Good morning, friends!

Yesterday I spent a lot of time outside enjoying the BEAUTIFUL SoCal weather. It is insane how gorgeous it is and I want to make sure I soak it up before I head out of here.

I woke up at 6AM to meet Chethan at Bolsa Chica Reserve in HB. Made a depressing detour to Starbucks where I found out that red cups are no longer. So sad. And even more depressing because my detour made me miss the sunrise.

But it was still pretty gorgeous by the time I got there.

I want to bring my dad here one day. I think he’d really enjoy it.

After our morning walk, I drove up to Echo Park to see Stephen. I definitely sat through some lovely downtown LA traffic that gave me a little taste of what I’m missing out on by living up north. We went to Brite Spot on Sunset for lunch.

Stephen ordered a breakfast burger.

I ordered a tofu hash.

And we shared a peanut butter chocolate pie. Which was phenomenal. I don’t usually like pie, but this thing was pretty magical.

After lunch, we took a walk to Echo Park and, along the way, stopped to admire a great view of downtown. I really miss LA – traffic and all.

Echo Park Lake went through a two-year rehabilitation project to help remedy pollution and be more sustainable for the community. I guess it recently opened up to the public in June. I never made my way to Echo Park before so I don’t know what it looked like (or smelled like) before, but it was so beautiful.

We walked around the lake and caught up on each other’s lives. It has been a year since I have seen him and I don’t get to talk to him as often as I’d like to. So having the afternoon to spend with him was really special.

One of my many goals for 2014 is to stay better connected with the people I love – Stephen included. Most of my closest friends live hundreds of miles away from me and, though it’s not easy to stay in touch, it’s really important to me that I do. I miss college – where all your friends were within walking distance from your dorm room. Why can’t real life be like that?

I’ve spent some time this week and this morning thinking about what I want 2014 to look like for me. Stephen and I talked about how creating goals, instead of resolutions, were probably more effective. I have a few goals in mind, but am still trying to find ways to track them throughout the course of the year. To hold me accountable and ensure that I am on track to meeting my goal by the end of the year.

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Your Turn: Let’s chat! 🙂

Goals or resolutions? What’s something you want accomplished in 2014?