the more things change...

Goddamn, it's been a while since I posted here. Last night, I somehow ended up on my blog – to be honest, I have no idea what brought me to this page – and got that slight itch to start writing again. I scrolled back all the way through my first posts (not that there are that many of them), and it was a nice jog down memory lane – old pictures I'd taken, road trips I went on. I miss posting about those.

But first, a little Reader's Digest of what's happened in my life since my last post on February 4, 2015 – which was three years, four months, and 13 days ago, not that anyone's counting...

• (May 2015) I moved to New York City
• (August 2015) I left my job in finance and started a fashion design program at Parsons School of Design
• (November 2015) I ran the NYC Marathon (yeah!)
• (December 2015 - January 2016) I spent almost a month in Vancouver, CAN and Seattle, WA during my Parsons winter break – seeing family, spending time with M, skiing, knitting, and eating a lot
• (Summer 2016) I interned in design at Express – my first big-deal internship, and one that would have a huge influence in my career direction to come
• (December 2016) I finished my design program at Parsons, and got launched straight into the manic, rewarding, but stressful world of freelance design
• (July 2017) I scored my first full-time design gig at PVH Corp. – where I've learned a crazy amount and am ambitious about my work and career in a way that I never was in finance
• (Winter 2017 - 2018) I went skiing in Colorado for the first time, and in general feel like I improved a lot during this ski season – between finally learning to ski moguls (or at least learning to hate them a little less), venturing into some tree skiing, and hitting my first double black diamond!
• (April 2018) I went to Atlanta to see a good friend from high school get married!
• (late April - May 2018) I went on a 9 day road trip through the southwestern US, hiking 50+ miles in distance and 2+ miles in elevation gain at Zion NP, Bryce Canyon NP, and Grand Canyon NP – fulfilling a close-to-decade-old bucket list item
• (June 2018) I moved to Brooklyn, doubling my commute time but also paying $200/month less than my old place and fulfilling the NYC apartment trifecta: doorman, elevator, and rooftop

Whew, that was a lot. But it was over three years, after all. What's up next? I'm heading to the Sierra Nevada mountain range next month to hike Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous US at 14,505'! (And actually, the highest peak in the US outside Alaska – it is taller than any mountain in Hawaii – but "contiguous US" rolls off the tongue better, I guess.) The hike is about 22 miles round trip, with an elevation gain of just over 6,100', but we are splitting it up over two days to allow one night of camping at elevation. I am super stoked. It should be a great trip – even if I am a little nervous about hiking at 14,000'.

I was going to end this post with some pictures from my Zion/Bryce Canyon/Grand Canyon hiking trip from last month, but it's already a pretty long post as it is, so I'll make a separate one soon.

Until then!