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Maybe not wedding fever in the big scheme of things, but in my little life I have the feeling of weddings aplenty. First my husband’s cousin sent an invitation. “Lebensverpartnerung” which means a kind of gay marriage. This is not possible in Bavaria, where we live, so we’ll be traveling all the way to Northern Germany for this. I actually looked forward to it. They were early with their announcement, they chose a beautiful location, and they were considerate enough to marry during summer break.

Next, there’s my sister. They’ll be marrying as soon as possible, when would it suit us. My husband said emphatically “No sooner than August, please!” but since it’s their wedding, not ours, it will be held at July 7th. Nice date, but I’ll have to reschedule my busiest teaching day, and spend two days on travel. My husband and son will be staying at home, since this would mean two days of rescheduling for my husband, and I have the feeling that two days spent mostly traveling would be a little too much for a 3-year-old. And traveling without child will be easier for me, of course. (And that’s something I’m looking forward to, having four hours of time to myself on the train. I hope that I can write and read. But then there will doubtlessly be lots of noisy world cup fans on the train…)

So, as if there weren’t enough weddings already, last Sunday my son announced that he had decorated his room and was about to marry. He had put a lot of Lego “tiles” on the floor, built something that was meant to be a rocket, or maybe fireworks (appropriate for such a grand festivity). And he wanted to marry – his teddy bear.

It’s about time, since they have been sleeping in the same bed for years. I was a little concerned for the same sex marriage, but then maybe it’s all for the better, we’ll never have to worry about our grandchildren being pale yellow and furry. (Or even worse: only pale yellow.) I don’t know, whether he forgot about the ceremony or didn’t want us to attend, I’ll have to ask him.

Technocrati Tags:
wedding, family, preschooler

I’ve been back again now for a couple of days, but was still too busy to post anything. Also it’s a little depressing that a lot of the traffic on this site is generated by poeple’s searches for something weird with diapers. So I’m thinking about a change of name…

But I’m back again and very glad about it. My husband and I are famous for coming back from vacations early. You might think that we’re crazy (and maybe you’re right), but for me this is a sure sign that we like our home. There is the added bonus of being able to make music at home. (Also the bed and the food is better. And you have all your clothes with you. And all of your shoes.) This time it was a little better for me, because I started practicing guitar again. And a guitar is much more portable than a piano.

Nevertheless it felt like lugging our entire household around. Two big backpacks, the kind that people use when they go on a big trip for months, two little backpacks, something we still call the diaper bag (which contains no diapers), and my purse that weighs about four pounds. And the guitar of course, and the stroller.

Oh, we went by train. Once you’ve schlepped your luggage around and put everything away, it’s much more comfortable than car travel. You can read, listen to music, walk around, get a meal from the restaurant, everything while still travelling. (No, of course we wouldn’t take a plane! By the time you have reached the airport, plus the time you have to wait because you have to check in hours before you leave, you’re halfway through Germany. And what about the ozone layer?)

I felt really smug that I had unpacked everything one hour after reentering the house. The next day my husband did all the laundry, I shopped for groceries, and in the evening everything went back to normal. Or so I thought.

Since then we’ve been spending hours on the phone with all the people we had to call back, we went to the city and looked at pianos, fetched a guitar from the repair shop, I reorganized all my e-mail, and we talked for hours about the new studio setup and whether there will be enough money to buy the piano of my dreams. Well, not exactly the piano of my dreams, I saw both a Bösendorfer grand piano on sale, and a regular Bösendorfer upright that I can’t afford ever, but I’ll settle for a nice upright piano by Schimmel. Which is only out of reach. Actually, we have the money for it, but that’s all of our savings. There would be nothing left for emergencies or anything. So we just try to save as much as we can until December and then we might buy it.

The next days will be spent by visiting with friends, my son got invitated to his very first birthday party. (Not his birthday, a kindergarten friend’s.) And as always after breaks, we will have a minor breakdown on Sunday. (Better to schedule them in advance.)

You see, I’m not in a very good blogging mood, but if you’re looking for something really inspirational and essay-heavy, go to Christine Kane instead.

The last week has been rather full, not the least because we’re about to travel. You can tell instantly that I’m not really used to leaving the house, when you recall my preparations for just going to a rehearsal. Now imagine the effort that goes into the preparation for a ten day trip. By train, which puts a limit on baggage, and to three different locations, which requires a little planning.

In the olden days ‘d have spent the last two or three weeks thinking about what to take with me, what to wear and how to organize. So, I’m quite pleased with myself, because I’ve started thinking about it just today in the morning.

Actually, I thought about clothes and found something astonishing: I don’t have to think about them. I only own one pair of fitting pants due to my attempts on normal/healthy eating, about ten Tees (and four of those are only suitable for high summer temperatures (and since we had to dig out the long johns again, this would be August)), two fitting bras, socks aplenty, and only one jacket fit for travel, my three-in-one gore-tex jacket. So, I don’t have to think, I just try to wash everything on time and put any clean garment into my backpack. Voilà!

My son’s wardrobe requires a little more thought, rubber boots or sandals? rain pants? Mittens? sun screen? You see, we’re dealing with uncertain weather here. We had 20 ° just ten days ago, shorts, tank tops, no socks, and we’re having about 8° right now, fleece shirt, long johns, rain gear.

And nobody seems to know how the weather will be next week.

But the main thing is not the clothing. The main thing is the cosmetics, the food, the diapers, the gadgets (extra bag for electrical, digital gadgets, even though we don’t own a laptop yet), the books, the magazines, the toys, the essential CDs, the guitar (of course you have to bring a guitar). Unfortunately I can’t bring my piano.

So, for our family traveling is hard. As musicians we depend on our equipment which we can’t take with us.

But then I talked to my mother and me MIL, two women who really try to take everything with them on a trip, my mother told me how she packed the wrong clothes for her last trip and lugged an enormous suitcase around and then only used half of what she brought, my mother-in-law told the same tale, my brain went ballistic with detail, and so I felled a decision. Again.

Packing is supposed to be finished in approximately half an hour. Everything else isn’t worth it.

How do I do this? Today I spent half an hour buying a second pair of jeans. In black and based on an overtly optimistic view that I’m going to loose another pound or two. Tomorrow I’ll spent about half an hour putting everything I need on the bed in the guest room. And on Saturday I’ll clean out the fridge and the garbage, wash the breakfast dishes, pack the things we couldn’t pack before, like toothbrushes, cosmetics, teddy bear and baby alarm, and that’s it.

If we’ll forget something, we’ll do without or buy another one on the road. I solemnly refuse to be ruled by packing for two days.

Now I’m going to watch a DVD and play a little guitar (one after the other). Then to bed.

I can’t promise to keep on blogging while on the road, since my parents only have dial-up. I’ll post as soon as I can.

Somehow I knew this before:

Your results:
You are Deanna Troi

Deanna Troi 90% Spock 52% Uhura 50% Chekov 50% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 45% Jean-Luc Picard 45% Will Riker 40% Geordi LaForge 40% Beverly Crusher 40% Data 35% Mr. Scott 30% Mr. Sulu 20% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 20% James T. Kirk (Captain) 20% Worf 15%

You are a caring and loving individual. You understand people’s emotions and you are able to comfort and counsel them.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Quiz

Have I ever told you that I really love “Star Trek: The Next Generation”? (“Spock 52%” is very neat. One of my very favorite characters.)

Um, not literally though. Since I’m vertical again after the stomach flu, but not on normal food again (no fat, no sugar! for me!), I’m healthy enough to see all the things that were neglected since Friday:

• laundry
• practice
• work on business flyer
• work on homepage
• write half a dozen e-mails
• blog.

• prepare for my mother’s visit, oops!

Maybe it’s a blessing, because I didn’t worry about my mother’s visit at all. Until now. I worried whether my son’s well again, if it’s okay to eat just a little cheese (no), whether this dreadful flyer will ever be made (maybe), whether I’ll ever have the space to write down the song that’s been in my head since Sunday (sung part of it into my PDA), and then it all went boom, when I remembered that my mother will be here for the next week.

So I’ve been making a little Might-Have-Done-List:

• prepare guest room
• plan meals and go grocery shopping
• clean house
• clean child
• look up movie theatres and films
• organize get-together with relatives living in this town

But my son told me that he and my mother-in-law have spent all afternoon in the garden, making it look nice. So all’s well. After all she’s my mother. We can shop and clean together.

This is, what you get for saying “My son is hardly ever unwell.” Like he had only about four or five episodes of flu per year. Although I knew that children starting to go to daycare are prone to infections, I hoped we would be spared since he was going to playgroup before, and since we as teachers have a lot of contact with children.

Well, hope is a nice thing. And he only had about one infection since starting kindergarten in February. His flu/ear infection started at the end of January. And he still has it. Every time we’re thinking, “Oh good, he’s getting well again.” it starts all over. He’s been virtually deaf for months now.

Now I see the ones of you who don’t have children nodding their heads in sympathy and then tune out. (“So, her child has been unwell. So what? Give him tea, put him to bed, and then get on with your life.”) Only a parent knows what “My son’s been having an ear infection” really means.

Those infections hurt. A lot. When your baby, toddler, or preschooler hurts, you suffer too. First, because one of the people you love most in life is hurting. Then, because this person is not gonna suffer in silence so you can get on with your beauty sleep. Your child will be wanting to be with you. All day. On your lap. Getting a shower might mean to leave a wailing, feverish, unhappy person in front of the bathroom door. He will wake you up every other hour. He will be sleeping in your bed, parking his head on one pillow, his feet in the other, and he will manage to push both of the adult sleepers out of the bed. You’ll be waking in between his wakenings to make sure, he’s covered. You’ll be having big discussions with the other parent, whether it’s okay to overdose the pain medication. In the middle of the night.

While your child spends his day in bed crying “But I’m soooo saaaad! I wanna go to kindergarten!”, you’ll have to go to work anyway. Without the benefit of childcare. (Thank you, Mother-in-law.) And then, right when he seems to be getting better – you get the flu.

So, the husband has been having something like influenza for the last week. He deemed himself unfit to teach, alas we’re self-employed, so he taught anyway. He should have spent the week in bed with me making tea… The child had the next episode of ear infection, complete with light fever, being deaf, and being irritable. Every day we didn’t know, if he could go to kindergarten or not. He went anyway, he wanted to, very badly, and his fever went away. And then, what happened? Right after the doctor told me “You keep on giving him his medicine, and when everything goes well you might be able to avoid an operation to remove his adenoids.”, he’s getting the stomach flu as well.

That was a nice night. He woke up at 1.30, 3.00, 4.30 and 6.00 to throw up. I spent a little time, cleaning vomit from: him, his bed, the floor all the way to the bathroom, the wall next to the bathroom door (My advice: don’t ever carry the child to the toilet, fetch a bucket), the toilet, and me. Got to bed, start over. Fortunately, the teddy bear was spared. The bear is essential to sleep success. In the course of that night I trained myself to go from sleeping soundly when hearing a strange sound on the baby monitor to full sprint with the bucket in under two seconds.
My husband, by the way, slept a very cough disturbed sleep in the guest room. He didn’t want to affect my sleep. But I decided not to wake him. (See the halo over my head?)

So there comes Friday, and we’re having a problem. We both had to teach and my mother-in-law was visiting a friend. To far away to be called back. My husband wasn’t feeling well (because of the flu), and I started feeling a little queasy myself. At first I thought about sleep deprivation and nausea caused by the episodes of the night, but – no, I had the stomach flu too. But only mildly.

So, we taught our students while being sick, and with the child. Not the best option, but if you’re self-employed it has to have some benefits to it, hasn’t it? We were lucky, the child sat on my lap for two hours, I had only piano students, and no singing students, and our last two students didn’t show up.

Today, we’re feeling much better. Thanks for reading all this whining. I’ll be fetching fennel tea and zwieback.