Post by Honeylioness on Sept 2, 2009 18:41:58 GMT -5
Well, Anne has been here two weeks now. I finally feel as though I have a moment to put some thoughts and observations down in print.
I am not sure who has been more tired - her or me. Her, because of the sudden difference in culture, language and food not to mention the exhaustion of jet lag and time zone changes. Me because I am so used to living alone and having the house as quiet as I wish it to be when I come home.
Those days are gone for a while.
Then there is my guilt at feeling badly that I have not been able to take any real time off of work to spend days with her. Of course her first three or four days she was sleeping a lot. But still, I felt bad that she was perhaps bored or anxious and I had to be at the office.
But my friends Ruth and Theron came up the first day and got her connected to the Internet so she could "talk" with her friends. And Theron, who hates to drive, even came up one night around dinner time to trouble shoot a connection problem she was having. What a great guy.
But last weekend just about did me in. Friday after work we went to the Mall - now keep in mind I have never been a Mall "person". If I have to enter one it has been go in, get the item, and get out as quickly as possible. A strategy that does not work with a teenager.
Not only did we have to go into every single store there, but she tried almost nothing on, being able of course to judge how something would look solely upon how it hung on a hanger. Ah well, she is but 17 and I have forgotten just how important it is at that age to have the right look. I do not think I was like that, but my mother says differently.
A shirt, a purse and a new phone later (the SIM card just would NOT work in her German phone) we crawled home.
I actually bought something also - a cute woven shrug, a long balck cotton skirt with tiers and a rather avant-garde camisole. But as I only spent $23 for all of it both I think I did fairly well.
I am not sure who has been more tired - her or me. Her, because of the sudden difference in culture, language and food not to mention the exhaustion of jet lag and time zone changes. Me because I am so used to living alone and having the house as quiet as I wish it to be when I come home.
Those days are gone for a while.
Then there is my guilt at feeling badly that I have not been able to take any real time off of work to spend days with her. Of course her first three or four days she was sleeping a lot. But still, I felt bad that she was perhaps bored or anxious and I had to be at the office.
But my friends Ruth and Theron came up the first day and got her connected to the Internet so she could "talk" with her friends. And Theron, who hates to drive, even came up one night around dinner time to trouble shoot a connection problem she was having. What a great guy.
But last weekend just about did me in. Friday after work we went to the Mall - now keep in mind I have never been a Mall "person". If I have to enter one it has been go in, get the item, and get out as quickly as possible. A strategy that does not work with a teenager.
Not only did we have to go into every single store there, but she tried almost nothing on, being able of course to judge how something would look solely upon how it hung on a hanger. Ah well, she is but 17 and I have forgotten just how important it is at that age to have the right look. I do not think I was like that, but my mother says differently.
A shirt, a purse and a new phone later (the SIM card just would NOT work in her German phone) we crawled home.
I actually bought something also - a cute woven shrug, a long balck cotton skirt with tiers and a rather avant-garde camisole. But as I only spent $23 for all of it both I think I did fairly well.