Just Lauren

Last weekend, Shari and I went down to my parents’ house to hang out and celebrate all the birthdays in June: my dad, Kevin, AND Ollie. Plus, it was Father’s Day weekend. This was the first time Shari had spent extensive time with my family and she did great! My family and I can be (and generally are) fairly loud, and we talk a lot, which is not her family’s normal go to, but she went with the flow and held her own. Friday evening we went out to Mod Pizza for dinner. My parents took me here the previous time I visited so I knew I would like it. Mod Pizza does such a decent job with their vegan pizza. Decent isn’t even the right word, they do a fantastic job. So much so that I had to have both my parents try a bite of my pizza that first time I went because I thought for sure they had accidentally put real cheese on my pizza. Thankfully my parents are both experts on what real cheese tastes like (while I’m not anymore) so they reassured me that in no way was my pizza made with cheese. What can I say, the pizza tasted so good that I felt suspicious that something this good couldn’t be vegan, cause, let’s be honest, vegan cheese is not nearly as good as real cheese. Mod Pizza hands down has the best vegan pizza I’ve had at a restaurant before. They somehow got vegan cheese to melt and get all gooey and stringy like real cheese. I couldn’t believe it. Kudos to them!

So we had dinner there on Friday and on Saturday morning, after eating homemade breakfast burritos (thanks, Mom!), we met up with Kaitlin and the family at a nearby park so we could play croquet. The kids played on the playground and rode their bikes up and down the tiny hill next to us as the adults did our best to hit those croquet balls around the grass. I think we all did fairly well. I got dead last but I still enjoyed playing and would do it again.

Saturday afternoon we played a handful of board games and later that evening we had a bbq. Sunday morning we all met up again at IHop for lunch and then Shari and I headed back home. It was a full and pleasant weekend. And now another weekend is just a day away.

Yesterday my manager treated me to breakfast for a connection meeting. It’s a “meeting” we have once a year in my team where the managers have a meal with their direct reports to get to know them better and to discuss anything the employee wants. I so enjoyed getting to see her in person and having my company pay for some pancakes. Then, this morning I went into the office for a department meeting. Only three other people from my department came in but it was wonderful to see those three people. I hope we have more in person meetings as the months go on because it’s such a treat to see people in person.

Now, I’m currently dog sitting a friend’s two dogs this evening through Sunday morning. I haven’t been around dogs this long since early college. I’ll be attempting to take them on a walk here shortly and I’m sure we’ll all get along just fine. I’ll have to snap some pictures of them at some point to share, they’re both cuties, but right now they’re sleeping and I don’t want to disturb them. I already gave them treats in hopes of winning over their trust. Hopefully a walk will solidify their feelings. It’s so strange watching someone else’s pets. I’ve watched over Kora before, but I knew her before then and I never stayed the night. New experiences, right? A chance to learn more about myself and the world and to love on some sweet dogs. Here’s to a pleasant next few days.