Nightmares, problems, and more nightmares ensue...

Well, I wish I could be writing you all some good, exciting, and juicy stories... But this post will actually be a way for me to relieve my frustrations. I will try to stay as calm, collected, and appropriate as possible, but be warned, read on at your own discretion!

To begin, I will fill you in to a little back-history regarding my living situation. Take this as an anecdote from the past.

My roommate, Nicole, is a first grade school teacher, she seems to be a nice woman, fairly down-t0-earth, easygoing, and otherwise chill. I mean we are living in San Francisco. When I met her the first day, things seemed fine and she seemed like a genuine and caring person. One of those types you feel like you can pretty much get along with right off the bat. She is a woman of broad stature, pretty plain and a bit of devious of her name... Anyway, she treated me kindly and helped me out while I was getting to know my way around. She was also very receptive and accepting when I asked her if I would be able to have a visitor come out for some time in July.

As our time together carried on, she became more short and seemingly less friendly. We would still have conversations and what not, but things definitely changed and it became more apparent that they changed after I shared some personal history and stories with her. She was becoming more short with me and more hesitant... Until...

So now we will carry on to almost present day about two weeks ago. My roommate was traveling and I had the house to myself... While this was cozy and a nice thought the reality of the matter turned out to be quite different. She left in quite a disarray and the house, for all intents and purposes resembled something of a New Jersey landfill. Clumps of half-swept dust lay around the floor, dishes scattered about the kitchen - dirty - dirt and garbage debris covering the floors, a kitchen floor that made you afraid to look at it and actually sick if you carried out the task of walking on it's stained and sticky surface. The bathroom was littered with different 'products' and she found the kitchen table the most appropriate place for her 'womanly items.' A sty fit for a pig indeed.

Of course I wouldn't be complaining so much if the following hadn't have happened:

1): A few weeks into my stay with my roommate, she texted me at work indicating she was borrowing the heater to give to a friend... While she didn't ask me if this was okay, I didn't think much of it, until I never received it back... It's not fun waking up to a 58 degree house...

2): On one day of my roommates travels I texted her with a simple request; I asked her if I would be able to purchase an air bed for my room and move my old bed to the basement. I explained that the bed she had for me was unbearable to sleep on anymore. Furthermore what I didn't explain to her out of respect was the fact the bed made the most god-awful moans after the slightest thought of shifting or moving positions... Anyway, She responded saying she didn't want her house dismantled and that I shouldn't be moving the bed to the basement and some other interesting items that just sort of shocked me, especially after paying 750/month to rent the room. Anyhow, I bought an air bed anyway and kept my current bed in my room nice, neat and quaint.

3): Around the same time, my roommate also texted me and noted she may have some problems with Alec who is coming out over the summer. She expressed concerns now that she didn't have before. So this was disconcerting but she reassured me that we would figure everything out and that it was 'no worries.'

4): A few days later, After I left for work and she returned home from her trip, she texted me again asking if I paid the rent. After I proceeded and said that I had, she continued and stated she was no longer comfortable with Alec coming out and that it wouldn't happen. (This is well after she agreed and had no problems, and Alec's airfare and living arrangements were planned). Well this caused some great consternation to be cast over the day and over my head, more specifically. I replied back to my roommate telling her this is quite unacceptable and stating that we had an agreement. She continued saying she didn't care and that I should be responsible for my actions and what not. The whole thing ended in a great deal of turmoil and me feeling overwhelmed and taken advantage of.

I conveyed my concern to her to no avail. She turned into a cold-hearted monster, at least it seemed to me, and she wanted nothing to do with helping me out or even showing the slightest bit of compassion. I explained that I was flying Alec out as a present for his birthday and that I couldn't afford to do anything else as far as a hotel or other arrangements at this point. The only other option seemed to be moving out and finding a more accommodating place.

And to this comment she said that's fine but she wouldn't be refunding my rent (that I had just paid the same day, for a month's period of time, after which she went back on her word)... Pure evilness.

She continued the barrage of evilness... Shortly after these events, the following day, she texted me yelling at me for installing an unauthorized 'wireless' in her house. While I did install a wireless network in her house on Memorial Day weekend, she was completely fine with this and had no problems whatsoever. The wireless was installed because the current wireless she had at her house didn't work well at all and I couldn't use my computer in my bedroom, an obvious problem. She continued to tell me that I did this without permission and that she "didn't know what I was capable of" and a myriad of other things.

There is more that follows, but not any of it worth mentioning. I am utterly frustrated and appalled by her character and can't understand how an individual makes this transition from a Dr. Jekyll to a Ms. Hyde... Some things are just not understandable, I guess.

So that is the current situation, I feel uneasy and just not at peace staying in this apartment any longer. I am working on getting out as soon as possible and hope to do so by this weekend. I will keep everyone up to date and I am really hoping for the best...

In the mean time, there will be a vacancy somewhere near 36th Ave & Lincoln Way, San Francisco, CA. But I advise all those interested, be wary.

Summer 2010 - Back to California... and Google!

Hi all, It's been over a year I think since I have updated the blog... well overdue! Sorry to all those following for my lack of updates things have just been crazy busy and I certainly didn't mean to trail off at the end of the summer last year.

Anyway, so I'm sure all of my followers (mainly family) are curious as to what I am up to this year. I'll try to fill you in as best as possible.

My flight out to California left at about 6AM on Saturday May, 15 2010. It was a really sad day, considering everyone I had to leave behind... Anyway, as always, I was especially nervous and paranoid about getting on the flight; alas it was fine and everything turned out well...

Total flight time was about nine hours to San Francisco International Airport. I landed, retreived my bags and was off to my new house in the city!

I arrived to my new house (google maps > 36th ave. & lincoln way, san francisco, ca. if you are interested in seeing the location on a map or on street view). My roommates name is Nicole, a first grade school teacher who absolutely loves her job. She strikes me as a nice and welcoming and fairly down to earth.

I had some adjusting issues off the bat, California, this year, is not nearly as alluring to me and seems to be somewhat bittersweet; the city is fun, but I'm too far from everything/one and the weather is absolutely terrible. Not to mention leaving everyone behind was... disheartening to say the least.

As always, my first ventures around San Francisco was to explore the city, or in my case, my neck of the woods. There are some decent restaurants a short stroll down the street from me, and light rail is available to take me anywhere in the city I need to go, at the expense of about an hours worth of time.

My official start at Google was Tuesday, May 18. It was an interesting day, not all too exciting as the day consisted of the normal HR nightmares, filing W-2's, I-9's etc, etc. All stuff I also did last year, so this year's orientation was especially dry. Nonetheless things picked up when I was able to reacquaint with my other intern buddies and got to my office and met my manager and other important folks.

My first week at Goggle was pretty fun, I just played around getting my feet wet and (re)learning the corp infrastructure and operations side of things. It almost felt like I just had an extended vacation from last year.

Subsequent weeks of work proved to be taxing yet very informative, educational and interesting. I am learning a lot (more so than last year). I have been working mainly in Tech Stop 46 (that won't mean much to most of you) which is one of the busier Tech Stops. My primary responsibilities, this year, include providing end-user support and assisting with core infrastructure duties at Google. (Last year I was more focused on developing internal applications and whatnot). Anyway, I am also working on developing a system to roll client backup software out to Mac OSX machines.

Most of you, whom I talked to initially, I believe were under the assumption I would be working in San Bruno at the YouTube office. Unfortunately after some last minute changes, I was moved to my office of yesteryear, Mountain View. While this is fine and dandy (as I enjoy the MTV office) it is also very taxing because it effectively pushed my commute from about 1.5 hours everyday to almost 4 hours everyday! NOT FUN!

Work continued on, at the expense of my sanity, while I seemed to be functioning at less and less of a capacity everyday. At my final point, I discussed with my manager my problems with my commute and he agreed to let me work out of the San Bruno office two days a week (Mondays and Tuesdays) which is a nice little break and switches things up a bit. The YouTube (San Bruno) office is fun, playful, and exciting albeit low key and un-stressful, so it is rather enjoyable.

As far as some of the things I have been doing to keep occupied, most notably, I talk to a certain very special someone pretty much everynight which helps out tremendously and is what is keeping my sanity intact =] I have also been hanging out with the cool interns in MTV including Christian, Robert, Kenny, and Lestat. All great guys who are very fun to work with and hang out with. A few weekends ago, I was with Kenny and we had a great time venturing up Highway one from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking and unlike anything I have ever seen before. I have some pictures posted on Facebook, just check out the album. (If you're not friends with me on Facebook, make sure you add me!)

Other than that, things are fine, the housing / roommate situation is not nearly as nice as it was with Christine last year, but I'm managing. My roommate is nice, but not as laid back or chill as Christine was. I'm also getting frustrated with a few things that I won't mention. (If you're interested, talk to me in person). Unfortunately, I didn't realize the house I would be living at is not really located near anything all too exciting. I live in the Outer Sunset district of SF and there is really just nothing to do. Live and learn...

As far as anything else that is going on, there isn't much. Let me know if you have any questions, write on my Facebook wall for clarifications and I will update and post new items as you demand! =]

That's all for now, once again, sorry for the long lapse in postings!

Cheers,

-Nick