All this time...to spend on ME!

Hello family and friends. Hope you all had a lovely weekend! 

This weekend, we celebrated a new friend's birthday. Steve and Monica (my Ladies Who Lunch friend) had a good group of people over for Steve's 30th on Saturday. They invited people over that Steve knows from his company, as well as a lot of friends they've met courtesy of Toytown Germany, an online forum for English speakers in Germany. It's actually a very cool resource, and that's how Monica and I met at what I call the LWL group--it's a group that got its start on Toytown for accompanying spouses of men or women who work/study here in Berlin. Also, because Monica and Steve have gone to other Toytown meetups, they've coincidentally met other guys from Jack's beer program, so a couple of them also came on Saturday night! It's a small (English speaking) world, huh? 

So not only did we have a fun weekend, but at the end of last week, Jack brought home a webcam with a microphone so we are officially on Skype! If anyone wants to Skype, send me your name and we can chat. Woooooooo! You'd think we would have done this earlier, but uh, well, okay no excuses. But it's awesome...so awesome in fact, that I spent about 4.5 hours talking to my mom this weekend! We even got to see Athena as well, and goddamm, I miss that silly dog. It was really cute--when she walked into my parent's office and heard my voice, she got as close to the computer as she could and cocked her little head to the side when I responded to my mom. I don't want to torture her, but at least I know that she still recognizes the sound of my Athena-directed cooing. 

But anyway, during those 4.5 hours this weekend, my mom and I had really good talks about the state of my affairs here...like, I feel stuck. My life feels like it's on hold. I don't know what I want to do with my future. You know what I mean, right? Wah wah. Well, she reminded me of something very true (and also, in the midst of over-thinking everything, something I'd overlooked): I may never have this much free time EVER again. Seriously! I can dedicate this time to making some changes for myself, to seeing the sights, to learning something new, to anything! And she is totally right. To top it all off, she suggested for me to "steep yourself like a teabag in the culture around you." Aptly put, Momma, aptly put.

So, in the next couple days, I will be compiling a List, yes, a big ol' fat list of things I'd like to do/see/accomplish/experience while I am here. And I will share this list with you, oh beloved friends and family, as well as describe each item as I check them off this List. Not only do I deserve to be good to myself, I plan to have fun while doing it!