★ The Last Two Weeks. Happiness.

This blog post probably has too many photos. I like taking photos and they help illustrate the story a bit. Thanks for reading.

Today marks the start of my third week at Brightkite and my third week in the new apartment. It’s the best decision I have ever made both the job and place I moved. Today, I’m stuck in my place working at home because I have a pretty bad cold but I’m more productive than ever. Being sick in my old apartment was never fun with the noise, sirens and the place was the size of a very small motel room. It was a pretty bad apartment but I remain thankful that I was able to move.

Yesterday, I woke up to birds chirping and the sun rising over the trees just beyond my deck. I left the sliding glass door open last night because it was pretty warm and left the radio on streaming Pandora. My bed is comfortable, my neighborhood is quiet and relaxing and my overall mood is relaxed and focused. After getting out of bed, I walked into the kitchen that I customized decorated, surrounded by photos that I took of my family in frames and hanging on the wall. I broke some eggs and made an egg sandwich and used my espresso machine to make a soy latte. Then I caught up on email while overlooking the city of San Francisco. Finally, I strapped on my shoes and went for a run and I didn’t se another human being until a car finally passed by me on the hill I was running up. This is my routine every morning. This is how I should have been living all along.

I never wanted to live the life wondering what could have been. No regrets, only experiences. I still want to, one day live in New York City for one year and see what it’s like. The same goes for Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Denver and Seattle. Also London, Tokyo and Amsterdam are on my list of places I want to live for at least a month. I’m not a free spirit that spends all of his money traveling but it’s something I love because of the experience and because of how it opens my eyes to new things.

Living downtown was awesome. I walked a block to everywhere. Work, Barber, Grocery Store, Mall, Theater and all of my favorite bars were right across the street. I haven’t stepped foot anywhere on San Francisco’s Market Street or anywhere downtown since I left my old apartment 2 weeks ago. In fact, this is the 3rd day that I haven’t left the house. Why would I? I have food, my computers, my nature and the hills I need to climb and work on my fitness.

On Saturday and Sunday, I had friends come by to my new place for dinner. Saturday’s menu consisted of Swordfish, Bay Scallops and Roasted Red Peppers w/ a 2003 Pinot Noir wine and I cheated by just doing ice cream for dessert. Sunday, I cooked Tri-Tip Steak marinated in a carne asada sauce for 8 hours and served with asparagus, roasted garlic and a bottle of bold Cabernet Sauvignon. I cooked for 4 friends and they loved it! They loved my cooking. I spent hours preparing these meals, cleaning house and on Saturday, I spent all afternoon gardening my back yard, pulling weeds and cleaning up. It was a dream and just awesome!

I get home every night and lay down on my couch and look out over the city. It’s the best place I’ve ever lived. There’s a catch though.

Only one bus line runs through my neighborhood. Getting to more buses is a .9 mile walk / run. The only bus that’s closer comes ever 30 minutes. Taking public transit means my commute to work is 1.5 hours each way and there is no bus running through my neighborhood past 11PM. Yes, it’s pretty crappy but I don’t feel stranted. For the reasons I mentioned above, I don’t have to leave my place. Friends come to me and I love it. I’d take the ability to not be able to go bar hopping every Friday night (something I wasn’t doing anyway) in exchange for waking up to crisp mountain air and the ability to sleep with my door wide open nearly every night. You can’t put a value on that.

Although, I will be getting a vehicle. A car is important now. Nothing too expensive, but I’ll be getting a car that can get me around to and from work and those rare occurrences when I have to hit Walgreens or Safeway after 10-11pm or when a friend does invite me out drinking and I have to say, “sorry it’s past 10 I can’t go.” A car is my next big purchase.

Work? It’s going great! It’s hard to tell how things are really going to go or be once I’m settled in because the first few weeks are really an effort to catch up on a lot of backlogged “pain tasks” (support, emails, organization) and there’s the added pain of learning every internal system. This is true with every new job. What matters is the people I’m working with are phenomenal. I feel right at home and so comfortable working with this team. I know Brightkite will succeed because the team is so well-rounded and things just get done. It’s an absolute joy.

You may see me bitching sometimes about the commute but it’s not so bad. On the muni subway, I read books on my iPhone (soon iPad) and listen to music. Once I’m above ground then on Caltrain, it’s 40 minutes of work. I get emails and support completely caught up by the time I get in the office. This makes it easier to concentrate on the more challenging tasks before 10AM rolls around. Being up at 7AM and asleep by 11:30 has been a hard shift from my 10AM-3AM schedule before. Honestly, my new place is so fresh that i love being up that early to hear the birds chirping and get ready my espresso and mountain air.

What’s more….I’m only 7 days away from my week trip in Florida. One week in Florida and I’m so freaking stoked about that! It’s going to be an amazing trip and my first vacation in a very long time. You can read more about that here. http://blog.adam-jackson.net/2010/03/02/new-beginnings-part-3-my-first-vacation/