chateaumarmont-summer

[chateaumarmont-summer]

08/11/2019

I know it’s been some time and may I say, my life is incredibly different than when I last wrote on a tumblr. 

first of all, I got into grad school. I know I was in the midst of applying when I was writing in my last tumblr last but I’ve actually committed to a school and will be attending one in the fall. I leave for the University of Edinburgh in 17 days actually. 17 days. wow.

secondly, I’m currently sitting in my friend’s, Law, computer chair in his apartment in SF. I’ve been here for the last 7 days and will be leaving on Tuesday, August 13. my time here has been quite interesting in ways I am not quite sure I comprehend yet and that’s why I’m writing in you. I’ve been in SF since Monday, August 5. before this, I was at Lollapalooza 2019 in Chicago, IL with some amazing people: Lawrence (Law) Luk, Stephanie Cho, Kirstie Llanllio, and Ryan A. (don’t quite know his last name by memory but I assure you, we’re friends). Lolla, for one thing, was incredibly but that in itself warrants its own post, so stay tuned.

I decided to spend the summer before grad school with the people I care about. that meant coming to SF for an extended period of time to hang out with the boys who’ve oddly become some of the most important people in my life—at least right now. I think proper introductions are in order:

Joshua Anatalio: Joshua, “Josh”, is a software engineer at Apple. he’s what started this whole SF friendship in the first place. we met at Hotel Garuda in Seattle, November 2017, because we decided to both go that show by ourselves and met up as complete strangers. he lives on one of the main streets in SF proper and is dating a lovely gem named Caydie Tran. that didn’t always used to be the case though and the Josh I knew when we first met was very different than the Josh I’m friends with now. it’s been a long time coming but he’s in a good place now.

Lawrence Luk: Lawrence, but we call him “Law”, is a technical product manager at Uber. I met him through Josh Anatalio who is his best friend from when they were at UCSD for undergrad. Law is roommates with Josh’s girlfriend, Caydie. boy, was that a whole story on how that relationship came about and Law played a crucial role, I think. out of all the boys, I think it’s safe to say that Law and I are the closest. we’ve definitely spent the most time together but besides that, we take care of each other and support each other in ways I’m not sure many people do.

Tony Huang: Tony is a software engineer at NextDoor. he moved to SF from Boston last September 2018 and now lives deep in SF—Pacific Heights is the neighborhood. Tony was Josh’s roommate during one summer internship and that’s how he ended up in this friend group after moving here. (we really have Josh to thank for all of us coming together.) Tony is an interesting one. he does a lot of stuff that I otherwise shouldn’t (and typically don’t) agree nor stand for but, weirdly, I relate to his thought processes. he has a bit of a reputation amongst the others in this group but hey, he owns it and I respect that...maybe even attracted to it.

carrying on: I’ve been staying with Law in south SF, which is about 15-20 minutes away from what most people understand to be “SF proper”.

08/12/2019 [CONTINUATION]:

good morning! this is me continuing my story the next morning. well, it’s definitely 1112 on Monday, August 12. Law, Steph and I are all on our laptops doing various things. of course there’s Steph on a conference call ruling the world/stressing herself the fuck out. Law is sorta working, sorta not but hey, that’s tech for ya. here I am not really being an overly productive adult because I have no real responsibilities right now but I’m doing the best I can.

let me continue what I was saying last night: I’ve been staying with Law in south SF which is generally a 15-25 minute drive away from the main part of the city. I went with him into work for...3 days last week, which happen to be the only days he actually went into the office anyway. TECH, AMIRITE?! but I at least got to see his office which is really cool. on Thursday last week, I went in but Law had meetings pretty much all day and didn’t really want to leave me to my own devices (literally. I would have literally been on my computer by myself in the cafeteria.) and hung out with Tony instead.

so Tony works at NextDoor, like I mentioned earlier in the introduction section of this post. NextDoor just happens to be the building next to Uber downtown. they share an office with Twitter, except NextDoor really only operates one floor, so they’re mostly Twitter buildings. anyway, it was easy to meet Tony for lunch on Thursday because he works so close to Law’s building. we ended up getting Pho in a neighborhood called Tenderloin, which is apparently where a lot of homeless people are. the smell of the streets was quite.....lovely....yeah...but after that, we walked around a bit. we made it to Hayes Valley and sat at a park for a while just talking about a bunch of stuff. afterwards, we got boba from Boba Guys and he went back to work. it sounds like we didn’t spend a lot of time together, which would make sense given that it was a work day but we hung out for almost 3 hours. like, he literally left work for 3 hours in the middle of the day....tech, amirite?

disclaimer: I’m talking about Thursday because that’s when a lot of stuff started to happen. Thursday-Sunday were the most eventful because mostly people were at work/recovering from Lolla the week before. understandable, right?

[chateaumarmont-summer]

summer of short stories, part 3 - an introduction

here are my thoughts and emotions, whatever they mean. my recounts will be sometimes as they occur or after-the-fact but sometimes they will occur completely out of order. it is what it is.