Awesome Day!

Today is the first official holiday we've added to the Funomena calendar. We are calling it Awesome Day. There are two things that you need to understand in order to appreciate Awesome Day. First - it is really really hard to find an apartment in San Francisco these days. Like - if you are looking for a place to rent, you'll probably have to attend several weeks of open houses before you can even get an application in. And if you are looking for a room to rent - you'll end up auditioning for that room... sometimes at a mixer where other potential roommates also hang out and try to... out-awesome you.

Martin came out to SF just before Burning Man, and has been searching for a place since then. This means reading a ton of Craigslist posts, sifting past scams, dealing with people who flake or are just odd, and of course - the anxiety that comes from the constant possibility of rejection. Well - today we found out that he's found a match! He'll be living in an awesome walk-up just off of Haight and Ashbury - plenty of coffee shops nearby and an easy bike from our "office" (my apartment) in SOMA. Awesome!

The other thing you need to know to appreciate our new holiday is that for years, I have wanted to build a game that takes data from a pedometer and does something fun with it. I have been kicking around this idea since I first read some disturbing articles about the rise in childhood obesity. In fact - when Martin and I first started talking about working together, I explained my passion for this "orphaned" project... and it led to a discussion of how giving back through volunteer, research or non-profit was important to both of us.

Well, this morning, I had a phone call with a friend who I worked with at a non-profit while living in LA. It turns out that through some cosmic stroke of amazing amazingness, a research grant he'd applied for 2 years ago came through. So Martin & I will be working on a pedometer game as part of that grant. Yes, really - just like that. What's more, it looks like we'll get to collaborate with our friend Chelsea on this project in some way. Awesome sauce!!

We're both so excited to have all these things falling into place. Maybe we aren't so crazy, after all?