Weekend Review {3/2}

FRIDAY

Friday was work, then school, then home to hang with Granny and avoid all things political people related.  We had debated going out to dinner and I was tired of trying to decide, so I threw a porkloin in the crockpot in the AM and when Teh German came home, threw together a salad and mac and cheese and that was that.

It was a quiet evening and I can't remember what we did.  Maybe watch hockey?  I can't remember.  Time passed, we went to bed, thank you, next.

SATURDAY

I woke up at 7 with the dogs because I had shit to do.  I started working on my homework and slowly, others woke up.  Knowing that I wouldn't be able to attend the Burpees and Brews workout class all of March because of run commitments, I made it a point to attend on Saturday.  I got my ASS kicked and then handed back to me, then kicked again.  Moving on Saturday was fine, but Sunday... lawwwwddd, Leslie Knope gets it, "Everything hurts and I'm dying."

On my way home from the workout, I hit up my polling place and cast my vote.  It's it's not a general election, it took me longer to walk into the building to vote than to get checked in and cast my vote.  For real, from parking to leaving the parking lot was less than 5 minutes.  #WIN.

After getting home and eating lunch (because I was a hangry hag), I showered and then we headed out to the new Firefly Distillery location in Park Circle with Teh Neighbor Besties.  Granny even tagged along (I didn't give her a choice) even though she doesn't partake.

Because Firefly doesn't have food, you are limited on the number of beverages you can have there (2).  So when all our drinks were consumed, we headed across the street to Holy City Brewing since they have "a full bar" now.  They don't.  They really need to fix that.  Since it was cold and dusty, we had an appetizer and a few beers were consumed, then we headed to Commonhouse.

I had a beer and ordered some tater tots that I was afraid would never arrive.  They did after Husband went to order another beer and ask where they were.  It got cold-er, and we finally headed home.  Teh German went over to Teh PT House for smoking time and Granny and I held down the couches until Teh German came home.

We had some snuggle time and then it was bedtime after some screen time.

SUNDAY

Sunday was adulting day.  Teh German got up with the beasts and I slept in.  Eventually, I got up and showered and headed downstairs for chats with Mama G and Papa G.  We were out the door by 1030 to go to brunch at Metro Diner then to Sam's/Walmart for groceries.

I finally found the Funfetti creamer Teh Advising Sister... advised me of.. after a month of searching.
It's not the worst I've had, but it's definitely not my peppermint mocha creamer.

After getting groceries put away, Teh German went out for a ride and I pulled the meat from a rotisserie chicken for dinner later.  I had wanted to accomplish some homework, but my body was so excruciatingly sore from the Saturday workout that I laid on the couch instead.  I tried to nap, but every time I was almost asleep, Granny's phone would make some sort of loud ass noise or she'd say something that would rouse me.  Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

Teh German texted to ask what time he should be home and I told him 7.  I started working on dinner shortly before 6 and when he got home at 6:15, I wasn't disappointed.  We ate dinner and then I headed to the office for some homework and sorting out my life time.  I also printed out directions for Granny to get back home and then from her house to Charleston, if she wants to come back.

Eventually, it was sleepy time, bedtime chores were accomplished and then bedtime.

______________________________________________

Overall a great weekend.  It was also a good visit with Granny and I think she was ready to leave since I make her participate in activities, which is more work than just sitting on the couch all the time watching Fox News and Dr. Phil (Jesus take the wheel).

I love hate the Saturday workouts.  Being soooo sore is miserable, but I feel so accomplished after I do the workout.  I really need to do some running, but grappling myself to get out of the bed has been impossible.  And as someone with a full race schedule.. doing some runs between the races probably wouldn't be a bad idea... Just sayin'.

Midterms are coming, so I'm trying not stress about school things, but there's so much going on in March that my anxiety is creeping up... in addition to some professor issues (PITA professor broke his hip and wrist and got a concussion over the weekend and a professor on sabbatical has been subbing in for him, other professors going on travel, + midterms still happening = anxiety).

It's finally March.. and we're marching through 2020 and I'm not sad about it.

Weekend Review {11/25}

FRIDAY

Friday was the last day of class before Thanksgiving break started and it was a struggle.  I managed, but Lawd, I did NOT want to be in my dungeon.  As soon as class was finished, I headed to work to fight with the instant pot (which is no way instant (as it claims to be)).  Because we don't have a stove at work, I figured I could make the pasta in the instant pot and it wouldn't take that long, because instant pot, and then just melt in the velveeta and cream like normal.

Fun fact, when you put 2 pounds of pasta and 12 cups of water in the instant pot, what is normally a tedious process of building pressure becomes a lifelong process of building pressure.  In case you also think that cooking pasta in the instant pot could be a good idea, I would recommend sticking with 1 box of pasta as 2 boxes + the water took almost 40 minutes to come to pressure.  The pasta only had to cook for 3 minutes... Then there was the process of depressurizing, which also took a LONG time since 12 cups of water.

Here's how instant pot deficient I am: I had to have someone else turn it on to start the process for me.  He is a regular instant pot user, so that helped, but even he was shocked at how long it was taking.  Soooo, take my advice, if you want to "instantly" cook your pasta, it is NOT instant. 

Several people came in the kitchen while it was cooking and we had the "Do you recommend the instant pot?" conversation.  Spoiler alert: I 110% DO NOT RECOMMEND the instant pot.  It is a liar.  NOTHING is instant.  It takes just as much time to build pressure as it does to cook something on the stove (unless it's frozen, in which case, the instant pot is superior, but not better than throwing that frozen thing in the crockpot in the AM and coming home to a cooked meal). 

Anyways, despite my loathing of the instant pot, it worked for me in this situation.  Mac and cheese was made, not nearly enough of it was consumed because we had so.much.food.  I left it all at work though, knowing it would get eaten and knowing that I'm making mac and cheese again this week for Thanksgiving.

I was so hungry I took a half-eaten-plate photo. /shrug

After eating and cleaning up, I left the office for a massage appointment I had scheduled late the in the week.  I know that I just had a massage on Halloween, but I was a mess and I was struggling mightily last week with being in school without a break since the September Hurrication.  So it was part treat yo self, part necessity as my body was rebelling against me.

At some point during my massage, I realized I had left the week behind.  I wasn't focused on all the school things that constantly bombard me and it was such a relief.  If I would have had the time, I would have written a pretty feely post about end of semester strife, but I didn't...  because Thursday I was put on a new project and tasked with writing documentation for a project I know ZERO things about, oh yeah and they need it by next Friday.. but really Wednesday since holiday week.  Fun!  Not.

Wednesday, I texted Teh Bestie and said I needed a pep talk because I was run down and struggling.  She called right away and reminded me that it was only 2 more days until the break and really only one since there was no class on Thursday.  But the bigger part, more than the pep talk she gave me, was that I reached out instead of struggling on my own.  Usually, I struggle quietly until I manage to pull myself up by my bootstraps or whatever.

Anyways, after my massage, I headed home to work and wait on Teh Advising Sister to arrive.  She arrived around 7 and soon after, we headed out for dinner. We went to Pearlz in Avondale.  I hadn't been there, so fun adventures!  After dinner, we went to Kaminsky's for adult beverages.  We were pretty tired after drinks, so we headed home and had some couch time, judging dating app matches for Teh Advising Sister. 

Way later than anticipated, we finally headed to bed.

SATURDAY

Saturday was a slow start.  We had plans to go day drinking to celebrate Teh PT Husband's birthday.  We managed to meet with the gang, late, and proceeded to hang out for many hours. 

We started at Ghost Monkey Brewing, but due to a church group with A LOT of children, we headed out pretty quickly and went to Two Blokes Brewing.

We spent several hours at Two Blokes, then headed to Dog and Duck for dinner.  There had been plans to go Westbrook Brewing, but since they closed at 6, the group headed to Commonhouse instead.  We actually ended up going home after Dog and Duck because the dogs needed to be fed and I was over day drinking.

Here's the (selfish) thing.  I don't drink beer, so day drinking at breweries isn't my jam.  I go to be a good sport and hang out with my friends, but it's not got the same appeal for me as it does to the majority of the people we hang out with, so I try not to be overly sassy about it.  Additionally, it was a birthday celebration, so it wasn't my call.  We've discussed day drinking at distilleries, but that has yet to happen.

Teh German opted to come home instead of being dropped off at Commonhouse and then he proceeded to be upset after he realized he had "missed out" by not going.  Siiiigh.  Whatever.  I was able to get in my TV time for the week.  We watched Noah Trever's and Iliza Shlesinger's standup comedies.  We were in bed by 11.  It was fantastic.

SUNDAY

Sunday, the guys scheduled a brunch event, gasp!  It was called "Beards and Brunch" and there was absolutely NO information about the brunch part of the event, which was my priority.  It was a Rusty Bull Brewing, where I'd seen food trucks before, so no info on the food situation made me skeptical about the situation and I was very adamant if there were not solid brunch options, I would go somewhere else.  After being at breweries for the majority of the day before, I had no problem going somewhere I could also drink something besides water.

Fortunately, Rusty Bull has a kitchen (which I was not aware of, and no one told me about) and the brunch options were pretty good and I didn't feel the need to relocate.  Teh German and Teh PT Husband signed up for the beard competition and didn't officially win, but they were the real winners in my book.

Eventually, Teh Advising Sister said she wanted to do ax throwing, which is connected with the brewery.  We were all down.  It was $26 for an hour of throwing time and we almost finished one game, but after about 15 minutes of trying to score and play the game correctly, we gave up the fight and just spent the rest of the time throwing without keeping score.

Fun fact: I'm actually kinda good at ax throwing.

That was one of my legit throws.
BOOM!  BULLSEYE BABY!

After our time ended, we all headed home.  After walking the dogs and feeding them dinner, we headed over to Teh PT House for socializing.  We hung out until about 7:15, when Teh German and Teh Advising Sister agreed on Japanese for dinner and we headed out to Sushi 101 for dinner.

After dinner, we headed home and it was bedtime soon after since Monday was a normal work day for us.

______________________________________________

A fantastic weekend with Teh Advising Sister!  I love when we have company and she's always down for whatever (i.e. day drinking with people she sees maybe once a year and some strangers).  We went to several new-to-me places and I can now say I've done ax throwing annnddd that I'm fairly good at it.

This week includes NO SCHOOL, kinda.  I should say no class, since I still need to work on some homework things, but I'm not overly motivated to do those things.  In addition to these docs that I'm working on for work, doing homework is even less appealing.  Friday is more tattoo and I have no idea what I want.  Originally, I wanted geometric pattern as the background, but now IDK and decisions are hard.

Thursday is Thanksgiving.  In the AM, Teh PT Wife and I are running a 5k, then we will go home and do cooking things.  Socializing and food in the afternoon.  Maybe if I'm super productive this week I can pound out those docs AND get a Friday post up?  Bahahahah, let's not get overly excited, Gentle Readers.

Happy Thanksgiving if that's your thing.
Happy normal week if it's not.

Special Edition Five on Friday #198

Let's be honest.. 5 on Friday can get be so droll.. so instead, I'm gonna give you a recap of shit that went down this week.. and all the photos.. because I know that's what you're really here for.. It's fine, my feelings aren't hurt.

Monday

We went to Tübingen with Mama G.  We walked around, had lunch, had ice cream, saw a revolting car that CAN hold 2 people, but shouldn't, got ice cream, waited a short bit for a boat ride that didn't get to happen, then we went by Teh German's company and while Teh German was inside for an obnoxiously long time (1.5 hours), Mama G and I sat in the car and chatted which was good until it started to rain and we had to roll up the windows and it got hot again and I started sending sassy text messages to Teh German.

Maultaschen mit pommes
Maultauschen is meat wrapped in noodle dough, and this one was fried in eggs... and of course, with fries.

Teh German for size reference of this death trap single seater car.

It's lookin' like 2016 up in here!

Does this look familiar (to those of you who actually go to the blog site to read my posts?)

Of course, an Eis selfie.

After Teh German, finally, came back to the car, we headed back to Mama G's house, with a pit stop at the grocery store, then to home.  Teh German and I left soon after to go hang with the German Gang for the evening.  When we got back, it was bedtime.

TUESDAY

Adventure day to the Bodensee since it was so hot at Mama G's house.  For real, Germany went from being cold and rainy the entire month of May (approximately) to a fucking sauna..  And by sauna, I mean it was ~85°F and that wouldn't be a problem for me if air conditioning was a thing in Germany, but a constant state of swamp ass doesn't nothing to make me a nice(r) person.  In fact, when I'm hot and sweaty, I am downright nasty.  Teh German and I both are this way, so we've come to accept this and thwart it whenever possible.

While I sat crammed in the backseat, I distracted myself with the internet and I learned 2 things:

1- Fossil updated the processor in some of their smartwatches.

2- Said smartwatches were $200 at that moment.

I explained this to Teh German who only enabled me to finally purchase the watch (since I've been waiting for the perfect watch with all my specifications (waterproof, NFC, updated processor) for a very long time).  Then, another situation happened.. WHAT COLOR DO I GET!?!?!

Red is my jam, but rose gold matches my wedding band and other jewelry I wear and will match better with my outfits.  But red is my jam.  Decisions are hard.

So which one did I pick?
You'll have to wait and see..
And by wait I mean, until after we get home..
And by see I mean, I'll show you when I finally get it. 

Our destination was Insel (Island) Mainau.  There were lot of flowers there, which Mama G knew would appeal to me and my camera.  She wasn't wrong.

If you look closely, you can see snow on the Alps.

I wasn't kidding about multiple allergy seasons for us this year
Look at all this tree jizz!

We toured the island, I took lots of pictures, and then we decided to get lunch in Konstanz, which is where Teh German and I went for lunch in 2016 the day we visited Schloss Neuschwanstein.  We did at least pick a different restaurant this time around.  After lunch, we headed back to Mama G's house.  At one point, I finally fell asleep, but I was unfortunate enough to wake up when we got off the autobahn to stop and get gas.  When Mama G turned off the car while we waited on the car at the pump and we sat in the hot car suffocating, all I could think of was all the Facebook posts about not leaving dogs in hot cars and how quickly a car heats up in the summer with the windows up.  Let's just say that when it's that hot and with no AC, I definitely take 2 showers a day. 

And I'm going to be gross for a minute, so skip this paragraph if you want.  Here's my problem with being hot and sweaty all the time.  My body hates me.  It does everything it can to punish me as often as possible.  When I'm stuck in a perpetual state of forever swamp ass, my hoo-hah becomes a bread making machine.  Well, not quite.  I become a yeast making machine... and it's fucking disgusting.  Know what is unpleasant?  Yeast infections.  Know what is impossible to avoid when your underwear stay sweat soaked for most of the entire day?  A fucking yeast infection.  So yeah.  I'm not just a whiny, fat, American who wants AC.  I'm a woman who doesn't want to have a yeast factory in my pants.

More grossness... couple that yeast factory with being .... constipated AF (because my body hates to travel and all the toilets in Germany are for people with long legs (no jk, I actually used the bathroom trashcan as an improvised squatty potty (thanks to Teh Sister for that idea))).. and being 85% confident you have a UTI (again, my body hates me). 

Moving on.. when we got back, it was chill time.  Teh German went to the Apotheke (pharmacy) for some meds for my ailments (mentioned in the grossness paragraphs), and after Teh German got back, Papa G came over for dinner since it was our last night in Germany.

Timo and Joshi (Yoshi) having man time.

Dinner was a spinach/lox quiche and salad.
Dessert was ice cream with strawberries.

Around 9, I finally said it was my time to shower.  Papa G and Mama G had been discussing ebikes for what felt like half my life since I didn't understand most of what they were saying since it was too fast and not directed at me.  Since Teh German also wasn't included in most of the conversation, I was ready to shower (not a surprise if you read the gross paragraph) and start the laundry and go to bed.

PS.  Even at night, I sweated the whole night and would wake up covered in sweat.. even with a fan on us.  For most of the time that I was in Germany, I slept ok.... once it got over 65°F at night?  Fuck no.  I got the shittiest shit of all the sleeps.

WEDNESDAY

Finally, Italy day was upon us!  We had breakfast and showered and I had a little roller time before we left.

New friend up in my biz.

When we got to the airport, it took forever to find parking and then we walked the entire distance that we'd traversed in the car to get to our check in counter.  I was over it all when we finally got through security, which also took half my life because I always end up in the line with everyone who has never flown before, so they are retarded about how to take out their electronics and liquids... FML.

That chocolate thing was fucking delicious.  Probably the best airplane snack I've ever eaten.
Google always lets me know when I'm in a new country now.  I like it.
Silly selfies with Husband.

Side note regarding Google Fi. (that's my referral link)
100% would recommend.  I've not really used Google Fi much in the US, but while I've been overseas, my expectations were 100% met and sometimes even exceeded.  Overseas, I have normal costing data and SMS for free.. but the only kicker is that calls cost $0.20 when I'm not on wifi.  So I've made calls only when absolutely necessary without wifi.  In America, I think the calls are unlimited minutes, but I can't remember since I used it for such a short time before I left for Germany.  Also, since I'm on wifi in Charleston 90% of the time, Google Fi was great for me in Charleston.  I'd be interested to see how it stands when we travel to NC or other places, but the price cannot be beat.

I was very wiggly when we finally arrived in Italy.  I was sooooo excited.  For a verrrrrrryyy long time I've wanted to come to Italy.  Hell, I wanted to be stationed in Italy when I was in the Navy, but the Navy hated me and sent me to desert islands (TWICE) instead.

It was difficult for me to contain my excitement and not post a millionty Snaps/send Teh Running Bestie all.the.photos.  But, here, you get them all!

The water taxi trip from the airport to Venice.

First day in Italy selfies

Our hotel.

Dinner the first night.
I even had a spritz which was borderline too bitter for me.

Gondolas, of course.

Soooo, I'm not so good with saying no to street peddlers.. butttttt I learned my lesson in Venice.  Teh German and I went to the Rialto Bridge because we're tourists, kthx.. and this man approached us while I was taking our selfie, shoved this bouquet of roses in my hand and takes my phone and takes our photo.  When he takes 3 photos, he hands me my phone and I try to hand him back the roses.  He won't take them.  He then tells Teh German, "pay now."  Teh German had predicted this would happen when he saw the guys standing there, but I hadn't realized it would be quite so aggressive.  Teh German offers the man 5€ and he says 10€.  I tell the man, no, he can have his flowers back and he refuses.  At the same time, Teh German says that if he won't take the 5€, he won't get anything.  So he takes all but 3 of the roses from me and grumbles something and walks away.  I was more annoyed that now I had to carry these roses around for the rest of the night...  The only benefit was that no more peddlers approached us.  Ugh.

Saint Marco Basilica

Rialto Bridge at night

Awwwwwww

After our night tour, we headed back to the hotel.  We had turned the room's AC down to 20°C and set it to high.. an arctic blast greeted us when we opened the door, which was a welcome relief after climbing 3 flights of stairs.

THURSDAY

Only full day in Venice and I had already purchased tickets for a Murano, Burello, and Tortallini (Tortello or something I can't remember) island tour.  Breakfast was at the hotel.

My international breakfast.

#BookHunter

So the tour tickets said that the tour started at 0945 and you should be there 15 minutes prior.. so I planned for us to arrive around 0930, assuming that 15 minutes was buffer time.  Well, it was actually buffer time, except that there were TWO pick up locations and that was NOT made clear in the ticket.  Additionally, the directions for the place it told us to go to (KFC, actually) were WRONG via Google, so we really had no fucking chance... we missed our tour.

I called the tour office I booked through.. it would take us over 40 minutes to get from the KFC to the other meeting point.  It was 0943 when I finally called.  They departed at 0945.  FFFFUUUUCCCKKK MMMMEEEEEE.  I tried to get my money refunded, but they said no since we had missed the pick up time.  I didn't bother to argue that the directions were COMPLETELY unclear AND that Google didn't get us to the right place anyways, and... let's just be real here, it's 2019 and if a map app (in this instance, Google Maps) doesn't get you to the right place, you're telling people the wrong thing to get to your location.  The KFC where we needed to be was across a canal from where Google put us.  Uhhh wut?  We could see the KFC, but everything was so unclear and it was just a fucking disaster.

Sooo then, I noticed that there was another tour going to the islands and I asked how we joined.  I followed the directions of the tour guide, I purchased another set of tickets for the tour, and after a 10 minute wait, we were on the way...  But for real.. the next time we have less than 48 hours in a place, I will buy ZERO tickets beforehand and I'll/we'll figure it out when we get there.  I've wasted more money on unused tickets in the last month.. and I'm pissed at myself.

Teh German was a pretty good sport about it all after I had my rant and he saw that I called the person and tried to talk to them about the issue.  I think he also realized that if he was irritable, it was only going to exacerbate the issue further.

We finally made it on a tour boat!

Our first stop was Murano, an island known for glass making.  I knew there would be a purchase here when I booked the tour.  I don't love dust collectors, generally, but glass balls always have a special place in my heart.  Unfortunately, I didn't like any of the hanging glass balls, so we ended up with something else instead...

If you're interested.. this black chandelier costs 130,500€.
DAFUQ?

We made it back to the boat with minimal problems.  I say minimal because after we purchased our stuff, there was no one to wrap it and I waited for several minutes for someone to finally come.. It was 1 minute past the guide's time to be back at the boat when I came.  Teh German had went ahead so that way he could make them wait.

The next stop was Burano island.. This island is known for lace making, but we didn't see any of that.  We walked around and I took some photos and we finally decided on a place to eat.. and then, we had a replay of the time we stopped for lunch in the Blue Mountains (in Australia) and Teh German had to run back to the bus while I waited to get our food boxed up and then I had to run to the bus so they wouldn't leave me.

Except this time.. I was the runner and I went in the wrong direction (which Teh German told me to go to)...  I had NO idea where I was AND no idea where I needed to be... so I was fucked.  I ended up making it to the water, but it was not the right place and the docks weren't connected so I had to go back into the town to get to another pier.. and ffffuuuucccckkk mmmmeeee.  It's a fucking miracle I ended up finding Teh German after several wrong turns.  He was calling me, I assume, since he was on his phone when I found him.

He was super pissed and I was sweaty (again, since I'd gotten sweaty in the AM trying to find the right fucking place for our tour), and together it was a nightmare.  I finally had to tell him that I was not the problem here and he needed to stop taking out his frustration on me.  That really quieted things down.  We back tracked our steps, past the restaurant where we'd had to get our food boxed up (where we stole 2 forks since they didn't have plasticware #SorryNotSorry), then back the way we'd come until we made it back to the pier and I started randomly approaching boats until someone finally directed me to a boat that would get us to the next island.  🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

Teh German was still pissed, but we sat on the boat and waited for others to come aboard.  I did also manage to talk him into eating his lunch, which I knew would also help the situation.  When we got to the next island, I wasn't feeling it.  I would have rather just sat on the boat by that point.  I was over the whole fucking day.  Teh German said we should carry on though.  Also, it helped that there was only one path in/out of the last island... there would be no crazy canals and mix ups and wrong directions.  I wasn't interested in paying the 5€ for the Basilica tour, so we wandered instead and I found a vineyard/flower garden.

Teh German did admit that if he would have realized that we'd be able to take another boat from the 2nd island, he wouldn't have freaked out so bad and we could have sat and enjoyed our lunch instead of stressing out.  Oh well.

When we got back to Venice, we stopped at the Piazza San Marco to have a Venetian experience (aka, sit and listen to music and people watch while drinking overpriced beverages).  It cost us 6€ to sit and listen to the music + beverages.  If we hadn't been ordering, we wouldn't have been allowed to sit there. 

Have I mentioned yet that Venice is a tourist trap and everythingggggg is overpriced?  Because it is.  Would I recommend Venice to a friend?  Only if they have money to waste.  Because that's what Venice feels like to me.

We did some exploring after being Venetians, unfortunately, in the opposite direction of our hotel.  Teh German started to get tired and cranky and I finally had to point out to him that he hadn't asked me for help solving the problem (he didn't have wifi and was kinda winging it getting us back to the hotel area) and he was taking out his frustration on me and I was not the problem. 

Once I called him out, he explained that he was tired and his feet hurt and he just wanted to sit down, but he wanted to stop near the hotel, not far away.  So I navigated us back towards the hotel, backtracking us through the Piazza San Marco again and then through the upscale tourist shop and finally back to the Rialto Bridge and in the area of our hotel.  When we finally sat down, we were both relieved.

We ordered dinner at the cafe and enjoyed drinks and people/water watching (and for me, people listening to the table behind us) and being stationary.  I explained to Teh German that he didn't need to run himself ragged because we're in a new place.  That it's vacation and he could tell me he's tired at anytime and we'd stop.  For me, I was enjoying taking photos of random things, so I wasn't concerned with how far we were.  He said he also felt kinda bad because he kinda wanted to go back to the room after dinner and relax and I told him that was nothing to feel bad about.  We'd had a full day, full of stress, and decompress time is the purpose of vacation.  Yes, we're in Venice, a new place, but we both agreed that Venice was overpriced and overrated and we'd go back to the overpriced hotel ($200 per night, in case you were interested) and enjoy air conditioning and free wifi and take showers and be lazy.  That IS vacation.

After we got back to the hotel, we showered and scrolled... and I wrote this post so it can go live tomorrow without me feeling obligated to take time to write it.  It's kinda perfect timing anyways.  Tomorrow, we leave Venice and take the train to Rome.  As excited I was to be in Italy, multiply that by 50 and that's how excited I am for Rome.

Unfortunately, all my meticulous planning hasn't worked out as planned.  Our food tour on Saturday was rescheduled to Tuesday and I received an email today that the top tiers of the Colosseum are closed so we won't get our full tour that I paid for.. but we get a 50€ credit anywhere they do tours.... too fucking bad I already paid this company for multiple tours for this trip.. *roll eyes*  ugh.  The credit is good for like 5 years or something ridiculous but still.. WTF, can a girl get a break please?  When I got an email about the Vespa tour later in the day, I almost had a heart attack, thinking it was going to be altered too.. Nope, just a confirmation email.  *SSIIIIIIGGGHH*

So wish me/us luck that we make it to Rome with ZERO problems.  It's a nonstop train ride, so it should be simple enough but we have to get to the train station by water taxi and we're lugging our suitcases behind us.. so I'm sure to have a serious case of swamp ass by the time we get to Rome.  #JesusTakeTheWheel

Weekend Review is not a guarantee on Monday because ROMMMMEEE and general travel and things.. We'll see.  Next week is also wonky since we'll be traveling back to the US and reuniting with the beasts (finnnnaalllyyy) and then heading back to Charleston.  So, standby to standby, Shoremates Gentle Readers.