Normally this time of the year I'm working on my NYC anniversary post, but this year is a little bit different. Life sure has a funny way of throwing you curveballs doesn't it?! They joke you're not a real New Yorker until you've lived in the city for 7 years so I guess I justtt missed that cut-off. So instead of hitting that milestone this week, I'm celebrating a different anniversary.. my first full month of being a Washington resident again! 👈🏻 Woh, that still feels weird to say! 

So how's it going?! Now that I've gotten through some of the logistics of the move -- like sorting out health insurance, figuring out how to buy a car, and actually getting all of my stuff to the west coast.. all of that fun stuff -- I'm starting to adjust to my new normal. You can't get much further apart on the spectrum moving from New York back to my little hometown so I was a little worried about that, but for the most part, it's felt pretty great to get back to my roots. So what have been some of the biggest adjustments?! A lot! I like to joke that living in the city was like living on another planet and in a lot of ways it's true. There have certainly been a lot of changes on the flip side. Driving, having full sized appliances and a wholeee lot more space, less humidity, whole aisles of ice cream at the grocery store (I'm ok with this change), seeing sunsets, super-friendly people, allll of the outdoors... Some have been easier to adjust to (like the ice cream haha) and others that have been a little tougher like changing my work schedule! I think it's going to take a bit longer to adjust to that 5 a.m. wake-up time. 🙈

Generally, I'm someone who enjoys some downtime, but that is the one thing I haven't had much of this summer since being back. This girl has been busyyyyy. Like, can I have a free weekend to stay in my pjs all weekend soon?! I think staying busy has actually been one of the best things for getting adjusted, but I'm not going to lie it has been kind of exhausting. My life here is pretty different than my life in NYC though so it has kept me moving forward. So what have I been up to? Here are some of the major things!

Reconnecting with Fam & Friends

This has been the single best thing about being home again! Of course, now I'm missing all of my NYC friends, but it has been so great to reconnect with everyone here. I've been lucky to have been able to spend a lot more time home over the last year, but really being home is a totally different experience. When you live cross-country most of the time you see your family it's for an occasion, so it's great to be able to just hang out without any agenda. Being able to meet up with my Dad for an afternoon hike or spend an evening with my Mom has been so nice. It's little things like that, that you totally take for granted when you live near your parents so I've been trying to make up for the last 10 years of living out of state!

Getting My Outdoors On

This summer has been beau-ti-ful!!! Seattle broke a record from 1951 this year for 52 days without rain and boy have I been enjoying it. I've spent a lot of time this summer taking advantage of all of the outdoors Washington has to offer. In the mountains.. time at the lake.. walking along the beaches.. #Gimmealloftheoutdoors. While I'm staying back in my hometown, I've also taken up a hiking at a local spot during the week. There's something kind of therapeutic about getting your butt kicked climbing a mountain when you're starting over too.

Something I have also really come to appreciate about Washington since being back is the diversity of activities the state has. While I grew up here, I left the state when I was 18 so I never really fully appreciated that. You can go hiking one day, to the beach the next, and kayaking the next. I can. not. get. enough! I know there was a million things to do in NYC too, but it's been nice having a different set of options and a lot more that involve getting some fresh air. There's just something about being able to hop in your own car (more on that later) that is so freeing and I've been loving that.

Squeezing in some City Time

Along with spending a lotttt of times outdoors, I've also been getting my city fix in! I've always had such a love affair with Seattle, even though truthfully I know very little about it, so I have been loving the city adventures I've had so far. I've made it to two Mariners games this summer, enjoyed some time at Alki Beach, and also went to my first Seafair party and watched the Blue Angels!

It's interesting being back too because, in NYC, that's really the hub on the city side... Back here though, we also have a lot of smaller cities where there's still a ton of things to check out even if you're not in Seattle. Needless to say I have a lotttt of adventuring left to do. With more cities, my brain has kind of exploded for thinking about where I want to move next too. So many options... That decision can wait for another day though. For now I'm just enjoying checking out different things and fun events going on around the state.

Doing all of the Driving

Driving.. Guys, I bought a car and I'm not going to lie.. I'm kind of obsessed with it. I was lucky enough to have the best car buying partner EVER too! We walked into our first dealership to take a look at some of the options and I ended up driving out a brand new car right out of the showroom and I am in LOVE! Well maybe not with having a car payment, but the car... I LOVE!

HOLY MOLY! Let me tell you, cars are definitely a little more high tech than the last time I owned one.. I mean the last time I was driving my car still had a cassette player in it.. 🙈 If I'm being honest, it's going to take a bit for me to really figure it all out haha. 3 backup cams (kind of essential after my incident earlier this summer), lane departure warning, automatic braking.. the car can almost drive itself and those are just the ones I've kind of figured out so far. 

So needless to say it has been quite the month! There are definitely a lot of things about NYC I miss already, but it has been such an awesome start to this new chapter so far and I can't wait to see what comes next!

Oh hello! It's been a minute or two. I know, I know. The good news is... I've been busy! Not like the oh yeah I'm busy, but the ohhh yeahhhhhh I'm really busy. Being busy is suchhhh a blessing though! I just hit my 7-month anniversary of branching out on my own so the fact that I'm living this dream is so worth all of the hard work and long hours I've been putting in :)

The truth is, on top of all of the amazing work projects I've been working on some other big life things -- mostly good with a little touch of holy crap what are we going to do! So here's a rundown of what I've been up to!

BFF visited NYC: After almost 6 years of living in NYC, my BFF Danielle visited the big apple! She came for a long weekend and boy did we do the city! Her Fitbit could vouch for us on that one too ;-) It was so much fun to catch up (I hadn't seen her since her wedding) and share some of the city with her.

Chris Moved In: You read that right! It may have taken over 5 years of dating.. but Chris took the plunge and said farewell to his apartment he lived in for 12 years. I KNOW! It was a big deal. There was a lot of packing.. donating.. and cleaning involved but somehow we downsized and fit all of our things into the studio. That is until we got some other news.. more on that later though.

Visited Washington: Just as soon as Chris got moved in and settled (ok well that was really me..) but once we got everything in order I headed back to Washington for 2 weeks! Thanks to the lovely Hardersens, I was able to head back west for a visit and to watch their pups while they embarked on a seriously ERT (epic road trip). I got to do soooo much when I was home (in between working) which totally reminded me of why I decided to jump into the world of entrepreneurship. I got to catch up with my Grandma, check out my Aunt's amazing lake house, catch up with one of my besties from PDX and show him some of the sights in WA, and of course spend some quality time with the fam bam. It. Was. Amazing.

Bachelorette Trip in Connecticut: As soon as I headed back east, I stayed in NYC for one night before hitting the road again. This time, up north for a bachelorette party! It was my first one and we had sooo much fun celebrating the bride-to-be! Connecticut casinos are no joke..

Apartment Hunting: Sooo back to that apartment news.. Originally our plan was for Chris to move in (his lease ended before mine) and then a few months later we were going to find a bigger place. After moving and getting settled we decided 1.) Man, we reallyyyy don't want to have to move again and 2.) While it would be tight we could suck it up for a year. The big man upstairs had a different plan in mind though.. While I was in Washington, I received a panicked call from Chris saying we got a letter in the mail saying my lease wasn't being renewed. Being across the country I immediately called my landlord's office (which wasn't open at the time).. let's just say it was a long 12 hours of waiting for them to open. I woke up early to call them the second their office opened and come to find out they're in the process of selling their buildings and aren't renewing any leases. I did not take the news well and was pretty upset.. I mean I just went through this 2 years ago with my last building! 

Sooo just like that it was back to apartment hunting, which as you've read on past blogs is a big pain in the b-u-t-t in the city. Plus we had so much going on in June and July.. it was just not something I wanted to have to deal with, but such is life. So I started stalking listings like the true apartment stalker I am and we saw apartment after apartment. It was a little early to start looking since we didn't have to move until Aug 1 (things are available immediately here or maybe a month in advance) but I mostly wanted to look at the market.

After seeing a bunch of places, being let down by brokers (sorry brokers but some of you really suck) I found a listing.. In fact, I prefaced the link for the listing to Chris with "Ok, this is kind of dumpy but it has a shared backyard and checks some of our other boxes" and they were having an open house that night. So I suggested we stop by on our way to the Billy Joel concert we were going to. I mean hey, the perk of NYC apartments is they take 5 mins to see. So we did just that and the place wasn't that bad.. andddd the "shared backyard" turned out to be a private backyard! It's not the fanciest place in the world, but as soon as we saw it and then found out they have unlimited laundry in the building we knew we needed to jump on it. It checked off our boxes, was available Aug 1, was no fee (YESSSS!), 1 bed, outdoor space, dishwasher (old but it has one) and decent storage. If we could have applied right then and there I would have -- because that's what you have to do here. Instead we had to wait until Monday because it was through a management company (my old management company actually!). So I obsessed and obsessed some more over the weekend. We showed up at their office right when they opened on Monday though, got approved within half an hour and signed our lease that day. So phewww after all that stress it all worked out and for the better! Sooo there will definitely be more apartment posts come the end of summer. Just wait until you see what I do with this backyard!!! So now we just wait.. but that's taken care of!

Chris' brother's Wedding: Chris' brother and beautiful fiance got married over the 4th of July weekend out on Long Island. They are just the best so it was so amazing to be there for their big day! It was a full weekend of love, delicious food, and lots of dancing! It could not have been a more perfect weekend and celebration!

Bachelorette Trip in Nashville: As soon as Chris' brother's wedding was over I was off to visit Nashville to celebrate another fabulous bride-to-be in Nashville! Nashville has been at the top of my bucket list to visit so I was pretty pumped for this trip! It did not disappoint either! All things country music, southern food and southern charm are soooo up my alley. I own way too many pairs of cowboy boots for a New Yorker.. haha. When I have another minute there will definitely be a trip highlight post because we had so much fun!

Moving: Now back to that apartment thing... we're a week away from packing up and heading to the new place. So there's that too!

I know, I know, when I said I've been busy I was not lying! If there's one thing life has taught me in the last 3 months it is that it doesn't slow down for anything! Which is equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking at times! It does all work out though one way or another! So now you're in the loop! Stay tuned because I do have some fun shenanigans to share that I've squeezed in between all of life's craziness!