Life around these parts has been total madness.

Total. Madness.

Grab a warm drink and come in to see what’s been happening.

This post really should be titled…life for the last few months up until Thanksgiving. That’s another post.

This post should really be titled “me on multiple road trips” and staying in new places every night.

My schedule was as follows:

Thursday – Drive to DC
Friday – Drive home
Saturday – Drive to Buffalo
Sunday – Drive home
Monday – Drive to Philly
Tuesday – Drive home
Wednesday – Drive to Buffalo
Thursday – Drive home
Home for a few days
Saturday – Drive to Buffalo
Sunday – Drive home
Home for a few days
Friday – Drive to work location 6 hours away
Saturday – Drive home

Plus – Thanksgiving is just a few days away. And you know that means we’re on the road. Again.

I’m fairly confident that the barista at the Starbucks 2 hours from my house knows me fairly well now. I also know which gas stations have clean bathrooms. That’s a win.

I paid extra for a room with a view of the Capitol.

If you aren’t sure – that is not the Capitol. Insert me rolling my eyes when I opened the curtains.

But this glass of malbec makes me less mad about it. lol

My training seemed like it was going to be boring, but it actually turned out to be okay. There have been some good changes in the last year and I was glad I went.

I had kind of hoped that I would be able to sit in the back and check my email throughout the day. Well, there was only 1 other person in my class. So I was in the front row whether I liked it or not. It turned out okay because the class was actually really good.

The first part of my drive home wasn’t so bad when I got to look at all the monuments and sights in DC.

My sweet grandfather turned 94 and we were happy to be with him to celebrate.

Having just lost my other grandfather, I am so aware how blessed I am to still have this guy to hang out with. He’s hilarious and one of the most amazing 94 year olds I have ever met.

Seriously.

He drives. He lives alone. He has a 1/2 acre garden that he tends to alone. Last season he canned 94 quarts of tomatoes. By himself.

He’s amazing.

I insist on taking selfies with him when I see him. He rolls his eyes at me and then complies. Much like the rest of the people in my life.

It blows his mind that phones can take pictures. He’ll regularly say to me, “if your phone can take pictures, maybe my television can make me a piece of toast.”

I stayed at one of the fanciest hotels ever in Philadelphia.

If you have a chance, stay at The Logan.

My room was giant and the bed was pretty comfy.

I also was that American in the bathroom and was like, whoa, a bidet. And then I freaked out because the regular toilet also had 2 different flush buttons and I was all like, am I going to get wet here? It flushed normally. 🙂

I managed to get a really yummy cappucino at La Columbe.

When your boss wants to run up the stairs like Rocky at the Philadelphia Art Museum and you have heels on, you take a million selfies and embarrass him! 🙂

Despite it being a sad event, this was the first time the 8 of us cousins have been together in over 7 years.

They’re all so incredibly successful and awesome. It was great to be able to hang out with all of them.

We did go-kart team building at work.

It was a really fun afternoon and nice to be able to do something outside of work together.

The Hubster even finished in 3rd place! 🙂

Me you ask? I finished in 19th place. Out of 19.

Whoops.

Go-kart driving isn’t one of my best skills.

I had a lot of fun though. hehe

We got invited to a Pengins game. And while it wasn’t as good as a Sabres game, we still had fun.

Mostly because a dessert cart came around and we got to pick out what we wanted.

No for real.

A dessert cart.

I need a dessert cart to come by my office every afternoon.

I selected a chocolate mousse and the Hubster got a mini apple pie.

They were as delicious as they look in this picture.

Now I want a visit from the dessert cart. 🙂

This guy is the best and humors me all the time.

Because we were totally in the parking garage trying to get home and he agreed to stop for a selfie.

If that’s not true love, I don’t know what is. 😉

One of our co-workers turned 70, so I ordered 70 balloons and tied them to his chair for the morning meeting.

The Hubster was trying to recreate the scene from Up but I think he needed more than 70 to do it! 🙂

Can you believe that the lobby of my hotel on one of my other trips looks this adorable?!? I need to figure out how to recreate this for my yard.

Or my front porch. But maybe a bit smaller.

So cute!

The Hubster and I took a (rare) work trip together and we were able to squeeze in a visit with my aunt and uncle. It was so nice to see them and catch up.

On the way home, we made sure to start our trip out right – peppermint hot chocolate for me! 🙂

We went to a Whiskey Smash and tasted a lot of the products.

It was so much fun and we learned a lot about the Whiskey Rebellion. It was pretty interesting.

Phew – now we’re caught up until Thanksgiving! 🙂