hoop

My roommate Katie was in a hula hooping club in college and, needless to say, she could hoop you under the table. She's got skills.

This spring, she taught me how to hoop - a hobby that really took off at the beach over Memorial Day. Not only is it a good workout for your waist, it also turned out to be a great way to make friends. Everyone wanted a piece of our hoops.

I hooped my way into Week 3 of Laura's wellness challenge. It isn't technically a brand new exercise, but it is a broken-foot-friendly-exercise, and offered an alternative to just arms and abs every day.

As someone who finds comfort in routine and relies on my daily run to clear my head, help me reconnect with what matters and find peace, it's been incredibly hard not to have this time alone&away from my desk (and everything). Although hula hooping didn't fulfill these needs, it was a nice way to be outside and feel a little bit of rhythm and routine.

I hope you had a good, stretchy week!

a place of yes

A friend recently mentioned to me that her mindset was to "start with yes".

Not in a yes-man-I-can't-say-no-ever sort of way. But in the sense of, when someone brings to you a problem or task, your first thought is: How can I help them with this? How can I make this happen? How can I find a solution?

And I thought it was a nice little idea. Because we're all in this world together, and the best thing we can do is look out for each other and try to make every day a little bit brighter.


image via

la la land

There are certain places that make me want to breathe deeper. The air is clean, the sky is clear and everything about it makes me want to fill my lungs up, close my eyes, and be washed over with its freshness.

This is the effect Manhattan beach had on me this weekend. I visited Sam in LA and we jam packed the trip with activities, culminating in a morning at Manhattan and Hermosa beaches. But let me back up...

Friday night we went to dinner with Ricky, Sam's roommate, in Thousand Oaks, which is, funny enough, just a couple of miles from where I lived when I interned at Los Angeles Magazine in college. Turns out Sam goes to the exact same gym and grocery store I went to. In a city that big...!? Small world.

Saturday we went to Coffee Bean (yaay!), then spent the day in Santa Monica. We sat oceanside for lunch at the Georgian Hotel, checked out the flying rings at Muscle Beach, went down to the Pier, shopped on Ocean Ave., and took in every inch of the area.
On the way home, we drove through Malibu up the Pacific Coast Highway, at which point I seriously started wondering how one city could have so many beautiful things packed in it.

We then did a little outlet shopping and met up with dear family friends, with whom I lived while I was there, for dinner.
Sunday morning, we went to brunch with Sam and Rick's friends at Post, which was pretty much amazing. If you're in the area, you should try it right away. And Phil Dunphy was eating there :D (not afraid of being blatantly star struck here.)

After that, we walked along the beach from Manhattan to Hermosa. And that was when I fell in love.

Santa Monica is awesome and Malibu is beautiful, but I adored the feeling of these beaches. They're much more relaxed. They have less of a touristy feeling, and are much more a surfer, I just want to enjoy the weather and beach, vibe. I cube-dreamed about it all day long yesterday.
(Beverly Hills 90210 House. :))

And, of course, the best part of all of this was seeing Sam and Ricky all grown up. They were such wonderful hosts - paying for my meals, thanking me for making the trip (to which I said: no thank YOU for living here!), concerned about my boot...

Those two are real gentlemen, and I am so grateful I got to visit them in yet another beautiful place. I told them they just have to keep living in awesome cities so I can continue my touring. Not so much to ask, right?

Thank you Sammy!!