Ups and Downs, and Ups!

Hello, my faithful readers and friends! I'm glad that so many people are reading this! It makes me feel good to know that these words aren't just disappearing into cyber-space. :) Hopefully this finds you happy and healthy (and enjoying the sun - has it stopped raining yet, Portland??)

This week and weekend were a bit of a roller coaster for me. No need to get into the details here, but I'll be honest with you - every day is not just a frolic in Europe for me. I REALLY miss my friends and family, and when kind of crappy things happen, that feeling is just amplified, especially since during a good portion of my day, everyone that I usually talk to is sleeping! Luckily, slowly but surely, there are a few people that are turning into true friends, and I can't explain how happy that makes me feel.

I decided a while ago that since I had no meetings on my calendar on Friday (which is no less than a miracle at Nike), I would work from home, as I had a few things to work on that needed some dedicated brainpower. I also had to pick up my Dutch residency permit, which makes it officially legal for me to be living in the Netherlands. Okay, so to be honest, usually working from home is not such a good idea for me... I am very distract-able, so my eyes can't help but see that laundry that needs to be done or that shelf that needs to be dusted. However, this Friday, working from home rocked! I am getting ready to teach a costing class for the team here in Europe, and I was able to get all of the curriculum tailored for the European market, all of my Powerpoint slides just right, etc, etc. That made me happy! :)

That evening, I decided to check out a new, American-size grocery store! I didn't know that this place existed, so I was pretty freaking excited! I mean, the cute grocery store down the street is charming and all, but I want variety! :) The local store that I go to is called Albert Heijn, and the store that I went to on Friday is called Albert Heijn XL. And it was!! While not as big as a Fred Meyer (in Portland) or Meijer (in Ohio), it was HUGE in comparison to my local store. And, I could drive there! And, I could fill my trunk with groceries. And... then I kind of forgot about the fact that I don't have a garage nor a parking spot assigned by my house. Not a big deal. ;) This store made my day... I know this doesn't sound very exciting for my American friends who can get whatever the heck they want, but, seriously, I've been feeling deprived! They even sell Duncan Hines cake mix... albeit 5 euros each, which with the exchange rate is $7.50... for a cake! (no, I did not by the $7.50 cake mix... I'm making a list of all of the things I need to buy when I'm at home in August - I'm bringing and extra suitcase for this purpose). After I got home, I decided I needed to get caught up on Grey's Anatomy, which is a little behind here in the Netherlands. I figured out the trick though - I can download it from iTunes. So, I started with the third to last episode, and then ended up watching all the way to the finale. I couldn't help it! It was so good! And I was SO HAPPY with the way things turned out!

Saturday started off a bit bad. I don't want to get into the details, but I was pretty sad. I've promised myself that I'm not going to let the distance get to me... that's no way to live. So, trying to be strong, I let myself have a good long cry, and then I sucked it up and went for my long run. Running is always my outlet. Believe it or not, by the time I got home, I was feeling so much better, and having a better perspective. I decided that I needed to do things that make me happy for the day, so I went to the garden store and bought a bunch of flowers. I have a little balcony off of my apartment that was just begging to have some color, so I spent the afternoon being a gardener. I think it looks pretty nice:

After that, my friend Kristin (also from Ohio... how funny is that???) had told me about the "Democrats Abroad" group that was having an event that evening. I REALLY hate going to these things alone (Kristin wasn't sure if she was going or not because she had a friend in town), but I told myself "you are never going to meet anyone if you never try." So, again, I sucked it up, and went to this event. The main reason that I wanted to go was so I could register to vote abroad. Mission accomplished. To be honest, the crowd there was a little wacky... kind of REALLY into politics, which isn't really my passion. I hung out for a little while, and then decided that I had been there long enough, and started heading home. Which was precisely when I saw that I had a text message from my friend Karyn (this is the same girl that I went to France with a few weeks ago). She was out with another lovely lady, and they invited me to dinner. You know, I have to thank my lucky stars for girlfriends. Sometimes, they just KNOW. I really didn't feel like being by myself last night, and so hanging with the ladies and proceeding to drink only god knows how much wine was exactly what I needed. I went to home with a smile on my face, and feeling much, much better.

... and then I woke up this morning at 7 am. Despite still feeling tired and having a bit of a hangover, I could NOT for the life of me go back to sleep. So, being me, I got to it. By 9 am, I had baked a batch of brownies and finished a good chunk of my race scrapbook (which I had sadly not updated since the Portland Marathon of 2006). I'm happy to say, I'm almost 100% caught up now! :) It was fun to have the time to work on one of my favorite hobbies. I was just finishing up when Kristin called me and told me that she and her friend were going to the beach and wanted to know if I wanted to go. Since the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS, of course my answer was YES! We rode our bikes to Centraal Station (I'm getting pretty good at it!), and then took the train with our bikes to Zandvoort, where I went a few weeks ago solo. To our dismay, despite the wonderfully warm and sunny weather in Amsterdam, it was foggy and a little chilly at the beach! We stopped for a drink to try to wait it out, and, by the time we were done, the sun was out! It was so relaxing to just lay on the beach, read our books, and even take a little nap. A perfect Sunday!

So, now it's Sunday night, and I'm really amazed that the weekend once again has gone by so quickly. I have to say, all the pieces are really coming together... work is great, I'm finding my way in this new city, and I have some really amazing women in my life to spend time with. Everything that has happened is only making me stronger and helping me grow, which is exactly why I am here. Whew! I am SURE I made the right decision (yes, I'm waiting for the "I told you so" e-mails!). Miss you all! Have a great week!