I Run Like A Girl

Yes, I’m alive! This is the longest break I took from blogging in 7 years, but it feels so good to catch up here with my blogging friends. 🙂

It’s been an incredibly busy summer, and most of my time and energy has been spent on work. I’m busier than ever and even working most weekends. I’m also starting to travel more as I fly to different conferences and events every other week through the end of the year. Despite the long hours, my spirits are high as I feel a strong sense of joy and validation from my job. It’s amazing how work affects so much of your life. I feel like my career is in a good spot, and this is the most motivated I’ve felt in a long time.

Outside of work, the remainder of my energy has been spent on wedding planning – I can’t believe it’s only 3 weeks away! I took a break over the summer, but now planning is back in full swing. I am so excited for our big day and to create this memory with our friends and family. However, I’m equally as excited for it to be over. 😛 I’m sure a lot of people can relate to that statement. I don’t mind the planning, but there’s just so much we want to experience and accomplish that I’m looking forward to freeing up time for other things. Nevertheless, I know the wedding is going to be wonderful and worth all this effort. Joe and I always say that we’re excited to finally BE married! 

Between my job and wedding stuff, it’s been hard to find time to blog. I hope to pick up the pace again soon. This blog is definitely here to stay as this is one of my biggest joys! But my posts might be less frequent in the near term. 🙂 

Now let’s catch up on the rest of the summer.

A few weeks ago, I attended Outsidelands, the largest music festival in San Francisco. This was my first time attending despite living in SF for seven years. I got major FOMO missing out last year when our entire friend group went, and I knew I wanted to go this year. The festival took place in Golden Gate Park and had a wide range of music: pop, hip-hop, EDM, and more. 

The entire day was SO much fun. It had been a long time since I completely let loose, and it felt so carefree to dance in the sun, picnic with our friends, and check out all the different stages. The highlight for us was Postal Service, one of our Joe’s and my nostalgic bands. This was one of the most memorable days I had in a long time, and definitely a highlight of the summer. 

In addition, Joe and I took a weekend trip to Pinnacles National Park. I heard about this small, underrated park through online research, and we did 2 days and 1 night. The park was 2.5 hours from SF, so the extra night made it more relaxing than a day trip.

I loved the park as it had interesting rock formations mixed with dry mountain scenery. It was less epic than the main hiking trips in the Bay (e.g. Tahoe, Yosemite, Big Sur), but having done those parks multiple times, it was refreshing to try someplace new. 

A unique part of the park was the caves. They were fun to explore and brought some diversity to the hikes.

There was a beautiful reservoir that was the reward for one of our hikes. 🙂 

Finally, last weekend, Joe and I headed to Dallas, Texas for Wevine and Kabo’s wedding! Wevine was part of our SF friend group when she lived here a couple years ago, and it was so wonderful to see her and celebrate her wedding. They did a traditional Nigerian & Botswanan reception. I loved all the unique traditional aspects of the wedding, from the music to the food to the beautiful dresses. It was also a rare reunion with our SF friends that moved away over the years. Such a fun weekend.

I feel very lucky that we had these events to break up work and wedding planning. Now that summer is over, I’m really looking forward to fall. Growing up in the Northeast, fall was always my favorite season, and there’s a lot of excitement for everything coming up. 🙂