#2695 where have you been?

It's been a couple of weeks since I wrote here. My darling sister, Lizzie, came to visit on the 23rd and stayed for a week. We were busy having fun and I chose not to write. I only wrote in my journal once while she was here, so don't feel too neglected, blog. 

Lizzie and I had a good time! She got here on a Wednesday night. I worked in the office on Thursday morning, and I was grateful that my boss let me work from home in the afternoon so I could be home with Lizzie. She read and played on her phone while I worked. Lizzie also worked that day; she works part time, so she was done working when I got home. We both took Friday off. I worked from home on Monday and Wednesday. I was in the office Tuesday morning, and home in the afternoon. Lizzie worked all those days, too. Thanks to Kelsie and Nicole for their kindness on Thursday and Tuesday!

We went to five places I haven't been while Lizzie was here. We had lunch at Lucky 13, a groovy burger and beer place in the Ballpark neighborhood. We browsed at Dancing Cranes, sipping coffee from the cafe and soaking up the hippie-dippie vibe of the place. We grumbled through a really good beer and a lackluster food experience at Hopkins Brewing Co. We explored Marissa's Books in the Millcreek area, a very large independent bookstore with some interesting spaces. We compared cookies from Crumbl and from Crave. Crave is new to my area. I've been to Crumbl many, many, many times.

Of course we went to familiar places like Atlantis Burger and Red Butte Garden. Lizzie got her first taste of The Pie and a stroll through Liberty Park. She also got to experience the dog park. We watched three movies while she was here. All of us went to the theater to see The Lost City, which is total brain candy that made me giggle pretty much through the whole thing. We indulged in an animation double feature, watching two films that were up for the Academy Award for best Animated Feature: The Mitchells vs the Machines and  Encanto. 

It was awesome to hang out with my sister. I really enjoy being around her. We have similar interests and likes, so it's super-easy to relax and have fun or just sit around reading and chatting. I appreciated the timing of her visit because I was kind-of-sort-of obsessing about my upcoming trip to Europe and Lizzie's visit broke up that obnoxious obsession and gave me a chance to regroup and think of other things. Thanks for coming to visit, Lizzie! I love you!!! 

Now that she has returned home, though, my obsession is in place and all-encompassing. There are only 11 more days now until we fly to Spain and spend two weeks abroad, so I think I'm a little entitled to obsess.

Today MT and I went to Famous Footwear so we could get some vacation shoes. I ended up with a pair of Sketchers. They are slip-ons and although they are not as cute as the shoes I wanted to take with me, they are waaaaay more comfortable and since I plan to be walking all over Barcelona, Rome, and destinations in between, I definitely want some comfortable shoes. We also went to Kohls where MT found some trousers he likes. He was very smiley about his new pants.

Tonight, while I was watching the Duke/North Carolina Final Four game (that's college basketball), I started gathering my vacation wardrobe. I aim to follow the 5-4-3-2-1 packing formula: 5 tops, 4 bottoms, 3 shoes, 2 jacket/cardigan, 1 dress. I actually have two dresses. I don't know if both will go on vacation with me, but I kind of think so. (?) Tomorrow I'm going to have my eyebrows tamed, then I'll go over to Old Navy to see if I can find a couple of other tops. I feel pretty good about everything, except maybe my raincoat, but I have told myself that I shall NOT buy another raincoat! I have a perfectly good one. I'll be fine. I do expect to use my raincoat. We are still far enough away from the trip that I don't know the weather forecast, but I know that is has been chilly and rainy in all the places we plan to go. 

I've never been to Spain in the spring. I've never been to France or Italy at all. I'm just a little bit excited.