Have so much fun!! We were in Ireland almost a couple years ago. There was this fabulous old library near St. Pat’s that was pretty cool to see. I’ll try to find the name. We also went to this super cool museum that ancient writings and drawings. A lot of stuff from Asia and also extremely early bibles. Even if you aren’t religious, it’s pretty cool to see all these old works.

I haven’t been to London.

We’ll be in Italy next month. We’re taking my niece. It’s her high school grad present. We’ll be in Rome, Florence, Sorrento (Pompeii, Capri and Positano), and Bari. Will happily take any suggestions too!!

I’ll be in Dublin for two days leading up to and one day after the Waterford leg of our trip. (The wedding is in Waterford.) I’ll be with at least one girl friend for most of this time and learned that three of my cousins will be in Ireland at the same time. The end of their trip coincides with the start of mine, so I’ve asked them to make Dublin their last stop. Truthfully, Ireland has never been the most appealing destination to me (to my bf, these are fighting words) and I know I’ll have company. So while I’m hoping to do cool stuff and collecting recommendations, I’m happy to go with the flow.

London, I’m very excited to meet my friend’s babies. We met in middle school, she was the only other girl in my grade at a tiny international school, and I involuntarily cry every. single. time. we’re together, so I’m already expecting major waterworks to meet her tiny human creations. But I’m not sure how available she’ll be, so want to make sure I have plenty of ideas to fill my time.

@ktfran I went to Italy a few times when I was in high school, but not since. I’d LOVE to go back. I don’t have any suggestions, but there’s a woman I follow on TikTok (@KacieRose4) who went on a solo trip to Italy, met a guy, and now lives in Florence with him. She gives a lot of tips and recommendations about traveling in Italy… she is how I know about wine windows, where you ring a bell and get served a glass of wine through a tiny window.

Thanks! That library looks really cool! The bf LOVES Ireland and is disappointed he can’t come. I knew I wanted to hang out for a few extra days in the UK after the wedding and was debating how to spend it knowing I’d likely be doing it solo. I thought about driving around the country — there are some towns I think I’d like! — but I know he’ll want to do that together at some point, so opted for London instead. I’ve been curious about solo travel, so we’ll see how I like a few days mostly solo there.

New hair tool alert 🚨

Dyson just came out with this Airstrait tool, which I bought because I’m crazy. It looks like a straightener, but it is *drying and straightening your hair with air*, not with hot plates, not with bristles, just, you clamp it down and it dries your hair perfectly straight with a powerful blade of freakin air, which isn’t even that hot. I can’t imagine it would cause damage.

I suck with a straightener, but I did my hair this morning and it indeed came out perfectly straight and shiny, a much better result than I get from the Revlon brush or the Airwrap smoothing brush. That said, it will ONLY straighten, you can’t curl or wave with it.

Manes By Mel on YouTube has a video using it on curly hair, and Milabu has one for straighter / wavy hair.

It probably took me 40 minutes but I can do it faster next time now that I have the hang of it. Someone with straighter hair could work a lot faster.

It also leaves some volume, like a straight blow dry rather than a flat-ironed look. Absolutely zero frizz. I can’t get that with the brushes because they’re blowing my hair around somewhat.

This thing is not a must-have, but it’s worth it for people who want a very easy way to get dry, straight hair and would struggle to get that from a blow dryer and hot tool.

Ok now the head of Segment Marketing just told me my hair is on point and she loves it.