I'm feeling better today, after a serious freak-out yesterday. I don't have enough information on my job to panic just yet, and I just need to wait and see what's going to happen. I'm working on a project right now with another senior VP in our corporate office in New Jersey, so things can't be that bad.

I found this description of the neighbourhood I live in on SFGATE.com. I moved to this area because I wanted to be within walking distance of Golden Gate Park, and I wanted to be near the ocean. I can bike or walk to the ocean from where I live , and Golden Gate Park is just a four block walk away. Most people in this area prefer to live by the Bay, but since I grew up on an island, I prefer to live near the ocean. Living near an ocean reminds me so much of home. This neighborhood is also not as expensive as others, and the parking isn't that bad. It's quiet too. Negatives: no gyms, no yoga studio, could use some better shops, no gourmet grocery store so no proscuitto. Pluses: a See's candy store, a great hardware store, a ballet school where you can take classes, great restaurants, a great picture framing store, lots of fresh veggie/fruit stands, two major grocery chain stores.

The Inner Richmond is a practical and comfortable neighborhood with a citywide reputation for fantastic restaurants. It's often called "New Chinatown" because it's almost as full of Chinese groceries and restaurants and Cantonese chatter as Grant Avenue, but most tourists overlook it, as did early S.F. residents, who wrote off the entire Richmond as a "Great Sand Waste" between the City and the sea.

The Richmond did almost became a miniature Colma, housing the municipal and Chinese cemeteries. But after World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, Irish and White Russian immigrants and Middle Eastern Jews bought homes in the area. Two waves of immigration after World War II brought Japanese residents and added to the sizable Chinese population.

Since then, the Inner Richmond has become a bustling multicultural soup with cute stucco houses, grand mansions, easy access to the Presidio, a plethora of inexpensive eateries and a good variety of shops. The Richmond lacks the hype of the Mission, and the fog does roll in a little earlier in the afternoon, but on its main dining and shopping drag, Clement Street, you'll find great Burmese, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean restaurants, Chinese bakeries that sell siu mai (steamed meat dumplings), BBQ pork buns and other dim sum for under a dollar and produce markets that offer bitter melon, several kinds of choy (greens) or 10 lemons for a dollar. Browse the stacks at one of the city's best bookstores, suck down some Hong Kong-style pearl tea (complete with marble-size tapioca balls) or sit down for a French bistro meal, and you'll come to appreciate the modest neighborhood that has sprouted from the sand dunes.