Hello Friends! I'm on spring break this week, so life's a little slower and I have more time to drink tea and think. Not surprisingly, thinking causes England to be on my mind quite a bit. One year ago I was there.
In fact, I have some very specific memories of this day one year ago that I could share, but I would be boring you with detail and telling a story that's not really that funny, and scaring you with how much I remember. I remember a lot, guys. A lot.
A year ago today this was my dinner. It was delicious.
And during dinner Nick used that phrase "You know, I'm not a doctor but..." and I thought "Oh my stars! Nick would be such a good doctor." I'm not going to say he missed his calling, because just because someone would be good at a thing doesn't mean that's what they should make their living doing it. I'm just saying that if he had decided to be a doctor, he would have been one helluva doctor.
I'm getting away from the point.
The point is, miserable though I was for much of my time in England, I look back on it very fondly and want to go back and be there. We know, Steph. We've been over this a couple million times. However, recently I'm also remembering the things that I missed that made me so miserable and homesick while I was gone. So in order to keep some perspective, here are a few things I do not miss about living in England in general, and a hotel in particular.
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I do not miss loading ALL the laundry up and walking it a mile down the road, spending several hours (and more pounds than I want to count) doing the laundry, then loading the damp laundry back into the suitcase (because who can afford to keep it in the dryer long enough to dry it?!) and walking it all the way back to the hotel, then finding enough placed around our room to drape things to dry them. But I do miss Rose, who worked at the launderette and was the only friend I made in England.
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I do not miss the hotel bed. It was full-size and it was uncomfortable. It had a sheet and a down comforter. When I used the comforter I was too hot, but if I took it off I was too cold and didn't have enough weight on me to be able to sleep well.
One morning I gave up and tried to sleep in the armchair. These are the covers Tim had.
This is what I had...
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I do not miss missing my dogs. If we're honest, being away from The Crazies was the hardest thing about those three months. Stinky, naughty, and sassy though they are, I still love hearing them snore in the hall outside our room as I'm falling asleep. I love coming home to someone being SO EXCITED to see me.
I do not miss being sick all. the. time. Ok, so it wasn't all the time, but it was a lot of the time, and I was pretty sick. Generally I get 2 colds per year, and not really sick otherwise. I had 2 awful colds in the span of 2 months, and it took forever to get better. I don't miss having to walk to the store to get medicine then turning around and doing it again because it was the wrong kind. I don't miss coughing all night long, knowing I was keeping Tim from sleeping, but having no where to go. There was not couch to sleep on. Well there, was, but it was gross and in the hall and right there where the lift doors opened. So not really for sleeping. And not adequate light for reading.-----
I don't miss bad hair days. Not that I don't have them still, but they were pretty frequent over there. I didn't have a curling iron or straightener, but I did have long, unruly hair and a lot of humidity. I needed a haircut badly. Fortunately I was usually with boys, who I don't think notice or care. Unfortunately, there were a lot of pictures taken.
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| Those bangs! What does one do with them? |
I do not miss living an empty, rather selfish life. I could do what I wanted when I wanted. I didn't have to take care of anyone, no one counted on me for anything, and I didn't feel like I could help anyone with anything. This was nice and freeing for about 3.5 days, but the emptiness had really set in at about 2 months and I realized how much richer life is when you are sharing it with loved ones and how much more fulfilling it is to invest in others than to always satisfy your own desires.
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| Golly, I missed these kids... |
A year ago I would have thought this list of things a year later would be much longer. I thought I would be saying things like "I don't miss dinner with all guys every night" "I don't miss hearing trains and planes all night long" "I don't miss walking all the time" and "I don't miss running to catch trains, and cramming on trains with strangers, and worrying how to get through the people to get off the train when I need to." But I do miss those things, at least partly. But I'm happy where I am, too.
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