My "Girl's" Weekend

Sometimes I just need a couple of days away from hubby and home. Not that I don't love them, but I just NEED some space to think and BE. If I can pair that up with girlfriends, shopping and visiting my kids- all the better.

Friday when the alarm clock sounded its obnoxious buzz, I hurried with shower and cosmetics, grabbed a piece of toast and a thermos of coffee and jumped in my car. Driving to Winston-Salem was a rare opportunity to listen to Norah Jones, the sound track from The Big Chill and even a little Micheal Buble, although as I have probably reported in an earlier post, listening to Micheal is a little bittersweet. He reminds me of a couple of lost loves. Oh well, I can now sing along (no one can hear my off-key voice) and I hardly ever think of those guys. Losers! :-)

After a visit to my son and daughter-in-law, I headed to Bleu. Bleu is one of my favorite Winston restaurants. Even a simple but good salad is better with the little square bites of bread they serve with cinnamon butter.

On to Macys for a little shopping. Got lucky with a good fitting pair of summer crop pants. On to Home Goods (note cards) then to World Market for Chinese oil and sesame salad dressing and polenta. Killing time now- stopped at Barnes and Noble to look at books and enjoy a cup of coffee.

I drove to Asheboro to meet my friend, Helen after her work day. She is a wonderful cook and prepared a "delish" meal of sauteed tilapia and spinach with onions and garlic. Dessert was so simple but tasty and only 1 or 2 points on the Weight Watchers plan.

Helen's Crustless Apple Pie:

Cut up an apple (for one serving) in small pieces, add 15 red hot candies and microwave a few minutes. Stir and microwave until apples are soft- only a few more minutes. Cool and add whipped cream. We used the kind in the can and believe it or not- there are zero points (on Weight Watchers) in 2 T. of whipped cream! What a deal. Does that mean you can squirt a whole bunch of it in your mouth for zero points? Hum? Somehow I doubt it.

We went on a little errand to pick up wine Helen had ordered at the local wine shop and had a glass while there. It is a friendly sort of neighborhood gathering place. On the way to the car, we heard music and found a troupe of Mexican dancers in costume rehearsing for a performance. We got a free show! What fun.

The next day we drove to Charlotte to meet a friend (actually she was our boss from nearly 20 years ago.) We all worked at a wonderful store in Greensboro called "Pot Pourrii Press The Company Store." I was the floral designer, Helen was office manager and Susan the president of the company. We had not been all together for all those years.

We were to meet her at IKEA in Charlotte but first we had to get there. It was raining, there was construction and hundreds of cars were going to the Charlotte Speedway to a special welcome home for American Vets. As we slowed to a crawl through miles of road construction, we were thrilled to see hundreds of veterans on motorcycles (going the other direction) with American flags waving and escorted by flashing police lights. There were miles of motorcyclists. It was something to see.

The drizzle let up and we past the construction arriving at IKEA only 10 minutes late. Met up with Susan, grabbed a shopping cart and walked, and walked and walked some more. IKEA is huge. It also has everything anyone would ever want to decorate a house, apartment, beach house or dorm room. It is amazing.

The cafe at IKEA is great too. I had panini with mozzarella cheese and roasted  red pepper. Susan had a Caesar salad and Helen tried the smoked salmon and potato/broccoli/cheese cakes. So good. They serve good ol' Swedish meatballs by the way.

Very nice weekend with lots of fun people. I am so blessed to have great friends and family. I also love my little mini-vacations. And it is so nice to come home again to home and hubby.