1984: Back to San Francisco with a New Job, and More

1984: Back to San Francisco with a New Job, and More

SF: Looking down Market Street from Twin Peaks

It's 1984. 1984 of course is the title of George Orwell's sci-fi classic, a literary rebellion against “Big Brother”. '84 is the year Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman to run on a presidential ticket in the US but the Reagan/Bush ticket easily won the election. It was also the year of the Orwellian Macintosh Super Bowl commercial that sort of opened the door for the Super Bowl commercials craze that's still with us today. Other items of note: Alex Trebek debuted on Jeopardy, Hong Kong returned to China, and Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his father when Marvin attempted to intervene in a fight between his parents.

I am not a person who gets bored easily but I am also a person who likes change, especially when it comes to things like where I live and work. I don't know why that is. As 1984 came around I was about to turn 35. I'd had 2 marriages and three other rather serious relationships. I had 15 address changes in four different states not counting my years in the Air Force. I had had 13 different jobs before starting my IT career in the Bay Area in the fall of 1978.

I was currently working at Tymshare and it was my third IT job. I had worked almost two years at General Business Systems (GBS) in the Bay Area and just short of a year at GBS Sacramento. It actually felt like the Sacramento portion of my GBS employment was a completely different job with it being a management position in a new location with all new co-workers. I followed that with less than a year with Siegel Software. I was now approaching the two year mark at Tymshare. I was living in Cupertino with like a 2 minute walk to work. I liked working there. I liked my boss. Tymshare had a lot of employees but it somehow maintained that small company feel that I preferred. I had many friends in the company. Yet, I could feel myself starting to get antsy. I was ready for something new. I missed living in San Francisco. It felt like something was about to change.

It was about this time that I met Heidi. I met her while visiting my friend Larry up in San Francisco. Larry and I were hanging out in his flat on a Saturday afternoon. I had planed to spend the night there. We were chatting and talking about what we might do that evening when Larry got a phone call. It was his friend Debbie. When he finished the call he said Debbie would be coming over soon and was bringing her sister Heidi with her. I knew Debbie but had never met Heidi. Larry and Debbie often went out together. They weren't a couple per se, but they had been seeing each other for a couple of years. They both saw other people too but I knew Debbie was someone special to Larry as he had once asked me not to ask her out, a request Larry very rarely made.

Debbie and Larry

It was late in the afternoon when Debbie and Heidi arrived. We all chatted for awhile and then Debbie and Larry went off to another part of the flat leaving Heidi and I to ourselves. Heidi and I were getting along just fine so it was not a problem. I was finding myself really liking Heidi, it was hard not to. Our conversation flowed easily. Heidi had a terrific sense of humor, laughed easily, was very down to earth, but what was most striking was that she took herself lightly. Even now when I think of Heidi the G.K. Chesterton quote “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly” comes to mind.

When Larry and Debbie returned we all went and got something to eat. After we returned Debbie informed her sister that she would be staying the night. Heidi did not have a car so either Debbie or I would need to drive her home unless she stayed over as well. One small problem, there was just the one extra room and I was planning to sleep there. Debbie encouraged Heidi to stay but I could tell Heidi was unsure especially since I was going to be staying too. I assured Heidi that she would be safe with me and that I would keep my distance. But we had just met, so I offered to drive her home if she preferred. She really had no idea if I was trustworthy but we did seem to have a strong connection so there was that. After a bit of deliberation with her sister, Heidi decided to stay. That night we shared a double bed adhering to the Elizabeth Lavenza (the Madeline Kahn role in “Young Frankenstein”) frequent request to Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) of “No touching!”. In the morning Heidi and Debbie left but Heidi gave me her phone number and I promised to call her. A couple of days later I called Heidi and we agreed to get together for a bike ride down the peninsula the next Saturday.

Not long after that, a conversation started up between myself and a couple of friends of mine from my GBS days. Garry and Mona, both women, had started up their own software support company Jensen & Chin (J&C). They indicated that they had plenty of work and were looking into the possibility of hiring someone. As a result we talked about the idea of me joining them. Working with a couple of friends and being part of their small independent company appealed to me. If things worked out I could maybe even get a small share of the company. After a few discussions I agreed to join them and so I gave notice to Tymshare to begin my fourth IT job joining J&C.

J&C's office was located in, or at least near Foster City, don't remember exactly. This was halfway up the peninsula and that meant I could move back to San Francisco as my place in Cupertino was not any closer to the office than a place in San Francisco would be. Plus, much of the work would involve going to client sites all over the area. San Francisco would actually be a little better location. I began looking for a place up in the city. I looked at an apartment in the Noe Valley neighborhood that I liked but it was a bit more money than I wanted to spend and there was little parking in the area so it was often going to be time consuming finding a parking spot every evening. I looked around the Haight District as well as the Marina and Pacific Heights but was not finding anything and they were all pricey areas. So I expanded my search and started looking at apartments in the Richmond District. I found a really nice place on Fulton across from the park (Golden Gate) but the manager seemed quite picky and emphasized the need to be quiet and since I liked to play music a lot, I figured it probably wasn't the place for me. A few blocks down on the corner of 28^th Ave and Cabrillo I found a cheap large studio apartment for rent. It was a little rundown but other than that it was a nice space with a big bay window. The landlady required the usual 1^st and last and a sizable cleaning deposit but she did not require a long term lease. There was plenty of on street parking and if that became a problem the building had garage space I could rent for a few bucks more. I took it and moved in the next week. I was only a block from Golden Gate Park and about 6 blocks from China Beach. I was also close to 19^th Ave allowing for a relatively easy exit from the city out 19^th Ave to head down the peninsula to work.

In just a few months I got me a new job, a new apartment and potentially a new girlfriend.