Winter!

My toes are like icicles! I know know, it's only San Francisco winter, but boy there is a chill in the air this week! I had been thinking about it for a while, but I finally got a little electric heating pad and that was the best decision I made for this winter yet. Now I can sit and write blogs, wrapped in blankets with slippers on (yet still cold) and after the heating pad warms up I feel alive again. Best invention ever.

Since I moved to California (nearly 7 years ago now!) I've found I have a lot harder time feeling in the holiday spirit. Though the palm trees have holiday lights on them and Christmas music is playing, it just doesn't seem like Christmas without snow! I guess I've just got to admit to being a Californian and accept the 50 degree 'winters'. Maybe I'll even go get some lights to decorate the apartment this year!

However, even that requires time, which I am finding less and less of! HotelTonight continues its global domination which keeps us all crazy busy. We've got a lot of excitement next week before "relaxing" (aka doing all the other things that had to be put off the last few weeks in preparation before the big announcements next week.

So what have I been doing since I posted about being settled back in the spring? Here's the highlight real :D (If you're viewing this in your email I'd suggest you find a link to view it online...there are lots of pretty pictures!)

June

Spent another busy and awesome week in Kansas City volunteering with SkillsUSA

Saw a movie in the middle of the city at Union Square.

Bowled with HotelTonight














July

I visited my good friend Kat in Healdsburg, CA where she grew up. It's part of wine country, so I had my first foray into winery hopping in Napa Valley.

One of my best Wyoming friends, Ian dropped by San Francisco for a conference. I showed him SF the local way with a trip to the Mission and Dolores Park.













August

Went to Austin for a day trip (literally was there for 24 hours) to visit two wonderful girlfriends from SkillsUSA

Went to my very first Outside Lands, a concert in Golden Gate Park and saw one of my favorite bands, .fun

Spent a long weekend at Tassajara, a zen Buddhist retreat center 3 hours down a dirt road (and 2 hours before that from the city) where my friend Caitlin (one of my very first college friends) is currently studying. Spent the weekend meditating, hiking, enjoying the natural hot springs, and writing my little heart out.

Went home to Colorado for some much needed TLC with the sisters

Had a Parisian friend stay on the couch for a week before he headed off to Burning Man (I had couch surfed with him in Paris back in 2010!)















September

Attended lots of cool yoga events including a yoga session in the SF Museum of Modern Art and an event near Golden Gate Bridge hosted by the Wanderlust Yoga festival!

Visited Calistoga with Larisa, climbing mountains and then following it up with wine and a mud bath (very weird)

Learned how to make dumplings!

Attended a talk with the founder of Uber, Travis Kalanick, hosted by First Round Capital, one of the venture investors that invested in HotelTonight!












October

An awesome girls weekend with some new midwestern girlfriends. We had a great night out dancing to the most hipster music I've ever heard, followed by a day in Sonoma and an amazing time playing on the grass at a beautiful Sonoma winery.

Visited Aliina and Chauncey in Port Townsend, Washington. Then road tripped from there to Seattle to Portland to San Francisco trying out the Portland food trucks and even Voodoo donuts and the largest used book store in the world, Powell's along the way!



Crewed in a few sailing races, one was a day race to Benicia!
















November

Watched the Red Bull Flugtag from the water on a new friends sailboat.

Had a lovely thanksgiving dinner with my bestie and her family, the Chehabs.

















And now it's December. So far I know that HotelTonight will be moving into an AMAZING new office (that I can still bike to, yippee) and that I'll be spending Christmas in Los Angeles (who would have every thought that?) New Years is up in the air, but the craziest thing of all is that it's nearly 2013!

I'll keep you all much more up to date with my adventures moving forward. Promise!

A dilemma of a decision about this blog

We all know I haven't been as good of writing lately as I believe my last post was back in April. However it is with reason. I've been in this eternal debate with myself of late as to weather this blog is the best use of space. thought and time (for both you and I), or if maybe I should instead begin to blog about something work-related as to begin to develop myself to be a thought leader (no I wouldn't expect you to read that one).

So I want to ask you...do you like these updates? Are they worth reading to you? Should I start writing regularly in this blog again to tell the tales of my adventures? Would you be interested in content other than the stories of my most recent adventures? (I do have some good adventures)

Reply to this email or comment on the post and let me know!

Settling In

I've now been in San Francisco right about 6/7 months (time flies!). I'm into my very own apartment, which I've finally managed to furnish with actual real-person furniture (okay a few things are still from Ikea). And as exciting as it is to see each piece of the new home fall into place, I get hints every once in a while of this feeling. This feeling that I'm TERRIFIED of being so settled in! We have a couch, a NICE one, that I had to move in a big truck. We have an actual bed frame (as opposed to the glorious days of a mattress on the floor). I even ended up with a fondu maker, which was included in a recent kitchen ware acquisition (and no it still hasn't emerged from its box). 

These are things that, next time I move (and we all know I'm going to move again). I might actually have to get a moving truck to transfer them, instead of stuffing things into the trunk of a mid-sized sedan and selling the rest...okay I may actually just sell everything again the next time, we'll have to see.

Okay, I have to admit I'm having a little bit of fun with it all...trying to find things that work and match and not just picking up whatever I find that is easiest to transport via a Craigslist add. While it's fun to be getting nicer stuff, always in the back of my mind these acquisitions remind me that I am getting settled here. That I can't easily pack up my life into a few bags and fly across the country for the next adventure.

But the exciting thing is that I have so much to explore here in San Francisco. While I've done well to explore many parts of this city, I haven't even made it over to the Marina area or the neighborhoods along the ocean. I haven't been to SF's own Little Italy, nor have I really gone and visited China Town. And then there are ALL the places around San Francisco that are so very close. Marin, wine country, Berkeley, Oakland, Montery...the list goes on and on!

To say the least, I have a lot to explore in this beautiful new city and I've only gotten started. While it still scares me to be somewhat settled, I think I've finally found a place that I won't mind settling in for a while. (Though a call from London today is making me realize that that's probably going to be my next stop ;)

It's REAL Good!

It's so hilly here!

Wow! Did you see how quickly that last month went by. I know it only has 29 days, but geesh!

Life is, as usual fantastically busy and full of adventure. Since the beginning of the year I've truly felt that I've adapted to this ever-so-wonderful San Francisco lifestyle. I'm familiar with the city in that I (somewhat) know it's orientation as I wander it's hilly streets. I definitely still get lost on occasion, but I know the different districts and my calves are getting super toned from all the walking I do! It's really fantastic.

Work is continually evolving as my role is figured out then redefined and my responsibilities are adapted as the company grows and changes (we added 8 employees in the last 2 weeks!)  This continual evolution is something that I think is so fantastic and so unique to startups. And I realize that all of the opportunities that I had were very much startups in that we started from scratch and I got to be part of building and figuring things out from scratch at every point. I've been able to work on a number of cool projects, and every day is truly something different. And I must say, it's pretty cool to work at a place that everyone can use and that all users love!

Another part of getting more settled in this city has been my 3rd (and hopefully last for a while) move! To update: I first moved to San Francsico and subletted a bedroom from my friend Joeva. I then moved in with Jeff and his fantastic daughter Dolores (who is now an honorary little sister to go along with my other two) in Noe Valley, the yoga-mom, friendly bums at Whole Foods quiet neighborhood just up the hill from the Misson district.

And with a house hunt more painful and challenging than any I've yet experienced (the San Francisco apartment market is FIERCELY COMPETITIVE), I am now going home to a beautiful alcove studio apartment located right by the SF Giants stadium in the SOMA area of San Francisco. It's a 10 minute bike ride to work, or a 25 minute walk and after week 1 I am 100% happy with the new digs. I've so far acquired a bed, a frame, and a bookshelf, and while it's small me and the roomie definitely have more work to do!

A group of friends from UCSD organized a big hike at Stinson beach a few weeks ago, so I've been able to get out and around oustide of the city as well (a nice break from the hustle). We did a 7ish mile hike up to the top of Mount Tam. The hike up gave some gorgeous views as well as some majestic and quite stints where we were surrounded by trees. And at the top we had some amazing views of the ocean and San Francisco. It was a great escape and a fun thing to do with friends!

On the involvement front, I've re-engaged myself in the UCSD Alumni association, and I'm hosting a speaker series featuring successful alumni in the Bay Area, to speak about their successes and give advice to the young and the career-changing or change interested. I'm doing yoga (though never enough) and I've decided I definitely need to get back into the Latin Dance scene (I took a class in San Diego and my dancing shoes are really missing being used!) I'm also looking at volunteer opportunities with The Hub SF, a startup incubator and coworking space where socially entrepreneurial startups get stuff done as they get their companies off the ground.

Life is good, health is great, and work is busy. What more could a girl ask for :)

In 5 Years Time

Today celebrates my 24th birthday. But it's also the 5th anniversary of an event of as nearly great importance in my life. Today marks the 5th year since the car wreck I endured that would very likely have taken my life.

So today I want to once again thank all of you, my family, friends, doctors, and supporters, who have shared in the recovery and the 5 years of life since.

In some ways I still am recovering, coming more to terms with the way I chose to interact with the world following the wreck and the short but challenging 3 month hospital stay.

So thanks to the many surgeons that fixed what seemed unrepairably broken. My mom who trusted the doctors to do their work even with the minuscule chances they gave me to make it. To the friends that sat by my bedside even when I wielded the "snot sucker". And all the friends who helped me stay positive through the worst of my "why'd this happen to me" lows.

Every day, but especially today, I am thankful to those who helped me get back to being me after the first 19 years of my life were seemingly torn apart.

As you know, the last five years have been a lot of rebuilding, but also a lot of living. I was able to finish my degree at UCSD "on time" even after missing a quarter. I spent a summer living in london, I was able to help build some amazing programs at UCSD that still benefit the students they were meant to help, I traveled across Europe and
worked a vindemmia in Italy, survived a winter in Minnesota, the summer in Florida, and now I'm planted in San Francisco, working at a startup and I have a fantastic community of friends around the world that truly make my life special.

So once again, thank you to all of you who have been a part of the journey. It's just going to keep getting better from here!

For more about the car wreck, check out my post from last year here 

http://lifesincesungod.blogspot.com/2011/01/car-wreck-07-4-year-anniversary.html