Today is Thor’s birthday. One year ago, on his birthday, we moved back to San Francisco, having unsuccessfully experimented with the suburbs.

The big house was nice, but a little overwhelming and way too difficult to clean myself and too expensive to pay someone else to clean. And when city friends came to visit, I felt the need to continually apologize for all the space as I gave them the tour. Especially when we hit our cavernous bedroom complete with a “Master Retreat” (I think we were supposed to put a massage table in there for all those in-home massages we were supposed to be getting), spa-like bathroom and walk-in closet the size of their studio apartments.

The three Target stores within 10 minutes drive made my head tingle with excitement but walking to a cafe for a soy latte was out of the question.
We referred to our house as The Space Station — our own little ecosystem floating alone in the Stripmall Galaxy. All our bodily needs were met inside those big white walls but our souls shriveled a little bit every time we stepped out our front door. Bottom line? We’re city people.

So we migrated back to the land of what I used to call “Extreme Parenting,” raising kids in an urban environment, and found that it’s not all that extreme. Sure, it’s a bit more work, but it’s also a lot more fun. And I do believe we’re here to stay. Now that Quinn’s education is set for the next 10 years — as long as we can keep up the tuition — we have no reason to flee as many families sadly do once their kids hit kindergarten and are faced with either a dog-eat-dog private school entrance competition or a toss-your-fate-to-the-winds-and-hope-for-the-best public school lottery system.

And we now live two blocks away from a Muni train stop, have TWO cafes brimming with soy lattes within a 3 minute walk and a city full of soul-enriching activities outside our front door. Life is a lot different.

It’s different in another way as well. We’re working. A lot. Not to say we weren’t working a year ago — we were. Pretty hard, in fact. But in isolation, and with lean returns, from our gigantic office in our gigantic Space Station. We collaborated with each other from time to time, but that was about the extent of our professional interaction. Thor was working on a start-up idea that proved more difficult to execute than originally expected. And we had a handful of clients that paid the bills, but we also re-designed the web site for Quinn’s suburban childcare center in exchange for free tuition and even worked for a wine web site in exchange for a bit of money and some cases of free wine. And we were happy — it was the three of us. We were nesting and refining our addiction for bad TV. But at a certain point we realized it was time for a change. We needed to get back into the thick of it. We needed to collaborate with minds and talents outside of the Muller family.

And thus the move back to San Francisco. Back to our friends and former life — with a little more experience and wisdom under our belts. And a three year old. We sold the Space Station, rented a cottage in Noe Valley and continued consulting out of the house. This time from our dining room table instead of a dedicated 30′ x 30′ home office.

Then last autumn we started Rubyred Labs with our friend, Jonathan. We moved into an actual office at the end of the year. We got more clients. We started Cereal Bar. And we’ve even gotten some press. Business is good, Quinn is thriving, and we’re feeling a lot more like our old selves.

And today, on the anniversary of our inevitable return to the city we love I can look back in amazement at the blur that the last year of our life has been and say life is pretty good. Even though I now have to drive 20 minutes to get to Target.