Unfortunately, Craigslist and I weren’t in sync this past weekend.

In short, I didn’t find a place to live. However, I’m pretty sure I decided on a neighborhood. Before taking the trip, I was pretty much set on Brooklyn, but wasn’t sure between Williamsburg and Park Slope. After wandering aimlessly in both for several hours, I’m almost certain that Park Slope is where I want to end up, if I can afford it. Williamsburg definitely had a cool vibe, but Park Slope just felt like the better fit for me.

So I wouldn’t consider my house hunting trip a complete failure; I now know where to focus my search.

Random pictures, go!

I also managed to beat the lines at the Shake Shack in Manhattan on Sunday. In-n-out has got nothin’ on Shake Shack.

I’ve been able to keep my excitement in check by doing some test runs of the trip back in Google Maps with Street View directions. Here are a few highlights:

Leaving Santa Clara, CA

Just outside Salt Lake City

Approaching Denver, CO

Chicago!

Fulton, NY – My hometown

Brooklyn! My new home

Want to try out my planned road trip for yourself? Here’s a link to the map!

I now have an opportunity to do the same trip, this time in reverse, and with better weather and a little more time. Right now, it’s looking like I’ll be making the voyage the last week of September.

Below, I’ve mapped out a first draft of a potential route. They key stops are marked.

View CA > NY Option #1 in a larger map

Here’s my reasoning for the stops I chose:

1. Salt Lake City, UT — 11h from Santa Clara, CA

If I could make it to Denver in one day, I probably would, but 18 hours of straight driving is a bit too much. So Salt Lake City looks like a good place to stop. I actually stopped here on my way out to California. It was beautiful in the Winter. I’d like to see how it looks in the early Fall as well. Stopping in SLC will also set me up with a nice arrival time in the Denver area…

2. Denver, CO — 7h30m from SLC

Yeah, I stopped here my last cross-country drive as well, but I like Colorado. Also, my brother lives here, so it’s a necessary stop. On top of that, I can’t think of a better way to say goodbye to some of my favorite beers, those brewed by the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins CO, than by visiting the actual brewery for a complementary 1554 and/or seasonal brew. Unfortunately for me, they don’t distribute anywhere east of Chicago Speaking of Chicago…

3. Chicago — 14h30m from Denver

This would be my longest day of driving, but there really isn’t much between Denver and Chicago anyway. I’d like to spend at least a full day in Chicago. It’s been over three years since I’ve been there and I’m long overdue. Plus it’s the only remaining city I have left on the “Cities I need to visit in 2009″ list that I made at the beginning of the year. I also know people in Chicago, so I guess I should say hi.

4. New York, NY — 12h30m from Chicago

My new home! I’ll leave myself the option to take a detour during this stretch and stop in my hometown of Fulton, NY if needed, but it actually looks like my parents will be in NYC the same weekend that I’m arriving, so I might not have a reason to.

So that’s my first draft of the road trip schedule. I’ll probably revise it several times before I go. Do I have it all wrong? Have any other recommendations?

I know it’s a cliché break-up line, but I think it’s actually very fitting in this situation. I really do like you, California, but at this stage in my life I’m afraid we’re just not right for each other. As you may recall, I’ve been quite vocal about this issue in the past. So when I was recently given an opportunity to relocate to New York City, I had to accept it. No, this has nothing to do with your recent financial hardship. I don’t care about the money (or lack thereof). And no, this has nothing to do with your wheatgrass smoothies and organic flax seed crackers. I’m cool with that, I really am. This is all about me and my desire to live in a cramped apartment and rely on a filthy subway system to get around. Call me crazy, but that’s just what I’m looking for right now.

But, California, we still have a few months together, and I’d still like to remain friends after we go our separate ways (well, actually it’s just me that is going a separate way, unless you decide to break off into the ocean). So I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on our two and a half years together and to perhaps express a bit of long overdue gratitude.

First off, let me be honest about something. I really had no intention of becoming acquainted with you, California. Upon graduating from college in upstate New York, I was primarily looking for jobs in metropolitan areas on the east coast, or at least reasonably close to the east coast. My heart belonged to places like Boston, New York City, and Chicago. But then you came along, California, offering intrigue and a career opportunity that was too good to pass up. We had actually never met before. I had only heard about you from watching Saved By The Bell reruns on Saturday morning television. So I packed up my car up with sunscreen, fluorescent green sunglasses, and acid-washed jeans and drove 3,000 miles across the country to be with you. Although I don’t like to admit that we met on a blind date, we both know it’s really the truth.

Our first year together was great, wasn’t it California? Although you weren’t quite like what Saved By The Bell led me to believe, I found your endless sunshine and undeniably laid-back attitude fresh and new. We saw a lot that first year. There were beaches and snow capped mountains, Golden bridges and breathtaking vineyards. And food. Did I mention the food? Never in my life had I seen so much variety in food within driving distance. And I can’t forget the incredible, fresh produce available all year long. Oh, yeah, and out In-N-Out.

Most importantly, I’d like to thank you, California, for introducing me to so many incredible people. Through you, I’ve made many friends for life. Saying goodbye to these friends will undoubtedly be the hardest part about leaving. But like you must surely understand by now, California, these friends I’m sure also understand why I must be moving on. They’ve done a marvel job putting up with my complaining all this time.

It was probably after our first year together, California, that I realized we wouldn’t be together forever. I began longing for the faster paced east coast city lifestyle that I originally intended to have after college. Unfortunately, at the time I wasn’t sure what the best way to end our relationship was, which is why it’s taken me so long to tell you all of this. I hope you’ll forgive me, California. I never intended for it to end this way. I admit, a blog post is not the most respectful way to break up with someone.

And so in closing, California, I’d like to thank you for the memories, life lessons, adventures, minor earthquakes and friendships. If given the opportunity to do it all over again, would I change anything? Absolutely not. It’s been an incredible, irreplaceable experience. But don’t be sad, California. I’m certain that we will still see each other from time to time. I hope we can find the time to meet up whenever I need a dose of sunshine or a reminder that my carbon footprint is a little bigger than it should be.

P.S.  Mind if I take like 30 of your avocados with me when I leave? kthx!

But ever since I got my iPhone and Apple integrated Google Transit into the Maps application, I haven’t even had to think anymore.

Let’s say I’m at some random point A. It doesn’t matter where I am. I don’t even have to know where I am. All I need to know is where I want to go, and I don’t even need to know the address of point B. I just search for the point of interest and let Google Maps find it for me:

From there I click the blue arrow from my desired result and then select “Directions To Here” on the following screen. “Current location” should be the default starting position on the following screen:

Now I just click “Route” and let the magic happen:

Bada boom! I don’t even have to think! Google Maps tells me where I need to be  at 7:15pm to catch the closest bus that will get me to my destination, as well as providing me with the trip cost and any transfers necessary. To see the itinerary in list view, click the page flap icon in the lower right corner:

Most cities will offer a two or three day unlimited metro pass, which is usually the best deal if you plan on doing some extreme exploring.

To see a list of global cities where Google Transit directions are available, visit the Google Transit site.

Happy exploring!

* Disclaimer – I work for Google, but I’m still allowed to think this is awesome.

What I’m trying to say is that I don’t dislike living in California. I just dislike living in northern California.

I took a short trip down to San Diego this past weekend. They have beaches there. They have real beaches there. Beaches like I saw in movies and TV shows about California as a kid. Beaches that just don’t exist up here in northern California.

The beach city vibe and laid back lifestyle is great too. Seemed like nobody had a care in the world.

This doesn’t change anything, however. I’m still planning on leaving California. But if someday far in the future I ever come back, and I no longer have a care in the world, San Diego is where it will be.

As much as I would love to go back to school full time, common sense kicked in after I recently glanced at my continuously growing pile of student loans and realized that I would have to be a complete idiot to take out even more. I’m now thinking that school part time is the best option. I don’t think I can afford to give up an income, even for just a year.

Unfortunately this decision makes my other goal, which is to eventually leave California, even more difficult. If only I could somehow live in Chicago. Depaul has a part time HCI program downtown. Plus, Chicago is awesome.

I’ll figure something out.

I do this way too often.

Not that anyone really cares, but I just felt like mentioning some of my upcoming travels for the summer.

Boston: May 21 – 26

I’ll be working out of the Cambridge Google office for a day and then probably wandering aimlessly the rest of the time. I might have mentioned this a few times before, but Boston is by far my favorite U.S. city. In a perfect world I would be living there, working at Google and have my own personal robot butler. Alas, the world is not perfect.

I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be doing in Boston this year, but it most likely include an assortment of the activites listed below:

• Red Sox game(s)
• NCAA lacrosse championship tournament
• Consumption of Dunkin’ Donuts beverages and breakfast sandwiches
• Consumption of delicious foods
• Consumption of delicious beers
• Meeting up with friends
• Meeting up with my older brother
• Meeting new random people
• Wandering aimlessly
• Not checking my email

That’s probably a good list to work from.

San Diego: June 6 – 7

Southwest Airlines was having a one-day half-off sale a few weeks ago. I couldn’t resist a $70 roundtrip flight to a place that I’ve never visited before. I have no idea what I’ll be doing, but that’s fine with me. If you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them.

Syracuse, NY / Fulton, NY: July 1 -7

Central New York may not be the ideal getaway location, but it’s my old stomping ground. I wasn’t planning on being there for a whole week, but I had an award flight voucher from jetBlue and those were the only dates I could use it for around the July 4th weekend. I’ll do whatever it takes to save a few hundred bucks.

I’m really looking forward to it. The whole reason I’m making the trip is because my maternal grandparents are both turning 90 this year and the Irish side of my family has decided to celebrate. There’s no way in hell I’d miss it. My grandfather’s health has also hit some rocky times as of late. So I really want to capitalize on every opportunity I can get to travel home. It’s not easy living 3000 miles away.

As always, visit mikeleotta.com/location to find me anytime.

So you can only imagine my excitement when I learned that I would be working at Google immediately after I graduated. I knew that not only did this mean that I was going to have a good paying job in an exciting and innovative work environment, but that this meant I also didn’t really have to enter “the real world” quite yet. Couldn’t get any better than that!

And it has been great. I’ve worked on some exciting projects, met some incredible people, made a dent in my student loans, and even finally had some free time to enjoy my life. What else could I need? Well as it turns out, that same ambition that pushed me through school and got me into Google is now telling me I should go back to school and struggle through it all over again. This means taking on more debt and probably working part time to support myself while taking on a full course load — the same situation that I couldn’t wait to get away from only a few years ago.

It’s taken about a year of thinking to come do this decision, but I’m pretty sure it’s the right one. My interests have gravitated towards UI design and I’ve discovered that a Human-Computer Interaction master’s degree can be very beneficial in that career path. Ideally, I’d like to complete my degree in a year. I’m shooting for starting in the fall of 2010.

I’d also like to use grad school as a way to fulfill another personal goal of mine, which is to return to the east coast. I find it a bit disheartening that with all the universities in Boston, not one of them offers an HCI program. However, CMU has the best HCI program in the country and I could definitely live in Pittsburgh for a year. I don’t think I could ever be a Steelers fan, but I’m more than open to embracing the Penguins as my new favorite hockey team.

So with my decision made, I’ve been studying like crazy for the GRE lately. I’ve got plenty of time to take the test, but I signed up for June just to get it out of the way. I also suck at standardized tests, and my vocabulary is sub-par at best, so I’m spending a lot of time preparing for it.

That’s why this is my first blog post in over a month. Don’t expect another one until after June 13th.

Oh, since I talked about my employer in this blog post, that means  you should read this disclaimer.