Sunday, April 21, 2013

Cloud Fifty-Two

I know, I know.  Normally one says that they are on cloud 9, although historically many different numbers have been used in the cloud metaphor.

So why 52?

The past nine days have brought a lot of great stuff, one of the biggest and bestest happened last saturday.  I had been looking forward to April 13 for months!!  My mom, my friend Meghan and I hopped into my car, drove down to Des Moines to take my car in to Hummel's Nissan for an oil change by the best service department ever.  (We also took them a box of goodies--homemade cookies and miniature candy bars.  We often take them treats because they are soo awesome!)  After quick service, we stopped in to Hobby Lobby for a few minutes and then went to try a new restaurant.  We decided to try Bianchi Brothers in Altoona and it was a little disappointing.  The pizza mom and I shared was not great and neither of us felt well afterwards.  Meghan's lasagna was good, though.  Then we hit I-80 and sped on over to Grinnell College where that evening there was a concert of Zolotoj Plyos!

We arrived a little early because the Russian students were hosting a Slavic Coffee House with food to raise money for the Russian House, and as we pulled up just before six, we saw them, unloading their van.  I pulled up and stopped and we hollered hi out of the window.  They saw Meghan first and seemed a little confused, but then they saw mom and me.  I got out and they descended upon me with hugs.  It was awful! ;)

After a wonderful concert (the first time mom had ever seen them perform) we went to a local restaurant and had dinner.  Meghan and Sasha talked and talked about saxophones and music, mom and Lena talked on and off, pictures of family members came out, and we all had a great time.  Mom got an extreme compliment--none of them could believe that she was 60.  I also received a huge compliment.  Lena said she wished that they could go on tour with twenty or so of their best students and she said that I was one of their best students, and she wants me to come to Middlebury and work.

It was a wonderful night and the rest of the night and into part of Sunday (until my mother made me cry) I was on a high!  I was soaring on the wings of bliss.

Sunday night I had some time and wrote about 1500 words in my book. YAY!  Monday morning* things took a nosedive and I became violently ill at work.  I was home sick for two days, felt like death warmed over on Wednesday, but, although tired, felt much better on Thursday which is the day we had our Diversity Fair at work.  The fair went very well and the committee members were all very pleased at the fruit of our labor!

To end on a great note, for my weigh-in this week I officially reached 20 pounds lost (21.6 to be exact) and also met my 5% goal!  Woohoo!

I keep thinking to myself, what was all the fuss about?  This isn't that hard, but I know that if you are not ready, not willing, it is the hardest thing in the world.  I guess my body finally said it's time.  And Weight Watchers is awesome!

Have an orientation for YFU today-- *stressed*-- but tomorrow I am off work so that I can prepare for a qualifying exam on Thursday for which I will have to translate a German text and write and essay.  Yikes!  I haven't used German in... well it's been a long time.

Let's hope this week doesn't look horrid after the awesomeness of last week.

Zolotoj Plyos and friends: Sasha, Lena, two profs form Grinnell, Seryozha,  and me.

* I thought about L-Diggitty all day on her first day back at work as I purged every bit of food from my system.  Sweet, right?

Oh, and my car turned 30,000 miles!!!


2 comments:

  1. LOL! Thanks for thinking of me!

    Wish I could have been there with you guys!!! :(

    ReplyDelete

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