FROM: STELLA

TO: LAURA

1. I’ve had a crazy work week between freelance gigs and my full-time job, it’s been busy! Trying to keep up my energy with vitamins and fitting in hot yoga whenever I can.

   

2. This weekend I am headed up to San Francisco for a quick work trip. I’ll be staying down near the wharf because it is close to my event venue. I’m not super excited about being in the most touristy part of town but have been doing a ton of restaurant research to see where the best spots to use my per diem will be! I’ve bookmarked these spots (Codmother Fish and Chips, Carmel Pizza, and Eight AM) on Yelp, but would love suggestions for anyone who has traveled there recently.
3. I am a huge fan of Southwest airlines (mostly because of the companion pass) so I am super stoked for their Hawaii flights to get added to the schedule. A trip to Hawaii (I’ve never been!) is high on my list of options for ways to celebrate my 30th birthday this year.
4. I greatly enjoyed this week’s episode of the Planet Money podcast. I love New Orleans and am a huge fan of booking Airbnb‘s when traveling and the episode covered both topics. It’s a great listen!

FROM: LAURA

TO: STELLA

1. Was intrigued by this map of the most popular Trader Joe’s item in every state. California’s was the “Unexpected Cheddar,” a thing I have not tried (yet). If this were based off of my personal TJ’s consumptions, the most popular item would 1,000% be the dark chocolate peanut butter cups, a container of which I can easily house in one sitting if left to my own devices. This map did prompt me to go back to some of our older posts expounding our Trader Joe’s love: 5 Creative Dinner Ideas with Items from Trader Joe’s and Top 8 Lunches Under $5 at Trader Joe’s.
2. J.Money at Budgets Are Sexy had some (lively, as always) commentary on Nerd Wallet’s article on average 401k balances. I kind of couldn’t believe some of these balances, especially as the age ranges ticked up. Ideally, we can assume that those in the later cohorts have other retirement vehicles and investments… but if those average balance holders are indeed just counting on their 401k and Social Security, they should be getting a bit nervous in my opinion.
3. Adventurous Kate has been putting out some stellar content lately. If you are a travel fiend (or even just a wanderluster who likes to gawk over beautiful photos and enthralling stories!), be sure to get on her subscription list! Top posts of late that I’ve loved: Solo Female Travel in Europe, Favorite New Travel Destinations of 2018, 124 Things to Do in Harlem, and Solo Female Travel in Mexico.
4. Just over four years ago I made the career switch from marketing to software development. Because of that jump, I get a lot of questions from friends about how to become an engineer, what it takes, how hard it is, etc. I really appreciated this Tumblr engineer boiling it down to these 4 points. Salient and addressable, these are tactics that you can put into place at the very beginning of your learning-to-be-an-engineer journey and will last throughout your career as valuable goals. (There is for sure a whole post in this, but I’m a bit overwhelmed with where to start…it will be written one day!)