Tysons Corner, day 363

Flashback from 2007- Asher eating Mac n Cheese, a favorite around here

Yesterday, for our date night, Josh and I went to Tysons Corner Mall for the first time since we've moved here. It's located in Virginia- a 20 minute drive from us- and as a salesman was telling us in Bath and Body Works- it is the 11th biggest mall in the U.S. with the first MAC store ever. It is HUGE! Huge ceilings, tons of people, lots of stores, I felt like I had stepped into a different land!

Needless to say, once I got there, I was so excited! I love shopping and I love malls. Also, I'm a little manic. Shopping for a manic person in like Willie Wonka's Chocolate factory for chocolate lovers, or something like that. Good thing I had Josh with me.

Yesterday was a busy day for me: walking a mile, doing Zumba for half an hour, going swimming with Asher for an hour at our local pool and then taking all four kids after their last day of summer school to an outdoor splash pool with slides and fountains for three hours. By the time 4:3o pm came around, I was crashed on the couch and the kids were watching a movie on our Netflix- Jumanji- which they loved! I woke up at 5:30 pm and quickly made dinner and got ready for our date.

Needless to say I was a little hungry and tired by the time Josh got home at 6:15, I only had a smoothie for lunch (part of my new goals) and that wasn't lasting 6 hours long. We got into the car and headed out to eat at White Flint Mall, in Bethesda. Josh said "Why don't we go to Tysons Corner?" We have been talking about going since we moved here. I waffled- 20 minutes in the car, parking, finding a place, sitting down- we wouldn't eat until 8. Finally we agreed to eat somewhere quick when we got there and decided to go.

Upon arriving, I felt like I was in LA! The traffic was bad, the weather was hot. I kept telling myself: I'm in LA. I'm in LA. This actually improved my mood for some reason. After we found parking on the fourth floor up, we found a map and found Panda Express. It was way spicy (seems like I haven't been cooking with enough spice lately!), but good and we went to explore! We only had an hour or maybe an hour and a half, so we had to prioritize. My favorite stores- as usual- were Pottery Barn (my fav!), Pottery Barn for kids (with cute pregnant women walking around rubbing their bellies and deciding upon the blue airplane print versus the blue gingham). My favorite thing there was the vintage Star Wars Lunch Box, complete with battle ship sandwich cutters for $29.99. It didn't find it's way home with me, sadly.

Next was Bath and Body Works, a two room store with a friendly salesman (remember him, Josh? Hee hee) whom we nicely chatted with (I'm manic, remember) and he informed us that Oct. 12th is the date they come out with the Christmas lotions. Vanilla bean, here I come (thanks for introducing me to that one, Lariss!) Hooray!

Ok. I better stop. Is there a word limit to blogs, like there is on facebook?

One more thing, we loved Candy World (I bought black licorice jelly bellys and gummy filled whales, Josh bought Toblerone and Charleston Chews) and the MAC store. Ipads are running for $500 and I absolutely adored it's piano feature where I could play the piano on it's screen. LOVED IT! Janie and Jack was adorable and Restoration Hardware was pretty awesome.

Let's just say I know where to go to Christmas shop. Just not at Christmas time. Tysons, I will be back!

This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.