What I didn’t blog about last week

This past week I didn’t manage to blog so many times, so I thought today I would blog about what I didn’t blog about.

The Challenge

Last week I joined the Biggest Loser Blog Edition and the games are on. There are 162 people who signed up for it and we are divided into two teams; Angie’s and Lynn’s (they are the two who organized the whole things).  I am on team Lynn and am really looking forward to getting to know my teammates better over the next 16 weeks. The idea is pretty simple… each week you weigh in, submit your weight to your team lead and then everyones weight is posted.  Ah, the weekly accountability I have been looking for. Eveyone who is playing has a blog and all the links are posted on the BLBE blog. My goal is to read a couple of new blogs each day and maybe leave some encouraging or tough love comments.  Ah, the community I have been looking for.  Week one officially starts today although I  pretended that the games already started and  am in full BLBE mode. I had a fairly good eating week,  am happy that I journaled every day and exercised as I had planned. All in all a good week! 

German Holidays

Even after a year of living in Germany, I am always completely amazed at the number of public holidays we have. And even though we had two days off last week for Silvester (that is New Year’s Eve) and New Years Day, we had another this week.  Three Kings Day, who know this was a public holiday? The funny thing about this holiday is that it is not celebrated in all German “States”, thus not everyone in Germany has it as a public holiday. I find this to be somewhat confusing, as we live on the border of 3 States, some which celebrate, some which don’t. As all stores, including the supermarket, are closed on public holidays it is somewhat convenient, as if I forget to pick something up, I just need to drive to a state that isn’t celebrating. As we are so close to the border, many of my colleagues don’t live in Baden Wurtenberg, but in Heisen or Rhine Pfalz this means that they are off of work, but others who live where they do aren’t. It is sort of the equivalent of having some cities celebrating a public holiday and others not. And, I have to admit that while the office was closed and it was a public holiday I worked almost the whole day.

Facebook

I resisted signing up for a long time, even though my husband and others that I really respect were always raving about it. I finally gave in a few weeks ago. The final straw was when my brother, who isn’t really into technology or cyberspace, joined and started posting pictures of my niece (1) and nephew (6). Well, then I knew I was joining and my fear that it would be addictive might be coming true, but for now I think I have it under control. Facebook is an amazing and interesting social medium.  I have re-connected with people that I haven’t seen since elementary or high school. Some I am now in regular contact with.  Others, I just follow via their updated statuses and their posted pictures. It is amazing what you can learn about someone from just reading their status updates. I am fascinated by the technology behind an application like Facebook. As enamored as I am with the IM functionality, I do feel as though there is an element of  stalkerism that comes with Facebook and other social medium like it.  I can keep track of what people are doing without any need to have any actual contact with them.  I can look at who they are friends with and friend those people.  I can see photos that they post or photos where they are tagged by someone else. Feels like a little bit of stalkerism and voyeurism combined, all while I sit in the comfort of my own home, on my couch, in my pj’s. Welcome to the new age of communication.

I have to say, I am careful about what I place on my Facebook, and don’t like it when someone posts pictures of me without asking me. You never know who is watching and since I work in HR, I have seen some strange things happen because of what people have posted.

My Nephew

who besides my husband is absolutely the love of my life (although my niece is pretty fab also) is amazing.  Since we have been living in Germany he and I mostly have an email relationship, as he absolutely refuses to get on the telephone, Yes, my 6 year old nephew emails. How awesome is that? Each time I see his email address pop into my email box, a little piece of my heart gets tugged and a huge smile crosses my face. The emails are brilliant in that they are total stream of conscience and capture life from the perspective of a 6 year old. I can always tell the mails that he actually writes himself from the ones  that he dictatesto my sister-in-law by the number of typos. Being away from him and my niece are two of the hardest parts of living so far away from home. This week in the snail mail I got a thank you note from him for the holiday gifts that we sent. Enclosed with the thank you note was a story that he had written. This story made me laugh and cry at the same time. Here it:

The Germany Story

Once upon a time there was a girl named Pammy. She moved to Germany from Philadelphia. She came back two times. I love you.

Apparently everyone in my family got a story from him for the holidays and this was mine. And, that is why he is the love of my life.

So, that is what I didn’t blog about last week.