I’ve bruised my bum!!!

Sledding is so hard! I remember doing it as a kid but it’s just not the same here as with the ice/slush stuff we have back home. I’ll make this short because I’m positive that it’s quite boring to most people. At one point today, I was on a wooden sled (first experience with that) going down an icy/snowy road. I might also add that they’ve put up poles to mark where the road is in case of a big snow; I can only imagine this is to prevent people from driving into the farmer’s fields. Anyway…as you might have guessed I had some near misses with a few of these lovely poles and one of them resulted in me sliding on my bum for several feet on the ice. OUCH!! That’s gonna leave a mark!



Ok, I’ve also attached pictures of me sledding down the big hill (two empty lots) beside our house. Hum, it seems I’m no better on the plastic sleds either; I just can’t figure out how to turn or stop. Seems like those are fairly important things to know! I’m the tiny dot at the top of the first picture, the second is of me halfway down and partially coming out of the sled, and as you can see in the third picture I had managed to turn myself sideways in the sled. In the end I had more snow in the sled with me than was left on the hill and I had a near miss with a tree and running into several people. I do hope skiing goes more smoothly!



I’m leaving day after tomorrow really, REALLY early in the AM for Barcelona so I may not post again until I return.

Ciao for now!!

LuLu

The first big snow!!

Hi everyone, I just thought I’d drop in to say IT SNOWED…IT’S STILL SNOWING!! It started yesterday evening and went ALL NIGHT so today we had a beautiful blanket of snow. The girls and I attempted to sled this morning but it only went ok…apparently the snow isn’t just right for it today but I’m hoping that tomorrow will be better. I just wanted to share some pictures with you of my first snow experience in Switzerland.




Hope you all have a nice day!!

LuLu

Spiders, spiders in my heart…

I’ve written a new children’s song I’d like to share with all of you:

The Big, Fat, Ugly Spider by LuLu (to the tune of The Itsy, Bitsy Spider)

The big, fat, ugly spider crawled up upon my couch
Down came the shoe that knocked the spider out
Up it came again to finish off the job
And the big, fat, ugly spider was deader than a doorknob

Ok, so the events in this song never actually occurred…if they had I would be um…FREAKING OUT right now!!! However, I did see one from my window crawling along on the footpath this AM and it triggered my memory into writing this quirky and somewhat strange song (yes, I know…I have too much free time if I’m making up songs …sometimes cleaning lends time for the mind to wander a bit!). You may be wondering about the fate of the outside spider…he is still living, as far as I know. I make it a point only to dispose of the ones that are a direct threat to me (i.e. staring up at me inside my warm and cozy bedroom-this is a very rare occurrence though…). I know the old saying that the spiders are probably more afraid of me than I am of them…I’m bigger and all…but still, I don’t find them attractive and I guess there just isn’t any good way to get over a deep rooted fear. I blame it mainly on camp incidents, as a child, with some really, really mean girls!

There is one more thing I’d like to say on the subject of spiders; it is the light-hearted, yet a little sad, part of this rather strange post. The girls have a toy spider…ok, let me stop there for a moment…I don’t think they like spiders any more than I do but they do have this toy and in some aspects and just at a glance it can look real. This thing is huge…if it were real I’d definitely run from it…I’d call an exterminator if I ever saw one that big in my house (or maybe just my brother, Timothy, because I think he’d take care of it for me!). Anyway, back to the story, so the girls have this spider and they think it’s funny to put it in places around the house where it will scare me. Actually, it’s become like a big game with the three of us (add in the parents at times as well…) and so this plastic spider (that rolls as well I might add) pops up all over the place. Sometimes he’s not seen for days on end but inevitably someone will stumble upon him and get a small scare. I’ve added a picture of how I found him this morning, beside a note about how my day will be. You can see that he’s not really that lifelike but I’m telling you if you came upon this thing and didn’t know what you were looking at, for a few seconds, it looks real!




The whole thing reminds me of a game that went on for a while between my mother and my great, great uncle Paul. My mother may as well have been his daughter (as they had no children of their own) and he treated her as such. He had this Gumby figure…do you remember him…the little green man…and this plastic toy ended up all over the place (I once heard a story of how one of them put him into a sandwich made for the other). I’m not sure when I was first introduced to the Gumby Game but I do know came when one of them found this toy after years of it being lost and therefore the game forgotten. I remember what pleasure he took in playing with us, as my mother’s children, the game he had played with her as a child. My uncle Paul passed away only just last year (he never knew of my decision to move here) in his mid 80s and for whatever reason seeing that spider this morning made me think of him and gave me a smile and thoughts of how he was when he wasn’t so sick.

So…moving on before I cry too much…this post is for the spider game with two adorable little girls, the lost Gumby (I have no idea where it is now) and my uncle Paul, gone for now but remembered always in my heart!

LuLu

It’s good to try new things!!

One of my personal rules of life was tested last night. I have always said that I’d try any new food once as long as it wasn’t still living. Hum, I guess I’ve never really tested this by eating weird things until now and last night, as I stated this rule of mine to my host dad with pride, internally I said to myself…”can I really eat this?!?!”. The food, my dear friends, was horse. I was aware that some people throughout the world, and in Switzerland, ate horse; however, until last night there was no mention that it was eaten at all in this house. Hum, I have no problems with the idea but I wasn’t sure if I could actually do it! Well, I’m sure by now you’ve guessed that I did try it. Tastes like…um…steak. I know, I know…it’s common to say when asked…that it tastes like chicken…but this…this was a lot like steak. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say if you put a similar cut steak in front of me and the horse I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Hum, so, I tried it, I’d eat it again, and it didn’t kill me!! Good news right…yep…so I’m really proud of myself for sticking to my policy of trying everything once.

Ok…enough of that…on to other news that I know I’ve already reported…I’m going to Barcelona. In fact, this time next week I’ll be there with BP and Jase!! Yay…we are doing some last minute things to secure a place to stay etc. and I’ve been heavily reading my new Let’s Go Western Europe 2007 guidebook for what we need to see while there. One other comment…MY HOST MOM’S HOME!!! Yay… I know everyone, especially the girls, have missed her tremendously, so it’s a very happy day in this Swiss house!

Ok, I’m sure I’ll update again before going.

Miss you guys!!

LuLu

So I have problems…Yes, I am aware of that…

As most of you have probably guessed by now, I never regained the thoughts lost last night about the perfect blog! I have an idea about why that is though…it has come to my attention that I am super smart! So, it isn’t any wonder I lose thoughts because my brain is constantly working overtime…I’m stuffing all this German junk into it and on top of that my travel worries on where to go and what to see…Hehe…so you all hate me now right?! Quatch (that’s for you Megz and Manda)!!!

So, the real topic of my post today is my addictive personality. It seems I have a lot of problems with things that can become aholic issues. No, smarty pants, I’m not referring to alcohol! As most of you know, I am a top notch procrastinator. What would my life be like without procrastination?!?! Well, I’m fairly positive that it would be a lot less hectic if I’d just do things when I should! So tonight, as I sit here attempting to procrastinate writing this post, I turned to one of my two most useful tools for procrastination…the first of course is sleep…I love to sleep…I’m definitely a sleepaholic... however, tonight’s tool of choice is Snood.

It worked well in college when I should have been writing papers. It’s a computer game for all you who don’t know… it’s FABULOUS and very addicting!! I can play for hours on end and I’m convinced the only thing you can gain from it is carpal tunnel in your wrist…but anyways…So, as I sit and play this game I keep thinking, “Ok, I’ll play one more game and then I’ll get started…” That one game is inevitable followed by 23,435 more games in that one sitting (CandyCane I know you have a comment about this)… AAAHHH!!!

Well, tonight as I thought that after every game I came to realize that I am completely under the control of this game…my brain is mush when I play it and I lose all track of time! I’m a Snoodaholic!!! In addition to this, I started thinking about what else I have aholic tendencies toward...well, I already mentioned sleep but we can’t forget shopaholic, chocoholic, travelaholic (ok, so I’m not so sure that’s a thing but it is where I’m concerned), shoeaholic, foodaholic, craftaholic (yes, I admit this is somewhat embarrassing but I do really, REALLY like to do crafts) etc, etc…you get the drift…

I’ve decided that this isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world. Yes, I suppose it can be a problem sometimes but it simply means that I put all of myself into the things I enjoy. What can be so bad about that??

Alright…this has essentially been a post about nothing; however, since I had no better material I hope you won’t hold that against me…

Auf Wiedersehen…

LuLu

I’m having a day!!

Alright people, I know I should blog and I promise that I actually came up with a really, REALLY great topic earlier but I’m having a truly old lady moment where I can’t remember it. And…at the present time I’m a bit too frazzled to try and figure out what it was I was thinking or doing when I thought of the cool topic…you get the drift…you’ll just have to wait until I regain my sanity…don’t hold your breath though…it could take a while!

LuLu

I’m not finished with Europe yet…

This morning I was walking around the house doing some miscellaneous things when I decided to go up and make a coffee. As I stood in the kitchen waiting on the machine, I realized it was 10AM…it means that fairly soon the daily Delta non-stop bound for Atlanta would be taking off. (It’s a big thing for me b/c it’s the only one I recognize and can say definitely where it’s headed…the rest of the family can say…oh there’s blah, blah and they are headed for dah, dah…I never know those…only the ATL bound Delta at 10AM) As it turns out, my house has a great view of the runways at Zurich airport so I stood by the window and watched this plane take off headed for the States. Inevitably when I’m able to watch the plane bound for Atlanta take off I wonder how different my life would be if I just went home right now. I always think…less than half a day and that’s all it would take to get me back to GA. It’s strange for me to think that I’m across and ocean and on a different continent but all it takes is roughly half a day…weird…

I digress…back to the point…every time I have this passing thought something in the back of my mind keeps quietly repeating…”but, you’re not finished with Europe yet…” and I know this is most definitely true. Tomorrow will mark my 4 month anniversary here in Switzerland and I’ve seen a lot so far…but every time I think about how there is only 8 more months left in this year contract I start to panic about all the things I haven’t seen. My girlfriends and I have started making plans and looking up prices on tons of places we want to see before this year is out.

This has already been the most fabulous experience I’ve ever had and I know that few things in life will ever come close. I can say for sure that even if I went home tomorrow it was all worth the decision for me to come here in the first place. As it turns out I plan to take every opportunity I come across to stay here as long as possible. I’m even open to the possibility of a more permanent job if it comes along.

Ok, enough of the ranting…just as an update, I don’t think I’ve shared this previously; I am leaving for Barcelona, Spain in just over two weeks. I plan to spend 4 ½ days there with Jase and BP on another whirlwind adventure where we are sure to come home with some gorgeous pictures and yet again more unbelievable stories…

Have a fabulous day!!

Your Swiss Friend…LuLu

There Once Was A Girl and Her Shoes…

***DISCLAIMER-this post has nothing to do with traveling in Europe and the subject is therefore one of the writer’s random rants about life…if you are looking for substance please look elsewhere***

Confucius say LuLu miss her shoes!! I want to start with an apology for my male readers. This post will most likely be a major waste of your time so I wouldn’t blame you if you stopped reading at this point. Now…ladies…I know that most of you will be able to identify closely with the subject of this post…SHOES!!

For me buying shoes is a source of comfort and stress relief…especially when I can find them in a good sale. Buying shoes is unlike purchasing anything else you wear. If you gain a little bit of weight you can still, most likely, find that perfect pair of shoes (even if you have to go up a half size)…When nothing else seems to fit I go directly for the shoes section. I am, what you could call, vertically challenged…SHORT…all my life I’ve endured pet names such as shorty, short stuff, midget, and my brother-in-law’s personal favorite Umpa Lumpa (you know, those short people helping Willy Wonka at the factory…). I’ve long gotten over my hatred of these names…I am short…it’s a fact of life and I deal with it daily…can’t reach the top shelf in the kitchen pantry so I get a stool, need help reaching things in the isle at Wal-Mart and I try to ask an attractive guy for help, etc…but the one area where I can’t get used to my abnormal body type is clothes shopping. I am short-waisted and short-legged. Nothing ever fits me properly…nothing except shoes.

Additionally, shoes have a quality that most accessories (can you call them an accessory…they must be worn…) don’t have, they can dress up or down almost any outfit. A lot of times the shoes make the outfit! The right shoe can make any size foot look delicate and grab the attention of others. I have a friend who says her feet look like that of a duck…when she finds the right shoe she throws a little party for herself at the store (and I do so love to be along when that happens). Ahhh, these are special times shared between women!!

Last night I had a dream…the subject of which is not important…at one point I was sitting in the floor in my closet back home trying on my shoes (and yes I used to do this quite a lot when I needed a pick-me-up). When I woke this AM I realized that I didn’t have any of the cute pairs here in Switzerland. When you pack for a year you choose to bring the ones that will go with everything and not the cute, fun, spunky pairs that only go with one thing in your closet…how I miss those shoes!! It’s as if I can hear them calling to me from across the Atlantic…”LuLu…come home and wear us before we go out of style…”

So…as cheesy as this sounds…I’m dedicating this post to my duck-footed friend in GA and those boxes of fabulous shoes sitting in a storage unit waiting for me to come back to them.

Ciao for now…

LuLu

A New Talent…

Just when I thought my brain was turning to complete mush and I had nothing left to offer society, I have found something at which I am very talented. As mentioned previously I have been reunited with an old favorite…Uno. However, over the past few days the girls and I have had a blast playing Go Fish. I played as a kid but couldn’t remember all the rules so we looked it up on the www and began playing away...

Well, today we had a major dilemma on our hands as both girls wanted to play…that’s great right?!?!...well…NO…they each wanted to play a different game and neither wanted to wait and let the other go first…so a compromise had to be made! And I was the one making it! That’s right…I played Uno and Go Fish at the same time. In one hand I held the Uno cards and played with Girl Age 3 and in the other I held my cards for Go Fish and played with Girl Age 6. This takes a lot more thought that I ever realized. It was the fastest I’ve ever played either game and of course I lost both of them…additionally, I can’t be sure but I’m fairly positive that there was A LOT of cheating going on!!

I obviously wish I had pictures of this because it was quite comical…but as luck would have it I don’t so you guys will all need to use your imagination! Alright I’m signing off for the evening…I’ve got Friends season 10 disk 3 in the DVD player right now and I’m spending a quiet night at the house…

Goodnight all!!

LuLu

Procrastination and Laziness Really Does Pay Off…

I always told myself that one day it would be useful to be a totally lazy procrastinator. Ladies and gentlemen…that day has finally arrived for me! I was honestly dreading the thoughts of putting my Italy/Christmas 2006 vacation into words for a blog post. I seem to go to one extreme or another...either I go on and on about junk and then the post is way too long or I feel that I don’t do it justice at all by posting something quite short. I’ve been back for almost a week now with absolutely no motivation to write anything. Well, it seems that my overly eager friends in Sarajevo have done all the work for me! As I read their post today I thought to myself…I couldn’t have written this any better…and I don’t intend on trying. If you are interested in reading about what I did on the vacation please reference their blog http://sarajevorose.blogspot.com/ and check out the post title “Christmas in Rome”. The pics they posted are outstanding and ok…the ones at the bottom of me trying to pose with the leaning tower are a little embarrassing…but I will let that slide this time because I have a few of my own that I can definitely use for blackmail! Also…if you wish to see these rather embarrassing pics of BP and Jase along with all the other pictures taken by me on this trip please go to my picture site http://new.photos.yahoo.com/laceyn1/albums and access one of the two albums devoted to the trip.

Well, that’s all I have for now…

I’ll talk to you all again soon!!

LuLu

How to Lose a Friend…

I guess this title could be a small amount deceiving. I don’t intend to tell you about losing a friend or anything of that nature; rather, I want to share my ponderings of the last two days. Since the holiday season is now past and some of the rush is gone, I have time to think about those I should have contacted for Thanksgiving/Christmas/The New Year but didn’t think to at the time or just didn’t put forth the effort when the thought presented itself. Perhaps some of my readers are those very people. In my thoughts of these people and the situation in general I began to think about some people in the past that I have just lost touch with…through whatever reason or another neither of us have bothered to pick up the phone or try to contact through email. I think about friends I had from childhood, college friends that I miss dearly, old workmates, etc…I miss these people and sometimes I wish I could go back to the times where we were good friends and went to the movies or out to eat on Friday night…that of course cannot happen and even if it were possible I would never do it…you meet new people along the way and I’d never trade that…it is impossible to say accurately that the people closest to you will always be there because there are plenty of people who I was extremely close with that just simply slipped out of my life at a moment when neither of us bothered to write or call…no arguments or problems occurred…instead…life happened.

I was talking to a good friend moments ago and we have decided that the grass always seems greener until you move on and find out that it’s not greener…it’s just the grass we’ve been given (ok so part of that is a quote from the movie In Her Shoes…fabulous if you haven’t seen it!). So I guess this isn’t the upbeat post everyone was expecting…it’s not the story of my Christmas vacation or New Year’s Eve happenings…I’m not going to tell you about my new year’s resolution because I don’t think I have any this year…my hope for all of you will be to cherish those people around you every day…just enjoy the moments…the friend you rarely see but treasure dearly, the person who you pass every day in the hall at work but they make the day that much better for you…I have mixed feelings on the phrase which says to hold those people close to you and never let them go…sometimes you just have to let go…because life happens…but because of this it makes the reunions that much sweeter!!!

Alright I’m signing off now before I make some readers cry or jump off a cliff or whatever…I will attempt to make the next post one worth reading…I never said that I wouldn’t use this blog as a platform for my whining and contemplations regarding life in general…in a country where I basically understand nothing said around me I have a lot of time to think…

Later dudes…

LuLu

I’m sure I should…

Blog that is…but I just don’t have the energy…Sometimes I’m so overwhelmed by the amount of things I need to catch up on (i.e. writing a post for the blog) that I just sit and do nothing instead…

That’s what I’m currently doing!! Yay!!

Hopefully I’ll have some good stuff for you again soon!!!!

LuLu