Road trip day 2: DC to Charleston

Today was as uneventful as yesterday, and when you're talking about road tripping, uneventful is desirable. So lucky us.

We made a few pit stops to grab snacks and have bathroom breaks, Buckles was great in the car for the duration of the trip, and Greg got to listen to the Philly game on the radio off his phone.

Every couple hours we would notice the temperature creep up and the leaves on the trees getting more green and vibrant. Finally, after ten hours in the car, we made it to Charleston. So happy to be here!

Road Trip: Day 1

We have arrived in DC after a pretty uneventful drive. We met up with friends and had dinner at a great place called 901 Restaurant. Then my friend took us for some late night site seeing. Had such a nice night! Tomorrow we are off to Charleston. Our plan is to sleep in and hit the road whenever we get around to it. No rush, nice and slow. ;)
Here are some photos from today.

Gearing Up

Apologies for sending out a reeeeeally old email. I did it by accident last night when trying to figure out the new set up of my website host blogger.

Anyway, we are gearing up for our big road trip to Florida. We will start by heading to Washington DC and visiting with friends. Then we'll spend two nights in Charleston. My friend hooked us up with a beautiful hotel room on the beach at a great price so that will be fun.

Not really looking forward to this giant drive mostly because I am somewhat of a backseat driver. Ever since I got into a car accident where someone flew through the intersection and I hit them (their fault!) I cringe when I've gotta be a passenger.

Also still dealing with on and off swelling in my knees and ankles that could make sitting in a car really painful and annoying. Fingers crossed it holds off for this drive.

Stay tuned for cheesy photos of state lines and crap on-the-go food! ;)

Interim

18 eggs in a carton, what a beautiful thing!

We've spent  a week in Maine and are in the midst of our week in Connecticut before we head down to Florida. It's been great seeing family, but living out of our suitcases is getting old fast. Today we counted all the times we've moved since being together- eight times! Crazy. 

Anyway, we've been enjoying the little things that are normal here but that we don't get in Germany, like egg cartons with 18 eggs (the most you can buy in Germany is a carton of 10).

Also enjoying gas stoves, which we didn't have this past hockey season. 

LOVING giant grocery stores. 

Not loving: gas prices. Thanks a lot, NY state. (Though when we did the math converting euro to dollar and liters to gallons, we found out we were spending the equivalent of $7.65 in Germany. It didn't hurt as bad though because our car there was so good on gas, and we didn't drive as much as we do here.)

Final Germany Pics

Leave it to us to discover a killer diner two minutes from our house in the last week we were in Germany. Unfortunately I was so sick we only for to go once.

Also, a skill Buckles found in the woods. Ca-reepy!

And lastly, did I blog about Buckles' passport?? We have to add his picture in it but the vet filled out all the info about his shots, etc and it's all we need to travel with him in the European union. We used it for US customs too and they had no problem. Really a great thing!

Cleaning "House"

And by "house" I mean our boxes of stuff we stored at Greg's grandmother's (Thanks, Nana!).

For sale: some iphones.

A black and a white iphone 4, 16 gig, AT&T, in excellent condition. Come with unopened headphones and chargers in original boxes. $200 each. ****BOTH SOLD******

Also, a white unlocked iphone4. This was purchased unlocked directly from Apple. 8 gig. Use on any carrier in any country. Front is perfect, back has a small crack as shown that doesn't interfere with usage. $450.

black phone

white phone

unlocked white phone, crack on back as shown.

Taking flight

We made it home!! It was an uneventful, easy flight made seemingly quick by three movies we had rented: Switch, a French thriller; The Art of Getting By, a coming of age story; and The Way Back, true story about prisoners escaping a Soviet camp and walking thousands of miles to India.

Other high points of the trip: Lufthansa's decent vegetarian meals, no crying children on the flight, and having another hockey couple we hadn't seen in ages on our flight.

Low point: my ankles unexpectedly swelled and are *still* swollen, albeit less so than last night. Boo to that.

On the agenda today: going to a gloriously large, only-in-the-states type foods store where we are sure to be able to find everything we need in one stop. (While I love Germany, it got old having to make a special stop at the health food store just to get something as simple as almond milk or gluten free whatever.)

Take off

Here's to hoping this plane ride is painless and uneventful. Xo

Still in Germany

Tried to get on the airplane but wound up in the hospital instead. Same symptoms as usual- weakness, stomach pain, indigestion, fever. Had a lot of tests done, no real answers. I was released from the hospital but I'm still feeling not so great. Trying to get strong and get better. Hoping to be on a plane Saturday. Just want to get home and get better.

Last days.

Blogging from my phone so the pics are probably out of order.

Check out Buckles' passport. Apparently he needs that to go between countries in the European union. Kind of a genius idea, really. There's space for all of his medical updates, etc., and apparently this will work as a good bill of health when we try to get him into the US tomorrow.

Also, a skull he found in the woods and a pic from our walk today. I had a burst of energy and was feeling good for the first time in days, so I took him for a walk. Towards the end of the walk I called Greg to pick us up because I was feeling so weak. I wish I could figure out what is wrong with me. I feel exhausted, weak, stomach hurts, no appetite. Hopefully tomorrow's travel goes smoothly.

Laying down

So sick of laying down!! I haven't moved in something like three days. The good news is that I am feeling a LOT better. Not 100%, but maybe 70%. I feel pretty weak still and I'm still waking up at night in pools of sweat, and having a painful stomach thing going on but the good thing is that my muscle pain is down considerably. People! Electrolyte imbalances are nothing to mess with!

This will be a busy week for us, as we are packing and getting ready to fly back to the states, but hopefully I'll be back to regular blogging soon.

Down Time

Still dealing with the muscle/joint issues. To make a long story short, I put in a call to my NY doctor because the pain had become too much to handle. From what I told him about my symptoms in Thailand and now (muscles seizing up at night, extreme muscle pain in back and shoulders), he thought I had an electrolyte imbalance and that I should take electrolytes and magnesium malate.

Electrolytes and magnesium are on constant drink rotation here, and I do feel the slightest bit of relief, but it's still not very fun. Still having a hard time walking (ligament issues in knees), and I need help putting on my shirts because my rotator cuffs are not rotating so much, haha.

I did some yoga nidra today (complete relaxation), and it was nice to clear my mind although to be honest, I didn't feel much pain relief.

This is really hard. One minute I am trying to just be with what is, understanding that I can learn from this, that maybe it's my body's way of telling me to slow down and recuperate from my time in Thailand. And the next minute I'm angry and frustrated because six weeks ago I was going to the gym every day and now I need help putting my clothes on. And, you know, having just earned a yoga certificate, I would love to continue my practice, start teaching, etc. But alas, here I am, laying on my back.

I did use the down time to read a book yesterday, though. It was called This Beautiful Life. It was not uplifting at all, but a good, quick read from The NY Time's notables of 2011.

It's also pretty lame to feel so helpless, as we need to pack and start cleaning up this house, and I can't do much to help out. Can't walk the dog. Can't cook. Can't really do much of anything, so pretty awesome for Greg, huh?

We'd also planned on driving to Austria to see our friends and meet their new baby, but it doesn't look like it will happen.

So. Sigh.
It is what it is. And hopefully whatever 'it' is will be over and done with ASAP.

Things that make you go, "hmmm"

...Thai- edition.

These pics will probably be out of order, as I'm blogging from my phone.

The worst sun chips known to man.

My thumb swelling as part of a herx from the heat (lame disease. Haha- wrote 'Lyme' but my phone autocorrected it to lame. It stays)

My Japanese yoga friend wrote her class sequence in Japanese complete with pictures. Totally showed us all up- I wrote mine on a scrap piece of paper!

Seaweed chips- no bueno.