Archives for May 2010

Update from Germany

May 17, 2010 filed under: family, friends, Germany, good times

Yes, I am still alive… obviously much too busy to spend time online, but I hope that you all understand. Time with family is precious and I only get to see my family for a few weeks every year.

Especially this little guy has stolen my heart.

I had a wonderful first week and I spent a lot of time with my parents and my sister and Greta and Tom. Greta is a really great big sister. She’s always making sure that “Bruder Tom” (brother Tom), as she calls him, is well taken care of. It’s so adorable.

Look at this cute little face? How could you not be totally in love?

Last week Saturday was Tom’s baptism. It was a beautiful ceremony in our small local church and Tom pretty much slept through the whole ordeal. Talk about a relaxed child!

Sunday was Mother’s Day and we spent the whole day with my Mom and my great-aunt at our house. It was warm enough to hang out in the backyard where Greta enjoyed her sandbox and a slide.

I also spent some much too little time with my dear friend Kim. It was so good to just hangout and talk. In person. I am the one who is always emphasizing how it is not important that most of my friends live very far away and that it’s just good to know that they’re always there for me, but there is still nothing better than spending time with each other. Luckily, it always feels like we have just seen each other the week before and we can seamlessly continue where our last (phone) conversation left off.

Speaking of spending time together, I am off to see my great-aunt. I want to spend as much time with people as humanly possible… so, later!

Have a wonderful Monday!

Avoiding Iceland

May 10, 2010 filed under: family, Germany, my so-called life, travel

Just checking in with you real quick to let you know that I made it to Germany in one piece. It’s been three days and it’s been absolutely wonderful. As always, I am pretty much on-the-go all day, so I don’t know how much time I’ll find to write here, but I’ll sure try to update you as often as I can.

The trip started off last Thursday with an absolutely stunning view of Yosemite National Park when I was on my way from Sacramento to LA. I’ve never seen the Yosemite Valley that clearly from the plane. It was absolutely breath-taking and I was able to snap a quick picture with my cell phone (click on the picture to see notes).

Of course, just when I was oohing and aahing over the view, somebody collapsed in the aisle on the plane literally right next to my row. It was scary for a moment, before the man regained consciousness and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

The transatlantic flight was really uneventful. The seat next to me had remained empty, so that I had lots of space and was able to sleep for a few hours.
I will confess to my obsession with the flight information monitor here. Whenever I am not watching a movie, I am tracking our flight on the monitor. I was curious if we would take a detour from our usual route and sure enough; we made a long way round Iceland. We flew quite a distance further north, over the central part of Greenland (usually we just scrape the Southern tip of Greenland) and then over to Norway (usually we fly over the Northern part of England) before turning south. Well, I guess, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

I made it to Munich on time and then onward to Düsseldorf without any problems. My suitcase was one of the first ones on the baggage conveyor belt and I was walking through the exit in no time.

It was so, so wonderful to see my parents, my aunt, my sister, Greta and Tom waiting for me! The highlight of the evening was when Greta loudly exclaimed ” Saaaahne” (my nickname) when she saw me. It was the first time she called me by my name.

I think, my heart melted a tiny bit.

All packed

May 5, 2010 filed under: about me, travel

{via weheartit}

Well, not quite yet, but whatever. I am actually in the process of getting all my shit together (literally – as in getting my stuff together – and figuratively – as in trying to stay calm and collected because as always before I leave the office for a longer period of time, I was working late. Today was no different!)

In about 24 hours, I’ll be on the plane. To be honest, my head is not really there yet, but my heart makes up for it. I am so excited! I am so ready for some time off.

I wish I had those three beautiful, vintage suitcases to travel with… oh, wouldn’t that be such a delight? The reality is, Lufthansa decided to restrict luggage to one piece (50lbs.) a person. This, my friends, is ridiculous. One suitcase for a three week vacation? How am I supposed to take everything I want need when I only have 50lbs available space? Not to mention that my suitcase is actually too big (I bought it when 70lbs was still allowed) and I can’t even fill it up (which means my stuff is flying around in there while I travel). Just marvelous.

Anyway, it’s late, I am tired and I really can’t think straight anymore after a 14-hour day, but the good news is that I don’t have to go into the office tomorrow morning (like I had originally planned).
I’ll be going to sleep in, we’ll go out for a nice breakfast/lunch and I’ll get to relax a bit before heading to the airport in the afternoon. (Did I mention that I love red-eye flights when going transatlantic? It’s the perfect way to beat the jet-lag!)

As you can see, I’ll be kicking off my vacation in grand style :)

Things I Am Not

May 4, 2010 filed under: about me, FYI, lists!

{via weheartit}

I am not on top of things all the time, even though it might seem that way (and I wish I was). Sometimes I just want to hide under a blanket and cry.

I am not someone who likes hanging around a big crowd, I am much better with people on a one-on-one basis. I am not into drama. I am not saying that hanging out with a bigger group can’t be fun, but mostly I prefer individual relationships with people.

I am not afraid of honesty. If I ask you something, I expect you to tell me the truth. You don’t need to sugar-coat things if they aren’t pretty. I’d much rather deal with the truth than wasting my time trying to figure out what the truth actually is. If you ask me something, I’ll tell you the truth as well.
Maybe that’s the straight-forward European in me, but if so, so be it.

I am not into horror movies, like at all. I really don’t see the point of watching them and I am kind of scared of the people who come up with the plots. I am not ashamed to say that I’d go to bed afterwards being terrified and afraid of nightmares.

I am not into being told what to do, or given unsolicited advice. If I want your opinion, I’ll ask you for it. Otherwise, keep your pie-holes shut about things that don’t even concern you.

I am not proud of the fact that I have disappointed people. It was never done intentionally, but sometimes no matter what you do, somebody gets hurt. I am not making excuses, but telling it like it is.

I am not good at making decisions. I especially dread the small, every day decisions that have to be made. What’s for dinner? What shirt am I going to wear today? Do I want my hair up or down? What movie do we want to watch? I’d rather have someone else make these decisions for me.

I am also not keen on making decisions when other people are involved. I am not implying that I don’t have an opinion, but I’d much rather do what my husband/friend wants to do and know that they’re happy with the decision than make the decision myself and having them tell me afterwards that this was not what they wanted to do. For me, it’s all about the company, so I don’t really care what we do as long as we do it together!

I am not going to agree to do something I don’t want to do, just because everybody else is doing it. I’m not concerned about what other people think of me. I am not afraid to stand up for myself and what I believe, even if that means that I am in the minority or that someone won’t like it or disagree with me. I have always been that way and I am not too humble to be proud of this. Although, I am a pretty humble person otherwise.

I am not feeling like a grown up, really. Most of the time I feel like I am just pretending. I am not sure why that is or when I’ll finally feel grown up. Just because I have grown-up responsibilities and handle them fairly well doesn’t mean I really know what I’m doing. I am not opposed to the notion that maybe, I am still a big kid at heart.

Inspired by a post at Shrinking Hearts via Kyla Roma , Justatitch and FatMumSlim.