In addition to coming back with a healthy respect for prepositions and the other assorted dangers of the Dutch language, I also brought home a tremendous case of the sick. My ultra mellow yoga like writing teacher had been getting progressively sicker and was worried that it was contagious. With typical American bluster, I assured her that I rode the trains and my immune system could certainly handle it. Well, the Wise Woman of Writing was right 🙂 And yours truly got a smack from the humility stick.

This morning I woke up covered in sweat and I was thrilled! For the past three days I have been freezing cold, wearing lots of clothes and sleeping under a comforter with four breathing heaters. And still not being warm. Sweat soaked was a big relief, wanting to kick all the blankets off and send the pets elsewhere was even more so. My end was not imminent! Today I have plans to leave the house as well. Haven’t done that since Monday morning’s banjo lesson. I basically spent this week sleeping, sneezing and not even wanting coffee. I know, that’s the worst part!

I should know this by know. Every so often there comes a point where your body says “Hey you up there, you’ve been missing the signs lately. About how I am feeling? Do you even care? Well, let me show how I can make you care”. And then I get sick. It always happens after really emotionally stressful times. I have decided to pay more attention to those signals.

One of my goals from last week was to actually use more of my vacation time this year and have at least a 2 week vacation in August. Most people go for three weeks but that’s more than I am comfortable with right now.  My cousin, Joanne, is generally a vacation house expert. She always manages to find the perfect vacation house. I asked her to share her secrets with a vacation beginner. Well, she literally takes two weeks to find the right place. That’s not going to work for me so she sent sites to look at that she has used. That saves me so much time compared to a search engine. Yesterday I started looking and sent off my first email to inquire about availability in August. I haven’t decided which country, I was just looking at the vacation houses. This first one is in Italy and if it is available, the boys and I will be headed there for two weeks in August. It is about an 800 mile drive from here which I could do over two days. I could probably do it in one but with the boys in the car, that’s not good for them (or me). So, we will see!

It is Hemelvaartsdag today or Ascension Day. Yesterday I wished a coworker a Fijne Hemelvaart (Happy Ascension) He was quite taken aback and he asked me I knew what I said. After I thought about for a minute I quickly apologized and said I definitely wasn’t hoping for him to ascend to heaven quickly. I think I gave him another entry for the list “Strange things my American coworker has said to me” . He is also the one who I wished not to be painfully cremated as opposed to painfully surprised. Poor Gerard. Aside from awkward language moments, that also means a long weekend here since most things are closed today.

This weekend is also the Rolling Kitchens weekend. That’s what you call a food truck here, a rollende keuken. They have a lot of things I don’t eat and seeing the barbecue and pig on a spit ones makes me queasy. They do have a high representation of veg/vegan though. Rollende keukens come from all corners of the Netherlands to participate. Den Haag apparently has a huge vegan business community.

I think I am not quite ready for that today. I am not hungry yet and it would be pointless to go somewhere like that when you can’t really taste food yet. Hopefully tomorrow. For now, coffee. 🙂