Spain – Hi, I'm Caroline.

Oh, right, I have a blog. It’s been a busy spring and summer!

I went to Madrid with my team in March, probably one of my favorite work trips so far. Just a beautiful city and lots of fun; the cooking class was especially cool, although I’ll go easier on the sangria next time.

March also brought the solar eclipse to our region of Maine, so we hung out with family and marveled at how many people came to our tiny town in the middle of nowhere just to watch a few minutes of totality.

Then Mom and I went to Mexico for a family wedding. It was my first time in Cancun and my first time staying at an all-inclusive resort. There was a lot of lounging by the pool and the ocean and a really good party.

We took a family trip to Prince Edward Island at the start of the summer and further cemented my belief that I must live there someday.

Plus there were all the usual anniversaries and annual rituals. Tim and I went to St. Andrews, New Brunswick for a little anniversary weekend away. Gwen got braces! The kids just started eighth and tenth grade, and in a few days, we’ll have two teenagers instead of one. The march of time is inevitable and exhausting and I love it.

And when I’m not traveling or working, I’ve been spending a stupid amount of time on Tumblr and Discord. I got back into writing fanfic for The Last of Us so that’s where most of my creative brain energy is going. I’ve written over 200k words since the start of the year, wild! The fangirl in me is thriving.

Theme Team in Barcelona's Park Guell. Photo by Tammie Lister. — Theme Team in Barcelona’s Park Guell. Photo by Tammie Lister.

The day after the U.S. election, I flew to Barcelona for a team meetup. It was a bittersweet trip; on one hand, I was happy to have the distraction of travel, for the opportunity to escape to a foreign city and immerse myself in something that wasn’t U.S. politics.

On the other, I wanted to be with my family. I wanted to go home, curl up under a blanket and hide.

The election results were a frequent topic of conversation throughout the meetup, but we didn’t let it completely overshadow our fun. Besides, the trip itself threw its own interesting obstacles our way; lost (then found) wallets, viruses, a stolen laptop bag, and only one fluent Spanish speaker in the group, which made for some unique exchanges.