Thank God it's the Weekend

I can't believe it's been four and a half months since I jumped the pond. As true as it is, it's still super weird to say you're an immigrant. It's weird, right? I mean, expat, immigrant; tomaTO, toMATo. So weird.

Anyway, I am definitely counting down the days until I get to kiss the ground in Newark. Gross? Yes. Needed? Probably not. But it's home (sort of).

In the meantime Ryan and I are steamrolling through these last couple months.

We binged on Master of None over one weekend when that hit Netflix. So, so good.

Which of course turned into us currently slamming through Parks and Rec. Because, hello, Aziz Ansari. I almost gave up on it in the first season, because I thought it was absolutely horrendous, but then there was season two, and three, and we just finished season four. It keeps getting better and BETTER.

For our next binge sesh (yep) I'm going to push for a weekend marathon of Harry Potter. Mainly because I read this article and then the first movie was on tv the next night. IT WAS A SIGN.

Speaking of signs. You know you're old when they do "where are they now" articles about your favorite cartoons growing up. But as a nineties kid, knowing what the Rugrats and Hey Arnold! crowd are doing now completes my life.

Is that bad?

Probably, just not as bad as relating to Spongebob. Honestly though, I think anyone can relate to thirteen. And that second one? THAT'S MY LIFE. EVERY. MORNING. You know, since the sun doesn't come up until like noon.

I'm not sure I'll ever stop laughing about nine. "Oh Neptune."

While I dream about this delicious, cheesy crostini, I'm going to the Haribo Outlet. To help keep my mind off all the things I miss from my kitchen. It's very logical.

After that, Ryan's going to let me run freely through more christmas markets so I can spend my life savings on all the tchotchke things. (And yes, I googled how to spell that.)

Lastly, I'd just like to say that Emily Blunt is one lucky SOB. I'd like to come home to this every day.

Sorry cutie. I still like coming home to your beard though.

Thursday Catch Up

ON LIFE (IN GERMANY)

Fall is officially here and I love it. Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year. And I'm 99% sure the smell is the best part of it all. You get out of your car at night after a rainy afternoon and it smells so so good. I want to bottle it up and make a candle. 

Now, I know I talked before about the WIDE variety of songs they play, but here, the songs are all played in their original format, profanity included. Imagine my surprise the first time I heard "The Real Slim Shady" uncensored. I'm definitely not in the US anymore. Amazingly enough, though, people aren't crude and everyone's pretty pleasant. So maybe the FCC needs to do some thinking about being such a prude. We can probably handle a little swearing.

One thing that had me swearing this week? My car was towed yesterday morning. The first time I've ever had my car towed and it's in a foreign country. That was a 190€ lesson I won't be forgetting easily. Especially not after Ryan and I had to go to three different companies looking for the damn car at eight in the morning. Seriously, how many Colonia's can there be in one suburb of Cologne? It probably would have helped if we knew just a littttllleee bit more German. Or if we knew that "towed" isn't a word here.

I suppose that if it has to happen once in your life, though, it's better to get towed sooner rather than later. Yay?

ON PLANS & GOALS

Reading this article I want to binge watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Because, hello, Charlie Day. I just want to hug him. When I brought it up to Ryan he was all over it. The Netflix binge, of course, not the hugging. I think we found our weekend plans.

Next weekend though, since being here for such a short time, Ryan and I have been traveling like mad with so many more trips planned. It's funny, considering when we're in the States, we go nowhere. Like, we take zero weekend trips. No close-to-home trips. But in the short month that Ryan's been here, he's come to realize he wants to do more exploring around home. You know, when we do finally get there.  Ryan's started planning some hikes in the Adirondacks and a Finger Lake beer/wine tour. I am super excited. Not only for the long awaited Finger Lake wine tour, but I'm pretty sure I can convince him to show me Niagara Falls. Since I've never been. And I'm also pretty happy because it's about as much wanderlust I can inspire in my self-described homebody husband.

ON CELEBRATIONS

I somehow stumbled upon this shimmery wine/vodka the other day and I cannot wait to try it. It freaking sparkles. I can't wait to celebrate with it. I just need something to celebrate.

The weekend? A long weekend? How about running. Ooo, yes. Let's do running. Because nothing says healthy after running than wine/vodka.

Training for a half is actually pretty fun. And I have the best partner. I'm getting faster and I think my technique is getting better so those are definitely things to celebrate. In moderation of course.

If you're on them, you can follow me with Garmin or Smashrun. 

Fitness Flash

Are you guys watching Married at First Sight? I am totally hooked.

I love, love, love Jaclyn and Ryan R. They're the most adorable couple. I know that Jaclyn wasn't all into Ryan at first, but I'm so glad she's on him like white on rice. I love love! Jessica and Ryan D. make me want to bash their heads together. He tries to be funny in a way she doesn't get and she doesn't say anything. HELLO. Communication is key! They both need to get over that hurdle and start gabbing. Davina and Sean are both cry asses. I have a sneaking feeling that they're not going to make it and I feel bad for Sean. Davina doesn't know how to compromise and it's so sad. Like he's a sweet guy. Holy crap, just give a little will ya?!

If I can put up with Ryan's shenanigans, these people can put up with each other. Geesh.

This past week was a rest week in our training plan. We were especially lax, I think. But we did go for a hike around a local island on Wednesday. The weather and sun were perfect. We moseyed but it felt good.

After riding to and from work on Thursday (1 out of 50!), I rode my bike to my first softball game of the year. Which, of course, was awful. We lost something like 28-7. I'm just going to remind myself each game that pitching is not as easy as it looks and I'm much better at right field.

Now that I'm cleared for swimming we added that back in. I was so happy to be back at it. I swear the warm up is the hardest part. The main part of the swim came right back. My technique is a little off but a good base is there.

Last but not least, we had an obligatory run on Sunday. Aaaand it was after about two hours of yardwork. What a joy. Halfway through the run I was psyching myself out and had to stop and walk to catch my breath. I'm going to blame it on the heat.

Here's how the week shaped up...

This is the last month of our training plan. In 26 days, I'll be waking up at the ass crack of dawn to swim 800 meters, cycle 18 miles, and then run three. I'm currently terrified and insanely excited. We've booked the hotel, ordered our triathlon suits, and my multi-sport/activity tracker watch and heart rate monitor are set to arrive sometime next week. I feel like it's just going way too fast. Can we just slow down a bit? Please?

Pretty please?