Big Sur Weekend // Where them girls at (girls at)?

I had the lovely fortune of spending last weekend in the Big Sur/Monterey area on a much-needed getaway.

The women I went with are several of my favorite California friends -- these ones I got to know most specifically via book club. BOOK CLUB. How often do we actually talk about the books? Debatable. But I can say that these monthly meetings (and increasingly frequent social interactions in between) have been my sanity saver this past year. It is my safe place in so many ways.

I've always been lucky in the girlfriends department, but I didn't always gravitate toward an overabundance of girl time earlier in my life. Frankly, it's because, clearly, there are no boys at girl time. And how am I supposed to meet fellas and woo them into loving me if I'm spending all my time hanging with the ladies? But I feel like the older I get, the more I'm starting to value the female relationships in my life. They've always been important to me, but I can feel my appreciation for this aspect of life growing more and more with time. It's a balance.

This weekend, we grabbed ourselves an Airbnb reservation at the most adorable house stuffed full of plants, colorful decor, inspirational quotes galore and a piano (!). We filled our time with a gorgeous oceanside hike, eating our weight in sour gummy worms (was that just me?), and life chats about everything from work to religion to men to feminism to angsty 90s music to racial tensions in America. I love conversations both rambly and deep and both. It fills the soul.

To be fair, I've also been lucky to have several menfolk friends over the years that are near and dear to my heart, but the presence of female friendships is an irreplaceable facet of my life. And the great thing about female friends is that I can generally avoid the complications of dating that sometimes tangle up my cross-gender friendships. And since I tend to get closest with undramatic women (see: no mean girls allowed), I find that my female friend circles are wildly drama free in comparison to some of the angst I've seen go down in other people's lives. Why complicate a thing like friendship? It's nice when we all play nice.

Anyway. Here's to my girls....both the ones from this weekend, the rest of the ones in California, the ones back in Arizona, the ones I've met via blogging, the ones from college and before and beyond.....here's to all of you. Five stars, two thumbs up, 200 points to Gryffindor....you get the picture. Hashtag all the prizes.

Now on to the pictures from last weekend so we can all be aware that the nasty rent prices in the Bay Area come with some really great perks. Please note that a good number of the photos have no filter on them, because sometimes the earth really is just that amazeballs all on its own.

^^^ yes, that would be toasted marshmallow topping on my ice cream, blowtorched before my very eyes at this place in Santa Cruz. AMEN

A Very Tahoe Thanksgiving

Tahoes before bros!

JK, I don't know where I'm going with that phrase. But I did spend my Thanksgiving weekend at an Airbnb cabin (cabungalow) in South Lake Tahoe with several amazing new friends. I only knew two of them before we headed out, so I was kind of like "ummmm what will this weekend be like" but then it was like seven levels of amazing, so we're good.

We ate a Thanksgiving feast at one of the girl's family's house on the way to Tahoe, we watched important and deep films like Dan in Real Life (from a single perspective, that movie is so relatable it makes me cringe inside but I can't look away) and Pitch Perfect (along with some necessary episodes of Parks & Rec) (which resulted in frequent sing-talking like unto Jean Ralphio) (and also, what is more perfect than viewing Ron Swanson whilst at a cabin in the woods?), we talked about life/love/etc etc etc, we wore flannel and wool socks, we came up with an extremely marketable idea for a tame burlesque show (Burlesque With Borders -- it's a thing) since a couple of the girls missed their younger dancing days (and what is better than a burlesque show with uniforms of capris and turtlenecks??), we hiked up a ridge overlooking the lake (and it was freeeeeezing up there!), and OF COURSE, we spent some time out in the hot tub on the deck amongst the trees and the frigid breeze. We also ate a lot of food. I may have had a handful of peanut butter m&m's as a pre-game for breakfast one morning. Or two mornings....? We also woke up to snowfall the last morning and I was like "it's magical!!" and then we went outside and I was like "I'm freezing and wet, this isn't magical!!" So, typical.

Basically it was all awesome. And I love making new friends. Especially since most of these new friends live up in the city (San Francisco) and I'm always looking for reasons to get up there. Such lovely people, and there's really few things better than a cozy cabin in the woods.

Also on the drive home, a couple of us got hooked on the Serial podcast. I'm now all caught up. Talk to me, fellow listeners!

And now, pictures!

In the balance.

My Sunday started with an early-morning coastal drive through fog and farmland.

It's like I'm in a Jane Austen novel, right? Except....one with cars. Idk. After said early-morning drive, my day consisted of work, resisting a nap, finally watching Good Will Hunting (thanks for coming through, Netflix!), more work, takeout for dinner (because when your job feeds you on weekdays, you often fail at having food in your cupboards on the weekends), then wrapping up the rest of work so my Monday morning can look less chaotic.

I never want to come across as someone who complains about working long hours, for a few reasons: I'm grateful to have a job, I need/don't mind the overtime money, I enjoy my work, I feel valuable to my team (and that is a HUGE motivator to me), and I still get to do plenty of fun/relaxing things. Plus, my hours are nowhere near what I'm pretty sure some of my fellow Silicon Valley dwellers are pulling -- and let's not even talk about Manhattan. I hear those people don't even sleep. I am definitely busy, but it's definitely manageable. And my workplace is a huge champion of work-life balance, I just need to make sure I'm deliberate about taking advantage of that -- scheduling off-time on my calendar for concerts and dinner out with friends, etc. Boundaries, you know! I'm working on finding a good zen/flow/whatever you want to call it.

Here's the things I did this week that didn't involve work: watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine with some friends for our weekly Monday TV night (oh, I'm already over Grey's Anatomy, by the way -- decided 11 seasons was too much to bite off when I'm pretty sure everyone dies off at some point anyway #aintnobodygottimeforthat), went to dinner with a new friend (and ran into another friend who ended up joining us, and that was a fabulous bonus) (and discovered the new friend is a basketball fan so NBA GAMES HERE WE COME), went to the Penny & Sparrow concert (have no words for how much I love their music -- and I got to meet them! And I got a shirt! And it is a soft shirt! May have worn it twice already since then),  spied on the Suns games scores on my phone all week (I probably need to subscribe to some way of watching the games online so I can actually WATCH them this season instead of just refreshing the score on my phone), saw Interstellar (I love outer space so much!! I desperately want to go to there!! You should all see it, and fair warning, it's more sci-fi and less Armageddon-action-type, just so you know what to expect going in)........I think those are the highlights.

On Friday at 5pm, I signed off.

There was still work to do (hence the cleanup today), but I shut 'er down for a good 36 hours. Turned off my work email/chat on my phone, closed my laptop, and got the H out of dodge. No really, I packed a bag and ran away to the northern California coast to stay in an oceanside cottage with 3 friends, 2 rambunctious dogs, plenty o' food, zero Internet/cell service, and mucho deep conversation that feeds the soul. It was everything I needed, and wrapped up nicely this morning with that foggy farmland drive. Mmmmyes

I feel good and ready to start my Monday. And now you all feel good and ready to look at all my pictures from the weekend....enjoy! (And tell me what fun things you did this week/weekend too.)