A few notes from the weekend! (Thank you for bearing with me as I rework what this post is. A highlight reel wasn’t what I wanted anymore.)

Thursday Highlight | A fun new mani from Lorena

The last few times I’ve seen Lorena I’ve been a bit too out of it to be 100% present in our conversation, but I felt better this time. Yay!

Other Thursday Happenings | actually painting after dinner (I hadn’t in a week and a half)!

Friday Highlight | El Famous for lunch

We had El Famous for lunch, as we often do when I come into the Fake Meats office to work. It was delish. At one point I said to Steven, “I’d like us to pause and appreciate how delicious this is.” Ha.

Other Friday Happenings | walking and listening to the latest Cinema Sidepiece episode on 21 Jump Street on The Popcast • taking a bath and eating my oatmeal in the tub • working at the Fake Meats office (on a blog post template & reel) • sitting in on a call for my fulltime job, ugh (it was my Friday off) • buying new compression socks to replace the originals from September, and ordering a sporty pair to try for longer runs • editing photos for the Fake Meats website • my telehealth appointment • a run with Steven • stopping at Aldi and raspberries being on sale for $1.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!! • a surprise gift from Courtney (some motivational postcards from my Amazon wishlist) • being asleep by 9:30 pm

Friday Lowlight | I ended up checking in on work a few more times throughout the day, and ugh, some of the emails set me off. They bothered me when I thought about them during the rest of the weekend. I finally came to the conclusion Sunday “it’s only work” and “I have a team of people who will work on this with me.”

Saturday Highlight | HuHot for dinner

We used to love love love going to HuHot with Jen, Troy, and Declan, and we haven’t since before the pandemic! And the one we used to go to permanently closed! So we drove to one that’s 45 minutes (from our house, even farther than theirs) for a late birthday celebration for Jen, and it was just as good as we all remember (Steven and I got it as takeout during the pandemic and that was good, but this was better).

Other Saturday Happenings | sleeping in until 6:00 • walking and listening to The Last Black Unicorn • registering me and Dad for Day 4 of RAGBRAI • dropping my bike off for a tune-up (I really hope they can figure out what is going on with my back tire/wheel/whatever) • watching Firefly Lane while in the bath • watching more Firefly Lane on the couch (I rarely sit around like that and it was so relaxing!) • showing Steven the reel I made with the previous day’s footage and him liking it • seeing Jen, Troy, and Declan for dinner • hanging out with them a bit at our house after and Ned being friendly (it was their first time getting to pet him!)

Saturday Lowlight | Waiting in line forever at Cold Stone Creamery after dinner for them to be out of the vegan ice cream. Ha! I took it as a sign I did NOT need it!

Sunday Highlight | Having a surprisingly chill day!

We had plans to work on the garden most of the day Sunday but it was raining, so we stayed inside. It was a really relaxing way to spend the day. And since Steven had worked most of Saturday, I’m glad he got some chill time Sunday!

Other Sunday Happenings | waking up with a headache and taking a bath to help with it • getting a lot done before our run – produce prep, resining rocks, running the dishwasher, putting laundry away • Steven making breakfast • finishing The Last Black Unicorn • running with Steven and the rain holding off • seeing swans up close during our run • getting my first Starbucks chai of the month – it tasted so good! • painting and watching/finishing Firefly Lane • working on the May Fake Meats blog post • reading by the fire • reworking the structure of this post • vegan ribs for dinner • reading and going to bed early