Something #'s 8 & 9

I opened something... something #8. I've been in a little bit of a funk and this little something stumped me. That's why I wrote uninspired in my last post. I'm sorry. I wrapped it back up and placed it into the pile. I will reveal it when the time is right. I have to think about it.

Something #9

I opened another one just now, but really don't have time to blog about it until this weekend... but it's perfect. I will go ahead and say thank you, I took it as a sign that I am on the right track.

Stay tuned and I will fill you in.

Uninspired

I am really feeling it these days.

Still waiting on my paper from the FBI.

It's almost November and I am in the 5th grade again.

Something #7

Things have been going well. I am getting all of the paperwork in order for my visa, AND I have a meeting this Friday with the school for the job that I interviewed for last month. Things are looking up! But I am still having some anxiety induced dreams about not getting all of my paperwork in to the Belgian government, and I had to go to the doctor today.

I don't like to go to the doctor...

Even in Belgium.

But it wasn't that bad... Just a routine check-up and some tests. If all goes well, then I get my certificate of good health.

Yay!

I don't know when my fears started, but it seems that the longer I stay away from the doctor, the worse I feel about going. It must have to do with the cancer experience, and also the fact that I have no insurance. I never know how much things are going to cost, or if I am really being taken care of. Before she, the doctor, came to get me in the waiting room, I was shaking... That was alarming to me. I don't recall ever being that scared in a doctor's office before. Anyway, it was a painless, pleasant experience. The doctor took her time with me, conversing with me - something I don't really recall doing with too many doctors.

I felt good about going, but then my day seemed long as I sat alone at home and began to worry.

Why worry?

Because that's what I do...

Anyway, I pulled a little something out to distract me. I didn't even think about it, I just walked by the bookshelf and yanked out a package.

This is the one I got:

Again, I love your artistic expression, but I had no idea what this meant.

Until, I opened the envelope.

Gah, indeed! Casey wedding 99! Or something like that...

That jacket is way too big for me. How many years ago was that ? Didn't you go to a wedding this past weekend? How was it?

I wonder when the next Casey wedding will be...

I love the inside of this envelope. I love it A LOT! It is such a simple, texture... a beautiful pattern. I felt compelled to make something with it.

Another crane on the beginnings of Jon's scarf:

I added it to the collection.

xoxo

~LYMI

It could only mean one thing...

I've opened something... I'll post something about it after dinner.

xoxo

~LYMI

Something #6

Last Saturday I was feeling a little bit better. Jon was gone all day working in the studio, but we had planned to eat lunch together.

I rode my bike to Arenberg Castle which is the campus where Jon spends most of his time, I'd say 85% these days. Anyway, it's a nice bike ride away and there are trails behind the castle. I thought I would explore this area after lunch a bit and get that exercise we were chatting about the day before.

Here is a picture of the castle from Jon's Flickr page. You should check out his photos. I think they are really good~ wish I had a better word than "good," because most are beautiful, but there are over 1,000 of them. What can I say? The man loves to take pictures.

The following photos are mine. One thing I forgot to mention in the last post: as I was going through the photos from 2007, I realized that I was not that great of a photographer. I hope they have improved, but realize that there is still room to grow. Anyway...

At lunch time we ate in a conference room. I'm not sure if we were supposed to be in there eating, but it was a special experience. The castle was built in 1515. Can you imagine?

1515!

Detail of the sculpture just above the capitals of the columns.

Even this fireplace was installed and used before the US was established (!)

1775

There are frescoes on the ceilings.

And even more behind the layers of paint on the walls.

Pretty cool, huh? Not a bad place to have lunch.

Afterwards I set out on my bike...

Then I remembered your little something in my pocket. I like opening the somethings outside of my house, mainly because I think you would enjoy that too.

Here she is! Something #6. It's flat and the picture totally cracks me up. I like your use of mixed media and vanishing point.

Let's open her up, shall we?

Oooh! Yay! Pretty PINK paper!

and...

Matches!

Yippee! We totally need matches. Jon dropped this same book in the toilet the other day. Oh, wait, the matches are gone, but I do see a note. Clever packaging for a note Steph!

It's a note about Tex-Mex. I am missing aspects of Tex-Mex, really just the cheeses - queso fresco, queso blanco, Monterrey Jack, etc. I was having a hard time finding beans, particularly pinto and black beans. The only beans that are readily available in the grocery stores are garbanzo, white, kidney and a few other legumes. However, I did find an Indian store that carried pinto beans. Woo hoo! I have also found some decent tortillas and the avocados are great! I should look for salsa to see what they have. Jon was asking about tomatillo salsa the other day ~ ahhhhh. Tomatillos.... My mouth is watering just thinking about it. And, another odd thing is that I have a had a strong craving for tequilla a couple of times. It just kind of hits ya. So, I'll be looking forward to happy hour whenever I come home...

Whenever that is.

Something #5

So, this post is a long time coming I think because I was having such a hard time that day. It was pretty shitty, the beginning of a weekend that stirred a lot of emotional doo-doo.

Let me preface this, by stating that the night before I opened this something, I had started dumping old photos onto my computer. These photos were from the summer of 2007. Literally, my life flashing before my eyes.

There was my trip to Portland to visit you.

There were pictures of him. (Eye roll).

Then there were pictures of Mexico.

It was weird. I have all of those memories in my head but don't call on them, because I have mixed feelings about that time in my life.

I loved the experience of Mexico and am so thankful for that opportunity, even though I was heartbroken at the time. I look back at who broke my heart, I never should have given him that much power.

I should have stuck it out in Mexico.

There I said it. That's very hard for me to admit, but it's true. I should have tried and I still carry that burden with me. I guess that's what was so upsetting, I feel like I failed at that part of life, and it added to my emotional stew.

Things are going really well here in Belgium. I'm so happy here with Jon. Happy doing things for him, happier than I ever thought I could be, and I don't want to lose this feeling or him. Deep down, I fear that I will feel like a failure if I am not able to stay with him, but I forget to look at the big picture. Some things are out of my control and all I have is this time with him right now, and it's happy. It's bliss. Really. He is so wonderful.

So, I took your little something with me to city hall last week to see about staying here for the year. I chose this something because it would fit in my purse, it was flat, and I liked the palm trees that you drew on the front. In my mind palm trees = Mexico, and I ♥ Mexico!

I took a number and I waited.

And waited,

and waited,

and waited.

Finally, I got some answers. Not exactly the answers I was looking for, but I know what I need to do. It's a long list, about 7 things long. Some of these items force me to deal with parts of my past that I wish were forgotten, but fortunately there is bureaucracy that records it bringing it all up again. I feel a headache coming on just thinking about it all. Anyway, all is not lost. I'll just check off the items off my list and hope for the best.

When I got home, I was upset, crying and feeling burdened. I had completely forgotten about the package.

I tearfully opened it and there we were.

When I opened this something I was online, my screen was telling me someone wanted to chat, and there you were.

xoxo

~LYMI

I know, I know...

I am behind on my posts. I have limited bandwidth right now, and am trying to work around it all. But, I wanted to let you know that I sent an email, still waiting to hear back, and I owe you two posts.

xoxo

~LYMI

Something #4 (?)

I opened a little package yesterday, due to my lousy experience at the Denon/Delhaize, my local grocery store.
It's always an experience when I go, I like to say as little as possible and it's worked about 50% of the time. However, last Saturday took the cake.

Incident #1) Jon wanted sausage. I happily obliged this request, except that I can't read Dutch, but I do know what sausage looks like:
I had asked the butcher for help and even though she spoke perfect English, she had little interest in helping as she was a vegetarian. "Sorry."

Looks like sausage to me, so I put it in my basket.

Fortunately I ran into a couple of friends, and I asked them to help me in the Deli section. Just to be sure...

They both shook their heads, "No, no, no, no, no. You don't want this. This is how do you say... the brains."

Oooooooooooooh! OMG! Gross!

Incident #2. Money is VERY tight here right now. So, the plan was for me to put the food on the credit card. Easy, right? Except, that they don't take credit cards. Only "bank contact" which is basically debit.

Shit...

The cashier looked at me as if I were pathetic and said, "No Euros?Bank contact?"

I didn't even have my wallet with me. So I had to leave MY bags of groceries and call Jon at the library, tell him I needed money that we didn't have, and it was 47 Euros, was that too much? Should I put stuff back? Blah, blah, blah. Waaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

Why do I have to FAIL every time I go to Delhaize?

I went home, calmed the *f* down, drank a beer and went to the ATM and took out some Euros. All was well. I went and paid, grabbed my loot and was on my merry way.

Incident #3. Maybe it was the beer? But, I blame it on my teeny-tiny kitchen and the fact that one more thing had to go wrong. As I was putting the groceries away, I had left a cabinet door open, and WHACK!

The cabinets on the wall moved.

My head was throbbing...

and BLEEDING!!!!

"Oh my god I need stitches! Am I about to pass out? I am all alone! I don't want to go to the hospital! and...."

It's all good, just a big nick and a bruise. Jon took me out for Ethiopian food.

This experience definitely warranted a little something, but I didn't want to open it at home. The next day I went solo to a craft fair in Bruges. I made a point of grabbing a flat package since you made a comment about it.

Once I was on the train, and my ticket was verified I pulled out the awesome red envelope.

So cute!

I like the blue star.

Opening the package very carefully...

What's this?

I can't see, I'm in a tunnel..

And in the light, I see it's a recipe for

Steph's "Throw it all in" 1 Pan Breakfast Scramble.

I don't even want to think about dinner, let alone going to the grocery sto... Wait!

I scan the ingredients.

I actually have all of these ingredients in my fridge right now, and I actually need to use the rest of the spinach before it wilts. And, I didn't know what I was going to make for dinner...

Thank you Steph!

When I get home, I assemble the ingredients.

I cut the potatoes, though these aren't "Idaho" potatoes. They're Belgian.

Anyway, I cut the potatoes and place them in a pan and cut the rest of my ingredients.

I also make a stamp, which you can see here.

When the potatoes are done, I throw in my ingredients with the only herbs I have ~ Italian.

Smells good!

Then I add the eggs, and a little crème fraiche, then scramble.

Finally, I added Parmesan cheese, and

Voilà!

It was mighty tasty, and easy too.

The perfect solution to dinner.

Thank you!

Now, what am I going to do with this paper?

Speaking of...

Dave and I used to have a cat.

He lives with my friend Mark now.

Thank you Facebook for waking part of me that I thought was dead.

~LYMI