It's true, I was sick for Christmas. Well, not Christmas day, but the day after and I am just coming back to a state of semi-consciousness. It was one of those evil and detestable stomach bugs. Sick. Horrible. Terrible. Worse than bad.
However, my dear friend Liz flew in today from Beaumont. (I know the city has my heart, so many people that I adore live there!!!!) She's currently trying to recover from an Ambien induced sleep in my bed.
So, I'm going to take the last of my vacations days this week. Go see some things in the city that I've been dying to see. I am going to hang out with my friends at a leisurely pace and enjoy life.
I am going to have a very low maintenance New Year's Eve Party with chocolates and champagne and nothing else.
I am going to think about the next year and what I can do to simplify my life. I am going to work on my budget with Van - he's a financial genius and I am somewhat handicap. I'm hoping he's patient.
I want to work on my Christmas cards... which are now New Year's cards.
I want to sit with Liz in little cafes around the city and drink wine.
I want to make my friend David give Liz a driving tour of the city where we argue about who knows the historical facts more accurately - keep in mind I am actually terrible with details and he was born here.
I want to email my family, whom I have been relatively negligent in emailing lately.
So there you go...
Love you guys. Hope your Christmas' were fantastic!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Stephen Paul Gulley
For those of you who know and love my little "brother" Stephen and his wife Neelie (and their almost here daughter!!!!) James Mark wrote a song for Stephen and recorded it live at Common Grounds last month, he's posted it on Itunes and is giving all of the revenue to Stephen and Neelie. It's an awesome way to financially support them, it's a jazzy song and it was written with a lot of love and pride in a man that many of us know and love.
I Got a Love
James Mark & The Cool Band
Even if you don't know and love these men - you might really enjoy the song! Take a listen and see what you think. If you like it, spread the word!
I Got a Love
James Mark & The Cool Band
Even if you don't know and love these men - you might really enjoy the song! Take a listen and see what you think. If you like it, spread the word!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Christmas Shopping
As in, I haven't done any.
So there's good news in the hood. Apparently the standoff with our internet and phone company is over and the ultra-highspeed internet and improved phone quality came like magic in the night. It's taken us 4 months and countless phone calls to make it happen, but finally Shannon won. And by winning, I mean that I am now in charge of the phone and internet. Which is helpful because I live here, but not helpful in that I am not really a practical person and feel overwhelmed by all things financial and needed for life.
So, today I am going to finish this blog post put on my little ugly boots and head out into the day and try to get some shopping done. This is the second day that sun has peaked through the clouds and I feel like a frog on a rock. I run directly to the sun and stand in it.
It's been a chain of parties and events since I've been back. I'll post some pictures for you at the end of the post, we're doing a Christmas Eve service as a church and then I am packing a bag and heading out to Reinickendorf and spending Christmas with some friends. It's going to be like a mini-vacation into the normal world and I am so thrilled. Going and being
with a proper family is one of the most refreshing things that I feel like I do with my life here.
OK - I'm now simply avoiding the inevitable. Here are some pictures - Enjoy.
This is David and me at the Jose Carreras Gala in Leipzig. Mercedes sponsored it, so we went. I would say I'd put most of my stock in their afterparty, but they raised 7 million dollars for Luekemia research AND I got to see Josh Groban, Sohne Manheim, the cast from Wicked and some other people you've never heard of who were really entertaining. Our favorite was for sure the after party band who were outstanding. We danced through two sets and then in very typical fashion, got in a huge fight and left. It's why we re
main friends and don't date.
This is our team, minus Van and Kelly who were late due to a sicky toddler. We're at our favorite Christmas Market in Berlin listening to a German Gospel Choir. this is the second year that we've done this. Combined the Christmas Market with one of Berlin's oldest and favorite restaurants and celebrated the holiday. It is such an enjoyable evening, with lots of laughing and relaxing. I love Christmas. YOU GUYS, AS I AM TYPING THIS THERE IS A GLARE OF THE SUN OFF THE WINDOW ACROSS THE STREET! CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!!
So there's good news in the hood. Apparently the standoff with our internet and phone company is over and the ultra-highspeed internet and improved phone quality came like magic in the night. It's taken us 4 months and countless phone calls to make it happen, but finally Shannon won. And by winning, I mean that I am now in charge of the phone and internet. Which is helpful because I live here, but not helpful in that I am not really a practical person and feel overwhelmed by all things financial and needed for life.
So, today I am going to finish this blog post put on my little ugly boots and head out into the day and try to get some shopping done. This is the second day that sun has peaked through the clouds and I feel like a frog on a rock. I run directly to the sun and stand in it.
It's been a chain of parties and events since I've been back. I'll post some pictures for you at the end of the post, we're doing a Christmas Eve service as a church and then I am packing a bag and heading out to Reinickendorf and spending Christmas with some friends. It's going to be like a mini-vacation into the normal world and I am so thrilled. Going and being
with a proper family is one of the most refreshing things that I feel like I do with my life here.OK - I'm now simply avoiding the inevitable. Here are some pictures - Enjoy.
This is David and me at the Jose Carreras Gala in Leipzig. Mercedes sponsored it, so we went. I would say I'd put most of my stock in their afterparty, but they raised 7 million dollars for Luekemia research AND I got to see Josh Groban, Sohne Manheim, the cast from Wicked and some other people you've never heard of who were really entertaining. Our favorite was for sure the after party band who were outstanding. We danced through two sets and then in very typical fashion, got in a huge fight and left. It's why we re
main friends and don't date.This is our team, minus Van and Kelly who were late due to a sicky toddler. We're at our favorite Christmas Market in Berlin listening to a German Gospel Choir. this is the second year that we've done this. Combined the Christmas Market with one of Berlin's oldest and favorite restaurants and celebrated the holiday. It is such an enjoyable evening, with lots of laughing and relaxing. I love Christmas. YOU GUYS, AS I AM TYPING THIS THERE IS A GLARE OF THE SUN OFF THE WINDOW ACROSS THE STREET! CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!!
I know, I know...
I just go through the spells where I am not on top of anything. This is one of them. However, for your entertainment, my friend Justin just started a blog and I think anyone who needs a laugh should read it.
http://jaksha.blogspot.com
Maybe that will make up for my absence.
http://jaksha.blogspot.com
Maybe that will make up for my absence.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
After a long absence
I've returned.
So, let's catch up. I went to Texas. I live off of the money people give me, so it was definitely a trip to try to raise some more money sandwiched between a wedding and Thanksgiving. If I could offer a piece of advice to anyone going home for the first time in two years, it would be not to make your first trip home business and not pleasure. No matter how much people love you and care about you, it is almost impossible for logic to override the emotion of getting to see each other again. Confused? Me too. What I mean is that when you go home for business - business has to be the priority- no matter how much you want to see your friends, and when your business is going to meals with people and trying to explain your life and work to them... Let me just say it doesn't really sit well with your friends and family that you would go "hang out" with those people that you barely know and not make time for them. They are just things that you learn along the way. I guess what I am saying is that it was wonderful to be in Texas, and fantastic to wake up in a house with my family and the distinct comfort that comes from being "home" - even as a grown woman - but I don't feel like I got to sit and have long talks, and leisurely meals and great time with people. And that, I can't say I regret, because I was prepared for it, but perhaps it was more difficult than I expected to see so many faces I love and not get to really be with them. Alas, I will go back next year for a longer trip, a longer time and hopefully have lots of long limitless time with people!
Things that I loved about being in Texas; TEXAS. What a great place. I love it. I love the weather and the people and the landscape and the eccentricity. I love the food and the beer and the conduciveness to outdoor activity. I love being near my family and I love seeing my friends faces. I love running the lake and eating chips and salsa, I love that I rarely wore a coat. I love how friendly people are, and how many people had wonderful stories about some experience they had from Germany. What a fantastic place to be from - Texas. I thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family and all of the extensions of our family. Josie and Steve came for Thanksgiving dinner and that was fantastic. I cried like a baby when I left... Somethings are slower to change!
It was good to get back though. It is very cold, in a typical Berlin way. Grey and wet and with snow that involves absolutely no blanket of white. The Christmas markets are up everywhere, I haven't quite found time to make it to one yet. It's good to be back in my flat, with my roommates, and it's good to be back in the same city with my friends. I missed them terribly and walk around with this bizarre sense that my life is two places. However, the reality is that apart from Jamie, whom I keep up with more than regularly, my closest friends are here. I am learning all the nuances of connotation in friendship terms, lifelong, dear, best, favorite... As we all know I have a gaggle of "best friends" - an incredible group of people that have my whole heart. That has not changed, though the frequency of my ability to talk to them or share life with them had been matamorphisized. I am beginning to understand the strength of a friendship that you live apart from for a couple of years and in less than a moment you are in a perfect moment of reconnecting! It is also wonderful to have friends spread all over the world... You never feel far from a place where your heart can be at home.
Speaking of home, we have spent the last week working on Antioch Berlin's annual Christmas Party which was hosted in our home. We did our best to transform the house into a winter wonderland. We may have found the largest tree in the city, which has taken the place of multiple pieces of furniture in our home... Those pieces of furniture are now in my and Sarah's rooms.
The Christmas Party itself was fantastic! I was so thrilled that Tori brought her sister Becci and so many of my dear friends came to help early and set up and light candles and all of the things that you do chaotically before a party life that. I found my favorite reasonably priced Cabernet Savignon on sale at a little shop by my house yesterday morning, I also bought a Riesling that is sweeter than most flavors of Blue Bell I have ever eaten in my life... If your interested, stop by, we have two bottles left. We started at 8 and had games, "carolling" which in included a rousing rendition of "Berlin Ich Liebe Dir", and then ended the festivities with a round of Karaoke in which Sarah and I sang Walking on Sunshine and Faith... Hysterical. There were wonderful people whom I had never met and so enjoyed speaking with, and terribly interesting and enjoyable guests that I had met once or twice before but had not previously had the opportunity to really talk to! I loved it. William and Van stayed until 2:30 helping clean up, or helping keep us company while we cleaned up and then round two of people showed up around three! I crawled into bed at 5:30 and when I woke up at 11:00 I have to admit, even now at 3:30, I don't really feel like I've woken up at all.
I am hoping that next week is a more liesurely pace and I am looking forward to going to some Christmas Markets and eating all sorts of ridiculously traditional and unhealthy food, getting some Christmas shopping done... I'm spending Christmas at the Nogossek's where 2 small adorable children will be, so I feel like I am looking forward to the challenge of trying to purchase their favorite gift... It's a secret comptetition that I am hoping to win by luck... and some help from the Euro store, which I feel always provides the greatest stuff for kids.
I hope you guys are all doing well easing into this holiday season. If I missed you when I was in Texas please accept my apaologies, it just wasn't the trip that I thought it would be in the sense of really getting to see people. BUT, I have a great place in Berlin and you are welcome to come hang out for a bit. My friend Liz will be here the 29th, but after that you are all welcome!
Merry Christmas to you guys, and I promise not to be such a stranger!
So, let's catch up. I went to Texas. I live off of the money people give me, so it was definitely a trip to try to raise some more money sandwiched between a wedding and Thanksgiving. If I could offer a piece of advice to anyone going home for the first time in two years, it would be not to make your first trip home business and not pleasure. No matter how much people love you and care about you, it is almost impossible for logic to override the emotion of getting to see each other again. Confused? Me too. What I mean is that when you go home for business - business has to be the priority- no matter how much you want to see your friends, and when your business is going to meals with people and trying to explain your life and work to them... Let me just say it doesn't really sit well with your friends and family that you would go "hang out" with those people that you barely know and not make time for them. They are just things that you learn along the way. I guess what I am saying is that it was wonderful to be in Texas, and fantastic to wake up in a house with my family and the distinct comfort that comes from being "home" - even as a grown woman - but I don't feel like I got to sit and have long talks, and leisurely meals and great time with people. And that, I can't say I regret, because I was prepared for it, but perhaps it was more difficult than I expected to see so many faces I love and not get to really be with them. Alas, I will go back next year for a longer trip, a longer time and hopefully have lots of long limitless time with people!
Things that I loved about being in Texas; TEXAS. What a great place. I love it. I love the weather and the people and the landscape and the eccentricity. I love the food and the beer and the conduciveness to outdoor activity. I love being near my family and I love seeing my friends faces. I love running the lake and eating chips and salsa, I love that I rarely wore a coat. I love how friendly people are, and how many people had wonderful stories about some experience they had from Germany. What a fantastic place to be from - Texas. I thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family and all of the extensions of our family. Josie and Steve came for Thanksgiving dinner and that was fantastic. I cried like a baby when I left... Somethings are slower to change!
It was good to get back though. It is very cold, in a typical Berlin way. Grey and wet and with snow that involves absolutely no blanket of white. The Christmas markets are up everywhere, I haven't quite found time to make it to one yet. It's good to be back in my flat, with my roommates, and it's good to be back in the same city with my friends. I missed them terribly and walk around with this bizarre sense that my life is two places. However, the reality is that apart from Jamie, whom I keep up with more than regularly, my closest friends are here. I am learning all the nuances of connotation in friendship terms, lifelong, dear, best, favorite... As we all know I have a gaggle of "best friends" - an incredible group of people that have my whole heart. That has not changed, though the frequency of my ability to talk to them or share life with them had been matamorphisized. I am beginning to understand the strength of a friendship that you live apart from for a couple of years and in less than a moment you are in a perfect moment of reconnecting! It is also wonderful to have friends spread all over the world... You never feel far from a place where your heart can be at home.
Speaking of home, we have spent the last week working on Antioch Berlin's annual Christmas Party which was hosted in our home. We did our best to transform the house into a winter wonderland. We may have found the largest tree in the city, which has taken the place of multiple pieces of furniture in our home... Those pieces of furniture are now in my and Sarah's rooms.
The Christmas Party itself was fantastic! I was so thrilled that Tori brought her sister Becci and so many of my dear friends came to help early and set up and light candles and all of the things that you do chaotically before a party life that. I found my favorite reasonably priced Cabernet Savignon on sale at a little shop by my house yesterday morning, I also bought a Riesling that is sweeter than most flavors of Blue Bell I have ever eaten in my life... If your interested, stop by, we have two bottles left. We started at 8 and had games, "carolling" which in included a rousing rendition of "Berlin Ich Liebe Dir", and then ended the festivities with a round of Karaoke in which Sarah and I sang Walking on Sunshine and Faith... Hysterical. There were wonderful people whom I had never met and so enjoyed speaking with, and terribly interesting and enjoyable guests that I had met once or twice before but had not previously had the opportunity to really talk to! I loved it. William and Van stayed until 2:30 helping clean up, or helping keep us company while we cleaned up and then round two of people showed up around three! I crawled into bed at 5:30 and when I woke up at 11:00 I have to admit, even now at 3:30, I don't really feel like I've woken up at all.
I am hoping that next week is a more liesurely pace and I am looking forward to going to some Christmas Markets and eating all sorts of ridiculously traditional and unhealthy food, getting some Christmas shopping done... I'm spending Christmas at the Nogossek's where 2 small adorable children will be, so I feel like I am looking forward to the challenge of trying to purchase their favorite gift... It's a secret comptetition that I am hoping to win by luck... and some help from the Euro store, which I feel always provides the greatest stuff for kids.
I hope you guys are all doing well easing into this holiday season. If I missed you when I was in Texas please accept my apaologies, it just wasn't the trip that I thought it would be in the sense of really getting to see people. BUT, I have a great place in Berlin and you are welcome to come hang out for a bit. My friend Liz will be here the 29th, but after that you are all welcome!
Merry Christmas to you guys, and I promise not to be such a stranger!
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Sunshine to Snow
I just stepped off the plane in Frankfurt to slushy snow. When I left Austin I was basking in the sunshine. Welcome home.
I am tired. I am emotionally spent. I feel like I didn't really get to see anyone while I was there, I am not sure if I got the money I needed and I am coming back to a busy Christmas season. I am deeply thankful for the busy because it will keep my mind in the right place, and I am thankful to have such good friends here to anchor me. However, it never gets easier to say goodbye to my family.
I did love seeing the faces that I got to see, even if it was briefly and spastic. I am so blessed by the love and support that follows me everywhere I go. I am not sure that I know another person that leads a more charmed life relationship wise. THANK YOU!
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