I keep finding myself crossing paths with Raleigh folk in this new city of mine. I feel like a good many alumni of NCSU’s College of Design either migrate to New York or San Francisco… and I don’t blame them, as they’re both meccas of design and technology. It’s basically the same reason I moved here.

There are so many great Raleigh folk here!

There’s Dakota, my travel buddy who quickly transplanted to San Fran not long after I met her, to design for Dwell Magazine. I stayed with her in SF for a good bit last summer, and spent my days exploring and generally pretending I lived there while she worked. I had no idea I’d be living here a year later.

There’s Laura, who I met through some folks last summer. She did her time in Raleigh before I ever arrived. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see her again, but since I moved here I’ve been seeing a lot of her.

There’s Tara, who just moved here a couple of weeks ago. She originally took a job in Honduras, and should still be working there, but ended up in the middle of a revolution and had to come back to America. So now she’s in Berkeley.

There’s Scott, who has spent his past year around and about the world, living in South America for a while, then biking across the country, ending here in San Fran.

Scott’s birthday was a few days ago, so I met up with him and Tara in the park and celebrated. It was a Friday night and the park was full of people. I can’t imagine that happening in Raleigh. Moore’s Square on a Friday night, anyone? No takers?

We all still can’t believe we’re hanging out in California… or that we live here.

The next night, I headed to Berkeley to re-join Tara, as well as FIVE other Raleigh-alumni, for dinner. I met three of them for the first time that night, but the other two, Kelly-Murdoch Kitt and Nik Shah, just took a lengthy drive across the country, with Kelly ending things here to finally live with her fiance, and Nik continuing down to San Diego for a design job.

I was about an hour late arriving, as I am still figuring out the BART system. I had never been to Berkeley before, but figured it was simple. It’s a straight shot on the BART. At the first station, I was being impatient while waiting for the direct train, so I hopped on another one and figured I’d just wait in Oakland for the correct one. So that’s what I did. Twenty minutes of waiting in Oakland later, I decide to check the schedule, as I did not see my train scheduled to arrive anytime soon. Upon investigation, I notice that my train stopped running at 7:00. It’s 7:23.

I call Tara and ask her how the hell she gets back to Berkeley at night. She explains to me that I have to connect at the main Oakland station. So I hop back on the next train, after letting many pass me by, connect in Oakland, and finally make it to Berkeley. I should mention I also got off at the wrong stop and then lost on the way home. Impressive.

We ate Malaysian food at Kelly’s recommendation (she spent last summer here and knows what’s awesome), and it was off the chain. I tried to make everyone take a jumping picture at the end, but we were all full and uncoordinated, so we just settled on a regular off-center crooked group photo.

I had a visit from two of my college best friends, Laura and Andrew, visiting from Houston and Sacramento, respectively. They were my next stop for the night. I’ve been third wheel on their dates for FOUR years now, and I was excited to get back to it for a night. We started things off at Flour + Water, and ended things up back in Dolores Park once again. We reminisced and told stories and drank tequila until 3:30 AM, when some drunk guys who had been screaming into the darkness about how they hated every single one of us began to fight each other and a few random people in close proximity to them. We felt it was wise to leave before they wanted to involve us.

I’ve noticed that, in somehow meeting tons of people here who happen to be from Raleigh (they had already moved away before I ever made it to Raleigh), NC folk seem to stick together. But not necessarily in a “we’re settling on each other for a convenient friend group” kind of way. More of a… “we all moved on to pursue our careers or a more fulfilling life experience, and we all also happen to be from North Carolina” thing. It’s this automatic bond, knowing the ins and outs of southern culture, all of its pros, cons, quirks and distinct differences from the west coast. We know what grits are (I just met a guy from Greensboro at the bar last night and we spent 10 minutes discussing this). We know that there is a difference between having a BBQ, grilling out, cooking out, and having Cookout. We remember the days when we could smile and wave at strangers on the street without them thinking we’re either coming on to them or that we’re just crazy. We all miss porches. We understand people they they say “fixin’ to” (“what? what are you fixing?”) and “put it up” (“up where?” “just… put it up!”). I could go on. But we all adore the west coast and are so happy to finally live out our potential in our lives and our careers. I think it’s pretty neat, personally.

That’s all for now.

END!