Already great and wonderful

My aunt and uncle are moving to a new apartment soon. For the first time in nearly three decades, they will have a proper living room (proper, as the British like to say). And a living room deserves the single best furniture in a home that isn’t the bed: a super comfortable couch.

Is there a better feeling than plopping down on a couch after a long day at work? I don’t think so. Even in this tiny studio apartment of mine, I bought a chaise lounger because the relaxation of laying down is that important to me. As much as I prefer the Japanese aesthetic of limited furniture and floor-based seating, the West got it correct: a large couch is where it is at.

This sort of comfort used to be the domain of kings and aristocracy. Nowadays, any common man can afford a couch with bit of saving. Perhaps it’s incorrect to compare timelines this far apart, but truly, the middle class of today live a life better than monarchs of old. Emperors of China wouldn’t even be able to comprehend luxuries like flushing toilets, and on-demand hot water. He did have a comfy dragon throne to sit on, though…

I think these sort of comparisons are an important exercise to keep us in perspective. Sure it may be worthwhile to keep chasing the better next, but what we already have - the most basic of modern living standards like regularly scheduled garbage disposal - is pretty great and wonderful.

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That’s home.

Where's the furniture?

I am moving in two weeks, and part of that process is buying some new pieces of furniture. Nothing mysterious here: I am going to IKEA. I really dig the company’s furniture designs (and the meatballs from the dinning hall), and the notoriously bare instructions don’t flummox me one bit. It’s about convenience, too: for an impatiently anxious person like me, it’s helpful to do all the furniture shopping at one place.

However, there’s a problem: the bloody pandemic. It seems I am amongst the many with grand moving plans during these times (waving goodbye to the folks leaving this great state of California), so there’s a bit of a shortage at IKEA. Friends of mine went there a few weeks ago in hopes to buy some pieces, but returned home empty handed because the ones they want were on backorder. I’ve got my fingers crossed that in two weeks’ time I won’t encounter the same fate, though I’m quite okay placing the mattress on the floor for some time (hashtag bachelor life).

I don’t need that much new furniture anyways, just a bed frame and a large bookshelf. Ever since I read Marie Kondo I’ve tried to keep personal items to a minimal, so in terms of what I need to buy and what I need to move, I don’t really have that much relative to the typical person. Except for books: I am a cruel tyrant to trees because I refuse to stop buying books in paper form, rather than the far more ecological digital format. If I didn’t have physical books, I can move everything I have (sans furniture) in two suitcases.

The 1st of November cannot come fast enough; my impatiently anxious self is eager to get this change done and move on to other beautiful things.

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A pair of rabbits.

Why would you want to move here?

My work is hiring and I got selected to be on the search committee, therefore I get the pleasure of sorting through all the incoming resumes. It’s always surprising when I get an applicant that isn’t from the Bay Area, because the immediate question becomes:

Why do you want to move here?

Here, to San Francisco, which by many measures is the richest city in the world and has the most expensive housing cost in these United States. A metropolitan area where countless hours of productivity gets utterly forsaken due to endless traffic. The minimum wage just went up in July to $15 so that gourmet non-GMO grass-fed burger is going to cost a pretty penny. 

And you want to move here? 

I hope these applicants have read the job description thoroughly and understands that as an employee of the State of California you are not going to be paid anywhere near sufficient to live in San Francisco. I most certainly don’t. I am however native to the area so that allows me to offset the absurd rental prices by not paying them at all and instead live with my parents.

Needless to say I am fortunate to be of a culture that don’t tend to kick offsprings out of the house once they’ve matured into adulthood. 

Because housing cost is the crux of the affordability issue. If rents were at sane levels I would’ve move out long ago, and I wouldn’t be questioning why someone would want to move here whose job prospect isn’t with a tech company with salary deep into six figures. 

If I didn’t live here already and were choosing a city to move to, San Francisco Bay Area wouldn’t even be on the list. 

Two methods of emergency escape.