I'm from the northeast, yeah. My parents are college professors so they ended up there for their jobs, and my siblings and I were all born and raised in New York State. But my mother is from the Bay Area, and actually her mother grew up in San Francisco, and so did *her* mother... going back to the 1870's, from what I know. My grandparents and extended family on my mom's side (just an aunt, uncle, and cousin) still live in the Bay Area, and I spent my summers as a kid out here, too. So there's that as a reason for why I came out here when I left college.

Then there's also the fact that my college sweetheart is from San Francisco. During my senior year of college, when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my immediate post-college life, we were still together, and I decided that I would just move here when I graduated. It helped me narrow my options and focus my sights (rather than having a whole world of places and a whole world of jobs to choose from). At the time, I knew there was a chance my girlfriend and I would no longer be together by the time we graduated, but I figured that if we WERE, it would be nice to be in the same place, and if we WEREN'T, San Francisco is a pretty sick place to be queer anyway.

As it turned out, we broke up about 2 weeks before I graduated. I moved to San Francisco anyway -- after all, I have some family here, and it's a great place regardless -- and I was absolutely *miserable* for the first few months. The city felt too small for someone who was trying desperately to avoid her ex. But now that it's a few years later, I don't even think of that anymore. San Francisco's become my home.

I remember when I was little being told a story about my great-grandmother (whom I'm named after) when she was growing up in San Francisco. She was quite a rascal, apparently, and her parents were quite strict (and religious -- her father founded Trinity Church, the first Episcopal church in the city!) and so my great-grandmother was kept under tight wraps. But free spirit as she was, she would sneak out of her bedroom window at night when the house was still (they lived in the area that's now Nob Hill) and hop on the cable car to go meet up with friends (or boys!) at night. Whenever I see (or ride) a cable car, I think of her, and how much presence and history I have behind me in this city I call home.