I apologize for my absence! What a boring blogger, I know. Life was incredibly crazy there for a while. After Memphis, I was home for only 3 days then flew to Tacoma/Seattle for another show, then to Spokane to visit my soul mate and long lost BFF Jessica, then I flew to Denver for another show, home for 3 days, then to Dallas for a week for the biggest show of the year! Makes me tired just writing about it. I was hating my job there for a little while. The exhaustion of packing and unpacking (I currently have 4 unpacked suitcases in my room), countless time zones, and being on my feet forced to be chipper was wearing on me in a whole new way. It wasn't all bad though. I got to go to Seattle, a city I fell in love with! If it wasn't for my susceptibility to depression in dreary weather, I would move there and I would shop at the Pike Place Market everyday! The best farmer's market I've ever seen. The smells alone were like an orgy for the senses - cakes and pastries, salty nuts, fresh fish, lavendar and perfume oils, honeycomb, incense, roses, chrysanthemums, pumpkins... I could go on forever. Just imagine all of that hitting your nose at one time.
I also got to visit my friend Jessica who lives in Spokane. Instead of flying home in between my Tacoma and Denver shows, I decided to spend 4 days with her and had a blast (as usual). Jess and I met in Barcelona and have been incredible friends ever since. The fact that we've never lived in the same state, much less the same city (except for Barcelona) and I still call her my best friend is amazing to me! She and her two roommates threw an early Halloween party and we got into the festivities with candy, cupcakes, costumes and a colander of heavily spiked punch. I was Madonna and she was a flapper girl and together, we were the hit of the party :)
I was accidentally artsy when i snapped this picture of Jess -so gorgeous!
Madonna and a flapper
Jess and I took her adorable dog on a walk in a beautiful park in Spokane. It was nice to really enjoy a season that Bakersfield doesn't get enough of.
After my 2 weeks on the road in Washington and Colorado, I had a short break before I was off to Dallas for the National Association for the Education of Young Children's Annual Conference. My boss had told me some time ago that this was all on my shoulders and that if the biggest show of the year didn't go off without a hitch, all eyes were on me. No pressure, right? Well, there were some hiccups, but for the most part, I handled our 1,000 square foot booth and 20,000 attendees quite well! We celebrated with dirty martinis and some of the best food I've ever had... oh so swanky!
After Dallas, it was HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS!!! That's what I kept thinking when I was close to nutting up and it pulled me through. I'm home 'til January (except for a short 2 day show in Anaheim) and couldn't be happier about it :)
