@Copa – it doesn’t have to be crazy Eat Pray Love travel. You can go do a weekend solo trip. Either to visit a friend or just go someplace you’ve never been. Like Louisville or Milwaukee – you can’t stay longer than 2 days, there isn’t enough to do or see.

Pre-Pandemic I travelled alone a bit. In the US I always research to find the used bookstores. In larger cities, there are usually funky shops and independent coffee houses nearby. In smaller cities though, they can be pretty out of the way.

I used to visit friends in other cities a bit, but COVID and life circumstance changes (marriages and babies) happened, so it’s been a few years since I’ve done that!

This is totally different but we have a work conference next week/weekend and I’ll be staying at a hotel downtown in my own city for a few days. In past years, the conference has included a formal sit down dinner but the format has changed this year, the dinner is now a formal reception instead, so I’m waiting to hear if I am supposed to attend. If not, I am thoroughly looking forward to a solo evening in a hotel room. The hotel we’re staying at has a spa that accepts a gift card I was gifted for my birthday and I might spend that evening treating myself instead!

Prague and Dubrovnik sound like a wonderful honeymoon destination. How is married life/cohabitation treating you?

Still TBD on the spa night. My company is the one putting on the conference. We do them twice/year, once in June and once in December. This one has a different format from pre-COVID and has so far been a bit more all-hands-on-deck. Even though a couple of my coworkers who are here from our main office brought their families and have some of their own personal plans sprinkled in throughout the weekend, including this evening, I still worry about the optics of disappearing to the spa when at an event where I’m technically at work, not a guest.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year. It was very small, but I made my first turkey and it turned out perfectly.

Ended up opting out of the spa idea when I saw the prices. My gift card would’ve covered maybe half and it didn’t feel worth it since I know they’re cheaper at other places closer to home. Currently stuck at our office for our final day of meetings and cannot wait to go home. This isn’t reaalllly part of my job, we’re just understaffed in the department that normally handles these things. These events are exhausting.

I followed this turkey recipe: https://downshiftology.com/recipes/thanksgiving-turkey-recipe/

Glad you were able to get a train out of town, KT!

And I hope that Robert, wherever he is, is enjoying some Christmas lights.

The update nobody asked for: I got a tiny bit of Botox and under eye filler this morning. Very quick, virtually painless. I can already tell a difference in my under eye area (and am really pleased with what I see so far), but sounds like both treatments take about a week for the full results. My dermatologist and her staff were great. I go back in two weeks so she can see how everything settled.