a real feeling of opportunity and inspiration, as long as you're determined enough to make it happen.

4. Cash is King.
For being the epicenter of the technologically advanced world, paying for goods in San Francisco is pretty archaic. Whereas other cities I've spent time in allow you to use a debit/credit card virtually everywhere, SF does not. Want to buy a MUNI ticket at a designated station? Cash. How about on the street car itself? Exact change please. If I had a dollar for the number of bars in the cities that are "cash only", I could actually afford to buy my friends a round of drinks. Instead, I have to incur a ridic ATM fee every time I want a beer and forgot to get cash back at Safeway.

5. Gentrification exists.
I realize this whole blog could serve as an example of young-adult urban affluence and ignorance of actual issues plaguing SF neighborhoods. I acknowledge that being another out-of-stater to join the ever expanding tech bubble comes with some major consequences for the people living here before me. Out of respect for the enormity of the issue I will stop typing now, abruptly return to mundanity and save my breath for a future blog post.

6. Hills are a very real thing.
'Nuff said. They are simultaneously a blessing (SWEET city views as seen in first picture and {kind of} shredded quadricepts) and a curse (sweaty disheveled-ness mentioned in #2).

7. You can furnish your place from the street.
Thank you to the strangers across this city who've provided me with a set of dishes, a nice end table, a decorative picture frame, countless birthday and Mother's day gifts in the form of hardly used books, and an awesome baby bounce chair for my co-worker. Had I been in need, in the course of a few months I could have had a pretty nice bed, gorgeous stained-wood dresser, a choice of 7 different desks and bookshelves up the ying yang. Bananas aren't the only thing abandoned on SF sidewalks, folks. Have patience, a discerning eye and a strong all-purpose cleaner and and you will find many great treasures.

8. I really love it.
When moving here, I assumed I'd stick it out through our Accelerator program then jet back to my comfort zone that is the state of Oregon. But somehow, some combination of the previously mentioned points happened, and I didn't. I stayed. I tell people it's the only place where I can have fewer close friends than fit on the fingers of my hand, no steady boyfriend to speak of and a job that is optimistically uncertain from one week to the next, and still absolutely love it.

8+. Did I mention the geographic and architectural beauty that exists in a 100 mile radius? INSANE.