weekend at home

as much as i love our house and as hard as i've worked to make it feel like home, hershey will always be home to me.  to us, really, since matt is a born/raised hershey boy, too.  we grew up there, all of our memories are there, and our families (at least our parents) are all still there, too.  it is a quick 1 1/2 hours from our house, so it can easily be a day trip or a nice long weekend.  when i'm in hershey, all feels right in the world.  it's only 1 1/2 hours away, but it feels like it's lifetimes away from the chaos of my job and the busy-ness of the philadelphia area.  it's like going to a different world.

we headed home this weekend to celebrate my and my sister's birthdays.  we are 8 days apart (well, 3 years and 344 days), so we always kind of celebrate together.  at least, as adults we do.  as kids, we always had separate parties.

anyway, a couple of years ago, my mom, sister, and i started doing an annual spa day at the spa at the hotel hershey.  it is always a very nice, relaxing day.  we go in the morning, get one treatment, then spend some time in the hot tub, then have lunch, then lounge around, and then get our second treatment.  our second treatment is almost always a pedicure, because - let's face it - being at a spa and not getting a spa pedicure is just silly.  i usually get a cocoa massage, but a couple of times i've gotten the chocolate fondue wrap, which is pure heaven. this time i stuck with the massage, though, because i really needed someone to work out the knots in my back and shoulders.  i had a male masseuse for, i think, the first time ever.  before he started, he asked me what pressure i wanted.  i told him firm.  but once he started, it was a little too firm, so i told him and he adjusted.  as he was working on my thigh, i got a horrible foot cramp.  he stretched it out for me and it went away.  but it made it hard to relax the rest of the time because i had to keep changing my foot position to prevent it coming back.  towards the end, though, when he was working on my back, i finally relaxed, and almost fell alseep on the table.  i was very sad when it was over and i had to get up and put my robe back on.

anyway, after our massages, we went to sit in the hot tub for a bit and then we headed down for lunch.  they always have a pretty yummy buffet spread (just sandwiches and salads and simple stuff) and a ton of delicious desserts (hello, it's hershey - it's mostly chocolate).  my sister and i also each ordered a birthday cake martini, which was good but strong - i was feeling kind of loopy after it!  after lunch we went back up to the quiet room and just lounged around.  my mom and sister rescheduled their pedicures for earlier so they could get home and get read for our night out, but i held strong (and maybe was a little bratty) that i wanted to lounge around as much as i could and then go to my pedicure.  so they went down about 30 minutes earlier and just had a polish change and then headed home.  i went down and had my full 1-hour pedicure and i absolutely fell asleep in the chair.  it was lovely.  when the technician woke me up, i carefully drove myself home and started getting ready for the evening. 

mom and jeff had gotten us all tickets to the annual hershey symphony gala, so it was a nice dinner and dancing and silent auction.  as i was getting dressed, i told matt to find padfoot because we had to give her her evening dose of medication.  after searching for about 10 minutes, he couldn't find her.  then i started searching for her (makeup half-done, hair wet and in a towel).  after another 10 minutes, i started to panic.  i was convinced she'd somehow gotten out of the house and was lost.  i started to cry.  finally, while i was searching in my mom's bedroom, i heard matt yell that he'd found her.  she'd wedged herself in behind a bookshelf then couldn't figure out how to get out.  eventually she backed her way out (there was no way we'd be able to easily move the furniture to get to her), but it was kind of scary for a few minutes there.  i was totally panicked. 

anyway, i finished getting ready and we all drove over to the hershey lodge.  it was a really fun night out, and it was great to do something different.  we were all dressed up and fancy, and while we couldn't afford anything that was up for auction, it was fun to look at all the stuff.  i desperately tried to convince my mom and jeff that they should bid on the autographed picture of harry, ron, and hermione for me, but they didn't bite (starting bid was $450!).  oh well.  we had a great time, and i'm really glad we decided to go. 

we clean up nice, don't we?

on sunday, matt and i went over to have lunch with his mom and brother, and then we stopped up at my dad's house briefly to pick up the fleece i'd left in his car last weekend.  then we hit the road.  once we got home, padfoot sacked out on my lap for the entire night.  i think she was exhausted from having such a busy and exciting weekend - 2-hour car ride, a new place, new faces, new adventures, getting stuck, and then another 2-hour car ride. 

all in all, it was a great weekend.  i love my family and enjoy every second i get to spend with them.  we'll see them again in 2 weeks for easter, and then probably not again until memorial day!  although i think matt and i will go to baltimore in april for the annual fell's point brew fest with my sister and anthony.  they've been bugging us for years to go and we can never make it.  this year we actually have tickets to see a show at the keswick, but matt said we'll sell our tickets and go down to visit them in baltimore instead.

i hope you had a good weekend, too!