So….it’s been a while. But here are my totally valid excuses:
1. I started a new job. It’s not quite full time, but it’s more hours per week than I’ve spent working for at least the past five years. Bye, bye free time.
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So it’s been a couple years since I’ve been surrounded by the craziness of an American Christmas. Namely, the early date which all things Christmas appear. We went to the grocery store last night: the Salvation Army bell-ringer was out front, we were forced to listen to nothing but Christmas music while we shopped, and the candy aisle was halfway filled with candy canes. And the last time we went to the mall (I think it was three weeks ago?), it was all decorated for the holiday as well.
As I may have mentioned, we have spent the summer living (in the tiny house) in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington. The neighborhood is also sometimes known as The George Washington University neighborhood. Even though there seemed to be a substantial number of students around for summer school, it wasn’t that big of a deal. The campus is urban, but nice to walk the dog around, so that was cool.
Over the weekend, we took a trip to Deep Creek Lake State Park in Maryland. We stayed at a wonderful B&B on one of the more secluded sides of the lake, saw some wildlife (deer, rabbits, and a snake that I nearly stepped on), did some fishing (Shawn caught two!), got too much sun, drank some wine, and just did some general relaxing.
Since we’ve been back in DC, we’ve been so busy with taking care of life’s details that we haven’t had time for much else. But now the next packout has been planned, flights have been booked, some supplies have been purchased (although most of those have to wait until right before packout due to lack of storage space in our current apartment), and we’re on track to depart in 9 weeks. Whew! So we decided to take this past Saturday to actually do some things just for fun.
I’m continuing to adjust to living back in a city, with daily dog walks, running errands, and generally feeling like there’s not enough time in the day. In addition to that, I’ve realized that we are only 2 1/2 months from our departure to Nassau, and there’s A LOT to be done before then. I thought that since I’ve done this once before, things would be a piece of cake this time. But that was over 2 years ago and I’ve come to the conclusion that I remember absolutely nothing from that period of time. So the past week included a lot of list-making and generally figuring out what has to get done (or be purchased) before we can leave, and what can wait.
The presents are all wrapped and nestled around the Christmas tree/bush thingy…
![](http://greatdiversions.com/patchworkplanet/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/image-036.jpg "Christmas \\"tree\\"")
We survived last night’s Halloween party at the Marine House unscathed. Mostly by leaving at midnight when the party was just really getting started. (Our excuse was the fact that Shawn had to be at work this morning at 8am.) Being the brave souls that we are, we actually walked the 15 minutes from our apartment to the Marine House in our costumes. The shocked looks we received were much more amusing than the usual scowls.
So one of the negatives of living overseas is lack of access to healthcare at an American level. Don’t get me wrong, we do have a great medical office here at the Embassy, but they just don’t have the facilities and equipment to handle everything. The State Department compensates for this by paying for medical evacuations when it is deemed necessary. Last week I had my first experience as a medical evacuee.
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