august was the first month we stayed put, without any major trips. hurray!
that doesn’t mean we got bored — far from it! we had lots of visitors, friends and family alike, who kept us company and helped explore the nearby beaches and towns. i also got my shiny new library card, and the boy kept running and preparing for the upcoming berlin marathon. only 2 weeks to go now! :)
in july we celebrated lots of things… usually with ice-cream!
postcrossing turned 10 (wow!), lots of friends came over to visit us, p.’s dad turned 78, and my littlest cousin was born! other than that, it was a quiet blue-skied month, with lots of work behind the scenes and some occasional trips to the beach. :)
earlier last week, i was talking with A. about the surgery she was about to have in a couple of days. she was eager and excited for it, telling me how the days were stretching endlessly like chewing gum… how she planned to go to sleep early that day, just so that time moved a little faster.
and then, something happened during that surgery… and a couple days later, i got the news that she had died.
like a punch in the gut. one day she’s right there, we’re laughing, sharing train rides and exchanging letters, commenting on her new kitchen cupboards and the pile of books she wanted to read… and next thing i know this unexplainable void takes over, this acute absence of her. it doesn’t make sense.
the heartbreak crystalized the absurdity of the past few months — and how silly we’ve been, postponing our life and putting things on hold until we reach an arbitrary point in the future. what are we waiting for, exactly? we have a roof over our heads, clothes, health… let’s live, damn it!
november went by so fast!
we started the de-cluttering process, sold lots of our furniture (including my beloved postcard stand, snif!), spent as much time with friends as we could, wandered the streets shuffling the leaves, celebrated the anniversary of the fall of the wall, visited the computer games museum, and started slowly packing…
and since we’re on it, might as well do october as well:
there you go! october was exciting: we visited frankfurt’s mail sorting center, did the tube challenge (twice!), spent our days with friends old and new and their babies… really, if this isn’t nice, what is?