The Friday Five, 5/16/25: 5 things I've been up to this week

I am guessing I am probably not the only one in Southeast Michigan who is tired today: tornado sirens went off around 12:15am last night, then abruptly stopped 5-10 minutes later. In addition, our power went out for maybe an hour or so. I just got back from my work trip last night so today will be a busy work day, as well. 

Mascots at the Expo

What I've been up to this week:

1. Traveling to Indianapolis for Sweets & Snacks Expo. This was the big thing this week, my work trip, since I was there Monday afternoon through Thursday afternoon. I attended the Sweets & Snack Expo, one of the biggest snack/candy industry conferences in the U.S., from Tuesday morning through Thursday early afternoon. This was my third time at the Expo, and it used to be in Chicago; now their schedule is every two years in Indy, and every third in Vegas, so next year it'll be in Vegas. I prefer it being in Indy vs. Chicago because it's a lot more walkable (it was at McCormick Place, so if you were staying downtown Chicago, you had to either take the shuttle to/from, or an Uber or Lyft). 
2. Dining out/getting takeout. A lot this week. Last Friday, I met a friend at Granite City, in Troy, for dinner—they have some great happy hour deals. On Saturday, I had my infusion, and got my husband and I takeout from Royal Thai, after—it's where Noodles used to be, on Telegraph Rd. between 12 and 13 Mile, and oddly enough, it's in the parking lot of a building I worked at immediately after college (30100 Telegraph, from 2009-2012; I wish we had all these restaurant options back then!). On Sunday, my parents and I had Hungry Howie's takeout for dinner, and on Monday, I got delivery from The Old Spaghetti Factory, in Indy—it was directly across the street from my hotel, but I always throw in an almond milk delivery too (which was not across the street), hence why I did delivery. 
   On Tuesday, I did dinner delivery from Giordano's, in Indy, which unfortunately was disappointing ... it took over an hour and the pizza was lukewarm at best. On Wednesday night, my SIL came to town (she lives close by, maybe 30 mins. away) and we had dinner, and then on Thurs. afternoon I had a quick lunch at the Indianapolis airport. 
3. Attending the Expo. I didn't try and overextend myself this year like last year—I think last year my schedule was like 95-100% packed—since I'm about six months pregnant right now (25 weeks, as of this week). It was still a lot of walking, maybe 10K steps per day and I'm used to 3-4K steps daily (low numbers, I know ...) but I was proud of myself for being able to still do it. I think I had maybe 6-7 appts. per day but I also dropped by a lot of booths too, specifically new brands or brands that the magazine I work for had not written about yet. 
4. Staying at a hotel. My Indianapolis hotel was superb and one of the best hotels I've stayed at in recent memory—I stayed at the Homewood Suites downtown, which was like a two-block walk to the convention center, which was great. (in comparison, last year I stayed at a Hampton Inn, which was fine, but it was about a mile away, so I usually walked in the AM and took Uber in the PM, since I had tons of bags with me)
   The room was huge—I looked online and it said 500 sq. ft., but to me it was more like 600-700—and the building was a historical one, from the 1860's, that they had renovated. Both my room and the hallways had exposed brick walls, which was gorgeous. In addition, the customer service was also great—everyone was very friendly, and on Wed. AM when it was pouring out, the hotel had umbrellas you could check out ($25 fee if you failed to return it that night, though). It also had free breakfast, and even had non-dairy options (almond milk and oat milk) for cereal—I exclusively drink non-dairy milk, since I have Crohn's, and hotels RARELY have that as a drink or cereal option, at breakfast. 
5. Watching TV shows. Both The Handmaid's Tale and The Studio were great this week—Handmaid's Tale is definitely setting itself up for an explosive season (and series?) finale, and The Studio had a scene filmed at the Venetian hotel in Vegas that made me laugh, since it was funny and also I recognized the area (specifically, the canal/gondola area inside the hotel).

The show floor