I Run Like A Girl

I’m starting to feel like myself again 🙂

This past week I spent each and every moment doing things that made me happy. Every day after work I made plans to reconnect with old friends/get to know new friends, work out, cook dinner, and most importantly, put myself first. I’m a huge believer in the importance of self-care, especially after these last stressful few months.

Another huge reason for a boost in my mood is that I now have a trip to look forward to next month! More on this below…

Friday: Girl’s night out

The weekend started off with a girl’s night with Anna, Sarah, Princess and Matt (who we consider one of us :P). We got yummy Korean food at 707 Sutter and then hopped around a few bars on Polk Street. Being with the girls always makes me happy; we hashed out all the latest gossip in our lives and their loving, non-judgmental vibes are just what I needed.

A blurry picture of me spinning the drinks wheel at Soda Popinski’s 🙂

Saturday: Entire day to myself + date night

Easy run first thing on Saturday. It was beautiful and warm this weekend in SF which meant lots of time outside!

After my run, I had the entire Saturday morning and afternoon all to myself – yay! I was so looking forward to checking off my long list of to-do’s and having time to relax alone.

First off: a huge load of laundry. I made my way to the neighborhood laundromat and plopped down for 2 hours with my laptop to do my “computer errands” while watching my laundry spin away. I don’t know about you guys, but half of my errands involve sitting behind a computer, and the last thing I want to do after a long workday is stare at a screen so I tend to put these off the longest over my more “active” errands 😛

Afterwards, I reheated some leftover pizza for lunch and then headed over to the kava bar for the afternoon. I ran into a new friend there which was a treat, but I really had one purpose and that was to not leave the bar until I had booked my October trip. I have some time next month between two projects at work, which is the perfect excuse to take a solo trip! I spent weeks and weeks marinating between a ton of different places: Sri Lanka, New Zealand, South America….I spent all afternoon putting some last touches on my research, all to finally book…

COLOMBIA!!!!

I am so, SO EXCITED for this. This is my first time to South America and Colombia has been top of my list for a while. Since Thailand, I’ve been on a solo-trip high and so doing this trip alone was a no-brainer.

After my kava-filled afternoon, I had some more time to kill, and so I got some ice cream at Salt & Straw and walked around the city. I was in a great mood, having flashbacks to when I first moved to SF and spent lots of free time walking around and exploring the city…everything felt so new and exciting, especially after leaving behind my life in NYC. I remember recently telling Michelle that “my worst day in SF is better than my best day in NYC…”. I remembered how far I’ve come over the past few years, despite feeling like I’m in a rough patch right now. The anxiety that I’ve been having is very similar to how I felt when I was living in NYC post-college. For two years I was really unhappy and unsure of what my future held…and somehow, life worked itself out and brought me to SF. I’m so grateful for these little moments that help remind me that life will work itself out.

Later in the evening, I went on a date! We went to SoMa StrEAT food park, an outdoor park with lots of food trucks. We got Filipino fusion food and shared a pitcher of sangria – a lovely end to the day 🙂

Sunday: football + lazy afternoon at the park

It’s football season! Sarah rounded up the gang to go to SF Athletic Club to watch the Eagles game. Living on the west coast means waking up early for sports – we were at the bar by 9:30am :P. Sarah is the biggest Eagles fan in the world so we joined forces and cheered them on.

After football, I wanted to soak up some more the amazing weekend weather, and so I plopped a picnic blanket on the Fort Mason lawn, plugged in my headphones, and had a nice, relaxing solo picnic. Oh how much I loved all of my “me” time this weekend.

And now going into another week, probably filled with a lot of Colombia planning. Hope you have a good one!