So it’s definitely been a week from hell. And it all started within an hour of being in San Francisco. My flight landed on Monday, May 11th at about 1PM. My dad met me at the airport (he had a different flight and was planning on helping me get situated for the first week) with a rental car and drove us down to my place located a bit east of the Financial District on 4th and Folsom.

We were supposed to meet my renter to let us in, but since he was out to lunch we decided to get a bite to eat as well. Unfortunately, this is where we screwed up BIG TIME, because we left our stuff in the car. Starving from not eating breakfast and being on the flight from Wisconsin, we went to sushi down the street. Literally 40 minutes later when we were done eating, our car was smashed in. Both mine and my dads laptop bags were gone. Pretty much all of our electronics, my passport, my blank checkbook, and countless other things I can’t remember were gone.

I can’t tell you how violated, depressed, and disturbed I was when we saw the car smashed in. I felt scared, angry, and actually pretty damn surprised. We literally parked directly in front of the door of the loft (the door and the wall to the loft lobby are completely glass), with two security cameras pointed at the vehicle, in the middle of the day. Fortunately for the thief though, the security cameras just so happened to be in the middle of a 15 minute maintenance, and didn’t capture him doing the deed. A coincidence? I’m still wondering that…

So, after screaming profanities in the street and laying down on the sidewalk for a few minutes, my dad and I came to our senses and called the police. Apparently in SF if someone doesn’t see the crime, the cops don’t come to you, you have to go to them. And even more fortunate for the thieves, no one saw the crime. So my dad and I drove to the police station with one window smashed out and filled out a police report. In our panicked state of mind we tried to recollect what was stolen from the car in a police station full of people complaining about their spousal abuse, parking tickets, and pretty much anything you could think of. We felt worthless, the police were so burned out from the massive amount of people there that really a couple of travelers with their laptops stolen was yesterdays news and didn’t really matter. Regardless, we filled out the report, moved the rest of the stuff that was left in the car into the loft, and spent the entire night panicking about identity theft, calling our credit card companies, banks, and fraud bureaus. A quote from my dad, “Welcome to fucking San Francisco”.

We really didn’t sleep too much during the night, my dad told me that all he could think about was how bad he felt about the whole thing. He felt like it was his fault because he should have known better. But I don’t blame him, we were both hungry and just weren’t thinking. And we really didn’t know that the area we were in was as bad as it was. We found out later from the security guard that there are drug deals, pimps, and prostitutes just down the street. Cute.

Luckily for us, insurance is going to be able to help us with about half of the damages. Only one of our laptops is covered, my HD video camera is covered, and the various other stuff is covered too. We are probably only losing a grand worth of stuff. Only. Hah. Isn’t that sad? What’s important though is that I learned my lesson. If you give them the opportunity, the asshole thieves of San Francisco will be on top of it within minutes. You have to be on top of your game, and aware of your surroundings at all times. These criminals are desperate, and they will take advantage of you if you slip up.

In an attempt to relax a little bit, my dad and I spent the next morning in Fisherman’s Wharf. We walked all along the piers, and it actually was slightly relaxing and gave me a little hope of happiness to come at my stay here. We walked around Pier 39, saw the sea lions laying on the docks, and even checked one thing off my to do list in San Francisco! We visited the Musee Mecanique! It was awesome, I got my fortune told by a wizard gypsy, arm wrestled a mechanical wrestler, and watched one of Marilyn Monroe’s first films.

After walking around for the entire morning my dad and I were pretty exausted, both mentally and physically from the stress, so we just went back to the apartment and chilled. Still without laptops, we were disconnected. It freakin sucked. We went out to eat at a Buca di Beppos down the street from where I lived, I had a nice glass of wine, and went back home to sleep. On the second day of being in San Francisco, both my dad and I were freaking depressed. We had just been screwed so hard and our minds still hadn’t recovered yet. I wanted to go home, see my girlfriend, and feel comfortable again. Living in the middle of the hood was scary as hell, and the neighborhood wasn’t what I expected of San Francisco. I was ready to meet awesome, exciting, happy, and friendly people. What I got was a mixture of bums that piss in the middle of the street and thugs selling drugs.

Needless to say, my dad and I felt it was probably a good idea to get out of the area as soon as possible. The first thing we did the next day was go to the Apple store on Chestnut street to get my laptop back so we could reconnect and start changing passwords on all of our online accounts. We met this awesome dude that worked there, and he told us that I should look around the Sunset district for a place to live and that getting a new place would most likely be a cinch. He even gave me his number and offered to show me around if I needed the help. A frickin AWESOME guy. He was our first glimmer of hope in the hell that we had been living. My dad and I literally walked out of the door with smiles on our faces. We were soooo happy. We drove around the sunset district, by SFSU, and really felt a whole different atmosphere. It was actually the hilly, sunny, and happy San Francisco that I wanted. I loved it. And I wanted to live there.

After that we went home, emailed a bunch of people on craigslist, and got a response within an hour. We drove to a couple places and landed on a really awesome place right across the street from SFSU. Right next to the Muni line (public transportation), its a little far from where I work, but the community is incredible. Students are constantly walking around, it just feels right. Not to mention the people in the house are extremely friendly, one of the girls that live here is a huge transformers fan and I think my geeky personality will fit right in. We put an offer on the place that night.

On Thursday, my dads last full day in San Francisco, we went to the Apple store to replace my iPhone, and met another AWESOME dude. He gave me his card as well, and told me that he was leaving the Apple store and that he would vouch for me if I applied for a position in the store. I’m really hoping I can get a part time job there. After that my dad had a business trip across the bay bridge, and then we spent the afternoon at the bank trying to open a new checking account and get money to put down on the new place. We went to target and the food store, got all my essentials, and set up base camp at the new place.

Today my dad left and I’ve spent most of the day trying to get all of my data on this new computer, cleaning and organizing my room, and actually writing this blog post right here. I hope to get some video up at some point. Hopefully my next updates will be more frequent and not quite as long. And hopefully less depressing. Damn.

I think I got jipped on my first week, and I really think and hope that I got the wrong impression of San Francisco. This can’t be it. I’m hoping that once I start my internship at Rev3 next Tuesday things will start coming together and everything will be all happy again. I’m already feeling better sleeping in the new place. And hey, I’ve got a pretty positive attitude, I’m going to make this experience awesome no matter what. I’m frickin’ living the dream!

I miss and love you all! I really do!!!

Original Post