If we were having coffee right now, this is what I’d tell you (San Francisco edition)…

Oh how I love these posts! They’re my favorite. I get to sit down and write to you like an old friend, imagining that we’re catching up over coffee. I hope that you’re doing so well, and I can’t wait to share some life updates with you today.

If you’re new around here, I write one of these “If we were having coffee right now…” posts a few times per year. A few oldies can be found here (June 2017), here (November 2016), and the very first one from February 2014 can be found here.

Anywho… let’s dive into life today. I truly feel like I blinked and my life changed in so many ways. So here goes…

If we were having coffee right now, I’d tell you that I moved to San Francisco (if you didn’t already know!) a week and a half ago. I wrote a longgg post about it here, but I’ll tell you the short of it here. My boyfriend (more on that soon) got a job in SF and I moved here to be with him and start a new chapter in my life here. I’ve been yearning to get out of NYC for a few years now, and I can’t believe this is the way that it all happened. Sometimes patience leads to the best surprises. After doing long distance for a few months (he moved to SF in November), I am finally out here getting settled. P.S. If you live in SF, I am collecting a little list of SF locals so that I can host some meet-ups and local events. Add your email here if you’re interested in this kinda thing!

So, if we were having coffee, I’d definitely tell you how my first couple of weeks here have been. Well, I’ve been graced with the most perfect, sunny, warm weather here since I landed. It’s hard not to love this city when it’s 70 degrees in February, but even so, my time here has felt mixed. There are some moments that I feel so insanely lucky and grateful that I feel like I could burst with happiness, and other moments when I feel a little lost in this world of unknown. I miss my girlfriends. I miss my family (most of them are in NY or on the east coast). And I sometimes miss the comfort I felt everyday waking up and living my days in NYC. However, I can say that I never ever doubt this decision. It is one of the few decisions in my life that has felt 100% right, even though it comes with significant challenges.

If we were having coffee right now, I’d tell you about Ryan, my boyfriend who brought me out here to SF. It’s been a lot – navigating him getting a job out here, then him moving cross country and us doing long distance, us deciding for me to move as well, finding an apartment in one of the hardest markets in the world, and finally moving into our new place together (which happens later this week). I miss the days when we had less stress on our plates and could just hang out and enjoy each other, but going through all of this with him has made me realize how amazing of a partner he is and has certainly brought us way closer. While our relationship is still evolving and growing, I feel so lucky every day to have him around and love him so much. Every day with him affirms why I am out here and I couldn’t be more excited to keep going on this adventure with him. (a bit more about our relationship here)

Speaking of my relationship, I would also tell you that I am running an “Intuitive Dating” workshop next week to help people with dating. This is something I feel so passionately about because I found dating in NYC for 9 years to be SO challenging at times. I use to be such an anxious and insecure dater – always wondering what he was thinking, over analyzing everything, and losing myself and my confidence in the process. I worked a ton on this area of my life in the last several years – through dating coaches, therapists, and so much of my own internal growth – and want to help other women date in a way that feels more true to them and way more fun and easy. My growth in this area completely changed the dating experience for me, and I want to help other women get there, too. If you’re interested, here’s more info + where to sign up.

If we were having coffee together, I would tell you that I cannot wait to meet up for a girls weekend in Miami with three of my best friends. I think moving here to SF has made me cherish these relationships even more since there’s now more distance between most of my close friends and I. We’re heading to South Beach for a weekend in March, and I feel like I am counting down the days! We decided to do this because two of them have babies, the other is pregnant, and life just seems to be getting more complicated. We decided to start a yearly tradition of committing to one weekend trip together per year, and this is the first. Do you have any traditions with travel / seeing your girlfriends that you love?

If we were having coffee together, I’d probably tell you my body and my health has taken a bit of hit, lately. With all the back and forth between NYC and SF and figuring out the big move, my health hasn’t been at it’s best. I have lived out of a suitcase for 3 months, have barely worked out, and we’ve eaten every single meal out. But, like I always say to you guys, I keep telling myself this is just a phase. Before I know it, I’ll be back in a kitchen, hitting up yoga, and feeling better in my skin. I feel grateful that I’m at a point where I can flow with life, and with the changes in my body, with relative ease.

And lastly, if we were having coffee together, I’d probably tell you that I just celebrated the 5 year mark of having my own business. It feels like a big milestone, and one that I’m so proud of. At the same time, I feel this deeper pull to shift my business. It feels like the first 5 years were “Chapter One”, and now it’s time for me to create “Chapter Two”. I’m playing around with various new ideas and directions to take my business, and I’ll see where it all lands. With everything else changing in my life, too, this feels like the right time to be newly inspired and make some business shifts, too. Don’t worry, I am still keeping things generally the same, but with some invigorating twists.

The next time I write to you I’ll be living in my new apartment (right now we are in between leases and staying in a hotel) and finally getting settled. I cannot wait to be settled!

I would love to hear in the comments… if we were having coffee right now, what would you share with me? I’ll be here to read and reply to all your comments, sorta kinda like we were having coffee together 🙂

Thanks for being here with me, through all of my twists and turns. I appreciate you so much.

Sending you lots of love!

Jamie