Okay.

Okay.

I have news.

It appears that the larger forces of the universe are shifting favorably in my direction.

My friend Rebekah, who recently moved to San Francisco, has a friend-of-a-friend who lives in Oakland who is leaving the country in the middle of May for four weeks and needs someone to house/dogsit while she's away. She just called me this evening.

She sounds overjoyed to have me. She's going to let me stay at her house AND watch her dog AND she's going to pay me and ohmygod.

I'm doing it. Everyone, I'm moving to San Francisco.

Here's the tentative plan: I have Honors Convocation/graduation on May 10th and 11th (which is a Saturday and Sunday, respectively). Since my lease ends May 1st, I will have to be moved out of Schuylkill House (my current home in Maryland) by then. My parents are going to hold onto my books until I find a permanent apartment, so they'll take them to PA with them. I will stay in DC, probably with my grandparents or any other willing DC resident (I'd prefer someone actually in the city - it'll be easy to get to work and whatnot, and I'll also be able to see people before I go). I will go to my graduation ceremonies the weekend of the 10th. Then, on the 12th, I'll drive back to Allentown, say my final goodbyes to my family and friends who are still in Allentown (there are, like, two of them) and then... hit the road.

I'm going to do it in a sort of roundabout fashion, I think. I want to make my way up to Minnesota and Wisconsin to see my grandmother/mom's side of the family, since I haven't seen them in over five years. Then I want to go sort of diagonally so I can see Colorado and maybe part of Arizona before going back up to San Francisco. But this is all, y'know, tentative. This is me staring at a map of the US on my computer screen and thinking about all the things I want to see.

Anyway, this is where all of you come in. I need to hear from the following people:

1.) IF YOU LIVE IN THE BAY AREA - I need advice. I need to know good places to look for housing. I need people who are familiar with the area. If you're in the area and you don't mind being my Bay Area go-to people, comment. Make sure to let me know the general area where you live. (Oakland? San Jose? In the city itself?)

2.) IF YOU LIVE ANYWHERE ELSE BETWEEN ALLENTOWN, PA AND SAN FRANCISCO, CA. I don't want to stay at hotels on the way to California, partially because they cost money and partially because I hate hate hate being alone in hotel rooms. So if you live anywhere between the two coasts and you wouldn't mind giving me your couch/shower for a night (even if you don't think you fall along the previously aforementioned route - that route might change), please comment with where you live (just the city/state is fine). You can also email me at carmen dot machado at gmail dot com if you don't want to leave a comment.

3.) IF YOU LIVE IN WASHINGTON, DC and you wouldn't mind letting me and my stuff crash at your place between May 1st and May 11th, please let me know.

4.) IF YOU WANT TO SEE ME BEFORE I LEAVE. That is, it's a given that I'm going to see all of my DC people before I go, but if you've scattered to the wind for some reason and you want to say goodbye, please please please let me know.

5.) IF YOU HAVE MOVED CROSS COUNTRY BEFORE and you have advice (i.e. how do you move roughly 1,000 books in the cheapest way possible?), please comment.

6.) IF YOU HAVE GENERAL ADVICE OR FEEDBACK, comment away. :)

In terms of my stuff, this is what I'm doing: I'm selling all of my furniture except my bed frame, which can be disassembled and fit into a relatively small space. The rule is this: if it doesn't fit in my car, I cannot take it. Period. The exception to this rule is my books. I'm going to leave them with my parents and they are going to mail them to me when I find an apartment.

I've been going through my possessions and throwing out things and sending things to Goodwill. I am not allowed to take what doesn't fit into Beatrice. Not allowed.

(And no, I can't pull a trailer - Beatrice is too small to haul anything.)

I'm going out west.

Ohmygosh.

It's happening. It's happening it's happening it's happening.