Pavarotti, Silly Movies and Exhaling

Well, Greg is off on a backpacking adventure with 2 of his cousins, Zach and Ben. He left me all alone Wednesday and will be back on Sunday. Today, after work I was planning on offering some free babysitting for my brother, Jacob, but when I called he ended up not needing it! So I hung up and realized, "Oh my gosh! I have 4 whole hours and nothing to do!!!" I called my friend, Alex, but she was busy as well. Thoughts run through my head like, "Do I really have only 2 friends? That should be SO pathetic, but I don't feel pathetic. I feel just fine." Lying on my couch starting the SECOND movie of the day I was just thinking, "Wow, is how I would spend my time if I was single? What a waste!" I realize AGAIN how much Greg is apart of my life. Just having another body in the apartment around.

So I've realized the incredibleness of swimming for exercise. I always thought since you are "weightless" that would mean it would be easier and less of a work out. I WAS WRONG. Wowsa! It was intense! I could only last 16 minutes! With breaks!!! But today I went out and swam a good strong 15 minutes with NO BREAKS!!! Then I came inside for some push ups and sit ups. I put on Pavarotti and quickly realized what a mistake that was. I push play and within 10 sit ups the song gets really good and I just lay back and close my eyes. It was impossible to keep going. Something about good opera. It awakes my soul! I never doubted I had one but when I hear incredible music, suddenly- instantly I am so aware of my soul. I feel it! It's ALIVE! All I'm able to do is exhale. My eyes just close. I can't help it. Well, when the song ended I was able to finish my work out, but I felt like I was wasting the music. I just can't do anything when it's that good. I feel the same about really good food. Whenever I have one of those bites I always say, "Good food is for the soul." It's simply true.

Ok now, enough of that. I always feel like a silly hippie when I'm saying those things, but I mean every word. Ok. OUR APARTMENT!!! We finally have one!!! I am completely being literal when I say that Greg has spent 5-6 hours a day, 5 days a week, for the last 2 months searching for an apartment online. People tell us, they're too small for two people. Or they don't have anything open yet for September. They want to set up a time for us to see the apartment (with our own eyes). We tell them we want it and we'll send them the money today and they tell us they're going to show the apartment to more people. WHAT IS WRONG WITH EUROPEANS!!!! Well, after our looooooooooooong search. We finally found one. Now you're going to laugh when I tell you . . . it is 28 sq. meters. Which (if we calculated right) is 252 sq. feet. Basically a good size bedroom, a small, short hallway with a stove and fridge, and a tiny bathroom with a sink, a toilet, and a very small shower. It's very clean and only 2 blocks from where I'll be working! HOORAY!!!! I just like to not think about the smallness of the space. The fact that if we get in impatient with one another, I'll just have to go into the bathroom if I want some privacy. That will be a new experience. It's unfurnished so hopefully we can take care of that before we have to sleep at night! Oh it makes me laugh the new experiences we'll have!

So since we finally got the apartment situation arranged, we were FINALLY able to send out our visa application! Being that we're moving out in 5 1/2 weeks and the application process takes 3 weeks (plus travel time) we were really starting to freak out! But, it all came through, thank goodness!

I can't believe it's all taken care of. This has been our constant focus for the last 6 months!!!! And now it's done and I can exhale! We've been putting all our documents in this one binder and I looked at it and it's empty!!!! It just has our plane tickets and itineraries and I couldn't believe that all that's left is planning a fun trip! Oh! I can't wait! What a relief. I finally feel like my normal self again!

Work has been SO BUSY!!! I've kind of lost my motivation. I'm really excited to have a different chapter in my life. I'm excited not to have my wrists hurt, or my eczema burning, or my feet or upper back aching! Yeah, yeah, I'm complaining. It's really not THAT bad. I'm just excited for these things to go away! I've been doing hair for 7 years now professionally. That's just really weird. I never thought I'd have a "career". I feel silly even saying that word. I always thought I'd just get married and have kids. But things have been good, but very unexpected. All week, almost everyone of my clients has ended with a hug and "good bye forever!" I thought I still had awhile before that began, but it's begun! Kinda strange. I thought I was going to write a lot of notes for people and give people my email and blog address, but things got so crazy I forgot! And now I realize there's just too many clients I love to keep contact with. Some of my clients feel like family. I've met so many wonderful people through my work. It has been a great job.

I watched She's The Man all throughout the day, today. I love that movie. I laugh LOUD when I watch it. I've been craving it for DAYS!!!! I think I just needed to de-stress and my mind knew that movie would do it. I recommend it to all sexes, all ages, it is a classic.

Well, that's been my life for the last few days. So long!