Giving Thanks

Last year, Matt came up from San Diego to spend Thanksgiving with my family in San Francisco. He experienced his first Thanksgiving with my family, a small San Franciscan condo filled to the brim with family members and all types of food (turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, rice, sweet and sour pork, noodles, etc). Then we drove over to Reno and did Thanksgiving all over again.

What a difference a year makes. 

This year, we are sitting at home in our own apartment in San Francisco, watching football, prepping some side dishes (twice baked potatoes and sweet potato casserole) and waiting for my mom to pick us up to head over to my aunt's house near Pier 39. Same thing as last year. Tomorrow we'll be driving to Reno to do the same thing with his family.

We live together (in the SAME city) in San Francisco, all the time. We commute to work (him to Sausalito, and me to Mountain View). We both have full-time jobs at companies we adore. He has (finally) graduated. Last year, he was still in school, and I was still hating my job at Morgan Stanley. This year, he works at the firm that he has been interning at for two summers. I work at LinkedIn and my coworkers are some of my closest friends now. Matt bought a car that he couldn't be more happy with.

I'm grateful for the little things in life, having the day off today; our casual walk to Starbucks and grocery store this morning; how beautiful it is in the city today; seeing my brother in a few hours.

I'm also grateful for the things that are constant in my life: Matt, my family, his family, my friends, my job, our home. I love all you amazing people and thank God for you every day in my life :)

I'm excited to see what the next year brings (including a new niece or nephew!).

San Francisco with the Evans

The Sunday before Matt and I had to move out, his fam bam came to visit us in San Francisco. And you know what we love more than visitors in SF....doing tourist-y things with our visitors. Of course, being the awesome parents they are, Matt's parents (and his sister) let us drag them around our favorite parts of San Francisco. They arrived around 11am (they drove 8 hours back and forth just to hang out with us). When they got here, they were starving (just like the two of us waiting for them). We decided to take them to Fisherman's Wharf for bread bowls filled with chowder from Boudin. If you haven't been to Boudin...you're missing out. They practically invented sourdough bread. This place practically defines San Francisco for me. We decided to sit upstairs and it was such a beautiful day out. We had a great view of the ocean and the docks...very typical San Francisco without the fog (for once). We walked around Pier 39 because it is probably my favorite place ever. I know it's tourist-y and overpriced and loud and crazy (but how could you NOT love it?). We meandered through the stores a little bit and watched a magic show.

After walking off our bread bowls (kind of), we decided to go somewhere new. Don't laugh. Matt and I have never been to Ghiradelli Square. Seriously. For a girl who loves chocolate and a guy who loves being a tourist in San Francisco, I swear neither of us have ever been there. So what better way to top off an excellent day but with ooey gooey melting chocolate and creamy ice cream (I know I'm killing myself just thinking about it). Matt's mom was the only one who had ever been there before, so it was a treat for everyone. Matt's parents each finished their own Ghiradelli sundae...I am so incredibly impressed. Abby and I shared a sundae and Matt just got two scoops of cookie dough ice cream in a waffle cone (if this kid ever ordered anything but chocolate chip cookie dough, it might blow my mind). After that day, I am definitely a believer in the Ghiradelli difference. Matt and I will definitely be back. It might now be one of my favorite places in San Francisco :)

BIG NEWS!

So remember how I told you that Matt and I had big news and we were waiting for something before we were going to let you all know. Well....we're ready. Here goes.

matt moved to san francisco for the summer and we got our own apartment together. and he is pretty much working his dream job right now.
 
i know. sometimes i can't believe it either. we are living in the sunset district in an in-law unit that is HUGE and beautiful and quaint. our landlord is awesome (and told us we could pick her vegetables if we wanted fresh produce). we have our own room, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. I will post pictures as soon as matt gets them uploaded. isn't it incredible? we are like real people. we cook, we clean, we lounge...it's awesome. if any of our friends want to visit, this is your official invitation to come over. we have LOTS of room (who would have thought I would ever be able to say that in san francisco).

the living room:

the bedroom:

the bathroom:

the kitchen: 

our street:

Moving on...matt is working at backen, gillam and kroeger architects. His official title is architectural intern, but he gets to do all sorts of neat stuff around the office, like check out some really cool architecture drawings (and pack them into boxes), run office errands (where he spent 70 bucks on creamer one time) and even drive the boss man's BMW around to get it gassed and washed. plus he is around architectural geniuses day and night. and they are practically over the moon to have an awesome an intern as matt. pretty much win win all around.

matt's new commute to work

his new place of employment in sausalito, ca

we are pretty much living the dream right now. plus we live in a neighborhood that's beautiful and cold and foggy but wonderful. tonight, we made dinner, cleaned the house, packed lunches for tomorrow, did the laundry, and even went for a nice evening walk around the neighborhood. i love it here. plus there is soooo much great food around here :) and i get to be with matt all the time!! quite the change from our recent year, but definitely worth the wait (even if it means i have to get up earlier for work because i have a longer drive).

also, we decided we are going to do this challenge. it's called the 100 best things to eat in san francisco before you die. we are going to try and knock it outta the park. if you remember, we started this blog two years ago because we made a list of things we wanted to do. well....here we go again. wish us luck!!!


so to give you an update on our week....we moved in on monday (unfortunately, we were too tired to have any big 4th of july plans). we did see a couple fireworks from our window. we have a pretty good view! on tuesday, we went to matt's first giants game of the season with my company. go morgan stanley! we pretty much paid 4 bucks for a hot chocolate and that's it. the tickets were free, the hot dogs were free, and the beer was free. matt got to come because we had extra tickets. we also learned that the n-line lightrail drops us off directly in front of the 2nd street and king entrance, and the stop is one block away from our house. best news ever. we are sooooo hooked on this place. of course, wednesday my entire office was exhausted because the game didn't end until 10ish. but it was worth it. my company peeps are really cool! thanks morgan stanley.

look how close we were to amy g!!

wednesday night was pretty low key. we made dinner, went to target in emeryville (it's right next to oakland lol) and picked up a free boxspring for our room. awesome. nothing is better than free ninety nine. anyways, on thursday...guess where we went. AT&T PARK. again. since matt cain finally hit the 1000 strikeout mark, tickets were ten bucks (and since we hadn't expected matt to come on tuesday), we had bought these tickets a week ago. i love at&t park...especially with good friends (thanks for coming nicole, lunani, david and jp). it was well worth being tired the next day (even though the game ended at 9:30, we didn't get home til 11 because the muni lightrail delayed for almost half an hour).

the view from the bay bridge (coming back from berk)

finally it was friday. i love fridays. congrats surviving your first week of working matty. on friday we drove up to sunnyvale and hung out with my mom and brother (since matt didn't really spend that much time with them on monday since we were in a hurry to move in). we went to dinner at this mongolian bbq place (which had free ice cream yay) and watched the giants game. we went to bed super early on friday night....guess we can't rage like we used to. those were the good ol days ;) on saturday, we ran a couple errands (picked up my bday present from the post office, drove my brother around, went to the sunnyvale farmers market) and went to the mall. got some cool stufff. always a good time. and last night we went out with a couple of my friends.

sunnyvale farmer's market  

my new birthday present!!

our new super embarassing
but awesome shoes

anyways, i think i need to stop blogging for tonight. i'm exhausted. but have a good week everybody!

ps it's my birthday on tuesday :)

The Fray Concert!

Guess who's HERE!?!?!?!?

THAT GUY!

Matt arrived yesterday afternoon via SFO and I picked him up! We had big plans....Fray Concert at the Fillmore!! A couple weeks ago, I met up with this random dude from Craigslist (haha this sounds so sketchy) and bought two tickets to this concert....because Matt LOVES THE FRAY (actually this is like the understatement of the year. He loves the fray like i love taylor swift). Anyways, we decided to meet up with my friend Nicole for some drinks in San Francisco. We were on our way to 21st amendment, when we stumbled upon this cute Mexican restaurant, Maya. They had two dollar tacos (and 21st doesn't really have happy hour), so we decided to stop here. The tacos here....are small, but DELICIOUS. We recommend eating here :) Afterwards, we decided to head over to the Fillmore area. We found out that the doors weren't opening until 8 (and it was only 7:30), so of course we decided to eat and drink some more. We found a cute restaurant called Rassela's that turned out to be a jazz club that served Ethiopian food (I know, random) and stopped there because they had the Giants game on. Good decision. They had yummy chicken wings. We finished watching the rest of the Giants game (great win by lincecum. Welcome to the majors Brandon Crawford!! Grand slam baby) and finally decided it was time to go into the Fillmore. It's beautiful there. Walking through the hallways....there are hundreds of photos of famous musicians who have performed at the Fillmore in the past. This place has so much history and it's the best venue ever. It's known for its intimate setting, which really allows concert goers and the bands to really interact. It's amazing. For the fray, it was like a big open room where everyone stood and rocked out with the band. The Fray is such an amazing band (this is our second time seeing them) and they never cease to impress with their live performances. They started off with a new song and went straight into Over My Head. They played all their greatest songs, How to Save a Life, Happiness, Syndicate, All At Once....and they played at least 4-5 new songs. They even dedicated to Justin Bieber!!!! It was Never Say Never. Haha appropriate. Their dedication only made me love them more :) It really was the best concert experience I've ever had. Plus Isaac, the lead singer, parted the crowd and walked through the crowd high-fiving people. It was AWESOME. And it was Isaac's birthday 18 hours before, so we tried to start a happy birthday song with the people around us, but it didn't catch on :( Anyways, I'm excited for the Fray's new music to come out....and even more excited to go to more concerts at the Fillmore!!

 

It SNOWED!

In San Francisco. In Cupertino. In Santa Cruz. In Saratoga. Everywhere but sunnyvale. But my friends and I drove up to skyline boulevard and we got a little glimpse of the magic. It was almost a half hour drive up there, in the dark, and the road was pretttyyy windy. But we survived. And we found snow :) and a great view!

I keep on hopin', and prayin', and wishin' FOR SNOW!

And I'm not the only one. Check it out!!!! The entire bay area is waiting with me. And for good reason. In case you don't know, the last time there was a snowstorm in San Francisco....it was 1976. nineteen seventy six. I wasn't even ALIVE then. And the last time those people saw snow, well they must be at least 35 now. Look at what a white San Francisco it was last time...

So I will keep my vigil. And keep checking my phone every few minutes to make sure there are still snowflakes on the weather app. If you remember, last time I checked Sunnyvale, and it said it would snow on Saturday. Well it didn't even have snowflakes in San Francisco yesterday...but check it out now!!!!

I am literally dying of anticipation for this snow storm. I know it might not happen, and I really shouldn't get my hopes up....but I really can't help it. But tomorrow night, my friend Nicole and I are going up to highway 9 where they practically guaranteed snow! Hopefully we can throw some snowballs around :)

spontaneous day trip to san fran with nicole!

The week after the giants beat the padres to clinch the NL West title, I found out that the San Francisco Chronicle released an extra edition of their paper on Sunday after the Giants' victory (thanks to Jonathan Sanchez ♥). After I found this out, I made it my goal to get several copies of this paper. Well after maybe about 10 phone calls to different departments of the Chronicle, I finally found out that I could pick up some copies at the main building in San Francisco. Seeing as how San Francisco is almost an hour away, I didn't want to just drive out there and then drive back by myself. So I enlisted the help of my friend Nicole. Nicole moved home from San Diego like me, and we both needed this trip to the city. So I drove to Nicole's place and she drove us out to San Francisco on a beautiful Friday morning. Well, by the time we got to the city, it was almost lunch time so we stopped by the Chronicle, where I marched to the front desk and they handed me 5 copies for 10 bucks (SOO WORTH IT!) Here is the glorious paper itself :)

brian wilson looks glorious

After I had the golden copies in my hand, I decided to take Nicole to this place I had seen a few weeks ago for lunch. It's called the American Grilled Cheese Kitchen. This may or may not be the best decision of my life (I'll let you guess..it's not the latter). As you know, I am a believer in grilled cheese and I am pretty sure this place has mastered it (I also love mac and cheese and want to try this glorious place in NYC someday). It's a little pricey, around 7-8 bucks for a sandwich, but I would definitely go back. It was pretty packed at lunch time, so I think it's pretty popular in the area. I also forgot to tell you that you can park in this adorable loop with a park in the center. If I could live in SF, I would want to live in this little circle. Did I mention this place is like a 2 minute walk to AT&T park (yes, Matt I did just say 2 minutes)? Anyways, this place might be one of my favorite places in San Francisco!! I'm also a little ashamed to admit it, but we did get beers with lunch just because they were 3 bucks during lunch time. Plus it sounded good with my grilled cheese. I got the Piglet sandwich (with ham and apple mustard) and Nicole got the Jalapeno Popper (with bacon and apricot-jalapeno relish). When Matt comes and visits, I am totally taking him here! He will probably die from how deliriously wonderfully amazing these sandwiches are (because he is the reason I love grill cheese).

meet nicole!

Anyways, afterward we wolfed down our yummy sandwiches, I decided that Nicole had to try the delicious watermelon beer from the 21st amendment bar, since it was right across the street. How many times do you get to try watermelon beer (twice for me so far). Trust me, we had no intention of getting beers with anything that day, but it kind of just happened. Nicole loved it! It's hard not to love...it's sweet, crisp, and very refreshing and you get a delicious slice of watermelon with it. I also decided to try a sample of their imperial espresso stout. Not really my cup of tea (or coffee)...but I could see Matt loving this. He loves coffee and he loves beer. It's the perfect combination. I'll have to take him back here to try it. This whole date with Nicole just became a redo list for Matt and I.

espresso stout

Nicole and I decided to do a little shopping at Union Square. We hit up Forever 21 (which might be the biggest one I've ever been in....no joke it's 3 FULL stories), Aldo (where Nicole bought two pairs of boots in different colors because they were only 20 bucks), Urban Outfitters (where I found the cutest book ever....called Other People's Love Letters), and just walked around the square. Did I mention how much I love San Francisco? It's beautiful and alive and crisp and sooooo wonderful there. I would love to find a job and settle down right there. Needless to say, Nicole and I wore ourselves out a little bit shopping and eating! However, next time I'm in SF, I'm going to try their hot dog vendor carts and close my eyes and pretend for a second that I'm in New York City. But that will have to wait til next time. I wish Matt could be here so we could take a spontaneous trip to San Francisco tomorrow :)

i love people who love the giants

PS. Macys in Union Square is ready for Christmas! I'll keep trying to wait til Nov 1 to celebrate and start watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas songs and changing my ringtone to "All I want For Christmas is You."

christmas!!!!

PPS. Did you figure out why I needed 5 copies? Well one for me, and one for matt, and one for my friend Lunani, and one for Matt's brother Josh and one for his parents :)