12 Things That Happen When You Move from Northern California to Southern California

It's funny how different two ends of one state can be. Even thought I grew up in Southern California, the ten years in NorCal really made me forget some of the perks and downsides of the SoCal lifestyle. It started dawning on me though, that these differences would make an awesome list!!!

1. You will have bathing suits and towels hanging everywhere

This is actually what started this list. I was trying to hang up my bath towel and I noticed every hook in the bathroom had different bikini pieces hanging from it and the guest bathroom had Dan's swimwear hanging. I was like "this is new." I realized that we've been going to the pool so much that some bathing suit is usually wet and hanging out to dry.

2. Sandals are usually acceptable footwear and more comfortable than you remember

I've always owned lots of sandals but it was never nice enough to walk around in flip flops in SF. I always wore boots or athletic shoes and maybe a dress sandal or heel for something nice. For St. Patrick's Day, I was looking for some shoes to match my spring dress and decided to wear my Rainbows. It felt so weird wearing something so casual and bare to go out but they looked perfect with my outfit and were comfortable. People here are so casual that flip flops are a great option for going out. This goes for shorts too.

3. Tan lines

Dan and I take the dog for walks a lot and generally try to get outside when we can. I usually wear a tank top and sports bra... and I started noticing how awful my tan lines were. I've been trying to go to the pool a bit more to even them out. We went on a big hike the day after though and the tan lines got worse than ever. The only thing worse than the tan lines though? Dan's are darker and stand out more... because he's more tan than I am. My white boyfriend from Ohio is tanner than Brazilian me... how?

4. Nice days in SF are cold days for San Diego

When we first moved here, the days were about 60-65 degrees. It was January so this wasn't anything crazy and was actually kind of like a day in SF. We needed light jackets but it definitely wasn't freezing by any means. Everyone we met told us how sorry they were about the bad weather. The next week it was 80 every day. Generally, its low 70s here but it really does make the 60 degree days feel cold.

5. Public Transit stops being a form of transportation

That's not to say that San Diego doesn't have public transit. There's a train, there are buses, there's light rail. They all look pretty clean too. We just live in a spot where the places that we'd want to transit to (because we are drinking so we wouldn't drive), we can walk to or if it's too far to walk, it's a ten minute drive. It seems like more of a hassle than a convenience and driving is so easy.

6. But it takes less time to drive short distances

I remember our first day here when we made the ceremonial new apartment trip to Target. I looked up the distance and it said "10 miles." In San Francisco, this is forever away. It was a stressful day so I sighed and just didn't want to go even though we badly needed household items... then I looked again and realized it was 10 minutes to go 10 miles. Now that we've been here a few months, it's our little joke - everything (in Central SD at least) is 10 minutes away. It also means (to my brother's disdain) that we are very late to any place further than 10 minutes away.

7. You miss out on Beta ideas from tech companies

A lot of services I subscribe to actually email based on where you live. It's pretty hard to change email lists so I'm constantly getting emails about special deals or promotions or new products for Uber or Lyft or other companies that are only for San Francisco residents. Moving from the center of innovation to a smaller big city definitely means missing out on new breakthroughs until they go a little more mainstream.... although we do seem to be the test market for fitness and nerdy events which is cool.

8. Hipsters are traded in for Beach Bros

I feel like every city has their crowd of people that are extra annoying to deal with. In SF, it's the hipsters who loudly talk about how picky they are about their coffee or how outrageous it was they got a ticket for running a red light on their bike. In SD, they are beach bros. When I'm at the pool, I can hear them from a mile away. They are the ones who ruin the pool for everyone else by doing that kind of destructive behavior that makes the apartment crew check in every 5 minutes and tighten the rules - things like trashing the pool area or blasting terrible music.

9. You accidentally bring your jacket with you on warm nights

I feel like the unspoken rule of living in San Francisco is that no matter how nice the weather is, you always bring a light jacket. Always. In San Diego, if it's a nice day, you are really going to regret bringing a light jacket. You are going to be stuck carrying that thing or maybe forgetting it in a bar. It will just make things terrible for you. Leave the jacket at home. I mean - it's April summer - the weather is perfect!

10. You find plastic bags really confusing. 

In the Bay Area, plastic bags were banned years ago. More recently, stores started charging for any bag in order to encourage people to bring their own. Dan and I were entrenched into this habit so it's always weird to us when people just start bagging our things at the store while we are standing there trying to hand them one of our re-useable bags. It's even weirder to me when I'm just getting 1 or 2 items that I can easily carry or put in my purse, and they instantly bag it. I'm so used to bags not being a thing that it's hard to understand how much they are used here.

There are alsosome stores we've been to where they'll put one item in a bag and then grab a new bag for the next thing and I have to tell them they can put everything in one bag. I'm just really hoping that San Diego outlaws plastic bags soon as well so I can go back to a world I understand.

11. You start shopping at places like Walmart and Target all the time

I couldn't even tell you where Walmart was in the Bay Area. I know I went once in college but I can't remember where it was for the life of me. In San Diego though, since driving is so easy, big box stores are everywhere and we take advantage of it. I recently went to Walmart for the second time in years. You get used to hating them for all the bad press you hear but it is really nice to find everything you need in one place for good prices.

12. .... And you really do need some new stuff

I thought we were set moving in with a boogey board and some beach towels. That's not nearly enough to really have a beach day. We needed chairs and an umbrella and a cooler. We  actually need to stay stocked up on sun screen.

On Moving

OMG guys, I'm moving to San Diego!

Even though it's something I've been talking about a lot, and even more once the work and living situations were figured out, it's important for me to address it in blogville. I've thought a lot about what I was going to write here but putting down the words never felt right until now. Hopefully this all comes out as good as it sounded in my head.

Let's start at the beginning. I've always wanted to live in San Diego. I was never happy growing up in Los Angeles and I knew nothing about Northern California. When college applications came out, I was so excited about the possibility of going to UC San Diego. When I got in - I was ecstatic... and then a few days later the last school acceptance came in and I found out I got into Berkeley. Even though I knew Berkeley was the better school, I still wanted to visit both and really decide between a great school and a place I really wanted to live. However, on my tour of UCSD, even the current students told me I couldn't turn down Berkeley. Of course I couldn't. Off to Norcal it was.

It's crazy to think that was 10 years ago. I always thought I'd move back South when I graduated but relationships kept me in the Bay Area. When I was single for the first time in 5 years, I'd fallen in love with San Francisco and couldn't imagine leaving...

Until I could.

Anyone who lives in the Bay Area knows that things have been changing. The draw of San Francisco's awesome activities and the growth of the tech industry in Silicon Valley have made the Bay Area one of the most desirable places to live in the world. However, the area isn't suited for the growth it's seen over the years. Apartments cannot be built fast enough and those that already exist are a hot commodity. As someone who does not live in a rent controlled apartment, I've seen my rent increase 30% in three years and that was with my landlords cutting me a lot of slack for being a good tenant.

My apartment though - has not seen 30% of improvements. If anything, the quality of living in my area has decreased sharply. With questionable neighbors and even more questionable people visiting the local hot spots, safety and sanitation had become a big problem. However, finding a new place was out of the question. For as much as our apartment in San Diego will cost, we could barely find an in-law apartment in someone's garage in Glen Park. To me, it seemed like the City was becoming a third world country - with apartments only rich can afford and concessions made for low income housing, the middle class of the Bay Area (which would easily be upper class anywhere else) have no place to go.

We thought about other cities in the Bay Area but everywhere we could think of meant longer commutes, living in a place we weren't excited about, and all for what wasn't much savings... so we decided to look elsewhere.

Actually I'm just going because there
is a bar called The Lincoln Room
Jk... it closed :(

If I had to decide what would exist in my perfect city, I would want a place that had that small city, fun, young feel of San Francisco but with the weather and beaches of LA that I've missed so much. It didn't take long to decide on San Diego. We browsed prices and looked at the lifestyle down there and it was clearly a great place. I'd been there a few times to visit my brother and always had a great time.

So all of that above - that's been on repeat out of my mouth when people ask why we are moving. And then someone said "but I'm sure a fresh start would be nice too..."

And the mask of bullshit just fell away.

All those things above are definitely what sparked the move and what sound great in conversation, but I'd be lying to you if I didn't say there was more to the story. I've had a lot of great memories in San Francisco. I have some of the best friends ever. However, for every good memory, there are bad ones too. I had my heart broken for the first time. I met a lot of jerks. I lost friends. I've made poor choices. I worry when I go out that I'll bump into someone I dated. My heart races when I think about what would happen if I ran into my ex-boyfriend. And although we already were well into our plans to move, when Rocco died it really felt like the final straw on a big pile of straws of bad memories. Bad memories make you stronger. They make you into a better person. They help you realize what's important. But most of all - they really suck. Bad memories hurt and break your heart a little whenever you have a reminder of them even if everything else in your life is super.

The idea of going to a place where I have a little family and a few acquaintances, and a giant blank slate sounds amazing - and I get to do it with a grumpy cat and the best boyfriend ever in an apartment I am so excited to call my future home in a city that looks like a wonderful place to live. I'm excited to have a fresh start with him and Callie and hopefully a new little addition to our family (a puppy guys - just a puppy) and to do it all in a place where we can afford to live comfortably and save for our future.