Hello, friend! Long time, no talk! I’ve missed you!
Sometimes it feels like just yesterday that I was typing away each week on my blog, but other times, it feels like a whole lifetime away. I can not believe it has been four years since I last put down my (well, figuratively speaking) pen and focused on building a life outside of the internet. I loved blogging, and though I’ve missed it, taking time away has helped me grow, learn, discover, and challenge myself.
So what have I been up to lately? Let me catch you up to speed:
Love
After getting laid off from a tech startup job in California (I lived in San Francisco but commuted to Santa Monica every week for work. It’s a long story.), I packed up all my things in a matter of a few days and headed back home to Texas. I moved in with my little sister, Allie, in Austin and embarked on a new chapter.
The very first weekend in Austin, I met my now-husband, Chase. We were set up by one of my sister’s friends who sat next to him at work and thought we would be a cute couple. I never really thought I was a “love at first sight” type of gal, but when I met Chase, I texted friends the next day saying that I had found my soulmate. It’s hard to explain, but I had never felt like that in my entire life before. Even though we lived three hours apart, we made the drive every single weekend to see each other. And then, of course, the whole pandemic thing happened just a few months into dating. (On the pandemic note, I could go on about how it has turned my life upside down, but I know it has deeply affected us all in so many heartbreaking and strange ways. I’m a very sensitive person, so I personally use the internet to escape from all the stress and take my mind somewhere else. I won’t get too much into pandemic things here on my blog because I talk about it enough in my real life – we probably all do.)
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In January of 2020, we got engaged in Utah, and it was one of the happiest days of my life. After an impromptu snowmobile ride to the top of a mountain, Chase got down on one knee and popped the question. I used to roll my eyes when I was single and friends would give me cliche dating advice, but when I met Chase, it really was a “when you know, you know” type situation, and I had never felt more sure of anything. He was everything I had been looking for in a partner – and more. We found out that Chase’s job was relocating him from Houston, Texas to New York City, and while he was excited about the big move, I was sad about being even further away than we had been in the beginning.
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We decided to plan a wedding in just seven months. Crazy? Maybe a little. But I wanted to move to NYC with him ASAP, and despite what my extensive Pinterest boards might suggest, I didn’t want to be a “bride-to-be” for a year and spend months talking about my wedding obsessively (no shame if you’re the type who wants a long engagement and loves the whole wedding-planning deal – I love that. It just wasn’t for me!).
This past August, we tied the knot in Park City, Utah. I’ll share some posts this month about wedding things (bachelorette party, wedding planning tips, pictures, dress shopping, etc.) since I’ve gotten a few DMs and emails. I was the first one out of my close friends and family to tie the knot, so I learned a lot of things along the way that I’d love to share that I wish I would have known.
I will never be able to put in words how grateful I am to have found such an incredible husband, partner, and best friend to do life with. I know nobody wants to read a sappy paragraph, so I’ll spare y’all the details, but I seriously feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have such a funny, thoughtful, smart, and kindhearted man in my life that I feel so comfortable and happy around. He’s amazing and my heart is so full.
Life
For the past year and change, I have been the Social Media Manager for Everlywell. I was a customer years before I was an employee, and it’s so cool to work for a company I genuinely love and believe in. Even though my job is still technically in Austin, I work remotely from New York and have been able to meet a lot of my coworkers in person over the past year, which has been a blast.
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One of the biggest life changes for me has been the big move to New York. We moved to NYC with no furniture and no movers. Just a few suitcases on the airplane. I’ll share photos soon of our one-bedroom apartment, but it’s been a fun challenge to decor shop with a guy (RIP my rainbow/pink rug I had in California for years). But man has New York been an adjustment. The city is growing on me for sure, but it was never, ever on my list of places I considered moving to. But it’s a fun place to be in your 20s (or any decade really), and I am loving all of the new friends we’ve made so far, the amazing food, and the energy. Is it our forever home? Probably not. But it’s a cool, exciting place to start our marriage.
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The thing I’m most looking forward to this year is finally getting a furry friend. I have wanted a cat for years and years, and I am so excited to become a cat mom this year (!!!). “Maui” the kitten *hopefully* coming spring 2022 (!!).
Am I back on the blogging train? Maybe. In full transparency, I’ve been craving an additional creative outlet outside of drawing on my ipad and taking pictures. I don’t think there will be a world where I blog as frequently as I use to back in the day, but I plan to post whenever I feel like it. No pressure, no schedules, no overthinking, no judgement. Just fun and creative self-expression.
Thank you to everyone who has messaged me or thought of me over the years, and thank you for being so understanding about the space I needed. It was healing and eye-opening, and I am so grateful for all of the things that have happened in my life between my break and this moment right now. Feel free to let me know if there are any certain posts you want to see – my DMs and email are always open! I’m happy to be back!
xoxo,
Mackenzie
