birthday

Drinks Last night, Prague today

After I hopped off the computer last night, the Spanish guy that I was staying in the room with at the hostel said he needed to go to the bank to go get some money. We went over for money and on the way over, decided to get a bite to eat.
It was my birthday after all, so I suggested we pop in the Shamrock Irish Pub there in the tourist district. We found a table in a great pub that was packed with irish folks out for the weekend. The table becide us had 3 guys and a girl, kitty corner to us had 5 guys, and another behind us had 6 more. They were well on their way to feelin “happy” by the time that we arrived. Anyhow, a couple pints later (for my new friend from the hostel) and a couple rum and cokes for me (along with an irish stew) the guys at the tables around us were pretty well far along – enough so that they were singing at the top of their lungs, guy on guy dancing and just having a blast. No kidding. I was busting up at their antics, and the poor spanish guy I was hanging out with was completely lost.
Finally, one of the guys sees me busting up and says “Oy! Wayt a min-ut they’res a gal there – hey lass, come out and dance wyth us!” After cracking up laughing and a smart ass “what? you mean you’re tired of dancing with your buddies on the floor?” from me, I went out and had some fun dancing and just cracking up with them. There’s a few pictures from this – and yes, I even (hopefully it’ll turn out) got to blow out a candle for my birthday. Of course… it was the candle that was on the table as opposed to a birthday candle on a cake – but … it counts.
We got back to the Room about midnight – and offered Ruby and Matt (the chinese guy whose name I thought was Zhang but he prefers Matt) to come out for the last drink of the night. Neither of them joined – because after hearing me spout about how great Kutna Hora and the Bone church are and seeing a few pictures – they decided to go themselves on Monday – and then they talked Jose (the spanish guy) into going too. How cool is that? 🙂
Moving along to today – (Happy Saint Pat’s By the way!) this morning I headed back into prague and caught the old town square and more of the charles bridge. I also climbed up the towers at both ends and took some video – hopefully it turns out. Otherwise, It was weird weather wise – while on the bridge, one side of the bridge was clear blue sky and sunny – the other – storm clouds and sprinkling – it made for some amusing photographs between the towers and statues in the area.
After that, I popped into the czech post to send a few postcards and then caught my train home – footsore and fulfilled.
Photos will be posted soon (I hope) and yes, I did keep up with my Project 365 while I was there – Just didn’t have a way to upload them while out of town.
By the By – side note – Zamwal decided that he wanted to buy a flickr account for himself – so the next person to respond that they’re interested in the 365 challenge (see other blog for it) gets the gift of a free flickr account from me!
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Three weeks….

It’s three weeks until my birthday. Literally, it’s 3 weeks. March 16, I’ll be 32. I think I am not really taking it well.

Turning 25, well, it was no big deal. Mom (who turned 50 that year) took it alot harder than I did – it’s like she said she was officially old. And I guess it really hit her that I was the same age as she was when I was born. (She was 25 when I was born – and now I was 25 too.) At the time, I just thought – lord woman, you’re crazy. I couldn’t imagine having been married for 5 years, being pregnant on my 25th birthday, and then having a kid a week later. Times have changed since my mom grew up (obviously) as that was more the norm – married and kids before you were 30.

Thing is that my 30th birthday didn’t bother me too much either. At 30, I was packing up, selling my house, and basically hedging my bets on a move to Europe with my job. I was way too busy to stop and think “God… I’m 30!!”. To me, I felt very young, I was anticipating the new experiences that the move would bring, and yet dreading leaving my friends (and my “new” boyfriend) behind. Sure, I wasn’t where I thought I would be – had you asked me at 27 where I was going to be – I surely would have said married – but sometimes, things don’t work out as you’d planned and you make alternate plans.

Anyhow, fast forward 2 years from 30. I’ll be 32. I’m in Germany, and Berlin is fun, amazing, and all it’s cracked up to be. It’s been a wild ride. I’ve made new friends, had a ton of crazy experiences, travelled a bit more (checked several things off my bucket list), and even learned some German in the process. I would say I’ve grown up a little more – gathered some wisdom – and learned more tolerance. And, now I’m taking stock and not sure what I want to do.

Literally, the world is my oyster. I am thinking of a new job, and checking out wanted ads to see if there’s anything that catches my eye in Europe or in the US. I’m considering moving – whether it’s into Berlin or somewhere else, I don’t know. I desperately want to travel – but money is an object, so wherever I go, I need to make sure there is enough to be self supporting when I’m done. I’m restless – my gypsy feet are itching – and yet – I’m undecided – waiting for … SOMETHING. Only, I don’t know what that something is. I’ll know it when I see it but… yeah in the meantime, I’m looking… undecided… and this, I suppose would be termed “mid-life indecisiveness”. Joy.

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