Uncontrollable urge to blog

I don't know what it is but I suddenly felt an uncontrollable urge to blog. This past week I'd been feeling down in the dumps. A lot of things were bugging me and yet I was making no headway to addressing nor repairing them... and so they kept bugging me.

And then suddenly today, I started feeling incredibly optimistic. I can't explain it. I really feel like my mood has suddenly done a 180 and I'm feeling good, chirpy, optimistic... happy.

So what is it that's changed you ask? Hmmmm... being the OCD person that I am let me try and put it in .... bullet points! (I know, how lame, but today I'm feeling good so gimme a break!).

> Working out. I started going back to the gym. Well, started is really an understatement. I went to the gym today for the first time since August. At first I was really depressed to see how out of shape I'd become since I was last working out on a regular basis. During the summer I'd worked up my endurance to be able to do a 10 min warm up on the treadmill and then go on to do a 50 min jog and 5 min cool-down, 4 times a week. This morning, all I could handle was a 10 min warm up, 20 min jog and 10 min cool-down. But as soon as I got off the treadmill I started feeling hopeful. I'll work my way up from the bottom again. I'll get my endurance back up to the previous rates and even more being as I seriously want to start training for the Parisienne next September. Suddenly, it all seemed possible.

> Family. Ok, I'm going to go ahead and say it: I'm an evil daughter/granddaughter/sister. I don't call my family often enough. I should really say I seldom call my family. Last time I talked to my mom was probably 4 months ago (and I'm not even sure). I don't know what it is but I hate talking to them and feeling it's a long distance call where we have to hurry up and tell each other the relevant events of the past weeks/months instead of a simple "hey mom, can you give me your recipe for lasagna?" call (which, I have to admit would never happen anyway since my mom doesn't cook lasagna... or anything else for that matter). But last week I called my dad and spent an hour and half on the phone with him. And then I got to speak to my mom for another good hour. And this week I started facebooking with my Sister again. And that's not all. This afternoon I talked to a lost Spanish cousin who's been living in France for the past 50 years and whom I only recently discovered I had!!! Imagine that! Me! Family on this side of the Atlantic!! So this evening I called up my dad again to tell him all about the conversation with the lost cousin and although no lasagna recipes have been exchanged yet, I am feeling more hopeful that we'll be able to stay in touch more regularly from now on.

> Friends. We have wonderful friends, Hubby and I, people we've known for years, some from work, some that knew Hubby from high-school/college. We love meeting up with them but unfortunately, due to geographical or logistical constraints, every time we get together implies a lot of planning ahead of time. Back and forth emails of confirmations for dates, places to meet, what each person will bring, etc. I love our friends but it frustrates me that there is no room for spontaneity. But lately, it seems there's a lot more going with our old friends as well as new ones that we've met over the previous weeks. For instance, this afternoon we met up with J and P for tea and we had a lovely time. Then they'll be Jo whom I'm finally hoping to meet next Friday (we've been meaning to get together since she arrived in Paris from Chile a few months ago and for some reason or other we hadn't yet had a chance to do so). Then there's Theater night with L and D next Saturday and plans to celebrate Thanksgiving with the cooolisssima Ms. S the week after that. And of course, there is Rhum-Rhum's on Friday evenings!!

> Vacation. Yeah ok, I'm off from work this week. Whou-hooooo!! But the real reason I'm psyched right now is because we've finally managed to book our holidays for the end of the year (more like early next year actually). We'd been so depressed because it seemed for a while we weren't going to be able to afford to go anywhere this time and then Hubby found out that his back and forth trips to Switzerland for the project he was working on during the first 9 months of this year translated into enough miles for us to travel on!! Suddenly a whole new window of possibilities opened up for us. So where is it we're going you ask? After much debating and day dreaming we finally settled on a destination, or should I say destinationS: Argentina AND Chile!!! YEESSSSSS!!! We.can.so.hardly.WAIT!!!

> Money. Well, nope, no changes there. We're still broke. :(

So you see? I'm on a high right now and even though Paris is gray and rainy and cold, I feel like the sun is out and shinning on us right now!!

-- or maybe it's just the endorphins from this morning's work out. :s

Fned.

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