The many good things that happened on Friday!

I meant to write this yesterday, but I was too tired. I think it's because I went running on Saturday morning. It's not like a ran a great distance or anything -- I didn't -- but it was so hot, you know? And I ended up taking a nap instead of writing a blog.

Anyway... here are the many good things that happened to me on Friday:

One: I hung out with my long-lost friend Jori! In reality, Jori wasn't actually lost. This whole entire time, she's been a short distance away in Mechanicsburg, but we don't get to see each other as much as we'd like because of kids (hers) and work (mine) and life (both of us).

Jori and I had a fun-filled day of adventuring. First, she took me to Down to Earth Cafe, which was DELICIOUS and super cool on the inside. The furniture was cool, the art was cool, the menu was cool... the drinks were excellent. I highly recommend it!

After that, we went to Glitz Soap Co. Two years ago for my birthday, my friend Erin gave me a bar of soap that smelled exactly as soap should smell. And I could smell it all through my house! Every time I walked by the bathroom, I wanted to take a shower. That's how good the soap smelled. But I can't for the life of me remember which scent she gave me... so Jori took me to the shop and I bought several that may or may not be the scent (but they all smell good).

From there, we went to Wolf's Brewing Co. This place had really good food and really good beer... and the beer is gluten-free! It was delightful. Our waiter was super attentive, as well. Again, I highly recommend that you check it out if you haven't already.

Then, Jori took me to One Good Woman (my friend Annie once gave me a wine glass that says One Good Woman and it's my favorite wine glass; I use it all the time and have always meant to explore the shop) and a macaron shop called Sweet Velvet. I sampled two macarons (peach and cherry cheesecake) and bought a box of six macarons to bring home (two raspberry, two lemon, and two mocha chip). All of them were delicious; I'm giving a raspberry and a lemon to Mary tomorrow when we meet at Bantam Coffee Roasters to do book-related things.

Jori and I had so much fun together that we decided to do it again in Gettysburg when the weather's a bit cooler. Something to look forward to, woot!

Two: I went out to dinner with Kathy and Erin! Because Kathy hadn't yet seen my parents' renovations to their house, we started by walking down the street and having a visit/tour with my mom. We talked about things like fasting (Kathy had just recently completed a three-day fast) and how hot the weather's been. (Kathy and Erin think this weather is great because they're crazy.)

After visiting with my mom, the three of us walked into town to get some food at Garryowen. Matt was our waiter and I adore that guy, so that made for a very enjoyable experience. In addition to that, the IPA that I drank was quite tasty and my salad was perfect! (I got the walnut-and-blue-cheese salad with grilled chicken and whiskey-walnut dressing in case you're wondering.)

Our next stop was a little touristy shop that sold Civil War-themed things. I forget the name of it, but they seriously sell the BEST-smelling candles. The candles have names like "Old Paper" and "Gettysburg," but they smell AMAZING. (One of them smelled like a clean man's armpit, and that's one of my favorite smells.)

(At this point in the evening, we remembered that we needed a picture and so took one with this Union soldier. After the photograph was taken, however, Erin said, "Hold on. He wasn't looking," so we took another one.)

On our way back to my house, we stopped at Reid's Winery (it's owned by the family of our former classmate Maggie) and literally sampled everything on tap. How'd we get away with this, you ask? Well, we each purchased a beverage (mine was called Apple-Grape Cider, I believe, but should be called "Grandpa's Orchard" because it tasted just exactly how my grandpa's orchard used to smell!) and Shannon was working. Who's Shannon? you ask. A former classmate of ours! It was fun to see her and catch up. We then took our drinks outside and watched some music and that was that.

Three: In between visits with friends, I checked my Instagram account and saw that I had received a response to a message I'd sent to a woman named Crysta who is married to Aaron Barrett! For those of you who either don't know or have forgotten, Aaron Barrett is my favorite rockstar of all time as he is the frontman of Reel Big Fish and he once answered 53 questions that I had about life in a band. Because I still use his answers to this day, I wrote him into my (current) favorite book, Kick It One More Time, and wrote to ask Crysta (Aaron doesn't have social media) if I might be able to send a copy to her husband. I ALSO asked if they'd be willing to listen to Like A Flip Turn and because Crysta has recently gotten into audiobooks, she agreed right away and has already redeemed the free copy I sent her! How fun is that?!

Anyway, I'll be putting a copy of Kick It into the mail this week so that Aaron can peruse it when he's done with Like A Flip Turn. Oh! And Crysta followed me back! She seems like such a genuinely kind and sweet person. I think she'd have to be, though, seeing as she's with Aaron Barrett!

So that was Friday.