Hi friends, I'm a slacker delinquent and I decided I'm kind of on summer break from the blog a little bit. Honestly, I have no excuse for that except that I've been doing all sorts of other real-life things instead of writing. Namely:
- Dave has me hooked on "Master of None" and "How I Met Your Mother," neither of which I've seen before. Could Aziz Ansari be more charming? I love the writing and tone of "Master of None" in general. We're also entering "Bachelor in Paradise" season and I, for one, am crazy-excited for the most! dramatic! season! ever! ;)
- I only brought about a third of my books to California with me, and as a result, we have a sad, very empty bookshelf in our living room. It makes me so despondent every time I look up and see those empty spaces where I used to have so many of my faves (as you can tell if you read my monthly bookworm posts, I'm a huuuge re-reader.). I've accordingly gone on a bit of a book-buying binge when I can find good deals on Amazon or at the Stanford bookstore (employee discount ftw), and in line with that have been reading so many wonderful books lately. Lots to share in a couple weeks in this month's roundup!
- I'm getting really into yoga and Pilates, thanks to Stanford's phenomenal employee wellness program. I go almost daily over lunch hour and get to enjoy a great mid-day reset. While I'm most definitely not the bendiest person in the room at any given session, I'm really loving feeling more centered and flexible, and noticing that my general klutziness seems to abate a bit as I'm focusing on being more aware of my body.
- A couple weeks ago, my colleagues and I had our quarterly team-building day (my first at Stanford). This time, the outing was to an escape room, where we broke into two teams and competed against each other, as well as against two teams from Google. The room itself was actually four different rooms, each containing a segment of a puzzle to solve for a final puzzle - incredibly complex and detailed, and relying heavily on logic games and critical thinking (my favorite!). We ended up losing to both the Google teams (no surprise), but beating our other Stanford team soundly as we escaped with seven and a half minutes remaining.
- The weekend before last, I had the pleasure of heading up to wine country to play tour guide for my friend Josh and some of his work colleagues! They are in town working on an area audit for a few weeks, and stayed the weekend to explore. We enjoyed a day at La Crema and Iron Horse, my two standards, and also visited Ledson for the first time (where I, naturally, bought like a case of wine. OOPS.).
The way that people pop out of the woodwork to get together here is one of my favorite things about living in a destination city. Josh is the husband of a friend's younger sister, and we weren't particularly close in the Cities, but it was so fun to spend a day together, getting to know his team and catching up. I really enjoy that about California so far - playing tour guide in my new home region is a great way to learn it better myself, for sure.
- I got to spend part of last week with Zach! He was in town for a work trip, and we met up in San Francisco at 21st Amendment Brewery for dinner on Tuesday and at Original Gravity Pub in San Jose for dinner on Wednesday before his red-eye to Chicago. So fun to see one of my favorite friends, hear all about darling baby Ryan, and catch up on life!
- Dave sat for his internal medicine boards exams last Friday, and to celebrate, the roommates visited one of our faves in downtown Palo Alto ("DTPA," apparently?), the Old Pro sports bar. Giant beers, classic bar food, truffle tater tots, and of course Dave's affinity for making faces - what's not to love?
- My office had a giant Solar Eclipse watching party yesterday, and were lucky enough to see about a 75% eclipse. While I was a good girl and didn't stare directly into the sun, I couldn't resist snapping a photo or two when clouds made the crescent particularly visible. Cool, right?
- And of course no blog post would be complete without at least a few Fiona photos. Laura and I stayed in last Monday night and, rather than watching "Bachelor in Paradise" without Dave, rented "Now You See Me" on Netflix for a girls' night of movies, sundaes, and poodle cuddles.
- Fi and Dave have a particularly special relationship, which she affirms on the regular by snuggling with his laundry while it's waiting for the washing machine. He maintains that "POOOD" is perfect, and I think their weird little friendship is the cutest.
- We also put socks on our little poodle, and it did NOT go over well. I've got a video on my phone of her trying to walk in them that I watch legitimately daily for a completely out-of-control laugh, but the photo is almost as good. To quote Dave, "She's amazing! She's perfect! We love her!"
More to come soon, campers, including a few Schwegfam reunions, a lot more wine country, and, as always, my random and spastic general thoughts on any myriad of topics. Thanks for bearing with my ever-sporadic updates!