Buying myself flowers

Yesterday was a grueling day, very manly. I shoveled rocks for an hour, then mowed a big lawn for two, and then went back to shoveling rocks, and all of this was in the in 90-degree heat. Sweat was just pouring off me. After work, a bunch of us headed over to the Kandern pool, which was of course wonderful, but I still have to say: lying in a swimsuit still does NOTHING for making me feel pretty and feminine.

So, last night in the grocery store, I bought myself flowers.

It's taken a long time (too long) for me to really be okay with buying myself flowers. They were something you got at special times as a form of recognition (acting in a play, being class president, birthdays, ...), and if they were to come at a time "just because," then they were naturally going to come from a special person (read: a man). I think my reluctance to buy them for myself came from not wanting to usurp that special someone. However, I've slowly begun to realize that waiting just means I'm missing out on years of having fragrant flowers on my kitchen table, and for 3 bucks a bundle, I really could splurge every now and then. He can pay me back when we finally meet. :-)

Vacation 2011

I'm back! No, I did not drop off the face of the earth as some people here at BFA thought, but I did launch myself out of school immediately into a 2-week vacation. My good friend KL (http://wordslikenets.blogspot.com), who is moving to Kenya for 2 years this July, came to visit, and we did a very quick run-around of the Alps.

We began in Paris, the City of Lights, for 2 days, where we climbed the stairs of the Eiffel Tower, gawked at the Louvre, and ambled our way around Versailles. This was followed by a 6-day driving tour through southern Germany, Austria, northern Italy, and Switzerland. We clambered around many a castle, visited a WW II Concentration Camp, attended my old church, ate pastries and tortes to our hearts' content, rode a boat in Venice, took amazing sunset pictures in multiple countries, hung out with a couple of my students, and hiked a Swiss Alp. That last bit was probably one of the best stories because we accidentally stranded ourselves at the peak when we forgot to check the time for the final chair lift run; we missed it by 10 minutes. Thus began our frantic hike/run down the mountain so that we wouldn't miss the cog train, too. 1 cow pie and 2 sweat-stained outfits later, we arrived out of breath at the station, only to wait another 40 minutes to be allowed on the train. Such is the adventure called life.

I had a great time and came home very relaxed. KL has left me, and I spent three days mostly on the couch reading, doing laundry, and writing postcards for all my lovely supporters. This week, it's back to school. My next blog will be about the big news happening on that front. For now, just enjoy some pictures. :-)

Appreciation

On a note from a student on the last day of school:

"Thanks for being my Geography and German teacher. The German has definitely helped a lot, and I'm sure the Geography will ... some day."