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I have been waiting for this all day

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​Sometimes I wonder if he is still growing because my god look at him! Every time I take him to the vet I make them check to see if he is overweight and they say he isn’t because you can feel his spine and see his muscles but…

I guess he’s just a big boy?

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He’s like a giant grey snail 😂

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Ohhh hot damn, a rare vintage record player is on the market for still expensive but far below the going rate and *bites lower lip* ya girl has been wanting to upgrade her turntable setup for about 5 years now…

Guess I’m driving to Cologne sometime this week!

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My little puppy is back from her surgery and my heart is just bleeding for her. We did a lot of training with the cone but poor gal just never could figure out how to lay/sleep with it. I think I have a solution and maybe remove the cone later if the wound doesn’t bother her.

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Well the gays and gals were in the theater tonight!

So yeah, we saw Wicked and I‘ll be damned, I loved the shit out of that movie and agree with it being a two-parter. Those women had some big shoes to fill and they did splendid! I was entertained, the music was great, and it felt like a fresh experience and not a money grab.

Oh! And the Germans clapped and cried a bit at the end. It made the Germans show EMOTION. Hell, that’s gotta be worth some accolades.

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Just had a VERY intense debate why the 1966 version of Grinch is superior than the live action 2000-ish bs.

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This one might be his favorite 😂

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Christmas markets here just hit different 🤷‍♀️

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So so so excited! My piano teacher assigned me my first jazz piece! Annnnd I am absolutely shit at it 🤣

I started playing piano to learn jazz pieces and HOPEFULLY it’s a genre I can explore more if I can nail this one down.

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Our little (German) Thanksgiving this year. I was ashamed how small the spread was this year, but I think it’s not bad considering how bad I felt! This is exactly 12 hours before I went to the emergency room 😂

I think you can tell I‘m suffering behind the smile hahah.

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My proper little boy. Always a gentleman until he wants to go outside 😂

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Ah, and today I am reminded that there is a difference in knowing how to speak a second language and then being fluent.

Finding a doctor has always been a bit tough for me. I have some pretty specific issues and I live in a place where the doctors are pretty old — nothing wrong with that, but the older they are, the less likely it is that they speak English. They just didn’t have to learn it in school and I can’t fault them for that. Also… I live in Germany and it’s reasonable to expect people to speak only German.

Because of this, I go to my general practitioner who speaks enough English, and I speak enough German, so we make it work. The problem is that I never really get a diagnosis and generally get sent away with a recommendation to take some Ibuprofen. I also only understand about half of what she says hahaha.

I suppose it‘s days like this that I feel pretty defeated. I‘ve made really big achievements (for me) in regards to learning German, but it never seems enough. There’s always a new mountain to climb and I wonder when I’ll actually make it to the summit.

BUT! I have found some clinics in the next city over that advertise they have English speaking doctors. I won’t give up speaking German to my doctors, but I will feel a lot more secure knowing I can ask them to repeat something in English.

And I made these damn appointments (3 of them!!) speaking ONLY German because bless these receptionists who let me stumble over my words and speak slowly to me. So surely that is something I can hold onto and be proud of.

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Going to the bathroom alone? Privacy?

Nope, not in this house.

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It go time!!

We are having our Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday and I’ve got my little kitchen wine ready as I slowly begin prepping.

Tonight’s tasks:

1. make the turkey brine and start the process

2. Pre-chop veggies

3. Get the seasonings/spices laid out and ready

4. Make the grocery list for what I need to buy tomorrow

Tomorrows task:

1. After a 24 hour brine, set the bird to dry in the fridge

2. Cook the red cabbage (tastes great when heated up again because it’s sits in that red wine broth over night)

3. Be restless

4. Prep Rouladen so all I have to do is fry and smother them in the sauce on Saturday

5. Is it a bad idea to pre-make Mac n cheese? I’m debating. I’ve always cooked it fresh.

The menu:

Turkey, vegan Rouladen (with a vegan red wine sauce), Mac n cheese, roasted (homegrown) carrots, red cabbage

Friends are in charge of:

The lovey dovy vegans: Mashed potatoes and some chickpea dish

Sweet baby Angel friend and her giant polish man: pumpkin pie

Nerdy dude who I adore: salad

I’m thinking about making a garlic bread to go with the salad… I’ll have to see how my time management is holding up on Saturday.

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Starting a new painting today and thought I would share the ugly parts. This is the hardest part of the painting process for me. It’s so discouraging, because I look at this and I forget it IS part of the process.

I think of how I can save this and isn’t that a little bit like how we think of ourselves when we are trying something new? Maybe when we are in the middle of our journey going… wherever. It makes me wonder if we wait to be saved far too often.

Maybe we just need to trust ourselves a bit more and learn some patience haha.

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So this one is from Artist’s Point. I couldn’t quite capture the color gradients painted in the canyon but believe me, it looked like a giant paintbrush just ghosted the mountains. When the sun touched the tip of the drop off, I lost feeling in my toes (it was so cold but so worth it!!).

Purples, blues and greens… oranges but with dashes of pink. The painting doesn’t do it justice, but it does just enough for me to remember that bit of gold starting to touch the earth.