So.tantalizingly.close

I have one-and-a-half more workdays until I will be free as a bird, skipping away into the sunset (erm, not quite, more like spending 10 hours in the car!) and en route to the Lake.  This week has been pretty rough, with lots of fires to put out and projects to finish up on at work before I leave for vacation.  Our website launch for the coming year will happen while I am gone, so I had to get all of my updates done in the system before leaving, which has been quite the time-consuming project.  I think I am in a good place now, though, before I leave for a little over a week.  I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel, though, and the Lake is the one place where I can truly disconnect and relax, so it's not like we have another European walk-ten-miles-a-day adventure planned (which, however wonderful, was not relaxing in the least!).

I have been completely packed since Monday evening (see? I wasn't lying about being over-the-top excited!!).  My poor little Vera Bradley duffel is bursting at the seams, because I was read the riot act by my mom and was told that I was only allowed one suitcase and my backpack, due to the fact that we have a substantially smaller car now (I am beginning to think that our little Tiguan, which, given the height of everyone in my family, looks more like a clown car, was a bad idea).  Last night, Dan brought my bag over to his place in his car so that I wouldn't have to carry it on the Metro today (smart thinking, me! And I am so appreciative of him taking the bag with him when he left my apartment and lugging it up to his apartment) and remarked that the bag is so full that it is actually solid (really, you can't push any part of it in!).  We all know that packing is not one of my best skills (although I will never forget my triumphant packing victory when we went to Europe, when my suitcase was the second-lightest). 

Tonight, we have dinner planned at my parents' place with my parents, Dan and myself, Tim (who is home from New York!) and my cousin who is here for the summer, which should be nice.  I also get to pick up my new running shoes today (!!!!!!!!!!!!) which finally arrived!  I have had my current ones since December, and I have recently begun to feel the fact that I have far exceeded the 300-500 miles maximum that they tell you to put on each pair.  I'm excited to break these new ones in before our race!

In any event, I will be disconnecting from the blog while I am there, but you can bet that I will have a full recap of our vacation when I return!  I hope you all have a wonderful remainder of your week/weekend!