A Cuppa Kim: InstaFriday: Leaving on a Jetplane Edition

So...24 hours ago, my life was calm. Planned. Exciting.

Now it's crazy, hectic, and still exciting.

Because, um, good old IRENE decided to make an appearance in the Atlantic - which makes getting across it a major problem.

Well, a major #whitegirlproblem.

Thankfully, my mom and I worked quickly to make a new plan.

We are leaving for Europe. An entire day earlier.
The fun part, I'm making a quick stop (um, layover) in HOLLAND. THE NETHERLANDS. You know, the land of Dutch people and tulips. Also happens to be the name of the cruise line we are taking.

LEGIT.

I'm totally adding it to my list of countries visited. Sorry suckers!
(Mexico, Canada, Ireland, England, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, and soon to be The Netherlands, Spain, Monaco, Italy, Greece, and Croatia). YEP.

Anyway, the point of my story is - I was supposed to leave SATURDAY. On a plane today. 2pm. You might be reading this after I left.

I was supposed to turn 30 in the air. But, Lord Willing, I will be on solid Spanish Soil when the big three-oh hits!

Anyway, here is my week in advance....

Saturday, adventure day in the city....Blue Bottle in the AM. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in the PM.
Finally got to get artsy with lavender in my super cute Harney and Sons tea tin - inspired by Pinterest.

Cari and Betsy got me the most awesome gift - jumbo teal utensils.
From my Etsy Favorites. They look even more awesome than I hoped.

Biker gang rolled 4 deep this week. A new Chipotle Sunday record.
The Teal Tank made her debut appearance.
And it was a gorgeous day. Win. Win.

Monday night was my birthday celebration with my grandma....
Yes, my birthday isn't til Sunday.
And yes, the celebrations will probably go on for a month straight.
You can all start accepting that now.

Anyway, Grandma knows how to party. Complete with a "centerpiece" party hat weight from the dollar tree.
She instructed me to take it with me on the plane.
Yep, totally worth hauling around the airport for that festive item!

She also gave me a weird "princess" item. No clue what it is.
A veil? A hat? A collar? A dickie?
She didn't know either.

And just so you can understand my (amazing) Grandma I will tell you what she gave me.
Wii sports attachments, a headband set, purple shoes with a green and a red rhinestone on the toe, some carry on "luggage", a thick white sweater vest (for the warm days in Italy), Christmas DVD's, and a necklace/earring/bracelet set. The real winner is the Clinique make up bag - which is actually super cute, and I will totally be using.

Tuesday was my blogiversary - the big winner happened to be local, so I dropped off these goodies to her.

Tuesday night, Betsy, Dave and I hit up the Giant's game.
They didn't win.
I won't tell you my record.
It is BAD.
My last win was in April.
And I have been to at least one game per month.
You can do the math.

BUT - the views are fabulous.
And when the sun sets - the hills look like they are on FIRE.
We have a similar view from my parent's house - and one time I called my mom at work freaking because I thought Oakland was going to burn again.
Turns out it's the sun reflecting in the windows of people's homes on the other side of the hill.
Whoops.

I also had my rally rope(s).
Plural, because the first one was SO stale. I could hardly eat it.
And I was THAT girl and took it back.
Second one. Still about 85% stale.
But I ate it.
And we actually RALLIED!
Not one, but two runs were scored while rallying red rope 2.0.
But then we lost.

So....let's move on.

Wednesday is Hope CommUNITY Groups.
Also it was Jason's birthday.
Mine is on Sunday. But I won't be here.
So of course, they celebrated us both.
I got a cupcake recipe book - WITH a hot dog card (um, AWESOME GIFT from an AWESOME FRIEND - she speaks my language)
And some beautiful pink roses. LOVE THEM.
Sorry to steal all your actual-birthday-thunder with my pseudo-birthday thunder, Jas.

So, today when I found out that we were leaving tomorrow I had to put some hustle in my bustle.
Do you have keys to your friends houses?
Is it weird that I do?
It totally comes in handy in clutch situations...like today.

Anyway...I needed to pick up a few tops I was borrowing from Jess, and let myself in...
Kobi was very welcoming.
But I don't think he wanted me to leave.

Hustled the bustle over to my house, where I was immediately greeted when the elevator doors opened, by my palm tree.

Not in front of my unit.

But in front of the elevator.

They are painting.

Construction Zone remember?

Also, after work, still there. I'm just gonna leave him there, I guess....

We'll see where he is when I get back....

And speaking of getting back - be sure and come back here starting Sunday, I am kicking off my super fabulous While You Were Out series of posts!

I have some really great posts scheduled every day! I got a lot of requests to bring stowaways - which, I didn't want to get thrown in the brig, so I came up with the next best thing.
This little bloggity blog will be taking a trip around the world.
Each day will be a recap of where I was exactly a year ago to the day - as well as some info on where I'll be that day!

Consider it an e-postcard, each day!

It will be fun.
I promise.