The end of 2015 brought big change to my life — a new apartment and a new roommate. Cesar and I moved into a lovely old Victorian in San Francisco’s Mission District a couple of weeks before Christmas.
We hustled to get things unpacked and in place, and then we dropped everything to head home for the holidays. As a result, I think we’re just now starting to feel settled in. This past weekend we put together the last remaining piece of Ikea-style shelves and discovered an incredible restaurant on a residential street only two blocks away. Things are mostly in their places. Our walls aren’t entirely bare, and only a few boxes remain.
I always forget what a big project moving is, how stressful it can be, and how much is upends our routines. This move was doubly so since I added a roommate who happens to be my boyfriend, after years of living alone. As the packing began in early December and my studio filled with boxes, my anxiety grew too. I was still just as excited, but also vaguely on edge.
Adapting to life after my small studio, I realized just how custom made my routines were to that particular place. Making my coffee two cups at a time. Curling up on my couch every morning to write. Leaving my yoga mat unrolled in the middle of the apartment. Getting off the bus near the top of Nob Hill to pick up dinner and run errands all within blocks of home. Walking Sutter Street to and from work. I’d grown to love these patterns and that apartment. I didn’t realize how much they grounded me, how much they were embedded in the sense of home I felt when I walked in the door.
Shortly after we’d moved in together, one of my good friends shared that first few months of living with her now husband were the hardest of their entire relationship. Living together presents many more mundane opportunities for fights and disagreement. Thankfully, it also presents great shared moments when you least expect them.
Now that the most stressful part of the move is done and we have a few weeks of living together behind us, I’m no longer on edge, just excited. Excited to explore a whole new neighborhood. Excited to have rooms with doors again and an extra bedroom/office with a sleeper sofa for visitors. Excited to go to sleep and wake up next to someone I love.
Excited to make some new patterns.
First up, we got a cool coffeemaker with a much bigger pot and an automatic timer!
