Dinks have left the building...or at least the blog

We are still DINKS but are no longer in Deutschsland, so with my move to the states comes my move to a new blog. Follow my new adventures here: http://simpledowntownliving.blogspot.com/

Tschuss!

Closing Time

One of my the signature college songs was, "Closing Time" by Semisonic. That song popped into my head as I pondered how to write this entry.

Today, after a ridiculous goose chase called outprocessing, and a number of farewell dinners and hugs from colleagues, we are ready to go. It has been a learning experience. I've made good friends.

"Open all the doors and let you out into the world"

A Wild Ride

Kelly: The last month has been a blur. My grandfather died. Matt spent the last month working in the States while I've been here in Germany. I was offered a job with the Army Public Health Command. I submitted my resignation to my current position with 30 days notice, and it took 10 days to figure out that yes, indeed, I did sign a one-year contract. HR was fighting it because most "normal" contracts require two years of service. I was a wreck. I couldn't imagine staying for another year without Matt and with two caustic co-workers. So when it ws finally confirmed that I could leave without penalty, I had to scramble to get the movers lined up. Unfortunately, I had to wait for offiical orders before I could schedule anything and of course, HR was unresponsive. Thanks to the efforts of an amazing executive assistant, I was able to get my orders and schedule everything. Thanks also to the support of an amazing friend who I will miss dearly. Still, I was holding my breath. Life here feels so uncontrollable. I feel as if logic and order don't always prevail. Rules change. People change. Ugh. With this as the background, I was trying to organize our goods for the first packing and moving that took place last Friday. To top that off, I got food poisoning last weekend and had upset stomach for 5 days before relenting and visiting the doctor. I am usually anti-conventional medicine, but thank goodness for antibiotics! I'm finally feeling better. I have been surprised by the response to my resignation. One "colleague" took over several of my duties already, slamming my work to my boss. Another "colleague" stuck her name on my door. Remember...I'm not leaving for three more weeks. Meanwhile, a stoic Major cried when she found out and other colleagues were similarly dismayed. How interesting. This work experience has been such an education.

That was going on on this side of the ocean, and Matt was dealing with his own set of issues. His boss is on leave, so he is covering for her while trying to do his job which he hadn't fully grasped yet and hadn't caught up on the work that was there prior to taking the position. So, work is busy. He's sleeping on the floor at a friend's house 1 hour from work. He's also trying to buy a house in Frederick. He sifted through/discovered information on general contracting, permitting, sub-contracting, historic preservation, city laws, city taxes, mortgages, construction loans, and more. Finally, his number crunching concluded that it was feasible. He worked with a contractor to get the numbers down, thanks to my parents volunteering to paint and help out :) We're still submitting all of the numbers to the bank, but it appears that all will go through by the end of the month. So, Matt's next challenge was finding a place for us to live. After seeing many scary, small, cold, dark, and moldy apartments, our realtor found us a sublet...furnished...over a tattoo parlor! Done!

We are so excited. So so so excited. Matt arrived back in Germany yesterday. We'll spend the remaineder of our time here closing accounts, organizing, cleaning, running around among bases to outprocess before hopping our plane to return home at the end of the month. Hello, Frederick!

Loving London

Kelly: London is a comfortable Paris.
Paris is massive. London is massive.
Paris is fashionable. London is fashionable.
Paris has amazing food. London has amazing food.
Paris has amazing history and architecture. London has amazing history and architecture.
Despite the similarities, London seems much more doable. Perhaps the reason is that the language barrier doesn't exist. Although, some of the words like, "bobbies" and "aubergine" could be another language! We found Londoners to be very welcoming and willing to take time to explain directions or to check on food ingredients.

We stayed with a lovely English woman who had lived in England all of her life, spending most of her time in London, summering in Somerset and France. How amazing does that sound! She lived in an adorable, historic rowhome near Holland Park. Matt and I quickly came to feel at home in this residential neighborhood just west of Notting Hill. We ate so well, which was a joy for me given that I'd been struggling with the newly diagnosed food allergies. Matt found cider and became inspired to brew his own when we return to the states. We walked about 14 miles the first day and didn't even scratch the surface. So, with Rick Steves' blessing and the encouragement of our proper English hostess, we bit the bullet and hopped on the hop-on, hop-off bus. It served the purpose of moving us from one tourist destination to another. We detoured and spent a few hours at the Tate Modern where Matt awoke, both literally with the help of a stellar latte and figuratively with the lofty space inspiring new creative ideas for living.

And now, we are back in cloudy, cold Germany. If you couldn't tell, I'm not looking forward to work tomorrow....

Fresh Mountain Air

Kelly: I'm spending a few days in Garmisch, Germany at the foot of the Alps, for a Resiliency Training. I won't bore you with the details of the training, but attending has made me realize that I certainly have the skills required to pursue CEU/CME workshops on self-care! Nuf said. The weather has been rainy and cold...not so much fun, except that cold and rain at sea level means a view of snow-covered peaks from my balcony. I've met some cool people and have seen several people get hooked on yoga after one session!

The part of this trip that has been the most difficult for me is certainly the food, or lack thereof. The nice young man in the lunch buffet line (the only restaurant available to us at the conference center is the buffet, unless I want to eat pub food, which won't happen) assured me that yesterday's vegetable soup was gluten free. The knots in my stomach at 2:00 PM told me otherwise. Ugh. I found a health food store where I was able to stock up on some fruit and gluten-free snacks such as rice cakes, pretzels, and dried coconut. However, I don't like consuming so much processed crap and my body feels sluggish and tired after doing so. I'm already ready to return to fresh veggies and simple fish. Simple. I'm also looking forward to seeing my honey who will be home shortly before I return, assuming traffic isn't a nightmare tomorrow.

I'm going to tuck myself in for my last night of sleeping at the foot of the Alps breathing pristine, mountain air :)

What to eat

Kelly: I've been having GI issues (we'll leave it at that just in case anyone is eating while reading this blog) on and off for a while now and other seemingly random nagging health issues. I found a doctor who had treated random symptoms and visited him while I was home. He confirmed that as I had thought but had been dismissed by conventional medicine that my thyroid wasn't functioning up to speed. But because the one test that conventional docs run didn't showed up just within the "normal" range, I was fine. Nevermind, that my symptoms were a mirror image of the textbook definition of hypothroidism. Okay, done with the mini-rant. In addition, the proactive doc mentioned that I might be allergic to foods and that the food allergy was driving the thyroid issue. So, I had more blood drawn and received the results of the tests Monday night. He told me, in no uncertain terms, that the tests indicated I was allergic to almonds, dairy, milk, eggs, and beef. WHAT??? What will I eat. Hmmm. I had just swallowed my dessert of organic raw cheese and almonds. Not good. "What about gluten?" I had asked. Gluten didn't show up on the test. To mourn my loss of ice cream (thank God I got my fill of gelato in Italy!), I tested my gluten allergy by eating a couple of handfulls of Matt's organic granola. Within 30 minutes and three trips to the bathroom, I had my answer. Yep, still allergic to gluten. So, with tears rolling down my rashy face, I called my mom to tell her that I couldn't eat anything. She went in to mom fix-it mode and started brainstorming how I could survive. After we hung up and I started researching a little more (shocker, I know...me, reasearch), I pulled myself together and looked at this newfound knowledge as an opportunity to be healthier. I have repeated that little mantra several times this week and it will likely become etched in my neurons as I navigte through our processed food world. With that, I'm off to the farmers' market and then yoga. To health!

Lazy Sunday

Kelly: When the weekend rolls around, if I'm not on call which forces me to stay at home, and Matt isn't leaving to return to the states, and the weather has not unpredictably dropped autobahn-closing levels of ice and/or snow, then we are TRAVELING. This weekend was an exception to that. I went to the Farmers' market with a good friend yesterday, did lots of chores around the house (Yes, I truly appreciate all that Matthew does when he is here) and cooked. Today, after a nice long walk and the dreaded Sunday morning Commissary trip, I have really done...nothing. I made a delightful breakfast, drank tea, gardened a bit outside, planned for our London trip, cooked the kale from the farmers' market, read nutrition research online, and chatted on the phone. A delightfully relaxing day. I feel rested. The sad part is that that rested feeling doesn't usually last longer than 45 minutes once Monday morning rolls around. This week, I'm going to try not to let the usual chaos of work and last minute "emergencies" flip me into stress mode. That will be a challenge, given that the first three days of the week are going to be a whirlwind of meetings, patients, and after-work commitments.

Matt is doing well in the States. He's a social butterfly when I'm not there. I guess we both rely/enjoy one another as our primary social outlet when we are together. Healthy, yes, but it would probably benefit us to also spread our butterfly wings while in one another's company. Life lessons. Keep learning.