Oh, California. Thou art awesome.
I just returned from a couple weeks of vacation; one glorious sun-drenched week spent roaming around San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and one relatively stressful, insane week coping with large amounts of family/friends for my sister’s wedding. Both were much needed, in their own way.
Seeing the hubs and what he’s been doing to grow and build Toutapp was by far my favorite experience in Cali. He took his dinky little side project and made it into this amazing three person (and hiring!) successful company. They officially closed off their advisory funding round the day after I arrived and I got to see first stand just how much their hard work was paying off. Needless to say, nobody sits down out there. I thought Hubs was busy in New York, but in California he apparently moves at the speed of light.
The boys (TK and his lead developer, Derek) are living in an apartment in Mountain View and working out of both the apartment and an office at 500Startups, the accelerator program Toutapp is part of. I watched day after day as TK woke up, checked his phone, brushed his teeth, and went straight to his computer. Eventually after an hour or so of checking email/doing techie stuff, he would get hungry and shower and figure out where to eat. Most of his day is spent in front of a computer or at the 500 office. I once managed to coax TK and Derek to do a code review by the pool. That was my little victory! But really, they never stop working. It’s ridiculous.
Since I had an idea of what his schedule was like, I made sure I brought an east coast friend with me to explore SF, while also hanging out with friends in the area as well (hi Jennifer!) I spent my days either lounging by the pool with a book or walking around and getting burned. The sun is HOT on the west coast. My poor skin. It’s finally peeling even though I slathered myself in sunblock every day.
SF is a gorgeous city. It’s small compared to NYC, but so different. I walked around a lot, trying to get a feel for its neighborhoods and people. I know I shouldn’t compare SF to NYC, but that’s all I was doing. One of the biggest differences was the people. They are SO nice. They smile and make eye contact. Cars stop when you cross the street (even when it’s their right of way!) It’s MUCH cleaner. It seemed cheaper (I paid $15 to park the whole day, vs paying that per hour in NYC). People are outside all the time, rather than moving from building to building to get away from the extreme cold/heat in NY. Life is just slower.
I had a great time meeting up with my friends, TKs friends, touring Napa Valley (absolutely breathtaking!) and seeing my west coast family. I kind of want to go back…
After spending a week in Cali, I flew straight to Cleveland. My little sister (Saira) was getting married! As soon as I got to her apartment there was stuff to be done. Thankfully, she hired an awesome wedding planner so there wasn’t that much stuff, just odds and ends. Family started arriving on Wednesday, my parents arrived Thursday and a majority of guests arrived Friday (including hubs and my in-laws). Family is EVERYTHING to me, so I absolutely loved seeing everyone. Weddings are such big reunions. It was perfect for me, since both my family and my husbands family were there. When else do we all get together?
Saira’s gaye holud was on Saturday night and her official marriage ceremony was on Sunday morning. The reception started at 5:30 Sunday evening, and it was held at the Shaker Heights Country Club. Everything was perfect. Well, minus the two hours on Sunday afternoon when the lengha I was going to wear the reception went missing (it was eventually found, no worries.) I drove back with my in-laws on Monday morning and TK surprised everyone by coming back to NYC with us! Roadtrip! He has investor meetings and new projects he’s starting up so he’s here for the week. Even though my bedtime schedule is totally off, I absolutely love that he’s here and we get another week together.
So that was my wonderful (and much needed) vacation. I’m making some changes to mi vida loca soon, so stay tuned for those.
