Last week was one of the busiest weeks that Luis and I have had in a long time.  Actually, I take that back- we ALWAYS have busy weeks in terms of amount of work and amount of time out of the house, but last week was busy not only in terms of workload, but also emotionally and mentally draining for both of us.  As you all know, we are working to make Bruja’s Bakery into a real business, but doing so takes a huge amount of time, energy, thought, research, and… maybe on my part – emotion and analyzing.  By the end of the week, we were absolutely spent and were looking forward to relaxing and recharging, but this weekend ended up being one of the busiest we’ve had in awhile.  All fun stuff, but here we are Monday morning and I think I could use another weekend, like, tomorrow.

The good news is that our weekend in Madrid was really FUN, so I can’t complain, can I?  

FRIDAY

Friday was exciting because we had a meeting about Bruja’s Bakery that went well, but you never know how things will really go with things like this.  I can’t say much, but I will soon!  After the meeting, we raced home and then headed back out the door to a going away party for Luis’ friend and his girlfriend who are moving to DUBLIN!  They’ve never been out of the country, but are taking a leap of faith and I think it’s awesome.  Now or never, right?  There was tons of food and we had fun talking to his friends and family that were there… it made me with (even more) that I had family here!

SATURDAY

I was up bright and early (ok, 8 am) on Saturday because I had a Bruja’s Bakery catering job!  A customer (who has been wonderful over the last few months) had her baby shower on Saturday and asked if I could cater part of it!

Since it was going to be a good mix of Spaniards and Americans, they did a mix of traditional Spanish sandwiches, and also ordered mini bagels, 2 healthy cakes (the chocolate raw cake and the healthy cookie cake), as well as two orders of chocolate chip cookies.  The good thing about all of this is that most of the prep happens the day before and Saturday was all about orchestrating the oven and when everything should go in so that it has time to cool.

Luis (my delivery boy) took everything to be delivered while I went for a run – phoneless, musicless, and just with my own head.  It was so nice to get out, breath, think, and not be connected to any device.  I ran for about 30 minutes before hopping in the shower to quickly get ready for a big birthday lunch for one of Luis’ university friends!

Actually, two of them were celebrating.  They both turned 30 in the last couple of weeks, so they planned a big day and it was so much fun!

It started with lunch in Navacerrada at a restaurant called Restaurante Jardín Terraza Felipe where we had lots and lots of food and quite a few bottles of wine…

And we sang a big happy birthday (or…Cupleaños feliz) to them after they opened gifts.

From there, we went to another nearby bar for some gin tonics while the rain poured down around us and it was absolutely perfect.  No one was in any rush to be anywhere and my buzz-turning-drunk was quite fun 😉  Just when I thought it was over, we headed back to Madrid (no, the drivers were not drinking) to continue a little closer to home.  I had a half a beer, but by 11:00 I was fading fast and was more than ready to be asleep by 11:30, which is exactly what I did!  I love that Spaniards just go and go and go and when I tell people on my tours that it’s common for Spaniards to have lunch, then have a drink together, then go get tapas, then maybe have dinner.  The day never ends and I love it!  It was a lot of fun.

SUNDAY

Sunday morning was the one day I got to sleep in a little, but after all of the alcohol mixing, I woke up a lot during the night and felt tired on Sunday morning, but nothing a good coffee couldn’t fix.  While Luis went to go see his grandfather, I cleaned the apartment, which somehow accumulates an entire head’s worth of hair over the course of a week.  The place was gross, but I am happy to say it’s now sparkling clean.  I had time to clean, make a couple rounds of bagels AND go for a run and do Nike Training Club.  Luis came to pick me up around 2:30 and we headed to lunch with his family to celebrate his Dad’s birthday at one of the prettiest restaurants I have been to in Madrid.

The food is good, but I love the brightness of the terrace.  We always eat a lot (way too much) with his family, so we took a nice stroll afterwards and I got to chat with my own Dad, which I love doing (hi Dad).  He called ME, which was really nice (and also always scares me half to death…. anyone else think “who died?” when they get a phonecall?)

The rest of the evening was spent prepping a few things for this week, working on the Bruja’s Bakery business plan, Luis doing a ton of research about machinery, and a healthy dose of Netflix.  We are watching Unbelievable and I am completely engrossed.  

That brings us to Monday!  I am planning to head to the market for some produce, then I have lots of bagels to make and later today, a meeting!