If you ask me, the key benefit of making yourself freer and more flexible is being able to take advantage of great opportunities when they come up. Less baggage, more options. So I was excited when I discovered (through the serendipity of Facebook) that a friend of mine was about to embark on some extended travel in Southeast Asia leaving her San Francisco apartment vacant.
After a few emails and calls back and forth, and a quick conversation with my boss, it was settled. I would be taking care of things at her place – living and working from her apartment for a little less than a month while she was away!
Let me take a quick step back. About that conversation with my boss…. I was pretty nervous about pitching this idea to him. You never really know how a conversation like this can go, but I’m firmly of the mindset that it can’t hurt to ask. You get out of life what you settle for, but I also knew that I had a pretty friendly audience. He’s been very happy with my work, and we’d recently had an unrelated conversation about how I can do my job from anywhere since I already work from a branch office and not our corporate headquarters. All I really need is a laptop and a cell phone. In the end, the conversation was a non-event. He said yes, and I promptly bought my flight to SFO.
I’ve been contemplating making a move to San Francisco and was itching for a little change of scenery so this has been the perfect opportunity to get an extended stay in the city for far less than a hotel would cost and without having to commit to anything just yet.
I’ve been in San Francisco for almost three weeks now, and I’ve had a blast exploring neighborhoods all over the city – SoMa, The Mission, Hayes Valley, The Marina, Inner Richmond, Outer Richmond, Outer Sunset, North Beach, Russian Hill, Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown…
I’ll share more details and plenty of pictures very soon.
*Update: Now that I’m living in San Francisco, I’m planning to share more about the city from time to time.
