Soakin' Up San Francisco

Recently inspired by this month's letter from the editor of Los Angeles magazine, I've decided that it's time to truly explore my greater city. I have known for a long time that I was born to be an explorer of the world. It began with long days of playing Rainforest beneath the backyard sprinkler, naming our most dependably recurring flowers and blending concoctions of pollen and au natural aloe-vera jelly in ivy leaf petri dishes. It continued on trips to Grandma's "mountain house" in Frazier Park, CA - where we'd take walks in search of craft-worthy pine cones bigger than our hands, and cousin Nick and I would set out sledding between the icy backyards, gone long enough to worry my usually laissez-faire Gramz. The childhood strand of my travel bug peaked when Mom and I jetted off to France and Germany for cousins Greg and Elvie's 1996 nuptials... in which I side-starred as the all-American flower girl. Mom and I fed the birds outside Versailles, to...

I am officially twenty-five, and tgif . My first day back at work this past Tuesday - after a long birthday weekend - was joyous; everyone seemed to have missed me and continues wishing me happy birthday, which is sweet. It's nice for it to seem that I've been effective and influential in my short time as a leader in my current job, at this current location. It was also amazing to get good and helpful feedback from my recently-appointed new boss: a confident and friendly female leader who admirably balances work with a family, constructive feedback with positive encouragement. With new management often comes change, so I hadn't known entirely what to expect in our environment as well as my particular area of responsibility in recent weeks. As I identified and then told an old friend from the fruit stand on the phone tonight: when something feels uncertain in my life, it is my natural inclination to want to rectify it, to begin planning or considering alternatives accordi...

On the eve of my quarter-life crisis (seven days until age 25): As I chatted with my oldest and bestest friend Chels while driving home tonight, I noted the topics we touched upon. Superbowl, our parents and siblings of course, the notion of "college envy." We talked about our finances, the imperative-yet-impossibleness of saving money, and our constantly teetering living situations. I envy her current downtown apartment, with gorgeous skyline view and desert-weathered patio... she reassured me of the wisdom behind my current situation: living at home rent free with Mom and Dad. It's just for now; at first it was intended to be "just for six months," and it would also make a lot of sense for it to be "just for this year" while happy and thriving at my current workplace - a twenty-minute commute away. We then discussed our impending dream destinations: #1 being Hawaii for Chels's sister's wedding, where she'll be a guaranteed guest as MO...