An Orlando Girls’ Weekend

I spent the weekend in Orlando with Bri and her friend Jackie (whom I’ve met before and love to pieces!), and it was truly a sensational weekend. I don’t say that lightly! These kinds of weekends can be difficult for me because I never know how my social anxiety is going to react to a new situation with new triggers. But I didn’t have to worry about it at all. It was the kind of dream weekend I imagine extroverts have all the time – ha!

Here’s what we got up to!

FRIDAY

Bri and I arrived at Jackie’s house in Orlando right around 5pm on Friday. My first order of business (after saying hello to Jackie of course) was to begin my mission of making her pets fall in love with me. She has a dog and a cat, Pascal and Tootles respectively, and I couldn’t be more obsessed with them.

Pascal is the dog. He’s nearly 80% chihuahua and such a lover boy. He will lick someone’s face nonstop unless you pull him off you. We timed it, even! He made it over five minutes of nonstop kissing with Jackie and only stopped because she needed a break. He could set a world record, I think!

Tootles is the cat. He is part-ragdoll and I could not get enough of his sweet yellow eyes, floofy tail, and soft, soft fur. He’s a bit of a rascal at times, but with a face like that, how can you deny him anything?!

We didn’t have much on the agenda for Friday. We planned on ordering pizza and helping Jackie put together the couch she bought. It’s a Lovesac “sactional” with modular pieces and custom-fit covers that is supposed to be super easy to put together. It took the three of us over three hours to figure it all out and get everything put together, so I wouldn’t necessarily say it was intuitive, but we got it done! We blasted Taylor Swift and powered through box after box. (The most ridiculous thing about this piece of furniture is it came in, like, 10 different HUGE boxes. This would be a mess to deliver to an apartment, that’s for sure.)

After surviving the process of furniture building, we celebrated with ice cream at a local place near Jackie. I got a cookie butter swirl flavor that was out of this world!

Then, we came home, took showers, and collapsed!

SATURDAY

Saturday turned out to be one of my most ideal days. I woke up around 8 and got to have some snuggles with Tootles before it was time to get up and get ready for the day. Jackie made me a delicious latte that I enjoyed while playing my NYT games. I loved on the pets and then right around 9:30, we left for brunch.

Brunch was delicious! We went to Briar Patch in Winter Park and we didn’t have to wait too long considering that a) it was Saturday and b) we had Pascal with us so we could only sit outside. We got a table next to the cutest young couple with their two kids (when it was time to pay, the little girl pulled a plastic credit card out of her purse to pay for the bill! I died.) I hemmed and hawed over sweet or savory for brunch, ultimately going with very sweet and ordering chocolate chip pancakes. My weakness!

The pancakes were incredible – crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside – and I was also pleased with the side of well-done bacon I ordered. (Nothing but crispy bacon will do for me.)

After brunch, we strolled over to a bookstore and I was in heaven. This bookstore was perfection with a great selection of books and also a wide array of other bookish items like mugs, totes, notebooks, etc. I ended up buying a book, a bookmark, and a catnip toy for the girls.

We hopped back into the car for the #1 reason we had planned this girls’ trip: The New Romantics bookstore! When I heard about this Taylor Swift-themed romance bookstore, I asked Bri if we could go pretty please, and that’s when she suggested we make a weekend out of it. This bookstore was hopping and I was really glad to see that they were so busy—I want all of these romance bookstores to be super-duper profitable.

It was a very cute bookstore with a great selection of romance and romance-adjacent books. There was also an area with bookish merchandise and Taylor Swift-specific merch, like candles, stickers, prints, etc. I could have spent hours walking around and taking in all of the different shelf-talkers and collections. It’s a great bookstore and you can bet that I will be back!

I left with four books and the cutest little tote bag! (Oh, and a bookmark but it’s NSFW so I didn’t photograph it, ha.)

After our bookstore shopping spree, we came home and had the most delightful afternoon! We sat in the living room and read our books and then when I got sleepy, I went upstairs to the guest room where I slept and played on my phone for two full hours. OMG. It was everything. I needed this downtime, and I was so happy to have a little quiet time in the midst of our girls’ weekend. I came downstairs when I was ready for people again to find Bri still reading on the couch and Jackie asleep. I sat on a chair and read for another 30 minutes until Jackie woke up.

(I’m obsessed with this cat, if you can’t tell.)

Our evening was a very good one! First, we took Pascal on a 20-minute walk around the neighborhood. Jackie lives in a gorgeous area with so many cool houses with interesting architecture. She told us that they really go wild for Halloween, which makes sense because some of these houses look like they would look perfectly creepy all dressed up for Halloween. After Pascal’s walk, we went to Cow & Cheese for dinner where I housed a delicious smash burger and crinkle-cut fries. I have been craving a really good burger for a while and this hit the spot.

Then, we went back to Jackie’s to pick up Pascal before driving to Lake Eola for ice cream and strolling around. I opted for a mint ice cream flavor this time, but we all agreed that the first place we visited (Kelly’s) was much better. We strolled around Lake Eola, watching the sunset and taking in the sights of the lake and the very creepy “bird island” that I didn’t get a picture of for good reason. It was a beautiful night!

And then it was back home where we just chilled for a bit before heading to bed.

SUNDAY

We had two more items on our agenda for this weekend: a podcast recording and afternoon tea.

We started the morning with coffee and chit-chat and then it was time to get down to business. Podcasting! We have a series on our podcast where we essentially interview our friends about their personalities. Nothing like forcing the people in our lives to talk about their deepest fears and struggles! Muahaha.

Jackie is an Enneagram 4, which is surprising to me because she’s a surgeon and I wouldn’t expect someone in the medical field to be typed as a 4. I expect 4s to be bohemian types who have super creative jobs, but this will teach me to be more open-minded when it comes to the Enneagram. However, the way Jackie talked about her personality—and the ways it can impact her career positively and negatively—was super interesting. I’m excited for everyone to listen to the episode soon!

And Tootles definitely made his podcast debut, too!

After our recording, we loaded up Bri’s car with our belongings (we were going to start the trek home right after afternoon tea) and then headed to Disney’s Boardwalk for our reservation at The Cake Bake Shop. Afternoon tea was a delight! Our server was exceptional, so helpful and personable. The food was *chef’s kiss*. So good! We were each given a ginormous lemon blueberry scone that was to die for. We got to try an array of sandwiches and desserts. Best of all, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed my pot of peppermint tea! (I am not a tea drinker, but perhaps I’ve found my gateway to becoming one?!)

It was a lovely afternoon and we enjoyed ourselves immensely!

And that was my weekend in Orlando! You know it’s a good weekend when you start planning your next girls’ weekend before you leave. We’re going to get together again at the end of July!

Are you a tea drinker? What’s the last piece of furniture you built? Should I have cat-napped Tootles and taken him home with me?