Sticky Apple Kisses

My friend Kelly just posted this over on Facebook, and I love it. I tried to find the original author, but no such luck yet. Either way, words of wisdom and sums up my philosophy on life:

“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO what a ride!”

So far its going as planned.

We do not own a TV. Yes, horrified gasps aside, neither of us are TV watchers. (My father declared he wasn’t coming to visit when he when first learned the news. Then he thought we were joking. Finally he accepted that he would just stay out and about as late as possible, before coming back and cooking for us. There is a method to our madness. It feels pretty damn good to come home from work to a 3 course meal waiting for you. hee hee).

We rent our movies online and watch them on one of our laptops. The only TV show we watch is Naruto, and being big geeks we watch the show in Japanese with subtitles, and so we get that weekly online as well. That is it. I do not lose time to the TV.

However, when it comes to video games and gaming systems like PS3, and the fact my friend in city center has one. Well, vast quantities of time that could be spent in other productive ways may just be lost there…..

Step one is admitting you have a problem.

I thought that giving up German lessons would free up some time. HAHAHAHHAHAH. I just end up sleeping in a little, meeting the German class girls for coffee after they finish class (but we are enough of a mix of nationalities, and more important enough of a mix where English is not the easiest language to communicate in, that we dont speak English but rather German. So bonus points for me there). And then I go to work, and by the time I get home its time for supper and bed. And though we are not looking into Wilmington NC real estate, we are looking into buying an apartment, and so free time is also taken up viewing them and just searching for them.

On the upside, my listening skills in German are at the point where movies are no longer a problem.

….was nothing short of fantastic. We originally planned to rent a houseboat for the weekend. However our numbers kept fluctuating as people were coming, not coming, and coming again. And who would’ve thunk it - if you want to book something in Amsterdam (even a hostel) especailly in the month of June (and high season apparently doesn’t officially start until the 25th of this month) you need to book ahead. Calling on Tuesday and asking about Friday is just going to make the person on the other end laugh at best and hang up on you at worse. But we were in luck! We actually ended up with one of the better travel deals Ive had. We stayed in cabins just outside of Amsterdam for 10 Euro a night (versus 50 each for the houseboat) and though we feared them, they were clean, nice, and the perfect place to safely park our bikes before riding on bicycle to city center!

Original plan:

Just as good :

Other pics:

I had joked before heading to Cuba that Cuba was going to be my hot summer time as our planned Iceland trip promised rain and some chilly evenings. I wasn’t really serious. But now it would appear that I really need to learn to stop tempting mother nature and keep my mouth shut! Germany is cold and wet, and though the lack of sun means saving (potentially) on wrinkle cream, Im cool with being crinkly. I want my sun! (please note all these pictures were taken OUTSIDE of Germany).

He doesn’t care:

Here in the Fatherland there are two things (among many others, but whatever), ahem, there are things that have drastically changed. Actually make that 3. THREE things that my friends when they have come to visit me have remarked on. The biggest shock seems to be that I cook. The other is my lack of shoes (and included in that would be a lack of new clothes). Lack of shoes and clothes are part of the other big change, I go out of my way to save money. (This may also be where some of the cooking comes in). Anyway, point being, as mentioned in a previous post, while home I took advantage of the awesome Boxing Day sales that this area of Germany lacks. Shoes here are expensive, and I would rather travel. Plus I am also super hard on my shoes; case in point:

and the other pair I have been wearing non stop:

But the others are far too pretty to destroy! PLUS after breaking the other pairs in I am far too lazy to put in the required effort when I know there are 2 broken in pairs.

and in fairness I think I choose pretty AND practical

The heels on most are not super high:

I love these ones as well, and they are super comfy, but I dont want them to end up like my last ones!

However my absolute favs are in fact the worse offenders:

However this picture makes me want to slow down the desire to rush out and buy from this list of best diet pills, because I KNOW my feet dont squish out like that, which makes me think that I am not as squishy as the camera portrays me as as well!

Either way, preeeeeeeeeeetttttttttttttyyyyyyyyyyy

I have always been a Tori freak, and though I must confess to feeling particularly disappointed by the last 2, I guess I shouldn’t be toooooooo upset as each time I wished for a new Tori album it inevitably turned into the soundtrack to a breakup. (K is Boys for Pele, D is Choirgirl, and J, you unfortunately share your album The Beekeeper with the German, whom Im still with but it was rather confusing at first. herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. And yeah, only the big relationships made it to Tori status. Not so sorry about that)

Anyway, point being, a new album is here, I was thinking it was about time a new one came out, and ta daaaa, a new album and the fact that I dont feel the urge to leave my partner, should be cause for celebration. There was a time when I would buy Tori stuff wholesale, the bootlegs, DVDS, posters, anything and everything. (I loved her from Little Earthquakes on, before there were boys to anguish over, even if they were just around the corner). And if I was disappointed by Doll Posse, after listening to Abnormally Attracted on Last FM, I dont think I am even going to bother buying it. And that just makes me sad.

And the only song I really like on the album (Fire to Your Plain) I cant even find a video to share. sniff

Summer is here and I am torn between the joy of my new shoes and the anguish that breaking in new shoes brings. I had forgotten the pain that beautiful shoes (in particular beautiful women’s shoes ) can bring! Of the 7 pairs I bought over Christmas Ive been wearing only 2. They are nicely broken in now. But the prettiest ones I saved for the summer are at the present moment shredding my poor feet apart! I am now hobbling to class. But they are pretty!!! Oh so pretty!

And German class ends for a bit so I hope to have more time. I guess hope is the optimal word. Of course me taking this break was with the promise I would spend more time learning German grammar, which I find I am hopelessly behind on. I still butcher the language, although the German’s family insists it is sweet that I do so. (I am going to hold them to that).

Although true to form instead of using the time I have productively I have been wasting it scanning through old pictures on Flickr, debating if nutritional health supplements would perk me up and get my energy going, and trying to decide if a couple smaller motorcycle trips this summer would make more sense than one big one to Iceland. (economic wise of course it does, fun wise, not so much). Although looking at the pics from our Romania trip I get the urge to just go! Short can still be fun.