Charleston Part I: Road Trips and Dance Parties

So, I flew east last Thursday for a crazy adventure. My friend Chris was getting married in Charleston, SC. Despite my near constant monitoring of ticket prices...the already REALLY expensive tickets never went down, but only up. When it was do or die time to buy...I just couldn't afford the $1000 ticket to Charleston. 

BUT. I HAD to go to this wedding. Chris is one of my best friends in the entire world. He's definitely my best male friend. We met in college when Chris was dating my best girl friend and roommate Robin. I've never so immediately clicked with someone the way I did with Chris. I always joke that he's my evil half, because we are so so similar but SO different too. I can look at Chris and immediately know what he's thinking. Within days of meeting, we were finishing each other's sentences or laughing together after only a glance. From the early days of our friendship, we've had this unspoken connection and bond that has kept us close for the last 15 years. 

There's a lot of people that don't understand our friendship. And I'll definitely agree that often when guys and girls are friends...it's because there is some romantic interest at play. But, Chris and I are the exception to this. We genuinely just love and like each other with no ulterior motives. Neither of us is playing the long game with a 15 year plan for romantic conquest. ;) Chris is like my brother...my TWIN brother, which is complicated by the fact that he already HAS a twin. Haha. I joke that Pat is not the real twin, but that I am. Pat and Chris are nothing alike. Anyway, this feels worth saying for me, because our friendship has faced a lot of obstacles in the last 15 years. We are eerily close and no one gets it. Truth be told...we don't speak all that often any more, since it seems to create issues.

ANYWAY. About 5 years ago, Chris met Katie. Katie is wonderful and easy going and fun and a great match for Chris. A year ago they had a baby and this year they decided to make it official. So, price be damned...I would be at my BFF/Evil Twin's wedding...NO MATTER WHAT.

I searched around a bit and my best option was to fly into Charlotte...rent a car...and drive 4 hours by myself to Charleston. It was just too expensive for Preston to go too. :( But, this option was still pretty expensive and sounded sort of terrible. 

So, I had the crazy idea to extend the trip into a long weekend and just fly home to DC (which was MUCH cheaper) and drive the NINE HOURS to Charleston from there. I proposed the idea to my friend Trisha and she was on board! She even said we could use her car!! Instead of a lonely trip from Charlotte, I now had a fun road trip with one of my besties! AND as an added bonus...I made plans to stop and see my friend Robin's new baby! Horray!!

And that's what I did. I arrived in DC at 9pm and had dinner with my dad and Von after they picked me up from the airport. We went to Cheesecake Factory, whose menu was far too big for my tired mind. :P

This happened. Smores Cheesecake. 1500 calories. Oh yeahhh

So did this accident on the way home. It was ALREADY late! 

I arrived home to my mom's to chat with her a bit and love on my cat Houdini before heading to bed. Up early...Trisha picked me up to head south on our road trip. We stopped quickly for snacks and DD coffee...a must!

Stop what your'e doing and find these. They are amazing and excellent for road trips! 

Our trip down was mostly uneventful. We were super lucky with NO traffic and great weather, with the exception of one quick but heavy downpour. Trisha did most of the driving...I was pretty jet lagged, but I did pull my weight some near the end of the trip. The nine hours flew by pretty fast. :)

Into the storm

Nonetheless, we arrived a tad late in Charleston and so hustled to the room to change quickly for pre-wedding happy hour and dinner. 

Our hotel was pretty nice! For some reason the picture came out in a fog. I blame the humidity. Ahhhh sweet humidity. How I missed thee. 

We took to the streets of Charleston to walk the half mile to dinner. I loved everything I saw! Spanish moss draped in trees, porches with fans and swings, tons of flowers/gardens, quaint southern style...Charleston is everything you expect it to be!

Shout out to Downtown Frederick! 

We arrived jusssstt at the tail end of cocktail hour. It was exciting to see Chris and Katie...and many of Chris' friends and family that I've not seen in YEARS. It was a great reunion...with a cute baby, to boot! Chris and Katie have two kids from Katie's previous relationship and they are adorable and precocious. Rylee, especially is like 11 going on 40. She cracks me up. :)

The real Evil Twin ;)

I love these things! 

Dinner was delicious and Chris' mom regaled us all with a fun slideshow. 

Chillin with my homie

After dinner, we walked back with the group to the hotel. Gosh, I miss these warm East Coast nights. Forever and always you need a jacket in chilly California. It was glorious to walk along in the humid air. Many restaurants had dining right on the sidewalk and there was a palpable sense of charm. 

There's kids running up there in this blurry pic :P

A smaller group of us hit up a delightful wine bar just across from the hotel for drinks. We sat on the steamy porch and sipped our drinks. 

Since mostly everyone had started drinking early...no one was really up for a late night. I was pretty tired myself, but wanted to show Trisha a good time since she was doing me such a favor. I rallied and joined Trish, Jaclyn, and Berg in their search for a pickle juice shot. Undecided on that. :P

We walked and walked and walked and walked and found no pickle juice shot. Our best prospect was a bar that offered to do it if we went and bought our own pickle juice at Walgreens. Haha. No. 

No pickle juice, but there was a fan :D

It was pretty dead around town...and was about 1am at this point, but we found a bar playing some music and made our own dance party. It was fun and I think my terrible dancing rubbed off on everyone nearby. 

Dance Party. It was hot.

We headed back to the hotel to find the lobby flooding from a bathroom above with an overflowing tub! After helping the staff place trashcans about...we retired to bed. 

Loving Charleston so far!! 

Not so sure about United

I've flown American Airlines almost exclusively for 5 years. They bought my loyalty with their dang gold status...which I have since lost. (Wahhhhh). See ya later suckas!!

So, I'm flying United...which impressed me with their more comfortable seats and inflight entertainment on my flight from LA--->DC. I've been missing this luxury on American's mostly crappy planes for years. 

However, I can tell you that I am now NOT impressed with a 30 minute delay on a 1030pm flight. AND lack of inflight entertainment (I was pretty settled on watching 'Cinderella')  But even worse?? Being told that there are 20 more people arriving from a flight that just landed to invade our coveted 'no one in the middle seat' situation. Boo hiss. 

Weird side note...the pilot just arrived and I realized no one has been updating us on any of this at all. Total radio silence. I only knew we were delayed by the vague texts I was receiving and the obvious non-departure of the plane. Is the pilot the only person authorized to make silly small talk and announce things over the PA while we sit at the gate?? Pilots need an understudy. 

Luckily, Charleston was amazing and well worth it....which I'll tell all about next time!!

Much Ado About Nothing

Warned ya! Here we go...

This past weekend I stepped on glass. It was totally my own STUPID fault. I blame my barefoot childhood. Sometimes I just forget that I live in a HUGE URBAN city and that I CANNOT just bound out to my car barefoot. Honestly, that glass in my foot is probably the least of my worries when running around in the great outdoors of Los Angeles. Can anyone say parasite?

Right. So, stupid stupid me...who wears slippers CONSTANTLY inside my house...went running out to my car in bare feet (is this one word or two??) and ouch. Did I imagine that? Is there a stinging pain in my heel? Blast. There is. Sit on bed...examine heel. Oh no. That looks like glass. Proceed to get tweezers (I have really good ones too...so this SHOULD have worked) and just break off the tippy top of the glass. DAMMIT. 

I got needle nosed tweezers. Fail. I got a needle and dug around it. OUCH. You know how like EVERY time you touch the glass it HURTS. 

Have I mentioned I'm a HUGE baby? Like, huge. I have zero tolerance for pain. Honestly, I've never experienced REAL pain.

My most painful injuries to date:

1. Once, inexplicably, my left middle finger got stuck straight up for like 2 months. I think this was a work related pipetting injury...sort of the opposite of trigger finger. It was horrible. I could. not. put. it. down. The doctor FORCED it down and I SCREAMED in her office. My finger turned a funny shade of black and blue...and then it kind of, died. It was cool to the touch and a funny gray color. I had x-rays. I had an MRI (fun experience laying in that tube flipping the bird). No one could find any reasonable explanation for this. My doctor suggested exploratory surgery on my 25 year old hand. No, thanks. I spent months in physical therapy...for a finger. Hahaha. But gosh...that worked. It all seemed so stupid...curl up towel with fingers...release towel with fingers...but my finger got better! Hallelujah!
However, it was a terribly painful experience. It's really hard to do ANYTHING with just one hand b/c my left hand was totally useless. I needed help tying my shoes. I was horrible at washing my hair. I got honked at constantly driving around town with my middle finger flying on the steering wheel. Anyway...all better now!

2.The first night of my broken toe in Idaho this year...was not pleasant. Throbbing.

3. I once slammed my own hand using my other hand in a sliding glass door(by mistake, obviously. Or maybe my left hand was planning it all along?). My nail filled with blood and eventually fell off. It smelled like death. I kept it. I was a weird child.

4. I stepped on glass in college. And I REFUSED to do anything about it. Like, refused. I proceeded to spend that entire summer-ENTIRE SUMMER-limping around until one night during a fit of crying my mom broke down and FORCED me to go to the doctor. Welllll as it turns out...apparently the glass had manifested a plantar's wart. Now, I know warts are caused by a virus...but the doctor said it's quite common that you step on something that has the virus on it or that the wound opens you up to the virus. Whichever it was...OUCH. It was really painful and had to be cut out. I had a hole the size of a dime in my foot...down to the bone. I always wanted to have crutches as a child, but I can tell you now...they are the worst! 

5. I once bruised a rib and weeks later... I sneezed in line at the airport and it was the only time in my life I've even come close to fainting. I fell on my bag instead of truly fainting, but I still managed the flight to Bermuda. Luckily, my Nana had some Tylenol 3 (legal in Bermuda!) and it cured what ailed me...sorta. Those things just have to heal.

Annnnnd that's it! Seriously. I'm super lucky. I'll never survive childbirth.

Anyway, back to the drama at hand. 

I started TOTALLY. FREAKING. OUT.

I don't even know why!! It didn't hurt THAT bad, but I needed it out of my foot. AHORA.

I did what any normal and well adjusted 34 year old woman would do and called my Mommy.

I just didn't want to be dealing with glass in my foot...mostly due to my 2 mile a day walk at work and the fact that I'm leaving town this week for a long weekend. After talking to my mom, I decided to go to Urgent Care.

I hobbled out to my car (with shoes on this time!) and drove myself the painful 2 miles trying to push in the clutch without further pushing the glass into my foot. There's a ton of construction, so I had to drive around and around to even get near the Urgent Care. 

I had to park over a block away and hobble down to the building. I get inside and find out that MY INSURANCE DOESN'T COVER URGENT CARE. Oh. my. Gosh. 

So I hobbled back to my car and called my doctor to either a) go there or b) get a referral for urgent care. Welllll my doctor's office is not open on weekends. 

I'm not going to lie-- I started crying in frustration. I cannot even begin to discuss how much I hate insurance companies. I guess my option was to go to the ER and STILL pay the $100 copay and likely wait for 10 hours. Ugh!!

I hobbled back to the Urgent Care to pay $185 out of pocket to have this teeny sliver of glass removed from my foot. Mad face.

After waiting for like 30 mins and doubting my decision and feeling utterly ridiculous to be there at all, the doctor finally came in with a P.A. that he was training. I explained to them what a HUGE baby I was about pain and they were super nice and gentle.

It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I laid on my stomach while he rather gently scraped away at my foot. He was dictating to the P.A. and said, "Now, Lindsey. One of the worst things you can try to do is grab the object, as that will just push it in further." HA! I said, "Now, Lindsey. That's EXACTLY what I did." No one but me found me amusing. :P

I was somewhat vindicated by the fact that the Doctor ALSO could not get the glass out of my foot. Unfortunately, this meant that I had to get a shot to numb it up. 

The convo went something like this:

Dr.: "Ok. I can't get it this way, so I'm going to have to do something you won't like"

Me: "Um. Ok."

Dr.:"I need to go into where the glass went in. It will be painful. I'm going to have to give you a shot right into your heel so that I can better extract the glass without you feeling it."

Me:"Ohh. Ok. That should be fine. I really have no problem with needles or shots"

Dr.: "Yeah, well I'm not going to lie. This is one of the worst places to get a shot. It's really going to hurt."

Me:":("

Why couldn't he have just lied to me?? ANYWAY. Yes it did hurt. Yes I did scream out just a little. But, it wasn't that bad and within 5 minutes, he had it out of my foot. 

Viola!

The little piece of glass was actually bigger than I imagined, so I felt better again about my decision to seek medical assistance. 

All in all...it was quite traumatic, but it goes without saying that I'm a bit dramatic. ;) I rewarded myself by stopping to buy brownies while my foot was still numb enough to walk. 

If anyone read all that...I'm impressed. I'm not even sure why I'm choosing to chronicle this even for myself. I'm headed east today to DC and then a road trip to Charleston, which promises better content for the blog. :P 

Hmmm

So, I haven't written a blog post in over a month. That's bad. Even for me! So, sigggghhh. I've been going through a tough time. It stinks. I don't have much to say about it other than that. And blogging about my weekend just seems insincere or something if I'm leaving so much out. But, I miss blogging. I like it...even if it's just for myself to serve as a journal. I'd have to embarrassingly admit that most of my 'page views' are likely from myself. (shame face emoji). As the year has progressed, I've gone back and reread the corresponding dates from last year to revisit our trip. Fun!

Anyway, I dunno. I don't have much to say. I just wanted to get over the hump of not blogging with a blog post to explain myself to my one reader (hi Julie!). 

Work has been pretty slow lately. 

Things I should be doing with my workday:
1. Finishing up the protocols I started writing many months ago
2. Reading papers on GPCRs 
3. Researching and learning all there is to know about GPCRs
4. Making an inventory of the cells in LN2

Things I AM doing with my workday:
1. Reading blogs
2. Compulsively checking Facebook/Instagram
3. Texting Manda
4. Texting anyone else that will talk to me
5. Reading (more) blogs

I do find that my most favorite blogs are NOT those fancy schmancy ones that try too hard (like this girl in LA that is constantly jumping on the bandwagon of seasonal changes, which happen in most of the country but that do NOT exist here in LA. It confuses me. It's not 'spring' here. It's ALWAYS spring here.) with their white background insta pics and lots of staged photos and generic topics. My favorite blogs are the ones that are about MUNDANE every day life. I'm basically a stalker. (shame face emoji again. Winky emoji?). 

Nehoo...so I'm thinking I might start doing that...more posts/less interesting content. :P You're welcome.

Weekend.

I've gotten into the habit of domestic duties on Friday nights. I'm pretty thrilling. :P I guess this is what happens when you are over 30...tho I can't say I was allll that much more fun at 20. 

So, Friday was quite uneventful. I cleaned. I made these for dinner.

Preston put on 'Gladiator' and I got really sucked into it until I fell asleep. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?! Seriously one of the best movies ever. 

It's such a good feeling on Saturdays to open your eyes and realize that you don't have to go to work and that you can sleep a little bit more. It's a great thing.

I had some tea and read a couple blogs before getting ready for my day. Around 9, Gianna and Joanna arrived followed not long after by Marcy. We walked down towards Venice for a beach clean up. It was a beautiful day and there were TONS of people there. 

Things I learned at the beach clean up:

1. The sewage plant near LAX used to put 'liquid waste' two miles out and 'solid waste' five miles out...and it wasn't all that treated. Now it's treated more and put further out to sea. EW.

2. All these 'nutrients' caused tons of plankton to come to the area of Santa Monica Bay and then die...which sucked oxygen out of the water creating a dead zone where no sea life could live.  It took 10 years of work to see some improvement in this problem. 

3. You greatly increase your chance of getting sick if you swim in close proximity to a pier. Piers often hide drainage pipe and have old sewage systems that leak underneath. EW.

4. Hundreds of sea lion pups are washing ashore dead or dying due to warm water temps and overpopulation. (Preston had actually already told me of this problem. He keeps seeing them.) 

5. You shouldn't swim or get in the water within 3 days of rain, because the bacteria levels are very high due to inland runoff. (I knew this too and Preston just IGNORES it all the time, yet somehow doesn't get sick. ew.)

             The ocean in California is pretty gross and it's sad. :-/

6. Styrofoam is an evil invention. It breaks into millions of tiny pieces that are impossible to pick up. 

7. There's some disconnect between cigarette butts and littering. IT'S LITTERING. Those things are EVERYWHERE. The beach is not your personal ashtray. Show some inkling of thought before just tossing it on the ground. Cigarette butts wash from miles and miles inland out to sea.

After picking up a billion pieces of Styrofoam, an absurd number of cigarette butts (don't worry, we wore gloves), pieces of plastic, streamers, a TAMPON (ew. I used the bucket to scoop it up. We aren't expected to pick up those things), plates, utensils, tissues and other things, we headed back to my place.

Some of our finds (mostly teeny Styrofoam!)

We reapplied sunscreen and hydrated and then jumped in the car to head to the Festival of Books at USC. 

Festival of Books is a big book fair held on the University Park Campus. There were probably a thousand tents, multiple stages, and numerous speakers. 

We love books :D 

The four of us got lunch at a place on campus I've been wanting to try-Seeds. The salads we got were pretty yummy. While we were eating, we chatted with an author who was there to scope out the event. I think we were all impressed with how cool she was. :D

This is her blog. 

We strolled through the tents. Many tents were selling books and others were selling book related items or handing out information. There were more than a few Scientology tents...creepy! Everyone bought a book but me. It's terrible, but I'm a devout Kindle reader. I never thought it would happen to me, but it has. I just LOVE my Kindle!! Even if I have the paperback...I'll buy it on Kindle if the price is reasonable. It's a problem. :P

hehe. I took this.

One of the coolest thing we saw was on the kid's stage. The Museum of Natural History, which is just off campus has pretty convincing dinosaur puppets/robots. It was fun to watch all the kids react to it. AND! The dinosaur had wispy feathers, which is now the latest dinosaur hypothesis by archaeologists. 

DINO SAUR

The day was really warm, so we kept moving in search of water and shade.

:)

I took the girls by the lab to show them where I work. It was especially fun to show Marcy, since we used to work together. :)

From there, we headed home. I said goodbye to everyone and spent some time catching up on "The Amazing Race". I think it would be so fun to go on that show, but I'd probably have a melt down on air. Being tired does not agree with me.

I made this tasty dinner and we decided to check out "Trip" again-the live music place down the street.

We had to pay the $5 cover, which I'm quite able to tell you...was not worth it:P However, the band was much better than it had been last time. These musicians were younger and played their instruments with a lot more skill. The vocals and lyrics were still weird though. The last band was like death metal, so we took off. 

Sunday was pretty boring and not much to talk about. I started the "Outlander" series and finished "The Killing" on netflix. 

That wraps it up for me. :) I hope everyone else had a nice weekend! 

Weekend.

Hellllooo everybody. We just had an EARTHQUAKE!! Ok, it wasn't really all that exciting...Preston was laying (lying? I never get this correct) on the floor (he just does. I don't know the why) and I was sitting next to him on the floor and the windows rattled. That's it. Now, we were both on the floor...and felt nothing from the ground. To be honest, I wasn't even sure it WAS an earthquake until it was confirmed by friends on the great source of knowledge ;) known as Facebook. Such a funny earthquake. Apparently, it was a 3.5 in Baldwin Hills...the SECOND earthquake in this area today. 

I don't even know where Baldwin Hills is...please hold for googling. 

Ohhh it's a fancy name for Crenshaw! I blame Dr. Dre for my biased opinions of anything mentioned in his songs or conversations. Wikipedia says it's an 'affluent' neighborhood with notable residents such as Michael J. Fox. Wellll. 

Baldwin Hills is also home to an oil field...which, brings to mind fracking. Two small earthquakes in nearly as many hours? Hrmm. Fracking? 

But this is Sunday! And this is a weekend post. Before Sunday, there was Friday and then Saturday.

I got out of work a bit early on Friday (woot woot) and celebrated by binge shopping for cheese at Whole Foods. I just needed a snack. I blame Paris. I picked up some of my most favorite and absurdly expensive "Spicy Gouda Dip", but when I got home...it was all wrong. It was just wrong. It wasn't Gouda. It was like, oily. ugh.  I can't even talk about it. We will pretend it didn't happen and continue to buy it at every chance, since it is THE best thing in the World. 

I'm reading another good book-'The Husband's Secret',so I HAD to go read for a bit in the tiny remaining patch of sun at the corner of our neighbor's apartment. It feels sooooo good to be gobbling up books again!! I've always been an avid reader, but sometimes I get in these reading ruts. I've been suffering through the damn 'Dark Tower' series for six months. It was like a chore to read, so these other books are like candy! Despite my struggle with the Dark Tower...I will admit it's in my head. Damn that Stephen King. It's a very love/hate feeling. 

Then I cleaned and listened to Fleetwood Mac-lamenting not to be at their concert happening THAT night in LA. blast. 

I made a GIANT serving of roasted veggies with tempeh for dinner and Preston and I watched the documentary "Lost Angels" about Skidrow in downtown LA. Pretty interesting. Looks like a rough place, but I have to admit that I see a lot of homeless and crazy things just in day to day life here. Then we watched a documentary about the sinking of the Titanic and I got seriously reminiscent about the movie, which I've seen more times than I think is healthy to admit. I'm quite sure I've spent more than AN ENTIRE DAY OF MY LIFE watching that movie.  I now totally want to sit down for 4 hours and watch it again. It's SO good! :P 

Saturday morning was cool and crisp...aka freezing here. Seriously. Preston and I ran around shutting all our windows. After my 30 mins of yoga, I sat outside in the sun reading more of my book. What is this husband's secret?!

                        

More cleaning---this time trying to go through some bags of clothes. It's insane I lived so long on our trip with so little...b/c now I want ALL my clothes and I have a very many. I really need to thin it out. 2/3 of my clothes are in our storage unit in Long Beach. I picked up a couple bags last weekend when we were down there. It's seriously crazy. I have a lot of clothes and I love them all. I'm not even a very fashionable person, but I do like options. :D

ANYWAY...per usual, anytime I go near anything that could have even one dust mite on it...I get sick and sneezy, so I had to go sit outside in the sun and read some more. It really is the only cure. ;)

Then I made these cookies and they are mostly butter and sugar and oh my gosh...they are good. Like, GOOD. Like, you will eat them all and then feel kind of bad about yourself. I used pecans instead of walnuts. I'm trying to use up all this oatmeal I have left over since Preston dropped his fad of eating giant bowls of it every morning. 

In the late afternoon, our friends Jake and Elizabeth came over to check out this live music place near our house. After hanging at our place a bit, we headed down to the bar. Preston was there with a friend for dinner on a blues night a few weeks ago and wanted to check it out again.

We had typical bar food, which was actually really good AND prepared by our bartender on a hot plate type set up at the end of the bar. Pork sliders, two flat bread pizzas, and a turkey burger. Wow. She seriously only had a microwave, a toaster, and a small griddle thing. We HAD to tip her well. 

Soundcheck 1 2 

And then, the band came on. Oh my goodness. haha. I'm laughing just to remember. They were SO bad. I mean, SO bad. After an hour long (and sort of embarrassing) sound check...the band began playing and we all just looked at each other. I think I even mouthed the word 'no' to Preston. Lol! The band was 3 old guys...that would NEVER have been rock stars (like-really really nerdy) and an out of place young drummer. The lead singer was REALLY into it. I think he's lived for this all week. And even though he had on jeans and a button down...he was embracing his inner David Bowie. At least, I think that's who he was trying to sound like. The lyrics just repeated over and over in this strange deep voice while he flailed around making air love to his uncomfortable looking band mates. It was awesome. We only stayed for two songs. It felt wrong to leave after just the first. Preston said the only thing that could have redeemed them after the opening song was if they had played the instrumental from Charlie Brown. hahah! What?!

That is a great song.

We headed back to our place and I went to bed not long after because a) I don't really drink and b) I'm super old. 

Sunday morning...more yoga. More reading. Preston sat in the sun with me when he got home from surfing. I finished the book! It was great. I recommend.

                        

Jake and Elizabeth stopped by to get their car. We chatted with them for a bit in the sunshine. 

Gianna came over for a hike, but we decided for a bike ride instead. I've been in search of this bakery I've heard of called Gjusta. Evidently, it's all the rage down in Venice. Gianna and I grabbed our bikes, which ironically used to belong to she and Gavin, and we headed down to the beach path.

                       

It was treacherous riding today as there were tons of people around. Basically we spent the whole time manuvering around pedestrians lolly gagging in the bike lane. Angry face. We took to the alleys for more space and less walkers (I can't think this word without imagining Rick Grime's gruff voice). Everyone in the alleys was super friendly and smiley. Our people! We made it to Marina Del Rey and turned back and inland to find...GJUSTA.

                     

Talk about an unassuming place. It's so cool that there isn't even a sign out front. I guess it's all just word of mouth? 'We are so incredibly tasty and awesome...we don't even advertise on our OWN building.' ??  I was even MORE intrigued.

                      

                      

We locked up the bikes and strolled in to hang open-mouthed over the display cases. YUM! They had freshly baked bread, dips, sandwiches, pastries, cakes, cookies, salads, coffees and more. Mmmm. The excellent and friendly staff were SO helpful. Gianna got a cucumber ginger (? I think) juice (that was laughably small) and some carrot cake to take home to Gavin. I got TWO baguettes, a totally impulse decision--I was just so excited to see REAL baguettes after so long that I couldn't help myself, and some black olive tapenade. 

                       

Baguettes in my bag

                                

     

Go-ddesses of the Venice Alleyways ;)

From Gjusta, we biked it on home....me feeling ridiculous for buying TWO giant baguettes. Preston was there pregaming Game of Thrones with MORE Game of Thrones and we jumped into the baguettes and tapenade...whereupon it became readily obvious that I had made the absolute correct decision in buying TWO giant baguettes. Oh my gosh...they were good, with like a hint of honey. And the tapenade? Divine!! We ate it ALL and an entire baguette. haha!! 

                                

Gianna, who is like a foodical genius went home and immediately recreated the tapenade. Incredible. She's always dissecting food into its many parts so that she can figure out how to make it. She's so incredibly smart and it's so interesting to witness. She's already posted it on her blog! 

The aftermath

I made this orzo soup for dinner (quite tasty) and we dug into the second baguette. #noshame. Game of Thrones, earthquake, bed. The usual.

Happy Monday!! :)