The Friday Five, 10/14/22: 5 things I've been up to this week

I'm breaking one of my own rules this week and will be writing about things that happened Wednesday to Friday last week, in addition to Friday to Friday (today), because I didn't get to write about them at the time. This week went by surprisingly quickly and I'm looking forward to a low-key weekend for once.

Riverview Plantation, Camilla, GA
Mist on the water at Riverview Plantation, Camilla, GA

What I've been up to this week:
  1. National Peanut Board trip for work. Technically this was Wed. (10/5) to Fri. (10/7) of last week, and I had a fabulous time. It was in Camilla, GA, so they actually had us fly into TLH (Tallahassee) ... I flew from Detroit to Atlanta to TLH, and then we took a shuttle for about a 1 hour and 15 minute drive to Riverview Plantation, our home base, which was also super nice. I shared a lodge with two other ladies (although we had about 15-20 people total on the trip, all housed in different lodges) and learned a lot about peanuts and the peanut industry. 
  2. Indianapolis area for a wedding. On Friday, I flew from one trip to another; TLH to ATL to IND (Indianapolis) this time, as one of my boyfriend's friends was getting married in Columbus, IN (about 1h20m from Indy) on Saturday. We stayed with my boyfriend's sister on Friday night, and we went to the Mass Ave. area-ish of Indianapolis, including The Garage for lunch (a food hall) and BODHI afterwards for cocktails, which one of my coworkers had recommended. On Saturday night, my boyfriend and I had a hotel closer to the wedding, using some of my Hilton points at Hampton Inn. The wedding itself was really nice—it was completely outdoors, though there was a tent too, and very unique. On Sunday, we drove back to the Metro Detroit area, which normally is about 5 hours, but we stopped to get lunch at Culver's and dinner at Noodles ... fun fact, Indianapolis has TWO Giordano's and one or two Lou Malnati's, some of my favorite Chicago-style pizza, but I didn't want to risk that with a 5-hour drive home, since I have Crohn's and dairy usually messes with my stomach (though you wouldn't know it from the pictures on here, haha! I usually take a Lactaid and hope for the best...). 
  3. Buying suitcases. It was a good run, but Delta broke my carry-on when I checked it for the TLH-ATL-IND portion this past Friday, so I could bring home some of the Peanut Board treats they gave us. I retrieved my luggage at the IND airport and set it down and it tilted WAY over to the side—upon inspection, there usually are two wheels and two stand-type things to steady it, and one had broken off. I went to the Delta office at the airport and apparently they usually replace it with a (new) bag of their choosing, which they have right there at the office, but they didn't have any that size—I've had the bag for a while and it's probably 18" or 19" tall, whereas most carry-ons nowadays are 22", the max that the airlines allow. To be fair, the IND office gave me great customer service—about a half-hour after I left the airport, the representative there called me again, asking what kind of bag I have and how old it is—but unfortunately, they said it was too old, and would not replace it. I asked if I could get reimbursed for a new bag but they said no. They gave me some miles for the incident but only after I asked for them. 
    I bought two bags from Target.com but upon measuring them, one was 23" which probably won't work for a carry-on; I kept the other one for now but it's a hardside luggage (meaning you use both sides of it when you pack, of which I'm not a huge fan) so I'm also going to look at Kohl's and Marshalls this weekend too to see what they have. I stopped by the Target in the Novi/Wixom area too on Wed. but didn't find anything else I liked, for the most part. 
  4. Attending a work event. On Wednesday, instead of working from home per usual, I went to the new ZEISS headquarters in the Wixom/Lyon Twp. area, to cover it for Quality magazine—not actually one of my magazines, but one of the magazines that my company also runs. I didn't realize ZEISS makes lenses for glasses, so if you've ever worn glasses, you might have their lenses—they sent me home with a glasses cleaning kit too, and also a huge beer stein, since the theme was Oktoberfest, which was fun. ZEISS also makes medical instruments and instruments/robots for quality checking for cars, so there were a lot of Ford/GM/etc. employees in attendance. 
  5. Watching movies and TV shows. On the plane back from TLH and ATL, I watched Do Revenge, on Netflix, which was a lot of fun—it was kind of like Mean Girls but with a twist. I also started watching Interview with the Vampire (the new TV show, not the movie), on AMC, which was interesting, and apparently Kevin Can F*** Himself has the *series* finale, also on AMC, this week, which was news to me. I really like that show so I'm surprised it was not renewed. I've also been watching MAFS, The Good Doctor, The Handmaid's Tale, and I started Maggie, on Hulu, which so far is cute. 
Cocktail at BODHI, in Indianapolis
Cocktail at BODHI, in Indianapolis

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