These Days

Ahhh, that was a great Christmas break, wasn't it? It's good to be back in the saddle...a month later.

This month has been a quiet one, in a way. No traveling (at least for me), lots of evenings at home, lots of friends, lots of crafting. I tend to think that's how the long winter months should be spent, since the cold outside prevents most other things. We don't have enough snow outside to do the typical outside winter activities, but you won't hear me complaining! Remember last year?

Also: all hail the power of the snow blower. If I had to spend one more winter shoveling the amount of snow we shoveled last year, I might just decide that it was worth staying inside until it all melted, however many months that might take. 

Honestly, that's really the latest from around here. Just a small account of the quiet, happy, sometimes boring joy of the everyday. 

On a tangent: would you host a Super Bowl party if your main team AND your backup team are both out of the running? 

What We've Been Up To...

Well, we flew to Washington...which unfortunately turned into an experiment on blog abandonment. Instead of blogging, I've done a lot of the following:

A) Eating. Pretty sure I'm going to be a few pounds heavier upon my return to MA. There's just so much good food! Teriyaki restaurants, pizza places, burger joints, fro yo...you name it, and we've eaten it and enjoyed every last darn bite.

B) Shopping. We waited to get Christmas gifts for the family members out here until we arrived since we didn't want to haul it all in our suitcases, and since there are many family members, we've been in more malls than you can count.

C) Exploring. Washington is the coolest, I tell you. Do you want to see water? Ok...look out the back door. Mountains? Yep...look out the same door. We decided that view wasn't quite enough, so we went on a drive through a mountain pass on a day when there wasn't a massive snowstorm, and it was well worth it. 

D) Beer-tasting. Ok...this is admittedly not me. But I appreciate it in spirit. Does that count? One day I hope I grow to like it, but not this trip. 

E) Coffee-shopping. There are SO MANY COFFEE SHOPS(!) out here! Why is this not a thing in Boston? They're comforting and friendly and they have tasty things. Who wouldn't like that type of thing?

I started laughing after the second picture...

F) Crafting. Sorta. We painted pottery, because the town we're in had a place that coupled pottery painting with a coffee shop. Brilliant.

G) STAR WARS.

So far...that's it. Considering we still have three days though, I'm sure there will be more to come!

Thursday Vignettes, Vol. 3

It's been awhile since I did one of these, so the time has come again! 

1. We had our final Star Wars movie night last night - we finished Episode VI just in time for Episode VII to "hit the theaters," as they say. We made our traditional movie night dinner (nachos) and our somewhat new dessert tradition (ice cream), and it was great.

I also found a Star Wars t-shirt at Target the other day, and since this new movie coming out is such a phenomenon, I bought it. I mean...it was six dollars. I plan to wear it to the theater when we go see the movie in Washington next week. Nerd alert.

2. I have a dreadful addiction to the cards and invitations section at Target. I went in the other day to pick up something random for the house - a soap dispenser, maybe? - and I almost left with two new sets of thank you notes just because I might need them sometime. I stopped myself (I really have no need for an extra 150 thank you cards, since I still have leftovers from my wedding 1.5 years ago), but it was hard.

3. Ever since we ordered all the things we need for the guest bed, we've been getting packages almost daily. One of them arrived other other night from Ikea, containing a rolled up mattress pad. At first I was confused as to what it was, though, because the box looked like it could have housed something about five feet long. Nope...turns out Ikea just has strange ideas about packaging non-breakable items.

4. I can't really say that I have a gift for words when it comes to expressing profound thoughts, which is why I stick to the more light hearted stuff over on this blog. But if you do feel like you want some deeper thoughts to sink your teeth into, a friend from home in Vermont has been writing a wonderful blog. It's currently focused on Advent, so check it out!

5. Since, according to the social media world, Thursdays are now dedicated to throwbacks (or has that trend sorta stopped?), I'm going to throw it back to the last Thursday I was in Puerto Rico. I had heard from the last coworker who had been there that supposedly iguanas were everywhere. I believed him until I got there, because for three full days and almost a fourth full day, I had seen none. It may have been frivolous, but apart from working well, seeing an iguana was the primary goal to complete before leaving. And lo and behold, as I was leaving the school campus on the very last day, THERE HE WAS. Those things are huge, and they move faster than lightning. I posted a zoomed in picture on Instagram when it happened, but I took another picture out my rental car window because the iguana was sitting behind a parked car. Having him there gave a nice reference point for how big he was, so...enjoy.

The Barre Experiment

Last night, my friend Meghanne, her friend Lindsey and I decided to try something new and completely different. Well...new and different for me. Meghanne had done it once, and Lindsey several times. What did we do? We signed up for a pure barre class and exercised our butts off. Or at least that's what it felt like last night. This morning I can attest to the fact that it's very much still there due to my aching muscles.

I obviously didn't take any pictures while at the class, because that would just be weird. No one takes #workoutselfies in a class of six people with a ton of mirrors, and honestly...no one wants to see that anyway. As a result, I can only give you a mental picture.

At one point in life I thought that I could pull off a "passably graceful" status. NO. Pure barre has taught me that I cannot look smooth and flowing when lifting a sand-filled ball above my head while simultaneously pulling my knee up to my elbow. In addition, it's very difficult to extend your leg out to a 90-degree angle from the rest your body. I know this because I attempted it and reached about a 60-degree angle instead.

By the end of class I could barely wobble out to the car, and I felt like I'd gotten a very good workout. Hence the wobbling - the result of the best type of workout, I say. Despite my lack of gracefulness, I'll probably be back. Also, we felt so good about our worked muscles and burned calories that we celebrated with a trip to the Cheesecake Factory.

Oh, you want to see a photo of just the glorious, once-time-per-year peppermint cheesecake? BUT OF COURSE.

Pardon the lighting. The Cheesecake Factory doesn't specialize in brightly lit spaces.

I'm sure we had burned off all of the calories that we consumed, right? Isn't that how exercise is supposed to work? 

Christmas Dilemma

By yesterday afternoon, I kept thinking that it was Tuesday, and I woke up this morning feeling like it was Wednesday. Anyone have tips on how to reset your internal weekly calendar? 

Non sequitur.

In some years, I've done very well with Christmas gift ideas. Last year in particular was a good year - I got my mom a crockpot, my dad a craft beer book, and Chaz a coffee maker that we have used every single day since.

[source]

But this year I'm completely drawing a blank for both Chaz and for my dad. HELP. For Chaz, here are the rules:

1. No "random stuff" - it needs to be something we'll use regularly or has a specific function. Basically, nothing that you'd find on the "100 Great Gift Ideas for Guys!" lists that you'd find in a Google search.
2. No clothes.
3. Not very expensive - the bed in the guest room was our main Christmas gift this year, so we're each planning to do something small and not pricey.

Anyone have any inspired ideas?

Project Days

We were so excited on Friday because we had a weekend where nothing was going on, for the most part. Every once in awhile, that's a much needed thing, I think, as it gives you a chance to catch up on sleep and cooking and all the other things you've put to the side. Say...cleaning the house. We knocked that one out first on Saturday morning.

Since we had so much left over time, the rest of the weekend sort of morphed into a weekend for building things. First, I put together the headboard and bed frame for our guest room, which means that if you come to visit us, you no longer have to sleep on either a twin sized bed or an air mattress!

Next, we hung up a picture that had been sitting in our office for months, just waiting for us to nail a little hole in the wall. This particular item should have been hung much, much earlier, considering it took us a total of five minutes to do it on Saturday.

It was a wedding gift from our friends - it's a painting by their uncle of the spot where we got engaged! 

After that, I decided to try to make monkey bread. We had gone to the store before looking at the recipe and got ourselves some Pillsbury crescent rolls. Those are delicious, but they aren't the right sort of Pillsbury product needed for monkey bread. Nevertheless, I attempted. The pre-baked version looked promising.

It smelled amazing while it was baking, but when we tried to take it out of the pan, all of the pieces just sort of fell apart. They're still delicious, but you can't really call it monkey bread. We dubbed them Joy Nuggets.

Then on Saturday evening, I decided to get started on a project we'd been thinking about for awhile: building a wine rack. We still have leftover wine from our wedding over a year ago, and right now it's sitting in a giant cooler that doesn't look aesthetically pleasing just hanging out in our basement. Thus, a wine rack. I'm following these instructions. It took me two trips to Home Depot to get all the stuff, and I realized at the end of the day yesterday that I actually need one more board, so that's going to make it three. 

I then spent all afternoon on Sunday cutting up pieces of wood. I hadn't used a circular saw since probably 7th grade Tech Ed class. Thrilling.

Chaz did some of the initial cuts to make sure the saw was working and to sort of figure it out, and then I took over and did the rest.

It's not done yet, so this is sort of a home-improvement cliff hanger. I'm sure you're just dying to read about my finished product, right? 

Ha.

This post is brought to you by Tell-Don't-Show Writing, Inc. I'll do better tomorrow. It's Monday, after all...what could you expect?

Crafting Complete

I think I finished the wall art! It's not hanging up yet, but it's ready to be hung up and that's what counts.

As I mentioned yesterday, I got the idea from Pinterest, but the real source is here. You really only need five materials: a canvas, some paint, scrapbook paper, glue of your favorite variety, and Mod Podge.

First, you take your canvas and paint it so that the whole thing is the color you want as the background. I used spray paint because it was fast and I'm impatient.

Let the paint dry...obviously. To keep you occupied while it dries, take your scrapbook paper and cut out one circle for the center of the flower and a lot of leaves of various sizes. I ended up using ten different patterns of scrapbook paper for the leaves, and I cut out eight big leaves plus one tiny leaf from each one.

Once the leaves are cut and the paint is dry, start arranging them on the canvas.

When you're happy with how the pattern looks, glue them down so that they won't move. I used hot glue, because again...impatient. Who wants to wait for glue to dry after you've already waited for the paint?

Finally, after things won't be moving around anymore, Mod Podge the whole thing so that it looks uniform.

And finally, once the Mod Podge is dry, you're done! Go hang it up.

Or...you know...just put it on top of a table until you figure out where you want it. That works too. 

Have a most excellent weekend!

Decor Challenged

This year, Chaz and I decided that our Christmas present for each other would be a bed for our guest room. It's the one room of the house that's very obviously unfinished after moving, so the time has come! The other room like that is the "kids'" room, but there are no kids, there are a lot of small items that don't have final storage spots, and it's upstairs and not used by your average house guest, so it can wait. 

Black Friday weekend was glorious for finding good deals on a bed. I found a nice headboard on Wayfair.com that was 70% off, and Macy's was having a crazy mattress sale, so we got everything done and ordered well ahead of Christmas.

All that was really just backstory for the main point of this post, which is decorating, and the fact that I am not a decorator by any stretch of the imagination. Or at least...I'm either bad at decorating or not millionaire-enough to put together a room all at once. If it were up to me, sheets sets would be no more than $20. I'd also price nice furniture in the $100 - $200 range rather than the $500 - $1,000,000 range, but furniture makers don't ask me, do they? I'm guessing the real answer lies in thrifting. Thrifting is another skill that I lack. Someone want to teach me?

This has been the most rambly post. That's really all I have to say for now, except that I'm making this because I saw it on Pinterest and I love it:

[source]

Mine doesn't look like much yet.

And the only thing tying all of this nonsense together is the fact that the art is going in the guest bedroom with the soon-to-be bed, and hopefully someday other decorative things that I haven't discovered yet. 

The end.

Thanksgiving 2015

This year for Thanksgiving, we stayed at home. My family came from various parts of New England and so our house was the gathering place. It was wonderful. Since as far back as the beginning of college going-on-nine years ago, I haven't had a holiday that didn't involve traveling. What a gift it was to really be able to relax without needing to pack up and drive or fly as part of the time off! And so to my family I say thank you for coming to us and helping us have a wonderfully laid back Thanksgiving. 

We planned our Thanksgiving feast for later in the afternoon, which gave us time to go for a walk that morning. It was a beautiful day and not too cold - perfect fall walking weather.

At the end of the trail we found a camp (closed for the winter) and a small pond, which is good to know for whenever warmer weather rears its head again.

And with that, we stopped, took a couple pictures, and then headed back to the kitchen.

Let me just add a note here and say that I don't know how chefs do it day after day. I cooked the most food I have ever cooked in a single day, but that's something they do on the daily, so...props to you, chefs of the world. 

Our menu included turkey (of course), gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce (from a can), rolls (from Whole Foods), and two kinds of pies. I made the chocolate cream pie, but Costco made the apple pie and it was glorious. Never underestimate the glories of Costco.

And when it was all finished at 5pm, we sat down and ate. 

Finally, the food was eaten, the leftovers were put away, the dishes were washed, and the counters were wiped down. Logically, the next step was the pie, which may have been the crowning victory of the whole endeavor.

And because pie...I think we'll leave it with that. Happy Cyber Monday, y'all!

Puerto Rico in Pictures

If I were being completely honest, I'd probably tell you that Puerto Rico isn't my all time favorite destination, but saying that sounds repulsively snooty. It may just be the area I'm staying in - it's very...urban residential? I guess you could call it that. Basically it isn't anywhere near to things that you'd want to see. I also wouldn't trust valuable things to stay in my car overnight, but you could say that about any city, I think.

Nevertheless, it has some cool stuff! Each evening after work I've had a couple of hours of daylight left to fill with whatever the heck I want, and thus...to Old San Juan I went two days in a row. There were forts!

Also, many of the houses are painted fun colors, which makes everything bright and cheery, even though you're melting in the heat and sweating all over.

I liked the forts the best though.

And yet despite the cool forts and the balmy temperatures, I'm very ready to head back to my comfortable 30 degree weather, Thanksgiving preparations, and favorite human. Hasta la vista, Puerto Rico!

Hazard Lights Required at All Times

GUYS. Driving in Puerto Rico is NO JOKE. 

This trip was a bit of a surprise, so I had about a week to figure out all travel arrangements. Since it's a four-day trip instead of the usual two or three, I realized pretty fast that I'd need a car to get around. Public transportation wasn't an option, and I'd be taking far too many taxi rides for that to be a financially viable option. And thus...a car.

Economy rental cars are my friend on business trips. This time, I have one of these guys:

[source]

SORTA. It's not actually that new, and it's not actually that clean. It also makes a funny buzzing noise that only economy rental cars can make when it's going faster than 10mph. Best of all, it has Eco mode, which basically means that its pickup is nonexistent.

All of that would be fine if I was driving around the back roads of any rural area. Who needs pickup when no one is on the road? No one, that's who. But in Puerto Rico? Let's just say that I don't have a picture of the traffic because I didn't trust myself to have my attention removed from the road even at a full stop.

I once naively thought Boston drivers were aggressive. My eyes have since been opened. Behold: some actual thoughts from my driving experience here:

"That stick-your-nose-into-oncoming-traffic-to-turn-left move I hate at home? Time to try it out!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?"

"I've literally used every trick in the book that I learned from driving in Boston!" 

"I'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadie...."

"Seriously, what on EARTH makes you think that your 18-wheeler is going to fit between my bumper and the car three inches in front of me?!"

"I see that two-foot spot in the next lane and I CLAIM IT AS MY OWN."

If I make it out of this place without a dent in my rental car's bumper, will someone give me an award?

Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's church and the world...

I'm in Puerto Rico right now on...you guessed it...another business trip. I had been intending to write about that and regale you with yet another tale of traveling, but I think I'll have to save that for another time. Today, the state of the world is lying too heavily on my heart to write about anything else.

I didn't update my Facebook profile picture in the wake of the Paris attacks. For me personally, it just felt empty. Within a few hours, the politicized how to fix it arguments started rolling in with their uncomfortably predictable patterns: gun control is bad. Gun control is good. We need to talk about religion. We shouldn't even think about religion. We should stop refugee relocation efforts. We should increase refugee relocation efforts. Your argument is wrong. No, your argument is wrong. 

It's exhausting. 

Micah 6:8 keeps repeating itself in my head: "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Like so many others, I want to live that out in a global context. It's with aching hearts that we read one story after another of the poor, the widowed, the orphaned.

And yet at least for me, my reach is too small. I can't drop everything and fly to Greece to help people find some semblance of normalcy after fleeing their homes. I can't travel to Paris or Beirut, turn back time, and stop the violence. And so like everyone else searching for the answer to the ever-present how question, I feel mostly helpless.

So I guess what I've been thinking most is that where I can help, by necessity, must be close to home. I can love my family better. I can give more. I can look for ways to help in my surrounding community. And I hope that in some small way, helping in little ways can help others - who might have access to a broader reach than mine - help those who are hurting most.

Lord, have mercy.

Drinking Vegetables

Now that Halloween is over and Thanksgiving is on its way, I've been thinking about how to eat better. See...I love candy with an unholy passion, so whenever we have some in the house, it slowly but very surely disappears. Into my mouth. Chaz does not suffer from the same affliction/addiction that I do, and therefore he remains immune to the perils of eating too much junk.

As a result, a couple of friends and I are jumping back into the crunchy world of Whole30 Whole-however-many-days-there-are-until-Thanksgiving. We'll see how it goes, since I'm going to be on yet another work trip next week...this time in Puerto Rico.

Last time when doing the Whole30, my default breakfast for almost the full 30 days was bacon and eggs in some capacity or another. That holds true today, at least:

But earlier this week, I added smoothies to my breakfast rotation. I figured it wouldn't be exactly healthy to have the same two ingredients every single day for breakfast, so this was a nice way to switch it up. 

I put three ingredients in my smoothies: a bowl-ful of frozen fruit, a splash and a half of orange juice, and enough spinach and/or kale to fill up my blender. When I'm trying to be Whole30 compliant, I'll make sure that it's an all natural orange juice with no added sugar, since sugar isn't allowed. Also, it should be noticed that my blender is not especially large. 

When you put it all in the blender, it looks so nice and colorful!

But I confess that when you're finished blending and you pour it all into a glass...it looks like horrible green sludge.

Nevertheless, after the first sip you don't taste spinach or kale at all, and instead you taste the fruit and lovely citrus-y accents (you know...because my smoothies are hoity-toity and high class), and it makes for a nice healthy breakfast with some vegetables hiding in the mix. Hurrah!

Now I need to go make some fajita marinade for dinner. Don't worry...I'll be eating them in lettuce wraps instead of tortillas. Just call my Crunchy McCruncherson, ok?

One Weekend in Maine

Deer Isle is a rather substantial island up in Maine. It's a beautiful island, not least because my friend Diana lives there and between that and the surrounding natural beauty, it's spectacular. 

I went to visit Diana this past weekend, and it happily coincided with her baby shower. 

It was the type of visit that just puts live back into perspective, because time passes slowly and the camaraderie fills up your soul to the brim. Well, time passed slowly until the shower, which involved a warm bustle of activity and was followed by homemade pizza, which may have been the best I've ever had. 

Lately (or always?) I've felt like I'm juggling a lot of things, and not quite keeping all of them in motion. I remember feeling like this in college - school work, practicing, friendship, faith - but it hasn't really been something I'd felt for awhile. The newer version of juggling is work, music, marriage, friendship, and faith, and lately it's the friendship ball that's been dropped. This weekend represented a much-needed reset. I haven't figured it all out yet, but I'm very grateful for Diana's wisdom on the matter. "I think of it as a new phase, really. Friendship looks different now that life has changed, but it's no less valuable." 

As usual, she's right. I just need to figure out how this new phase works before it changes again! 

Little Things

Another one of my favorite bloggers announced she was going to be shutting down her blog yesterday. In reality, she hadn't blogged in several months so stopping officially won't be that much of a change, but still...it made me sad that there's no hope of it returning anymore. Naturally, it made me wonder why I keep blogging, especially after such a long hiatus. I don't really have aspirations to be one of the bloggers with tens of thousands of followers - I don't think I want to be that much in the spotlight - but writing is always more fun if there is an audience, even if it's very small. 

But with or without an audience, that's not why I like blogging. I think the biggest reason is just that I like having a record of our daily life. Sometimes that includes big things like our wedding or medium things like traveling, but most of the time it's just the small things of our normal, everyday life. 

Yesterday, everyday life looked like arriving home from work and cooking breakfast for dinner, which we do almost once per week. Chaz makes the eggs, I make the bacon, and each time we do that we try to add one more side to the meal. This round, the side was hash browns, which turned out far more successfully than my first attempt, which burned despite following the directions. Nonstick pans DO make a difference, apparently. 

Breakfast was followed by some leftover Halloween candy, and eventually we went to bed. All in all, it was a quiet evening with nothing notable to speak of except that it was warm and cozy, and it just felt like home. And yet, I felt it was worth noting here, because it's the type of thing that I want to remember later on down the road. 

In other news, the light each morning during this time of year is beautiful in an ethereal, melancholy sort of way. I wake up each morning and open the shades in the bedroom to let it filter in, and I usually end up standing there for a few moments just to look at it. I think that's a lovely way to start any day, don't you?

Strategic Seating

Hey, we've made it to the last of the three London posts! Hurrah!

British Airways does this thing where you can't select a seat on the plane until you check in, which can only happen 24 hours before the flight departs. I sorta missed that boat (plane?) and reserved a seat closer to 12 hours before the flight departed, and since everyone else was more on top of things than I was, only the bad seats were left. Cue being stuck in the middle seat for 6.5 hours across the Atlantic.

I was smarter for the trip home. This time I actually remembered that I needed to check in early, and I was delighted to learn that my default seat selection was a window. However, there were a number of seats left, so I looked around to see if there was anything better.

That's when I noticed that the last row on the plane was empty. 

At that point I remembered a previous British Air flight where I'd been assigned the back seat. It actually hadn't been bad. The window had been too far forward compared to the seat to actually be functional, but there had been a lot more space between me and the seat in front of me, and there were only two seats per row instead of the regular three due to the shape of the tail of the plane.

So I decided to gamble. I picked the very back row, noting that the aisle seat next to the one I'd selected was still empty. I figured there'd be an infinitesimal chance that it would remain empty and that just maaaaaybe I'd have extra space.

For the first time ever, I got lucky and my gamble actually paid off. Not only was the seat next to me empty, but the entire back row save one seat was empty. In addition, the seats in front of me were empty except for the aisle seat:

The result? It was the most comfortable I could have been unless I had been bumped up to first class. The flight was so relaxing! I actually got to sleep, because there was enough room to stretch out. Another benefit was that I could put my seat all the way back, since there wasn't another row of seats behind me. I could put my knees up on the back of the seat in front of me without disturbing anyone else, since there was no one there. You might even say it was luxurious.

I'm sure the flight attendants, who were all British, thought I was rather improper for having my feet up on the seat. It probably didn't help that I had put on the sweatshirt I'd bought near the Tower of London. It basically screams, I'M A TOURIST! so I made sure I took it off before I went through customs.

Though I love it...it will not be worn in London, ever. US equivalent? The "I ♥ New York" sweatshirts, no doubt.

Regardless, the point of this post is that while the back of the plane tends to be bumpier in turbulence and automatically ensures that you'll be the last person off, it has serious benefits. I'm not sure a small plane would have the added "seat can lean all the way back" feature in the back row, but for large planes? Hoooooo boy, it's awesome. You should probably try it next time you fly and tell me all about it.

ACV Abroad

Apple cider vinegar, if you haven't already heard from all the numerous sources proclaiming its usefulness, is a wonder-substance. It can help with acne; it can apparently make your hair shinier (I've never tried that...); and most importantly, it can help to you avoid getting sick or, if you're already there, it can help you get better faster. These facts are nothing earth-shattering. Type "apple cider vinegar" into a Pinterest search bar and you'll be scrolling infinitely.

[source]

My family has always used apple cider vinegar when we have a cold. My parents would always just add it to water, but as kids that offended our tongue's sensibilities, and so we added it to apple juice. Ideally, you don't want to take it with anything with sugar, since that counteracts the benefits of the vinegar, but it helped nonetheless. We'd find ourselves better in no time!

And so, whilst in England and finding myself coming down with cold-like symptoms, I knew I needed to find some. I took to Google and searched for the nearest grocery store. It was 0.8 miles, and despite my only available transportation method being my own two feet, I headed out.

I picked up some apple juice boxes (with no added sugar!), a bottle of apple cider vinegar, and of course some "dinner" of a small baguette, a block of extra-sharp cheddar, and a Lindt chocolate bar for dessert. I also threw in some cough drops for good measure, since instant gratification is sometimes useful.

After heading back to the hotel, I realized I was a little short on necessary supplies - a cup, for example. And so...here is how to consume your apple cider vinegar as if you were in the woods.

Step 1: Open your juice box, drink a little so it doesn't spill, and then rip open the top:

Step 2: Once you have your juice box opened, pour some amount of ACV directly into the hold you created, ignoring the fact that it feels like you're spiking your juice:

Step 3: Drink up!

When I woke up the next morning, I felt great! It worked its magic, but I did it again the next night with my remaining juice, since I didn't want to waste the bottle of vinegar. Curse those small liquid limit TSA regulations.

There you have it: how to stay healthy in a foreignish country.

London at a (Shallow) Glance

I have three individual posts about London for this week, so if you don't like to read about traveling...either brace yourself or just don't read. Maybe - just maybe - I'll try to intersperse them with other things, but I can't promise anything!

Since almost all of my traveling these days is business travel, any time that I have for sight-seeing is extremely limited. As a result, I've developed what I think could be most accurately called "walk-by tourism." In other words, I make a dent on the surface of the city, covering as many things as possible in the shortest amount of time. I did a similar thing back when I traveled to Norway in May. On this trip, I finished working on Thursday evening and then got dinner in a charming little pub called the Rose and Crown. Chaz said that it was a must-do on my trip, because he ate there any time he traveled to the same location.

On Friday, I woke up very early so that I could make my way into London. My flight wasn't until 7:15 that evening, so by the time I finally made it into the city at 10:30, I had approximately 5 or 5.5 hours until I needed to start making my way to the airport. Naturally, I decided to cram as many things as were humanly possible into those five hours, and I think I succeeded!  In total, I walked almost exactly 5 miles. Here's the pictorial evidence:

Stop 1: Victoria and Albert Museum

This was the only stop where I actually spent a significant amount of time. It's a beautiful museum and it's free, which is always a plus! It's full of magnificent artwork, including sculptures, which are my favorite. This time they also had an exhibit about fashion through the ages, and they had examples of dresses from each decade starting in the 70s and going back to about 1750. After about an hour and a half, I started walking. First, I walked through Harrods, because when in London...

It was far too luxurious for my taste, so I stopped at H&M immediately after that. Who needs Prada when you can get a dress for $15? 

I also passed one of these guys on the way:

After Harrods/H&M, I continued on to Buckingham Palace:

I made a special note to include the collection of mysterious royal music stands in the photo.

After that, I hopped on the tube and made my way to St. Paul's Cathedral. I had every intention of going inside to look around, but after entering the foyer and discovering that it cost £18, I decided to be satisfied with the view I could get from the line and then a perusal of the outside, which is also impressive.

Can you tell that I like that angle...?

At this point, it was 2:30 and I had covered all the things that I definitely wanted to get into my trip. But I still had an hour and a half, so I found a nearby map of London and plotted my continuing route: cross the Thames by way of the Millennium Bridge (you know...the one you see the dementors fly over in Harry Potter 5, 6, 7, or maybe 8), walk along the river and pass the Globe Theater, walk until finding the Tower Bridge (the big fancy one), and pass by the Tower of London. And so that's what I did, along with some additional things I stumbled across along the way:

From the other side of the Millennium Bridge.

A bad picture of the Globe.

The London Bridge, which was not actually falling down.

The remains of Winchester Palace, a 12th century palace for bishops and their guests.

A cheesy selfie with the Tower Bridge...

The Tower of London (where I'll spend much more time if I get to go again).

After that, I bought myself a sweatshirt and headed back to the airport with rather sore feet.

To summarize:

1) It is entirely possible to see a lot of a city in five hours if you're willing to go quickly. Now I feel like if I go back, I can check out a couple of things in greater depth and not feel like I'll miss out on the other major attractions.

2) You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a good overview of London. My most expensive purchase (other than the sweatshirt...) was a £17.50 travelcard pass that let me go on any bus or tube for the entire day. That saved me a lot, since I took the train from all the way outside the city in the beginning of the day, between areas of the city in the middle of the day, and all the way back out to the airport at the end.

3) London has a lot of really cool stuff! 

And there you have it.

Travel Hazards

I had every intention of blogging both on Tuesday and Wednesday. Really, I did! But traveling thwarted the very best of my intentions, and now here we are on Thursday, finally catching up.

I did indeed manage to fit everything into my backpack. I'm rather proud of that feat. However, this trip represents the closest I have ever come to missing a flight. I left with what I thought was plenty of time, but what happened was this:

What you're beholding in this photo is me at an absolutely complete stop on the road 35 minutes prior to when I was supposed to be done boarding the plane. It had been like this for the last hour, and I was freaking out. Calmly. Because I don't externally panic. But you'd better believe I was panicked on the inside.

It was at this point that I canceled my off-site parking reservation, because I realized I'd never make it in time if I had to stop, park my car, hop on a shuttle, and dive right back into the fray. The man on the other end of the phone said, "Well, no problem, I can cancel it for you...I just hope the garage at the airport isn't full!" I almost laughed, because it's never been full when I parked before.

Guess what. It was full. I believe the actual words that went through my head were, "WHAT IN SEVEN HELLS?!?" and yes, my mind both bolded and italicized all of it. Convinced the universe was conspiring against me, I drove in regardless, where they were valet parking everyone that was required to park. I'm just hoping that I don't have an even more than ordinary exorbitant fee when I get back to Logan, since it was unavoidable.

After literally running all the way to the terminal, I stood in line while the world's slowest TSA agent took a full minute to check everyone's ticket and ID ahead of mine. At long last, they called any remaining passengers on my flight forward to the front of the line (which meant going ahead of the one single person left before me), and I made it on to the flight as the very last passenger boarding before they shut the door. 

I have never been quite as relieved as I was when I was finally settled into my seat.

Everything after the mad dash/slow crawl to the flight has been marvelous. I'm currently outside of London in a small town called Chertsey, and I'm internally narrating this blog post in an involuntary British accent that I'm incapable of muting. Now that the business part of the trip is finished, I'll be heading into the city tomorrow to explore. More on that later, provided I get to the airport prior to my plane departing! In the meantime, I'm curling up with a lovely bar of chocolate, the likes of which accompany me on every business trip if I can help it.

Packing Light

Normally, work trips take me somewhat boring places, like Columbus, Ohio or Bethesda, Maryland. That's not to say that I don't find cool things to do there (although that's not really the point of a business trip), but if I had a choice as to where I got to jet off to, it probably wouldn't be there. Well...this time I lucked out, and I'm heading to London tomorrow.

It's a quick trip: fly on Tuesday, arriving at 7:15 pm. Work for two days. Fly back on Friday. But on Friday, my flight isn't until 7:00 pm, which means that I have all day to scoot around London and act like a tourist. 

I learned from my Oslo trip that if you're going to be going around a city, it's best to not have to lug around a suitcase. I'm a light packer - last time I just had one rolling bag - but even with that, it's not fun to have extra baggage along for the ride.

So this time, I'm going even lighter. London, I'm coming to you...with only a backpack. 

I'm pretty sure I can do it, but I'll report from the airport tomorrow, and we'll see then how it worked out...