May 16/Monday was a German holiday. There's three German holidays throughout the month of May, all of which I have off. I do not ever work Sundays or German holidays. I had fully intended on spending the entire day in bed, but of course that's not what happened. I woke up around 10am and laid in bed for awhile, even taking a nap in the afternoon. HP and the kids had left before I woke up and got back during my nap, so the house was quiet all day. I had planned on staying in bed all day. HP and the kids left again while I was showering, which is also coincidentally when Lucas texted me asking if I wanted to go for a drink at the bar where Ina works. I said yes, and we met at the train station an hour later. Again, I hadn't intended on being out long. I told myself I'd head home at 10pm, but that was far from what happened. Being friends with bartenders is a blessing and a curse. They always seem to put another drink in your hand before you finish the last...and they never make you pay for them. I didn't get home too late. Kind of. Lucas and I caught the 1:31 train back to our station. It's certainly nice having a friend who lives in my neighborhood. I've always hated taking the train so late all by myself.
Tuesday was my first day working after a four day holiday, yet I only ended up working an hour and a half. I was up entirely too early (6:45) considering that I didn't fall asleep until 2:30 and I wouldn't get a chance to nap during the day. I got everyone out the door on time and then spent 30 minutes doing chores. An old friend of mine from university, Drew, came into town in the late morning. We met sophomore year at MSU in German class. We drifted apart for a year or two before reconnecting our last semester. He just finished his masters degree and booked himself a vacation in Germany. He spent half his time down in Munich and spent the second half in Cologne, but he wanted to stop by and visit me in Nürnberg as well. He arrived in town at 10:30. We spent the next four hours sight seeing, eating lunch, and catching up. It was slightly weird for me to have a friend from home in my new stomping grounds. It wasn't weird in a bad way. I guess surreal would be a better way to describe it. I suppose I felt as if my old life and my new life were colliding. I've certainly created a new life for myself here, one which is completely removed from my old one. I'm the "new" person in my group of friends. I'm the "different" one - I'm American (most of my friends are European, the majority of them being Irish) and I don't work in a bar (most of my friends here work in bars, as I've certainly mentioned before). Anyways, it was still really cool to see him. I'm glad he thought of me and wanted to come visit. He left around 2:30. HP told me I could have the evening off since they knew I had a friend coming into town. I was tired, yet I didn't want to go home. I went to Finnegan's to have a drink. Alan ended up being the one working, so I spent a couple hours chatting with him. I eventually got tired of sitting around. I went for a walk around town for a bit. Fiona was working (at O'Shea's), so I decided to go visit her. A number of my other friends also work there, like Frank, Donal, and Kat. I decided to text Simon, who came and joined me for a drink. Johnny also showed up later. Johnny and I left later to meet up with Meg. The three of us met at Finnegan's and then took the U-Bahn out to the bar where Fitzy works. We stayed there for an hour and a half and chatted with him. We went back into the city around midnight and I caught my train home. My four day weekend had somehow turned into a five day weekend. I was sufficiently exhausted.
Wednesday was much more sensible. HD left at breakfast time for a business trip. I worked an hour in the morning and went back to sleep. I had intended on going for a run, but I was still too tired. I showered, ate lunch, and then went into town to meet Fiona. She wanted to go Dirndl shopping and I went with her. Our trip was successful and she found one she loved. We stopped at Finnegan's on our way back into town, where we found Johnny. We sat with him for awhile. I had to leave relatively early, at 3:30, to go home for work. I stopped at the grocery store on the way back, purchasing some things requested by HM. HM and the kids got home about 15 minutes after I did. She left 20 minutes later, leaving the kids with me for the evening. It was business as usual. We played, watched a little tv, ate dinner, played some more, and got ready for bed. One has been going through a phase lately. He's been more defiant and overall difficult. This is probably the third or fourth time he's gone through one of these phases since I've been here. When I threaten taking away things or activities he wants, he's pretty quick to change his tune. The kids went down easy and I spent the evening catching up on some things I'd been neglecting for a week. I was in bed early, happy to have a night in.
Thursday was an ugly day here. I mean that quite literally - it was raining nearly all day. I worked an hour in the morning. HM informed me at breakfast that I didn't need to work in the evening. Too bad she couldn't have chosen the day before, as many of my friends didn't have to work Wednesday night (and I was stuck at home working late). I suppose I needed a few days break from going out though, so I can't complain. Anyways, once HM and the kids left I thought about skipping the nap and going for a run, but the rain didn't appear to be stopping anytime soon. I basically had nothing better to do but sleep. I did have a few chores to do, so I made myself get out of bed at 11am. I vacuumed the first and second stories, wiped down the counters, ironed the kids clothing, and did a load of the kids laundry. All of this took me about two hours. I cooked lunch for myself, took a shower, and then left the house. I didn't have anything specific to do, I just wanted to get out of the house for a couple of hours. I knew I likely wouldn't be going out to the bars that night. The thought of not leaving the house all day depresses me. If I had been able to go for a run, I probably wouldn't have gone into town. Alas, I went into town and walked around for the better part of two hours. I arrived back home as HM and the kids were finishing up with dinner. The rest of the night was spent doing a number of random things like reading a German newspaper, browsing the internet, and watching a movie.
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