Learning To Live

Well, now I'm home. We got in late (LATE LATE LATE) on Thursday night... and then spent one night here at my house. Then Friday morning we went to my parents' house to unpack and give Mom gifts and show Mom photos. I had a nice rest, and am maybe adjusting to US time again. I still feel like I'm on Munich time, and that's why I wake up EVERY MORNING at 5am and can't get back to sleep. It's annoying as hell. Today my parents brought me home and we began my summer project: OPERATION RE-DECORATE THE HOUSE. We started by putting a twin bed that had stashed in the guest room into the den (really hard to explain how that worked unless you have seen it). This meant taking everything out of the den (minus desk and piano) and moving it into my bedroom or the dining room for me to sort through this summer. I also plan on buying some things I can display things on in the living room. I also have many art projects planned. It's going to be a lot of work, but sinc...

Most of the posting I'm doing from here in Europe (OMG I LOVE SAYING THAT), is on my other blog ( http://dancing65rosestravel.blogspot.com ), but while I have the use of free yoinked internet, I plan on updating here a little more. Right now I am sitting in the hotel room while Darin and Dad went to the museum of science. I got to sleep in until 10:30 this morning!!! Incredible! I'll copy/paste some of my favorite photos so far after I update the other blog for today and yesterday.

So there is a Bidet in our hotel here in Florence. Seriously, why would you need a Bidet? Isn't wiping your ass enough? Do you really have to wash it off and then wipe it again? Isn't that what showering is for? And why are the Europeans so obsessed with the Bidet - It's not like they shower enough in the first place, so why are they so concerned with the cleanliness of their ass? Or is that the point? They don't feel they need to wash their whole bodies very often, as long as the ass is clean. Anyways, an update on me: I'm feeling better-ish about the dance team thing. I know my teammates don't hate me. Now I have to get over not dancing with them several times a week. Sad. Goodnight! (I love yoinking internet from the cute American students in the window across the alley - I thought about making a paper airplane with my email address on it and a Thank You For The Internet note... and then Darin said, "Skank." I protested that I never turn...

The dancing, that I'm so passionate about, is coming crashing down around me. I have been kicked out of the dance studio b/c I had some ideas for change. I sent an email to my captain (I'm vice-captain) criticizing our coach and the way things currently are on the team. I guess she forwarded it to him, because he then banned me from the studio. He has no power to remove me from the team, and it'd be interesting to stay on the team and not dance in the studio just to spite him, but it'd be a waste of time and money. Too bad the new team captain is a puppet for the coach. I liked our other team captain - the one who listened to members and tried to help everyone. This has made me almost never want to dance on a team again. And I'm afraid to show up anywhere in town to dance because I'm the new dance world Bitch. I never intended this to happen - I just tried to show how the team was flawed in the way it was working because we have so many members who are new...

Today we drove... all day. And we drove and drove and drove. From the little town in Germany, to Salzburg, Austria. Then over the Glockenspiele (Grossglockner Hocaplenstrasse)... right, I like to call it the Glockenspiele National park. It was mountainous and wonderful. Fabulously wonderful. Here are some photos (mostly shot out of the car window, so these were the best we got). A German Circus! Be Polite. Trendy Sandy is Watching YOU! The big European soccer tournament is being held by Austria and Switzerland now. So there are signs like this: Snow! In JUNE! That's pretty high... OMG! Empty window boxes??? I think that's a crime here! My bed in our awesome hotel in this little Austrian hotel. I wish we were here for more than one night. Okay this was last night at dinner - our last night with the German friends, sadly. LOVE the German friends. I got this sweater as a gift - it is supposed to go over the traditional German dress that I can't spell, and was made by ...

Today I had my sinuses sucked out. It was AWESOME. Of course, the upper sinuses cannot be suctioned in clinic - don't ask me why, I have a high pain tolerance - today didn't even hurt. Dr. ENT said, "Hold on I know this really hurts!" and I was, "Um, is it supposed to?" I thought it felt really good. So there's that. My other obsession of the day (besides Grey's Anatomy) is the cocaine nasal spray. Wow that felt good, and now I know why people get addicted to drugs. If I knew how to get a hold of cocaine I would make my own nasal spray it helped that much. I was in NO pain. It was sweet. I can't wait to go back in two weeks and have it done again. I also went to the pharmacy, and I had them order and fill ALL my prescriptions. I can't wait to take photos of the big-ass amount of drugs I haul out of there tomorrow. Photos will be posted. A little over two weeks until I leave for where? Oh, yeah! Europe! My dad told me the first day...

I'm having problems with my sinuses. I was doing so well until the stupid pollens came out. Now I wake up every morning with a terrible headache and I can't go back to sleep. This will soon be replaced with the constant unbearable pain that will make me want to do nothing but sleep. It will make my face puffy and my eyes puffy and maybe I and my family will be the only ones to notice these changes, but they are there when this happens. This summer will be my third summer in a row needing sinus surgery. BOOurns. So here is MY plan: Get them to suck out my sinuses outpatient. This will take some convincing, but I think I can do it. It will be pretty damn painful but will require less recovery time than surgery. This will happen in the next two weeks - Next Tuesday would be a nice date for this to happen. Then I will have a little time to recover and a little time to pack and then I'm off to Europe. Hopefully, that will hold me all summer and until next summer. This ...

I did walking today. Ashley and I walked. We shopped. Walking was hard. This is making me nervous for Europe. Am I going to see everything from my wheel chair? If I do, is that okay with me? I'm not sure. I guess I'll find out. Wow... those were some really great short sentences. I don't know how I feel about all this. I know how excited I am for Europe. I've always wanted to see Italy, and I'm excited to go back to Germany - but what is this trip going to do to my health? I don't really care what it does to my health, because it's my dream trip. Well, I do care. I still want to be able to dance (which is in jeopardy - I really wish we'd start practice again so I could do something physical that's not as hard as walking. I don't know why dancing is easier, it just is). I don't really know how I feel, but I'll probably let you know when I figure it out.

TWO MONTHS UNTIL ITALY!!! I LOVE EUROPE AND YOU HAVE NO CLUE HOW EXCITED I AM!!!