NEST

The weather the past twenty-four hours has been a bit strange here in San Francisco. We had hail late last night, and then despite being sunny much of the day, small rainstorms blew through in my neighborhood intermittently all day. My home in is an ideal place to nest on wet days. Perched high on one of San Francisco’s hills, it affords me spectacular views of the city, which on a day like today, with its random bursts of dramatic weather, are extra breathtaking. While I practiced this afternoon, I watched isolated, miniature rainstorms float around downtown, casting columns of wet shadows amidst an otherwise sunny sky.

Living the life of a touring musician, home can be a rather uncomfortable place at times. There have been periods in my life in which I felt more at home on the road than I did in my own apartment. The adjustment back to home life can be a rough one, and there was many a time in my life when I could not wait to get to the airport and off the next tour stop. But I’ve never felt that since moving to San Francisco. 

Upon my first trip here in 2008, when I was covering Handel’s Ariodante at the San Francisco Opera, I knew that I needed to live here one day. As I visited with increasing frequency both for work and for personal reasons, it became clear that I was not having an over-romanticized fantasy about this city, but the pull was both powerful and real. After a very cold walk to a rehearsal in the midst of a polar vortex in New York City just over seven years ago, I knew it was time to take the leap. I’ve never looked back, and I have never felt more at home in a place at any point in my adult life. With family, friends, and a cherished musical community here, this is truly everything I have ever dreamed of in a place to settle.

Watching the rain fall from my window as I practiced today, I felt grateful that I found this place. While I am anxious to get back on the road again right now, after being held in place by this pandemic, I am even more excited to remember what it feels like to come home again to my nest on this hill in the Bay.