Only thing separating me from cool is two straps of Velcro

//via *jbird* on Flickr

Today is my three month “Move to San Francisco” anniversary.

Moosfversary?!

I swear I’ll stop acting like a 16-year-old girl in love for the first time, counting every anniversary. “Happy eighth-month anniversary baby! Heart, heart, XOXO, heart heart heart. What!? You didn’t get me a dozen red roses for our eighth anniversary?! I hate you. We’re broken up. Until tomorrow.”

P.S. Girls are crazy.

Anyway, the significance of this three-month date is that I didn’t start feeling like myself, literally, until this week. You see, I’ve been posting a lot of fun, happy updates (because I am happy and having fun), but I want to share with you the hard part of my journey too. Less sugar coating, more reality, if you will.

There’s something about moving away to an unfamiliar place, away from all your friends and family, uprooting everything you’ve known for years, that just shakes you to your core. A good shake – not like a death, divorce or layoff might shake you, but challenging still. I knew that it was going to be a bit of a battle, but I didn’t know I’d be walking around feeling like half of Jeanna for three months.

See – a lot of your environment, including the people around you, defines who you are. How you spend your time is a big one – the people you go to dinner with, the fitness studios where you choose to push your body to its limits, the grocery and drug store employees you see every week, the work environment you spend eight hours a day (or more) in. Take that all away – take away all the people and places you’re familiar with – and it makes you feel like a part of how you define(d) yourself is stripped away.

Molly of Stratejoy wrote a great blog post this week (funny timing, I tell yah), about her struggles with moving away from Seattle also (to San Diego) this past month. She wrote about how she’s homesick and misses the creature comforts from her familiar city, and how she wants to “stop procrastinating on some healthy and creative habits … and let go of some unhealthy crutches.” You can just click through to read, but Molly’s struggles with taking part in passive leisure (things that feel “nice” but require little thought, ability, or skill such as watching TV or surfing the net, ie: FACEBOOK) rather than active leisure (things that require you to engage, learn and create such as sports, creative pursuits, cooking for pleasure, learning a new hobby) are SO ME in the last three months.

While I’ve been having lots of fun getting to know my new city the last three months, I haven’t pursued my yoga practice since here, which has really bothered me. I’ve been overindulging (in adult beverages and rich food) with visitors and new friends. I’m not as connected or comfortable in the tech and social media scene in San Francisco as I was in Seattle. Sometimes I’m overwhelmed about how to get places, or where to go for certain necessities, and the need to research everything feels like a chore. I’ve slept late and sometimes barely interacted with people for an entire day (or showered for two) since I work from home. Not to mention the whole move has felt surreal, and sometimes I still can’t believe I actually left Seattle, and think maybe I’m just on an extended vacation. All in all, I’ve just generally felt disconnected from the hot-yoga-doing, healthy-recipe-trying, happy-hour-going, new-hobby-trying, business-networking-social-butterfly girl I knew so well in Seattle (and was really getting to love).

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But Jeanna’s getting her groove back. And it didn’t take a hot black man to do so (although that would have been nice too).

I started my week, feeling like I’m finally fully settled into the swing of my new life, and my new environment is starting to define a new Jeanna, whose new skin I’m increasingly more comfortable in.

I love working from home and making my own schedule, but still visiting an office a couple days a week for coworker interaction. I also feel really lucky that working from home (WFH) allows me to make my food fresh every day from scratch, so I’m eating more “clean” than ever before, avoiding unhealthy lunches out and fast food. I’m learning my neighborhood too – the little specialty mart that sells amazing organic fruit and my favorite handmade tamales, the new salon I walk to for haircuts and colors, the coffee shop that sells addicting breakfast burritos, the park with an amazing view of the entire Bay that I love to walk through, the secret places to park, and the fitness center across the street from me that has the best Balletone class. I’m back to feeling healthy, eating right, and scheduling workouts into my day, which is a big part of me feeling like the best part of me that I can be. And I’m even getting to know the bus schedule, how to pronounce the street names, and my way around the city when driving (without Google Maps).

I’ve also finally completed all those little annoying idiosyncrasies of moving that have been on one long to-do list for the last three months, preventing me from feeling truly settled in – getting a new license, hooking up Internet and TV, getting an extra key made, buying a parking pass, meter card, bus pass, and one of those entirely too large plastic boxes you have to stick on your car window with two pieces of Velcro, so you can drive through the fast lane across the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge (so many bridges here) without stopping in long lines of cars to pay your toll.

Except one of my new friends got in my car yesterday and said, “You MOUNTED your FasTrak?! Only the dorks MOUNT it.”

San Francisco Jeanna – getting her groove back, but still so far away from being “San Francisco cool.”

Currently Feeling: A little weirded out that a friend of mine now has a dog that shares my name (albeit spelled differently). Not everyday that that happens. (Isn’t the double thats always so awkward! Couldn’t figure out my way around that one).
Currently Anticipating: A trip to Napa tomorrow to see one of my Seattle BFFs who will be there on a family vacation! Wahoo 80 degrees and wine tasting (again)! P.S. Two blogs on my Napa trip coming soon.
Currently Obsessed With: Kahlua Keurig singles.

And then she lived next to a little garden in the sun

On Wednesday I flew down to San Francisco to embark on the FIRST step that’s felt really real since I decided I was moving out of Seattle… the epic “I have three days to find an apartment” trip.

Since I’ve shared my news of moving to San Francisco, I’ve received a ton of questions – “What neighborhoods do you want to live in?” “Are you keeping your furniture?” “Are you flying or driving down?” “Are you keeping your car?” “Are you getting a one bedroom or a studio?” “Are you going to live alone?”

I haven’t felt like I could tackle any of these questions until I could visualize, myself, what this little life of mine would be like in San Francisco. What my apartment would look like, what kind of neighborhood I’d live in, the space in San Fran that my life would fill… I had just as many questions.

I’m not sure what apartment hunting is like in the (what I’m sure is fabulous) city or town you live in, but in Seattle it’s a rat race. It’s a refresh Craigslist every 15 minutes, call immediately, WIN the first scheduled appointment, never, ever walk away from an apartment you love without claiming it situation. In San Francisco – it’s that times 100. I don’t think my eyes left Craigslist for two full days. I was a scheduling macheen. I drove my rented little P.T. Cruiser (hawt) up and down and forward and back. I learned the streets quickly, the neighborhoods even quicker, and ran a stop sign or two before I realized they’re at every intersection, oftentimes hidden behind trees. Woopsie.

I dodged traffic, had my iPhone’s Google maps app glued to my hand and fought to park all over the damn place – moving my car every two hours, so I wouldn’t get a ticket. I drove by the water, screeched to a halt every time I saw a “For Rent” sign, continued through the fancy, expensive neighborhoods, and through some, uh, less fancy and expensive neighborhoods. I viewed apartments that, as soon as I stepped in their front entryway, I knew they weren’t for me. I walked into more than a couple $1,700 apartments that wouldn’t fit my queen sized bed and were rundown, chipped paint, dirty blinds, stained carpet, windowless places. Who gets away with charging $1,700 for that?!

Finally, I thought I found a place I was okay with, but I had one more apartment scheduled to view that I wasn’t thrilled about – it was a little further away from the “action” than I wanted to be, and I could barely understand the manager on the phone when I called. I thought I’d give it one last ditch effort, but when I arrived, I couldn’t even find the darn place. I walked up and down the street, trying to match the apartment address to the Craigslist posting and it.didn’t.exist! It skipped from one building higher than the address to one building lower than the address. Who knew I was supposed to be looking for this tiny iron gate, covered in ivy and squeezed between two larger buildings.

I thought the gate led to the backyard of one of the big buildings. What I didn’t know, is that behind that gate is a tree-lined walkway leading to the tiniest, private off-street community of 12 apartments with a shared garden that has a patio with barbecues, and a cute bright, updated one-bedroom apartment with built-in bookshelves and shutters looking out on the garden that is just perfect for my home office. My head said, “I think this is it…” and then after one sleep, my heart said, “That’s definitely it.”

So, I signed the lease and am traveling back to Seattle with three brass keys in my pocket and finally the VISUAL of what this little life of mine will be like in San Francisco.

I can’t wait to show it to you guys after it’s all decorated and moved in!

Currently Feeling: Exhausted and so happy to be back in my bed with my little fur-ball love.
Currently Anticipating: A bunny pub crawl tomorrow, dance party Saturday night and dinner with my girls on Sunday! Gotta squeeze all the best time friend in that I can.
Currently Loving: The “spring cleaning” of moving and simultaneously getting rid of unnecessary crap!

Looking back and forward on my year of total happiness

Wednesday night I went to dinner with an old college roommate. We ordered two crepes, split a bottle of red wine, and discussed our upcoming New Years Eve plans. At sometime during the night I said, “2010 has been the best year of my life,” and she responded with – “Really?!”

Yes, really.

I have said more times than I can remember this year – I am SO happy right now. Happy with where I’m at with my life, happy with who’s in it (and who isn’t). Happy with my career, my apartment, my friends. If I could pick one word to sum up this year for me – it’s simply been, Happy. I could only hope 2011 lives up to the year I’ve had in 2010.

Below are just a few of the reasons that have made 2010 “my best year yet.” In no particular order, this year I…

• Made regular workouts a part of my life all year, for the first time ever. This included starting Sassy Fit boot camp, which I did for six months, and then starting my yoga practice! (Which began with a 30-day hot yoga challenge in June). Me + yoga = LOVE.
• Gave up consumerism for 30 days (as part of my 30-day yoga challenge).
• Paid of a ton of parking tickets that prevented me from buying tabs, bought new tabs to replace the previous ones that were expired for two years AND paid off my car loan. Booyah. What up responsibility.
• Took a bacon cooking class (where I learned to make a Bacon Explosion!)
• Traveled to New York, San Francisco twice and Miami (where we partied at a bar with the Jersey Shore cast. I was at a bar with Snookie in 2010. Enough said).
• Spent many fun cabin weekends with friends, including Chelan multiple times over the spring and summer, and Leavenworth for Oktoberfest.
• Booked my first trip to Hawaii!
• Co-hosted (with other Power Team members) at least a dozen Girl Power Hour networking events for women, which allowed me to meet tons of empowering, smart girls and be a leader in my community!
• Found $100 bill on the ground on Halloween night (dressed as Cruella DeVille).
• Bought an ice cream making machine and learned how to make ice cream for the first time!
• Started a “Good Friends and a Glass of Wine” dining group, where I met with four girl friends of mine once a month to try a rotating selection of some of Seattle’s most critically acclaimed and talked about restaurants. We met 10 out of the 12 months in 2010 – pretty great record, and lots of great food! We ate at Spring Hill, Root Table, Lark, Union, Mistral Kitchen, anchovies & olives, Spinasse, Osteria La Spiga and more.
• Coached a kickball team with friends.
• Took a long blog break, transferred my blog from Blogger to WordPress and redesigned my blog. Took another long blog break, redesigned my blog again. Discovered that part of my happiness IS blogging, and I feel weird when I leave it behind. Completed NaBloPoMo (without missing a single post!) to gain my blog mojo back.
• Crossed a few fun things off my Bucket List, including riding my bike to work (and walking to work most of the summer!), going to Teatro Zinzanni for the first time, meeting a blog friend in real life, planting an herb and veggie garden – and making recipes with my homegrown plants, cooking my first turkey and buying satin sheets for my bed (for ME, no one else).
• Spent a LOT, a lot, a lot of time with girl friends – made a ton of new friends (Hi loves, if you’re reading!), and became closer to my roommate and some of my best friends, who mean the world to me.
• Had my first career-related speaking gig on a panel at the Social Fresh conference in Portland, OR.
• Attended BlogHer and BlogHer Food for the first time (excellent, nerdy blogging conferences – right up my alley).
• Said goodbye to my trusty Sidekick (my friends called me Sidekick Sally for years) and bought an iPhone 4! Also was able to purchase a Kindle this year – something I’ve had on my “want” list for at least 2-3 years – and have read so many great books. I’m hoping to pull together a list of my top books of 2010, for those interested.
• Hosted a Girls Thanksgiving, and cooked my first turkey (and sweet potato pie).
• Repaired my own vacuum after it broke! lol. Pretty proud of myself for that one – I’m an independent woman!
• Moved offices from downtown to Pioneer Square.
• Threw a big, successful party – without a hitch – for work with more than 150 people in the Seattle tech community in attendance! Then received a raise a week later, and a new part time contract work for an awesome company two months after that! My career kicked major ass in 2010. I can’t believe I can say that I’m exactly where I want to be at 29, and love, love my job and industry every day. For THAT, I consider myself extremely lucky.
• Made giant steps toward a BIG life change that I’ve wanted to do, and have talked about, for years. 2011 looks like it could be my year!

As far as looking forward to 2011, I decided to not make a “New Years Resolution” for this year. Rather, I scrolled through my Bucket List and marked a number of them that I want to cross off, work on, or know I’m already on my way to completing in 2011. Some of them are a bit ridiculous, some trivial, some large – but all are realistic. It’s a hefty list this year with lots to work toward, but what is life but without high goals!

My Bucket List items I’m going to try to complete in 2011 are:

• Live in another city for at least one year
• Keep a savings account – with a balance – for more than one year 
• Swim with dolphins (Planned for Hawaii.)
• Get my teeth whitened, professionally 
• Teach myself to video edit (My job might depend on it. Kidding. But no, really.)
• Visit Bali and wear flowers around my neck 
• Take a yoga retreat (Just so happens I’m planning a yoga retreat to Bali for August 2011. Two birds. One stone.)
• Buy a Mini Cooper (Currently on wait-lists for a black one.)
• Own a license plate with my name on it (As silly as this is, figured might look all right on new Mini.)
• Take a shower by candlelight
• Give up fast food for a year (Eh – why not. Thought I’d try this, starting January 1st. This could be considered a mini resolution, I suppose.)
  
• Make a cookbook of my grandmother’s recipes before she passes 
• Go to dim sum for breakfast
• Dine in the dark at San Francisco’s Opaque restaurant
• Feel great in a T-shirt again (My tummy is my trouble area, and it’s been a long time since I could just wear jeans and a T-shirt and feel comfortable. I’d really like to change this.)
• Make a wine corkboard from bottles of wine I’ve actually drank myself (Been saving for nearly two years – almost there!)
• Go to Toastmasters and kick my anxiety with public speaking (This is a must. must.)
• Wine taste in Napa Valley

Happy  New Years everyone!

Currently Feeling: Phew exhausted! This took all night.
Currently Anticipating: Getting my hair did and all fancy for the big NYE party I have planned tomorrow with a super fun group of friends from my neighborhood. Happy NYE!
Currently Loving: A cute new consignment shop in my neighborhood that has brand new designer jeans – tags on – for $70 and less! Pshhh. I’m totally not sharing the name.

How does the word flaky make you feel

Do you think to yourself, “Eww…I’m kinda flaky” or “Gawd I hate flaky people”?

Because I think there are two types of people in this world – flaky and non-flaky. However, I’m unsure how this comes about, and I wonder if flaky people, deep down, know they’re flaky. Or does everyone say they hate flaky people, but we’re all, in our own little ways, flaky at one point or the other? Conversely, what makes someone flaky – a selfishness and lack of others’ time, overall listlessness, or a general uncaring attitude? Perhaps it’s larger, more private issues – like social anxiety or depression – maladies that cause people to want to stay in, alone, instead of being where they said they’d be. Or perhaps we’re all just overbooked, overworked, overcommitted, oversocialized…

I thought about this today during a conversation I had with someone about how hard it is to throw events these days because everyone RSVPs “Yes”, but shows up to less than 50 percent of what they RSVP to.

The conversation made me awfully grumbly – if there’s one thing I abhor in life, it’s flaky people. I work very hard to only commit to events I can actually make it to, and will run myself into the ground to show up to where I promised I’d be, even if it’s the last thing I want to do. (Which, on the flip side, probably isn’t that healthy).

But, my word is strong – if I tell you I’ll be there, unless something like throwing up, car troubles, lost keys or other life altering events happen that prevent my presence, I’ll be there.

I realized, it is very important in this life of mine to be reliable.

Because I put such weight on being reliable, it’s really hard for me to be patient with any and all of the following:

• Someone who is afraid to call and tell you they don’t want to go anymore, so they don’t answer texts and emails and kinda fall off the face of the Earth until magically, after wherever they were supposed to be is over, they “Find their phone.”
• Someone who commits to something that requires a head count, and splitting of costs, then bails out at the last minute – stiffing everyone else with their portion of the bill that they committed to.
• Someone who reschedules and cancels and reschedules and cancels, and cancels and cancels and then shows up late.
• Someone who replies “maybe” to every invite – never committing to anything (now, is that flaky or noncommittal?)
• Someone who commits to plans, which require them to be there for the other person to go, and because they back out, the other person is stuck not doing something they wanted to do.
• Someone who bails on anything that required tickets or reservations.
• Etc, etc, etc.

What are your thoughts on the what it means to be flaky? Do you put an emphasis on it?
Do you think I put too much emphasis on it? I’d love to hear your thoughts…

Fried Peanut Butter and jelly and Jelly

I recently went to breakfast with my roommate and a group of friends at a great Seattle neighborhood sports bar and restaurant, Buckley’s on Queen Anne. I had actually already eaten breakfast before everyone had woken up, so I more or less went along for the ride and fun of a Saturday breakfast with Bloody Mary’s served with a beer back.

Because I wasn’t really into ordering to actually eat (otherwise my meal would have most definitely included eggs and bacon since I’m a savory breakfast type), I ordered for the sake of trying something new. Much to my delight, I found a fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the menu. FRIED PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY?! What does it mean?!

So gross… but so good at the same time. Obvs I had to try one.

I didn’t actually expect to love this as much as I did. It was a warm, oozing sweet fried confection goodness, dipped in whipped cream, that felt disgusting and amazing all at the same time. Go get the to Buckley’s to try one immediately.

I feel like there’s some weird obsession with different friend foods lately (probably cause we’re fat Americans) – fried pickles, fried Twinkies and more. What is it about fried food?!

What’s the weirdest/best fried concoction you’ve ever tried?

Currently Feeling: A little overwhelmed by all that’s on my plate, as of recent. I always do this to myself!
Currently Anticipating: LUNAFest tomorrow with the Girl Power Hour girls!
Currently Loving: My new pretty MacBook for work. Ahhhh Macs, how I forgot my love for thee.

Dream It Launch It Live It

I had the pleasure of attending a business and entrepreneur conference for women today called Dream It, Launch It, Live It. The speakers featured at the conference were an amazing display of creative female minds behind brilliant businesses such as Bella Cupcake Coutoure, CRAVE Guides for Women, and of course, Darnell Sue – the founder of Girl Power Hour.

I loved listening to Zhena Muzyka, the founder of Zhena’s Gypsy Teas (my most favorite tea brand, carried at Whole Foods, Tully’s Coffee and other retailers). Zhena told us how she was raised by an Ukranian gypsy, immigrant family, and none of her family members had ever pursued education past high school. “I didn’t know what success looked like,” Zhena said during her panel. She traveled the world, earning a degree in aromatherapy, and eventually found herself a single mother making $1,200 a month and spending $800 of that on rent.

Zhena started creating and selling teas out of a cart on the streets in California, then moved to wrapping tin cans taped with paper labels to sell them in stores, and is now the brains behind one of the more successful tea companies in the nation. The best thing about her teas – they’re fairtrade, organic and sourced from Sri Lanka, where her employees benefit from guaranteed health insurance, education, safe working conditions and no child labor. Zhena has even won tons of accolades for her business, including Enterprising Woman the Year and awards for her packaging and sustainable business practices.

Holy cow – can you say empowering?!

Zhena’s Gypsy Tea in Coconut Chai has long been a staple in my desk drawer at work – and now I’m an even bigger fan. Give it a go next time you’re at the grocery store!

You can learn more about Zhena and her tea company here.

Currently Feeling: Bummed I couldn’t make it to yoga tonight cause the class was full when I got there – bogus!
Currently Anticipating: Catching up with my good friend John tomorrow, whom I haven’t seen in at least two months.
Currently Loving: Gingersnaps from Trader Joe’s and their Mint Meltaways! Hey there sweet tooth.

Sometimes you cant show all your cards or yoga in the streets

When you start to practice yoga regularly, it’s quite common to want to bust into a yoga pose while in the bathroom getting ready, waiting for your food to to cook in the microwave, in the elevator at work, or wherever the moods strikes you.

Courtesy of Shunpikie on Flickr

There’s something ridiculous addicting about yoga poses – the strength it requires, stretching and lengthening your body, the beauty in the shape that your limbs make while in Dancer’s Pose, Warrior III or Eagle. If you’re a yogi, you already know this. If you’re not, you probably think I’m crazy.

Crazy or not, I know there’s a time and place for everything. I usually do these poses in the mirror in the privacy of my own home, or where strangers can’t see me trying to balance and lift my leg over my head. There’s a time and place for everything, that is, until you drink a few beverages. Then apparently you think it’s smart to practice yoga on the sidewalk in the pouring down rain, a little tipsy. Tipsy does not make a good balance pose. Tipsy does make a good nose dive face plant into a wet pile of leaves in front of cute boys, scraping your knee and tearing your pantyhose.

Okay, I wasn’t really wearing pantyhose, I was wearing jeans. Thank god pantyhose aren’t really my thing cause otherwise that would have been real bad.

Life lesson: Sometimes you can’t yoga in the streets.

Shout out to my little sis’ cause the title of this post is the advice she gave me after picking me up and dusting off my dirty clothes after my face plant.

Currently Feeling: Exhausted after a full day of running around – work, hot yoga, shower then dinner with some girls I haven’t seen in months! And I used to think Mondays were low-key…
Currently Anticipating: Going to the Dream It, Launch It, Live It conference tomorrow!
Currently Reading: A crazy mix of books right now – fiction for fun, and two books for work to make me smarter or something. It’s a book juggling act!

Stella Sundays Bath Tub Time Machine

Every time I get out of the shower, Stella has to jump in after me, despite getting her little paws wet. I think she knows something I don’t…

Me thinks the bathtub and her favorite nook must be portals to get her out of the 700 square foot apartment she’s stuck in day by day.

Humanity For All

A couple weekends ago, I went to the Ballard Farmers Market with my mom and stopped into a cute little salon boutique in Ballard called Duque. They have a fabulous selection of jewelry, makeup and other items perfect for treating yourself or picking up gifts. My eye went straight away to a few bracelets they had displayed on the front table and fell.in.love. This beauty came home with me immediately, and since, I’ve had a ton of compliments on it:

It’s a leather, silver-stamped, Swarovski crystal bracelet from HumanityForAll.com that wraps around your arm and displays a message of humanitarianism, focusing on social justice and the environment. The designer is a woman from L.A., and the brand, particularly this bracelet, has been popular with celebrities.

Celebrity aside, I love the message. When unwrapped, it reads:

Plant peace. Live in unity. Make a differene. Accept diversity. Speak kindness. Pave the path. Lead the way. Humanity. Give back. Seek wisdom. Come together. Truth. Forgive. Believe. Faith. Sow Love. Humanity. Make a difference.

It’s the best message to have wrapped around my wrist, in a daily reminder to be the best human I can be.

If you want one, head over to Duque (they’re on back order until three weeks from now) or pick one of the select colors available on the Web site. (They’re only $24 and make the best gift for birthdays or Christmas – every time someone wraps it around their wrist, they’ll think of you!)

Currently Feeling: So relieved I stayed in tonight to rest up and work on a ton of things I needed to do. Feels great to be responsible sometimes on the weekend.
Currently Anticipating: Meeting up with the fam in the morning before my sister heads back to college, and hitting up a hot yoga class in the afternoon. Low-key Sunday.
Currently Wanting: Another new blog redesign. I know, I’m crazy about changing things up all the time, guys. But I just feel this one is a little too dark. I want something a bit more clean, so expect some changes soon!

You little MINX you

Have you seen the hot new trend – MINX nails?! I’ve seen a couple girls here and there with the fabulous, uber shiny nail decals that are rumored to stay on two weeks to a month, and have literally swooned. I totally want a fab set of glamour gold nails for the holidays.

You can get a MINX applied at your salon, or even do them yourself. My fabulous beauty-expert friend (and co-Power Team member), Tricia Mann, created a fun little video talking about the trend. Catch it here:

What do you think – have you seen this trend? Would you MINX?

Currently Feeling: Super excited to embark on an exciting new project this month!
Currently Anticipating: To have a low-key weekend and knock out some work on new projects, and wrap up some old projects, and have a little family time on the side to boot.
Currently Loving: My new bracelet – which is beautiful, and gets tons of compliments. What is it, and where did I get it? I’ll update you this weekend on the new trend you’re totally going to want to purchase!