What I’ve Been Up To

• Fell in love with TurnTable.fm for music listening, sharing, and social discovery
• Rented a beach house with a bunch of Kevin’s extended family and bonded with my new niece, Isabella
• Became a ranked StarCraft II player (15 wins so far this season!)
• Had the usual crazy-fun time at my parent’s house for the Fourth of July along with Meg and her boyfriend
• Joined the board of advisors for Seth Blank’s startup Trove
• Launched Twilio Client, an SDK that enables developers to build apps that make/receive calls directly in the browser (!)
• A damn fine launch party in the coolest sequin covered dress ever!
• Bought a whole bunch of Maggy London dresses on Amazon to “pivot” my style to a more grown up Mad Men inspired office glam
• Had an epic night of karaoke courtesy of Roger Niner at Butter

And of course… a soundtrack for my life…

What’s Coming Next

First, let me just say that having Twilio Client released for the world to see after 9 months is really awesome — it always gets unbearably hard to hold back talking about an awesome new product release and its nice to not have to worry about it being leaked anymore.  As for what is coming next from Twilio, there isn’t really much I can say… other than that our usual process is to release something and then focus on customer feedback and plan our next move based on what we learn.

In other news, here are some of the upcoming activities and goals I’m looking forward to:

• Figuring out how to put my hair into victory rolls
• Celebrating our 4 year wedding anniversary with a trip to Hearst Castle
• Figuring out what kind of shoes go with all these dresses
• Adding the next round of improvements to one of my side projects, refer.ly
• Getting re-leveled to the gold league in SCII and made even playing an IRL tournament
• Folsom Street Fair is coming up in my neighborhood Sept 25th (link is NSFW)
• Getting back into cooking
• So much more…

All in all, life is good and I think after this weekend I will be fully recovered from “launch mode”.

The Story of My Stuff

In 2004 I purged everything I owned except for what would fit into the Land Rover I bought, and moved to downtown Seattle.  That felt great, and being free of stuff also kept my mind free of clutter as I embarked on the beginning of my career.  While I was making $9 as an hour, I had no money for buying anything except for the occasional professional clothing item or meal out with a friend.  If I was spending money, it was on experiences.

By 2006 I was making good money, and dating the man who would become my husband.  I had moved into a penthouse studio apartment and wanted to impress him (duh) with my taste, as well as enjoy the freedom of not having to conform to the tastes of a roommate.  Ikea furniture, books I had been storing at my parent’s house, kitchen utensils, clothes, SHOES… the “stuff” began to accumulate, and soon the studio was feeling pretty cramped.

We got married in the summer of 2007 and moved into his bachelor pad, which had even less personal space than my studio.  The cheap Ikea furniture had to go and once again my personal style was subordinated to someone else’s idea of “home” – which at the time was uber-sparse and uber-expensive (and uber-masculine) urban chic.  I got rid of my car too, which was wonderful at first but later felt stifling, in favor of his Audi.  In all, from a materialistic point of view my entire lifestyle was upgraded when our possessions became shared.  All I really brought my ever-growing book collection, and enormous collection of designer shoes and fabulous clothes.  For two newlyweds, this was a lot of stuff to manage.

So what did we do?  We bought a bigger container for our stuff, in the form of a 4,000 square foot house in the suburbs.  What started out as curiousity about what was on the market turning into me finding our dream house.  We moved in on Halloween 2007, a mere 3 months after getting married.  Our stuff began to expand again… we left all the furniture at the Seattle condo (we were renting it out) and took on a bunch of furniture from my parent’s house that they had been saving for us, as well as piano, 8 person dining room table, and new couches, bar stools, etc.  AHHH!  We were in stuff acquisition mode, shopping every weekend for stuff to make our not-so-little nest feel like a home.

And then the economy tanked.

I wish I could say that we’d been frugal with our acquisitions, but with Kevin’s job at Microsoft and my investments flying high we weren’t too concerned.  I was working for a startup, making a startup income, but we were still a two income household without anyone depending on us.  My walk in closet was stocked with fabulous outfits, I wore labels, and we threw dinner parties almost every week.  While the market crashed we were in Las Vegas, treating my little sister to a memorable 21st birthday.  Looking back, that was probably one of the best ways we spent money that year.

Traveling Sets Me Free of My Stuff

On Friday, I flew from SFO to Seattle with my most important “stuff”: my black Kate Spade purse, MacBook pro, iPhone, engagement ring and necklace my husband gave me for Valentine’s Day this year, my passport and some cash.  I could have flown anywhere in the world and started my life from that moment in time with the items in that bag.  That’s a pretty empowering thought, and lead me to think that the lack of “stuff” might be part of why people find travel so liberating – it certainly is for me.

What I’ve Learned: Buy Experiences, Not Things

Enabling great experiences and memories, shared with people I enjoy, is the most important leisure activity in my life.  My rule of thumb now is that my “stuff” needs to enhance or enable experiences in some way, or it isn’t valid.  Additionally, the more expensive the item (both in terms of money and amount of trouble I go to keeping it) it better generate lasting and repeat value.

Another important thing I’ve learned is that owning expensive things is great, but only if you use them.  Each time you use them, its a part of the experience of owning something.  If you know me, you know that I have a thing for expensive leather purses and shoes, and that’s because when I use/wear them the luxury and stylishness of the items creates an experience for me personally.  I love that.  It’s the same for things like owning silver and china, or crystal.  Use it or give it to someone who will.

10 Things I Need to Travel the World

1. Internet (Sprint mifi)
2. iPhone & charger (Apple)
3. MacBook pro & charger (Apple)
4. jeans & a t-shirt
5. expensive & indestructible purse (Kate Spade)
6. expensive & durable/comfortable shoes (Tory Burch)
7. all-in-one makeup kit (Lancome, buy it at the airport)
8. passport
9. cash (or access to cash via ATM card)
10. my wonderful husband Kevin

It took me a couple tries to get my location right while I was a renter in Seattle, so it would be nice not to go through the trial and error process again. I’ve been renting a room in a friend’s apartment in Potrero Hill for about six months now, but somehow renting a room just isn’t the same as having my own place. Fortunately, it also means that I’m not in a huge rush to find something – more focused on getting it right. I am driving my car down to San Francisco from Seattle early next week, so I need to find a place with parking (willing to pay extra). I’m debating a couple things:

• studio vs. 1 bedroom
• month-to-month or short-term lease vs. 1 year commitment
• does being walking distance to work matter?
• laundry in the unit?
• secure garage?
• could I survive without a dishwasher

To Rent or To Swap?

We have a house in Kirkland and a condo in Seattle, so if we’re able to find someone willing to swap with us that might be a viable (and money-saving) option.