New Year's Resolutions

Tis the season to sit back and evaluate 2008-and contemplate what I want to personally accomplish in 2009. To say that 2008 was a year of 'change' would be an understatement akin to saying George W Bush wasn't a good president.

Anyhoo, political statements aside, I've been pondering what I want to do with myself in 2009, and decided that this year, am going to publicize some of my resolutions, as they do specifically relate to the theme of my blog. So, here goes..

1. Get a hobby. I work too much. Specifically, when factoring in my commute I'm 'at work' daily from 7.30am to almost 7.30pm. That's too much time, and my typical weeks consist of work/home/work/home...No good. I need to find a hobby/class/interest that gets me out of the office at a respectable time, and off to something other than my flat to watch television. Softball will definitely kick in at some point when it warms up in May, but in the interim, I'm thinking about a cooking class, continuing my Thai lessons, finding a yoga studio, getting a personal trainer...something. Any suggestions? And, it certainly doesn't have to involve spending money!
2. Run a 10k. (At least one). I've been roped into a 10k with Simon and his BFF, Herbie in April. Mind you, Herbie ran a half marathon in October, and Simon's fast walking pace is my *running* pace. But, oh well... :) Someone has to be the slow one!
3. Travel. Like this one is a surprise. Given the £ to € conversion lately, it's safe to say that unless it's a super-cheap location, Western Europe will likely be off limits this year. So, instead, it will be the Year Of Eastern Europe....Poland, Croatia, Turkey, Hungary, Greece, Morocco, Portugal (though, technically not Eastern Europe, the last two are both pretty cheap...). And, I'd like to explore more of England. There are dozens of places that I can 'pop' out to for a day trip on the train for under £20. I should take advantage of this.
4. Volunteer locally. It's time to get off my duff, and find something good to do while I'm here. Ideally with Habitat for Humanity, but it doesn't *have* to be. I'm open to organization/cause suggestions if anyone has any.
5. Try more 'British' things...I'm living here for a reason (aside from The Job), and I need to take better advantage of this. Be it jellied eels (though that may be taking it a bit too far...), becoming a mushy peas connoisseur, or maybe it will be to finally try a tin of the icky looking 'Tuna Mayonnaise' that I poked fun at back in March, I vow to try things in 2009 that I wouldn't have dared try in 2008!

Well, that's about it-or at least, those are the one's I'm willing to make public. :) There are more, but those will just have to remain a secret for now.

Happy 2009 all. I hope it's a great year for everyone!

Catching Up

Though I've been blogging like a good girl lately, I have been lazy about posting photos-mainly from Thanksgiving and puttering around London at Christmas. I honestly just haven't been in the mood to mess with my computer in an attempt to get it to work, though surprisingly, after not touching it for over a month, it fired up the other day and I've had no problems since-including being able to access Hotmail. Go figure.

So, I decdied to catch up on all the 'home PC' work I've been putting off, like uploading songs to the iPod, uploading photos-and then adding a few to the blog, things like that.

Without further ado, a few pictures from the past two months. Enjoy...

Chef Justyn and our 28 pound Thanskgiving Bird...

Simon, Herbie, Shalma, Daniel, Jamie & Jen at T'giving Dinner...

Carnaby Street at Xmas (is it just me, or do those things look like the StaPuff 'monster' from GhostBusters?...)...

I think the label says it all...

Dad, Virginia, Max, Scott & Susan...

I am now an Official Londoner...

I got stuck on the Tube today for 30 mintutes. The train in front of us on the Central Line broke down, and we got stuck. 30 minutes later ('just'...), I got to Oxford Circus, and though I was still going to Lancaster Gate, decided to play it safe and switch lines to get home via Paddington instead.

I guess it's technically my first 'traffic jam.' But, considering the horror stories of the trains breaking down in the summer time for literally *hours* (and the temperature on the trains going above 100 degrees. seriously...), I won't complain.

At least I had a seat!

Home.

Ah, home, sweet, home...Wherever that is.

In case you ever wonder if it's physically possible to gain 4 pounds in one week, let me assure you that it is. Dear God, I don't think I had a single meal in which I walked away from the table feeling anything less than *stuffed*. By the end of my week in Hickory, I was actually tired of eating-and in serious need of some exercise that extended beyond walking around the mall for 30 minutes!
It was great to be back home in Hickory for Christmas (and the sunny, 64 degree Christmas day was a nice surprise)-getting to see Dad is always a good thing, and catching up with a few freiends was also fun. But, as I haven't actually *lived* in Hickory in almost 17 years, 'home' is a relative term; a small part of me was just as excited to return to London as I was to go to Hickory to begin with.
Don't get me wrong...The first Cherry-Lemon-Vanilla-Sundrop at Shell's BBQ is always a welcome taste (and don't get me started on the sweet tea...), but were it not for my father still living there, I don't think I'd really have a reason to go back to Hickory. On some level-partially because it's changed so much over the years-Hickory isn't 'home' any longer. Rather, it's just the place I came from.

They say, 'home is where the heart is,' and I guess it really is true. And though London does feel like home in many ways, it still doesn't completely. Neither does Hickory. I guess the closest thing to home for me is still Seattle (partially because I still own a physical 'home' there...), but since I'm not there at the moment, I wonder, does that make me homeless in some way?

Wowsers

Well, I didn't see this coming. Honestly...

Simon & I were chatting Saturday nite and I had just told him that my renter had informed me Friday nite that he was planning on moving out at the end of his lease (so much for wanting to stay put for 2 years...). Anyhoo, I told him I was stressed out at the prospect of having to find another renter-and get everything sorted-from London, and especially freaked out at the prospect of having many, many months of a rentless mortgage to pay. ugh. I told him absolute worst case scenario was that my place stood empty for so long, I couldn't financially swing mortgage and rent (read: previous post about the loss of the GPB to the USD...), and would have to move back to Seattle. Ironically, as I had thought about this the previous 24 hours, I realized that I *really* wasn't ready to move back to Seattle.

So, we were talking about ways to save money here in London-and it goes without saying that the most obvious way would be for me to move to a cheaper place. But, as I told Simon, though that were certainly possible, the lack of space (the tradeoff for a cheaper place) would be a challenge for Sarah & I, given the setup we have now. Then he dropped the bomb on me: 'Well,' he said, 'would you consider finding a flat with me?' Wow.

I think my heart actually stopped for a moment. At the rate of about a billion thoughts in a split second, I realized that yes, I would want to do that-cost savings aside-because I did want to live with him and spend more time with him. I told him I would like very much to do that-and then I confessed about my epiphany from two weeks ago (I still hadn't screwed up the courage to tell him), and told him he was my lobster.

We didn't exactly hammer out the fine details-and I still need to have a chat with Sarah about this. Our lease doesn't expire until the end of March, so there's time. But, it's funny: just the thought of doing this with Simon suddenly made the stress of my renter leaving seem much, much less.

Ouch

The plummet of the GPB to the USD officially hit 'ugly status' for me this week.

I just did a back of the envelope calculation of what my current GBP salary would be in USD, and it turns out I'm actually making LESS now in USD than when I transferred from the US. And, I'm not talking about just a few hundred dollars. I'm talking about a loss of almost 10%.

WTF?!?!

An Epiphany

You know how some of the most defining moments or thoughts can come at the most mundane times in your life when you least expect it? Well, it appears as if that's what happened to me at dinner Saturday nite.

One of my oldest and dearest friends, Jen, is in town visiting, and she, Simon & I went out to dinner Saturday nite. We'd finished a fantastic meal-and I think between the outstanding food, yummy wine, and general good time, there was a halo of happiness over us as we were just chit chatting away about this and that. Jen & Simon were talking about I don't even know what, and then it hit me like a ton of bricks: I want to spend the rest of my life with this guy sitting here next to me. I'm not sure where the thought came from; it's not like I was sitting there having an internal debate with myself-I was actually listening to the conversation. But, there it was anyway.

Admittedly, the past two months or so, I have begun having a bit of an internal debate-is he?isn't he? if he is/isn't, how/when will I know? if he is, what does that mean? if he isn't, now what? London? the US? somewhere else?....on an on. I had pretty much resolved myself to not resolving anything for a while. Then Saturday nite-and wham.

Just when you least expect it.