What I've Been Up To

"Why are there so many songs about rainbows?
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide
So we've been told and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me."
--The Rainbow Connection, Kermit the Frog

I've been busy lately.

I'm still working at The Boys & Girls Club. My heart pretty much melted when I was greeted by a chorus of "MISS ALEX!!!" from all my second and third graders my first day back. I missed them, and I still love working there, even when they get out of control and drive me crazy.

I've also jumped back into my Couch to 5K project, and I really wish I could say it's been an easy transition. I went back a week in my program so I could ease my way back in, but I seem to have hit a wall. Maybe I'm just out of practice, maybe the chillier weather is affecting me, maybe my asthma decided to get back at me for making my lungs work double time, I don't know. I'm finding it hard to run more than 20 minutes without having to slow to a walk. But I'm not going to quit. Because I'm getting married next year. And I want to look damn good in those pictures.

Speaking of which, I'm going reception hall shopping this weekend with my mom, sister and sister-in-law. I've been looking forward to this. I feel like there's not much I can do until I find a hall and set a date. Then I can get a better idea of the theme and colors and whatnot.

It's kind of funny. I have been planning my wedding day since I was in the fifth grade. I still have all these clips and Word documents filled with wedding gowns and flower arrangements. But now that I have a ring on my finger, I'm not sure about ANYTHING. I've completely changed my mind about all of it. So I'm pretty much starting from scratch.

Anyway, I really wanted this post to be about the rest of my Europe trip, so here we go. Paris.

It. Was. Amazing.

And I'm not going to go into details about everything we saw, but I will say that we had a hell of a good time.

Our hotel was less than a five minute walk from Notre Dame, which was INCREDIBLE to see. I wanted to go up the tower to see the gargoyles, but a long line and a strike prevented that. Still, it was gorgeous. We saw it at night and in the daytime.

We also took a side trip to Versaille and toured the chateau. It was CRAZY crowded and kind of hard to move around on account of all the tour groups, but absolutely gorgeous. We toured some of the gardens, but did not walk the 40 minutes to Marie Antoinette's quarters. Check us out below at the Hall of Mirrors. OOooohh!


And we HAD to go to the Eiffel Tower. Even though it was really cloudy the day we went up, at least we can now say that we've been up the Eiffel Tower.
And yes, we went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. We went to the Rodin museum and saw The Thinker and The Kiss. We saw Napoleon's tomb and saw the stained glass windows at Sainte Chappelle (Oooh pretty). We went to Sacre Cour and Moulin Rouge and Pig Alley. We saw some amazing art at the Orsay museum, even though most of the Van Goghs and Monets were on loan. We went for a walk on Rue Cler, got the fixings for a nice picnic and ate it by the Eiffel Tower. And we went to the Orangerie museum and saw Monet's Waterlilies. Which, by the way, are ENORMOUS. Who knew!?


And of course, we ate a lot of French food. One night we decided to skip dinner altogether and just get dessert. A very smart and tasty plan. That crème brûlée was quite exquisite.


I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to see all these amazing places (and eat all the amazing food). We had a truly fantastic time, and I would love to go back. There's still so much to see!

Home and Happy

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed,k but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there--fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the plane hit the twin towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge--they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
--Love, Actually

I'm home! And I had the most incredible time anyone ever had anywhere!

I'll start with the biggest news...


I'M ENGAGED!!!

My boyfriend of six and a half years (we started dating in high school) finally popped the question in Switzerland!

It was only our second day on vacation, and we had just gone up to this mountain called the Schilthorn via cable car. We had perfect weather, and were in high spirits. Check out that view:

We spent about an hour up there, then took the cable car back down to where we were staying in Murren and decided to hike down to Gimmelwald. After walking downhill for a long time, we saw this bench with a perfect view of the village and the mountains:

After resting on the bench and talking for a while, he got down on one knee and proposed. He couldn't have picked a better spot! My memory is a little fuzzy after that. All I know is that my knees were shaking and I squealed a little.

The rest of the trip was spent kind of as a celebration of our engagement. I spent a lot of time staring at the ring, then smiling goofily at Kyle, then staring at the ring again.

The whole trip was amazing, but this was definitely the highlight! I'm really happy and excited to get started on the planning process.

I'll be sure to talk more about the trip in later posts, but I was just too excited about being engaged. All you need to know about Switzerland is that it is GORGEOUS and you must go there NOW.

Bon Voyage!

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."
--Saint Augustine

Well, this is it. In about 17 hours I'll be boarding a plane to Europe.

Packing was much less a hassle than I thought it would be. I'm guessing this is due to my premature anxiety and my obsession with making lists. I've been putting things together for this trip for the past several weeks, so I didn't really have to hunt anything down at the last minute. I have exactly one suitcase and one backpack. I'm wearing a t-shirt, a sweater, and a hoodie on the plane tomorrow. How's that for space-saving?

The funny thing is, no matter how prepared I feel, I know that this trip is not going to go 100% smoothly. There's always the possibility of flight delays, insufficient euro, rude Frenchmen, etc. But I'm okay with it.

While I finished packing today, I realized that the plug for my hair straightener or my Ipod charger will fit with the adaptor Kyle has. And at first I was uber frustrated. But then I thought to myself, "Self...is this trip going to be any less amazing if you don't have perfect hair? Or if you can't listen to music on the plane?" And the answer is no. I'm not going to sweat the small stuff. I'm just going to enjoy myself.

So farewell, everyone! In just a couple of days, I'll be staying in this hostel in the middle of nowhere, so don't expect any updates until I return on October 16.


WOO HOO!!!

Deep Breath...

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."
--Eleanor Roosevelt

I'm starting to freak out a little about this Europe trip. I keep waiting for something to go wrong. Also, packing is going to be a nightmare. We're not checking any bags; we're just bringing two carry-ons each. And we're going to two different climates. And I need to bring four pairs of shoes. Also, I know maybe six words in French.

I've made made a list (surprise!) of little things I still have to do before our departure in less than a week. Holy shiz, less than a week. It seems unreal. I don't think it's really going to sink in until the plane lands in Switzerland and all the signs are in German or Rumantsch or whatever the hell they speak in Zurich.

It's at the point where my heart starts to pound like I've just run a mile whenever I think about it. So let's transition.

I mentioned in a blog post a few days ago that my Couch to 5k program required me to run for 20 minutes straight. Well folks, I did it! Twenty minutes of running without stopping. I was going pretty slow near the end and I kind of felt like diving off a cliff, but I did it! Gwen (I've named the lady who tells me when to run and when to walk Gwen) told me that I can really call myself a runner now. So take that, Past Me! I did it!

I'm beginning to realize that running is not just a physically demanding activity. There were moments in that 20-minute run when knew I was about to collapse, but I pushed myself through. Then I was able to run for another ten minutes. So I think a big part of it is all in your head. Confidence is key. And part of the reason I was able to push myself is because of the fantastic support I've been getting from my friends and family. BIG thank you to everyone for the encouragement!