Highs and Lows, Lows and Highs

Today has been a really long day. Or maybe it just feels that way since I left the house at sun up (aka 9:00 AM) and returned at sun down (AKA 4:15 pm) which made it feel like I was going nonstop for much longer than I actually was. The downside of that is that I didn’t prepare a blog post and so I’m just writing this one by the seat of my pants. And since my day isn’t nearly over (still have a car to buy and an LSU game to watch), let’s get down to business.

Lows: (Ugh, so many lows this week, y’all.)
1) I apparently reached my max data for this blog which means I can either post way less pictures, post way smaller pictures, or pay for more data. For now, I’m posting less and smaller pictures but it takes a long time to resize all the photos I want to share with you guys. I suggested that Jon buy me more data for Christmas, but he told me my Christmas list is about full with the mahjong set, fluffy robe, and ipod speakers that I have already requested. Drats! Hey Mom, if you’re reading this, I know what I want for Christmas….

2) In other computer related news…yesterday I was transporting my computer from the kitchen counter to the table in order to charge it, and I tripped over Samson, and I fell, and my computer fell, face down, on the laminate floor. So far, the wounds appear to be superficial, but I can no longer close my laptop. Which means I can no longer tote it around town/Europe and blog from the road. And since my Christmas list is already full and my birthday is 10 months away, I guess I’ll just have to deal with it. Unless my mom wants to get me a new laptop for Christmas... (Mom, I am just kidding. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT buy me a new laptop!)

3) Thanksgiving was a lot harder than I expected it to be. I cried more yesterday than I have total since moving here.  And that was before I broke my computer which resulted in a big ole meltdown on the kitchen floor. It was tough.

4) Mommy guilt over not getting Samson out more. The weather this week has just been miserable. Pelting rain and hurricane winds miserable. And I have just been so busy lately that something’s gotta give, and unfortunately, it’s his morning walks. I may or may not have overindulged him by letting him have some thanksgiving leftovers yesterday.

5) Missing my husband. He’s been in class this week and therefore still has work to do when he gets home. Then he goes to the gym and I go off to book club/mahjong/another social activity and we just ended up going in opposite directions all week long.

6) Jonathan had the car all week this week, which combined with the bad weather meant I was homebound most of the time. Which drove us to make a pretty huge decision…to buy a second vehicle, which we are about to go pick up just as soon as I finish this blog post.

Feel a bit mafia-ish with the car cash just sitting on our kitchen counter.

Highs:

1) Buying a second vehicle. The one vehicle worked really well, and we could easily continue sharing. But it was getting annoyingly inconvenient when we wanted to do separate things at night and we thought ‘if we can afford it and have the space to park it, why not?’ I’ll write more about the new car when I have time to go into it next week, but here is a sneak peak:

2) Thanksgiving dinner with the AWA.

Tanvi did a great job of organizing this event. And after my emotional wallowing day, it was just the thing to lift my spirits.

I miss my family so much, I really do. But our friends here are fantastic. I crave spending time with them and it’s so hard to believe that 6 months ago, I didn’t know a single one of them. It reminds me of a Carrie Bradshaw quote from Sex and the City when she is having her final dinner with her girls before moving to Paris. She says “Today I was struck with a thought: What if I had never met you?”. It’s cheesy but I think about that often- how easily all of our lives could have taken us somewhere else, but yet they led us here, to these wonderful women and these amazing friendships. I am more thankful for this than anything else about our life in Scotland.

That about wraps it up highs and lows today. I feel like I’ve had a lot more lows than highs this week, but sometimes that’s life. You can’t win them all. Unless it’s mahjong, and then all I do is win.  

I hope you had more highs than lows this week. Why don’t you fill me in on what they were?