7 QT 55: Introvert weekends, Hallmark movies, and free coffee
It's Friday (Friday, gotta get down on Friday)! This week has flown by, and it was chock full of beautiful community, fun, and relaxing. Before we start the weekend, here's a quick look at the adventures that went down in the Langr house this week!
1. My don't plan a dang thing weekend
Last weekend, Joseph was out at the lake for a bachelor party. When I have a free weekend to myself, I tend to stuff it with coffee dates, errands, and to-do lists. Last weekend though, I blocked out the entire weekend and wrote reminders to myself in our Google calendar to not plan a dang thing.
Well, actually I used the other "d" word. I don't usually cuss, but when I do, it's at myself in a calendar reminder to take some time for self-care.
I spent the weekend reading, seeing family, drinking coffee, visiting my favorite stores, and writing. It was glorious!
2. Pay attention to me, I want to buy your coffee
Saturday I went home to spend time with my family while Joseph was at the lake. My mom and I went out for coffee to celebrate her birthday a few days late and we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts. My mom got her free birthday drink, but the barista didn't come back to take my order after giving my mom her coffee.
So I stood there at the counter staring at the menu for a solid 6 minutes, trying to be obviously waiting to order. One of the other baristas got the hint eventually and came out from the kitchen. I ordered my regular (medium iced coffee with the vanilla flavor swirl, cream, and no sugar if you're looking for a winner of a drink), and he promptly gave me a large instead of a medium, and didn't charge me at all because of my wait.
Okay, so I'll gladly exchange 6 minutes of menu-staring for a free coffee.
3. Hallmark movies: Corny, predictable as heck, still entertaining
During my introvert-recharge weekend, I got my fill of cheesy Hallmark-type romantic comedies - like this one which is about a woman who runs a cupcake bakery and meets the wrong guy on a blind date because she forgot about daylight savings time. Yep, you called it, they fall in love and she wins the cupcake contest because of a cupcake inspired by him. How'd you guess?
I love how comfortingly predictable Hallmark movies are though. Their Christmas special? Probably about a woman named "Holly" who returns home for Christmas after a stressful quarter at her law firm and falls in love with the kid she ignored in high school who now runs a Christmas tree farm.
I mean, life is crazy and unpredictable. There's nothing like a good night of Hallmark movies sometimes to bring some stability into your life.
4. I scream, you scream, we all scream for . . . free pizza
Joseph and I met my family at the minor league baseball stadium in Kansas City Monday night for our first ball game of the season.
Little league baseball games are so fun - they had games on the field for fans at the end of every inning. They give away free tickets to people in certain seats, and they also give away free food. When they announced that they would give the loudest fan a free large pizza, our section went crazy. Here's an accurate representation:
The pizza was delicious.
5. The fly porter
For some unknown reason (okay, it was probably the trash that I should have taken out Monday but didn't get to 'til Wednesday), there have been a couple of persistent flies buzzing around our house this week.
Unfortunately, we don't have a fly-swatter in our house (forgot to put it on the wedding registry, I guess), so I've had to resort to swinging wildly around the home office, armed with a rolled up magazine. For the life of me today, I couldn't get near the biggest fly I've ever seen that loved to buzz right by my head while I was typing away. Frustrated, I stood up and opened our basement door a little bit - and the fly flew right out.
I've now decided to call myself the fly porter and play doorman to all of those annoying little bugs. We'll see how that goes. Maybe I should just run down to Walmart and buy a fly swatter.
6. One does not simply write a book
After signing a book contract last week, I've started the prep work for the writing process. A portion of the book is already written, but there's still a lot to be done before the final draft deadline in December. As in, this December, just five months away. No pressure.
So far I've written out a lot of brainstorming ideas, listened to a lot of podcasts, and read blogs and books to gather resources. But I haven't started writing the actual text of the book - I think it's because the reality of the project is still setting in. However, I did do a deep clean of my writing desk - which looks beautiful. I'm still trying to figure out if I cleaned it to clear the way for inspiration, or to procrastinate. I'm leaning towards procrastination, but hey, the desk is clean.
7. Ihop(b)
We're meeting a friend of ours for breakfast tomorrow morning. Our meeting place is IHOP, which I haven't been to since their whole name-change spoof. So I'm planning on spending time waffling back and forth between pancakes or a burger for Saturday breakfast. Get it, waffling? Because they serve. . . .never mind.
Have a great weekend!