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
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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.
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!
