First and foremost: Happy 4th of July! I hope all of your are having a great time with family, friends and whoever else celebrating today.
[Insert me asking Google how to start your first, well, technically second post after an announced week of absence. <- okay, kidding here but maybe I should have consulted that all-knowing search machine to come up with a better intro?].
If you didn’t see yesterday’s post: hello again! No, I did not decide to stop blogging out of nowhere. The only simple – yet cringe-inducing for its overuse – way to sum up the reason is: life happened. I missed blogging yet at the same time know I need[ed] a break. My issues with commenting still haven’t been resolved so if I didn’t comment on your posts: Askimet. Sigh.
Today’s post is going to be shorter than my usual wordy Weeks in Review as my sister and sweet little nephew P. are here until tomorrow afternoon only so I want to spend some more time with them while I get the chance. The week away from blogging and the past two weeks in general brought about a few realizations hence adding a few notes to myself today.
Onto some of what happened in my life during the past seven days via Meg’s wonderful Week in Review. I …
Worked the usual five days each week. Especially the past one was … hard. Uncomfortable. Yet providing learning experience. Still not one I want to see repeated.
On the upside: we now have a new boss. Not replacing the ‘old’ one but additionally. They fused their businesses starting July 1st. You can’t call it a bad start if little chocolate gifts with handpicked flowers are involved, no?
Second upside of work: bonding with colleagues is getting better by the week. Sometimes going through above-mentioned hard times helps with that. As does saying thank you. A lot. I might overdo it for some but it’s a word not used often enough in my opinion.
Note to self: use it more often towards certain other people, too. Improvement is always possible.
Cleaned my apartment. Including scrubbing some very sticky spots on the floor by hand. Worth overcoming the initial yuck factor for the ‘oh so clean’ marveling afterwards. Note to self: clean those trouble spots more regularly. Sigh.
Actually went to bed earlier than usual. Probably – no, definitely – due to not blogging. Not exactly what I liketo admit to myself. Read: being a night owl does have its downsides. Note to self: work on stepping away from screens earlier before bedtime. Seriously.
Got to spend time with litte P. twice. Once when visiting my sister to celebrate her birthday belatedly and the other time now they’re visiting us until Monday.
Finally visited the restaurant I mentioned before as a family, too. The one I translated the menu for if you remember it – I don’t blame you if you don’t because it’s been months ago but they didn’t get it up until recently. As also mentioned back then I’m not a fan of burgers. Don’t hate me, okay? That didn’t keep me from enjoying a truly wonderful time with my parents, grandparents, sister + her family [husband and little P.] and my brother plus his girlfriend. Family > food any day. No nicer pictures as I forgot to edit them – good restaurant, not so stellar light for photography – so all you’ll get is one of my salad. Flash … #bloggerfail More interesting than this mixed salad with seasonal vegetables and candied walnuts were the fries, though. Long time fry craving: finally satisfied.
Notes to self: Family dinners like this need to happen more often and: stepping out of my food comfort zone needs to be a more regular thing, too. Especially if it involves fries served family-style.
Finally took a trip to the citizen centre to get a paper I needed. Waiting an hour – okay, truth: I saw the queue and decided to pass the time running errands; win-win. Especially as I ended up having a nice albeit too short conversation with the employee handling my consult as she’s a former classmate of mine.
Watched the two winning matches of the German soccer team in the European Championship. Or semi-watched as I get bored actually sitting down and watching whole games alone plus don’t own a TV and the livestream kept crashing. Anyway, not bad. Really not bad. I’m still not interested in soccer but figure it’s my duty to show some interest ;). Or maybe I do enjoy it just that bit …
Note to self: Even annoying situations can lead to positives. And: procrastination is bad.
Happiness-inducing today: Family time and actually getting a lot done in good time on a Sunday. Usually a hectic and less relaxed day for me.
