So where did we leave off?
If you don't remember, we got married at Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, CA. Two days after, we prepared to move up to Norcal to join the Berean church plant (which is now Berean Mission Church!) Our roommates for July and August 2012 were... Josh's grandparents. We chose to live in Sac so we could be closer to the Bay Area for job searching purposes. We spent most of our days at Josh's parents' home looking for jobs online and occasionally traveled to San Francisco for job fairs and interviews. In mid-August, I had a series of interviews with the San Francisco school district for an instructional aide position. During this time, we were completely dependent on the hospitality of other people. For my first interview, we stayed at my college roommate, Rebekah's parents' home in Fremont. Mr. and Mrs. Lee were so generous in having us stay at their house for a night even though it was inconvenient. They had just sold their home and were preparing to move out into another house. On my second interview, we stayed with our friend, Brian Lee. His parents (also Mr. and Mrs. Lee) took us out for dinner and graciously allowed us to stay with them for a night. Brian even let us stay in his room and he slept out on the couch. Josh told me that Brian is a sort of germaphobe so thank you Brian, you are the best!
During my second interview, I found out that the instructional aide position I was applying for required that I be a security guard during lunch and passing periods. That did not sit well with me and I showed a lot of hesitation during my interview. Thankfully I did not get the position. While I was interviewing, Josh was hanging out alone at Starbucks. He had received a phone call from a staffing company that found his resume online.They wanted to interview him for a position at a undisclosed company. The lady tried to set up a time to interview him and noticed that we were living in Sacramento. Josh told her that he happened to be in the city at that very moment. She told him to go in today even though he was just wearing a t-shirt and jeans.
So off we went to the Financial District for the first time. It was so stressful trying to get there because of all the one way streets, crazy sf traffic, and even crazier drivers who can't lay off their horns. We parked in a lot nearby, completely unaware that the 20 minutes we spent out of the car would cost us $18. Anyways, Josh got a spontaneous second interview and we immediately drove off to the company. After his interview with the COO of the company, he got a call from the staffing company. The lady told him that the COO really liked him and was 99% sure that she wanted to hire him but the only problem was that they were looking to interview someone else the following week.
So we went back to Sac and started to search for apartments to live in. Josh and I did not know the area at all and we decided to use google maps to search around Brian's house. As we were scouting the area around his house (on google maps), we found a staffing company for child care providers. I looked into it and applied for a position there. We then made another trip to the bay to look at a few apartments. We put down a deposit for a 1 bedroom apartment out of desperation. It was pricey and the area was not like the suburbia that I'm used to. A couple of days afterwards, I got a call from another apartment complex that had a studio for cheaper. We took a look and instantly fell in love with it. The area felt safer and it looked more like socal, so we put a deposit down for the studio. At that time, we were both unemployed and Josh had no offer letter yet, so we naturally did not know how on earth we would qualify for the apartment. But we ended up qualifying!
We decided to move into the apartment even though we didn't know whether or not Josh was going to be hired. Crazy thing was that while we were on our way to move in, Josh got a call from the staffing company congratulating him on his new position at the company. Two weeks after we moved in, I also accepted a job with the childcare staffing company as a substitute. The first assignment I received was going to be near the Cow Palace as a sub for a teacher on maternity leave. The lady who gave me the assignment warned me that the area wasn't safe at night, but would be alright during the day. I decided to reject that substitute position even though it would guarantee me full time work. I started subbing at another school, called Telegraph-Hill Preschool thinking that they were only going to have me there for a day, but they kept calling me back day after day. After subbing there for a week, the manager offered me a full time job and promised to match the salary and benefits and the staffing company was giving me. I took up the offer and later realized how amazing that job was. I worked in North Beach, right next to Fisherman's Wharf, and really close to the Financial District, where Josh works. Josh and I were able to carpool together to work and I even got to see him during my lunch breaks almost every day!
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