The One Where Carol Hankel Comes to Town

So I am fortunate enough to have a mom who is able to come visit me for random weekends and I'm also fortunate that this mother of mine enjoys doing fun stuff. This past weekend was full of Fun Times With Carol. She arrived on Friday and we went to Glen Ivy Hot Springs Spa... holy pure bliss. It was amazing. In case you are unfamiliar with the concept of a hot springs spa, just think of a place where your life is basically metaphorical fresh laundry and puppies. Except you get to float around in a pool all afternoon and can use as many towels as you want because there's always a fresh supply. I mean... heaven, right? Oh yeah, and this particular spa is located at the base of these mountains. 

Legit picture I took. Didn't have to Google for this one.

Ridiculously crappy pictures of our wine/frozen drinks... but they were good. Trust.

Don't let this picture fool you - the sun was out and it was glorious.

I noticed when we were changing that my mom and I had gotten matching manicures earlier in the week... obviously not on purpose. So I made her take a picture in the locker room with me. I'm glad she can roll with it and doesn't question my need to take photos of everything.

I mean... identical!

And then after all those tough spa times (lounging takes work, yo!) we met up with Amanda for dinner at Market Broiler, a seafood place, which was delicious. I'm glad I ignored the idiot on Yelp! who went there even though he was allergic to seafood. ... Are you kidding me? Why even write a review of the place, then!? Anyway, Amanda ordered this RIDICULOUS meal called Fisherman's Stew... it required a bib.

Her pile of seafood extras when she was done with it!

I know... it doesn't look like much, but it was tasty.

And then about halfway through our meal, I hear the girl sitting in the booth behind us tell the waiter (who was also our waiter) that her seafood pasta "Has too much fish in it" and asks if he can "take some of it out" ... Again, are you kidding me? You come to a seafood place, you order PASTA, and it still has too much seafood in it for you? Really? I don't even know you, and I hate you. 

And then OBVIOUSLY we had to order 2 desserts for the 3 of us.

When our waiter set them down, I touched his arm and said, "I'm sorry, I think there's too much fish in here. Can you take some of it out?" totally deadpan. And he was trying to hard not to laugh, which is always amusing to me. 

We went shopping on Saturday, which was fun... minus the iPhone saga. I'm going to confess to the internet how much of a dumbass I am, so hang on for the ride. I know, this is totally going against the image you have of me in your brain as someone who totally has it together 100% of the time (ha), but here's what happened. So my birthday present from my parents this year was a new iPhone - HOORAY! I have had an iPhone 4 for a couple years and the home button was starting not to work on it, plus the 5 is just so sleek, so I was very, very excited for this gift. So we go to the Apple store...

You can literally purchase this set for your kids to play with... HA!

And get the phone. I activate the new one, and put my old phone and the box my new phone came into in a plastic Apple store bag. We proceed to Macy's. I'm trying on clothes, come out of the fitting room, find my mom, and realize I have left the Apple bag somewhere. Heart stops beating briefly. Because even though it's my old phone in there, I'm convinced someone will still be able to get on there and get all my stuff off of there and steal my identity and then I'll be living in a cardboard box because I will no longer have a credit score and that's where my mind goes.

So I race around searching for the bag, but it is GONE. Like NSync circa 2001.

After about 20 minutes of looking, I have to concede that somebody has taken the bag. And nobody turned it into a sales counter, so they just took it because it had my phone in there and they wanted it. At least I didn't leave my M&M cookie in there, too... But seriously, I was also pissed because the box for my new phone had the new charger and headphones in there. As someone very wise once said, I hope they needed it more than I did. [asshole] And now I keep thinking "If only I hadn't taken the bag from the Apple store and just put the stuff into my purse! IF ONLY!" But you can't dwell on what could have happened, right? 

The rest of Saturday was fabulous. I bought my first ever dress from Banana Republic! And then it turns out my mom and I just really like to match each other because on Sunday I pull up to get her from her hotel and lo and behold... more matchy matchy times.

I was sad she had to leave on Sunday morning, but I'm going home this weekend for my sister's birthday/Memorial Day, so I'll get to see everyone again on Friday. I am SO EXCITED to give my sister her birthday gift. But I'm assuming she may read this, so you'll all have to wait to see what I ended up getting her. Let's just say it was difficult to find...