This weekend was a really great one! I worked a lot, but I also did a lot of fun things that made it feel like balance. That feels like everyones word of the year…the elusive balance. Here are some pretty cakes that have nothing to do with this post, but they are pretty and I took pictures of them.

Luis went skiing with friends this weekend so I filled up my schedule with lots of fun things! The time flashed by and it’s already Monday night. I am drinking some wine and am showered and in pajamas and waiting for Luis to get back from his trip.

Backing up to Thursday night – I went to Rebel Café with my friend Jess and we had some delicious cake and equally delicious conversation. I ordered chocolate coffee cake and paid over 6€ for that baby and ate the entire thing. It was scrumptious – I will need to go back.

Friday was a little bit stressful to be honest. One of our employees at Café 18 was sick and couldn’t stay at work, so I had to rush in and (wo)man the bar, while we had a brand new person working in the kitchen. It was like the blind leading the blind (since I never work behind the bar there and the guy in the kitchen didn’t know where anything was), but it worked out and we survived. I felt like I was running around the whole day and was just trying to keep up, and while most everyone was nice about the longer-than-usual wait for their coffee as I tried to get everything done as fast as possible, there were some people that rolled their eyes or seemed frustrated by the slowness, so that was hard, BUT we survived.

Anyway, I went to the shop from there and then met Jess again for dinner. We went to Frankie’s Burgers, which just opened down the street from the shop and they did a huge, impressing new renovation! The place was packed and we went early. They are frequent customers of ours, so I was really happy to see the success they were having!

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but burgers (especially smash burgers, which these were not) are really booming in Madrid. Burger places seem to be opening left and right, and they all seem to be doing well.

I was wiped after that, so we walked home together and I showered and was in bed by 10:30. I slept like a rock and woke up feeling more refreshed than I have in a long time. I worked for about 30 minutes on the computer (ordered spices – we get our onion for the onion bagels shipped from an online company and also paid for our turkey bacon) and then went into the shop to help for the day, where I ran around all day. It was a good day, but felt out of control due to new employees etc. It’s hard not to get frustrated when I feel like we aren’t giving every single person 100% of us, but we do our best.

I stayed at work until 7:30 and then raced home (in a taxi, I treated myself!) and went straight to Aldi where I randomly threw snacks in my cart for PAINT night! Here is your (and my) reminder that you don’t need to do it ALL to host. Buy chips, buy canned olives, and packaged guacamole and salsa and lots of cheese and bread and wine and turn on good music and you have yourself a night. Ain’t nobody cares if its homemade.

It’s something I have wanted to do for a long time and with a wide open weekend, I was excited to invite my friends over for a girls night. Junk food snacks, supermarket pizza, nachos with cheese, and a homemade quiche…plus lots of wine and delicious cake. We had so much fun chatting, then painting, then chatting more. We stayed up past 2am!!

Luckily I didn’t have to go to work until 11am, so slept in until 10:20 and got myself dressed before heading to work. Again in a taxi… 🙂 Work was really great – it was a day that felt very much under control, everyone was happy, mistakes were minimal, and everything flowed. I left around 6pm completely wiped so headed home for a burning hot shower, pajamas, and the entire Alex Murdaugh series all in one sitting. It was great.

Now it’s Monday and all is well in my world. I ate a yummy salad at work and watched our problematic bathroom get fixed. Hope all hope is well in yours, too.

Only on this blog do you see a picture of a bathroom floor followed by a picture of a pretty salad. You’re welcome! 🙂