I Run Like A Girl

Hey, hey, hey! Since we last talked, I’ve been hopping all around the east coast and have lots of randomness to catch you guys up on. So let’s begin my recap on the east coast tour with my first stop…Atlanta!

Atlanta

After my marathon on Sunday, I caught a red-eye to Atlanta to take a course that I needed to fulfill in order to get my actuarial credentials. I thought that being exhausted post marathon + a nice cold beer would be a recipe for knocking out on the plane, but that unfortunately sleep did NOT happen at all.

So needless to say Monday was filled with lots of coffee, coffee, coffee. The course itself exceeded my expectations; it really rejuvenated my motivation for this career path and finishing up these exams, and most of all I loved meeting other actuaries from across the country!

I didn’t get a chance to explore Atlanta too much besides a little walk after Monday’s session. The city was still in fall mode and had plenty of foliage on the trees. Afterwards on Monday night, I had plenty of down time to recover, sleep early, and adjust to east coast time (which majorly helped the rest of the week).

Hartford

Next stop was Hartford, where I spent the rest of the week working with my team for a client meeting. I was in Hartford this time last year with the same people, and it was SO nice seeing everyone again. Our days were filled with lots of work and evenings with lots of food + wine 😉

Hartford is such a cute town.

New York City

After a pretty tiring week in Atlanta + Hartford, I hopped on an Amtrak to New York for the weekend – it was my first time back since moving 6 months ago and so I had plenty of people to catch up with!

The main event during my visit was staying with Christine in Williamsburg. I think NYC knew I was coming by because it gave us a SNOW DAY on Saturday – aren’t first snows the best?

It was the perfect excuse to stay indoors, binge watch all of season 2 of Easy, catch up on our lives…most of our Saturday looked like this.

We made some mulled wine 🙂

In the evening, we finally got our butts up for a night out. We first hosted some of our girlfriends for a pregame. Then, we ventured to a bar in Williamsburg where I got to see a bunch of old friends from my NYC days – it was definitely a nostaligic surprise. Later on, we ventured to Bushwick to watch Christine’s roommate play a DJ set. He was so talented and we all danced away – it turned out to be a very fun but very late night out; I forgot how late everything goes in NYC!

The next morning I got brunch in West Village with the old Tribeca roommates, Nicky and Trish. I hadn’t seen them in so long and sure missed them <3. Being with the two always is always a silly, heart-warming time.

My weekend in NYC ended with coffee with Richard and Chuck, my two closest friends from college. Richard mentioned that it felt like I had just gone on vacation and come back…that was honestly the best way to describe the whole weekend.

Oddly enough, despite a fun and nostalgic weekend, being back in NYC made me realize how GLAD I was that I moved away. There were moments throughout the weekend when I really missed SF, and deep down I feel like my life is with California and the people in it. Nevertheless, I am so happy I could just pick up where I left off with all my closest friends. I’ve always believed that close friends aren’t ones that you necessarily see all the time, but you know they will be there for you at any time. The weekend was a sweet reminder of how I do have so many loved ones in my life that I can say that about.

Last stop…Poughkeepsie!

With all the jumping around different cities, I am SO glad to be with my parents in upstate New York. It’s beyond heartwarming to be back in my hometown and in my childhood home and bed. I’m so looking forward to some much needed rest, relaxation, shopping, eating, and quality family time for the next two weeks ❤