Jennifer

On Tank Hill
Twin Peaks
Wednesday afternoon

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I might have been the girl most likely to NOT live in California.  But I have always trusted a wanderlust that led where it would, however unlikely.  And thank heavens, it led me here.

I had never even visited before I knew I was moving here. It was completely irrational.  Just a mysterious but incessant whisper that told me San Francisco was my future. Though I purposely ignored every cost of living calculator, I thought it prudent to at least visit.  So I did. Once.  Then twice.  Three times.  Sunny, beautiful San Francisco.  It was everything I was hoping it would be.  Electric and alive with culture and good design, happy people everywhere, and in direct contrast to my puritanical Midwestern upbringing, here, possibility is palpable.  But it wasn’t until the fourth visit that I was hooked for real.  And it was the fog that did it.  The broody, mystical, ghostly, romantic, lovely, lovely, gray, fog. This was the stuff.  In the fog I feel transported.  It provokes a mindful and contemplative state, spiritual even.  It slows my breathing and grounds me in the moment.  It makes me feel still, but really, really alive.  Pair with craggy rock cliffs and crashing ocean waves…divine.  Ah, the maritime climate.  It really turns me on.

So on New Year’s Day 2006, with my husband-to-be and my beloved pug, Siddartha, I drove a U-Haul 2000 miles from Nashville, and have been grateful ever since to this city for embracing me.  I live in Clarendon Heights, the Northeastern slope of Twin Peaks. You know, because it’s foggy here.  I walk up to Tank Hill and can see the whole city, both bridges, the Headlands and Mt. Tam, the little chapel in Tiburon where I married that husband-to-be, cultural landmarks like the Castro flag, and we count how many solar panels we can find.  And now my daughter can boast that she is a native San Franciscan. We ask, “How does it get better than this?”

Among the many gifts San Francisco has offered me, I’m perhaps most grateful for how it’s opened me to realize creative passions and to find my voice.  Literally.  I dialed back my stable day job as an occupational therapist to become a voice actor.  And for the past three and a half years, I’ve been fortunate to perform with the inimitable Gun & Doll Show.  That is, when I’m not being a Mom to a really cool toddler.  Yeah, life is good here. San Francisco, I’m yours as long as you’ll have me.

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You can see a slideshow of Jennifer’s photo shoot here.

Jennifer’s links are www.jenniferknight.net and www.gunanddollshow.com