If you see a young woman on a paddleboard with a peppery mini schnauzer scampering around and peering out, she’s the Floating Times’ new proofreader. Her name is Aditi Iyer. Her pal’s name is George. They just moved to Issaquah dock from Liberty where she landed after escaping from the city on what she thought was a temporary hiatus.
All was going well for her in San Francisco. Living in Pacific Heights, she worked long hours as a corporate attorney with Kirkland & Ellis specializing in finance. That was until the walls where she lived started shaking. “They were tearing down and rebuilding an all girls’ school next door and the building’s wall was connected to mine. Construction was going on all weekend.” With more than a year of noise and rattling in the offing, Aditi decided to move. She heard about someone on Liberty dock who was looking for a roommate. Eventually, she’d return to the city.
But you know how best made plans go sometimes. At first, Aditi experienced motion sickness when the waves rocked the house during a series of high wind days. Another time, George fell into the water, between the boat and the finger pier. Both of those experiences scared her. “It traumatized me, not him,” she said, laughing. “He used to go play at the beach every day.”
Then she got out on the water. George was excited, running around the board. “He likes watching the seals in the water and walking around on the board. He won’t let me go paddling without him, so I got him a life vest.” The next thing you know, after three months on Liberty dock, she was buying 35 Issaquah and moving her piano in.
That’s right, she plays the piano. “I’m not as good as I used to be ten years ago,” she tells me. I’m surprised she can get a piano into a small floating home. “With all that space in my living room,” she says, “I have a digital piano, a desk, bookshelf and a soon-to-arrive couch.”
Aditi enjoys reading. Not literary fiction though. She says she got enough of that in college. Mysteries are her favorite, murder mysteries. She’s got other faves too. Lately she’s been on a P.G. Wodehouse kick. “It’s just such fun especially when there’s so much else going on in the world like we have now.”
Speaking of college, Aditi’s undergraduate degree is from Stanford and her law degree from UC-Berkeley. Her bachelor’s is in ancient history focusing on early legal systems—particularly women and law in the ancient world. Were women lawyers then, I ask. “It depends on which part of the ancient world.” She studied mostly ancient Greece and Egypt. “In early Egypt, women had property rights in contrast to some cultures where women were property,” she quips.
Born in India, Aditi grew up in the South Bay where her parents immigrated in the 1980s to work in the emerging tech industry. They still live there. “I’ve lived within the same 50-mile radius,” she says. Aditi’s the oldest child in her family. Her younger sister lives in L.A. “She’s a rocket scientist, but she’s moved onto other things now. She’s a mechanical engineer by training.”
In addition to paddling around the docks, you might find this pair at the Waldo Point Harbor park. “I’ve met a lot of the dog owners at the park,” she says. “There are always a bunch of dogs running around there.” Wherever you see them, you’ll probably see them together. “George is my buddy. He’s my number one. My protector. He likes to hike, play in the water and loves being a boat dog.”