Tired Complaints

I just finished working a 27 hour shift at work. The recovery will take a few days, I’m sure, but I won’t be home for them.

Tomorrow, I am going to Venice for the weekend. After the past few brutal weeks at work, I’m ready to leave for a while. I need some fresh air and good wine. The canals and plazas in Venice should do the trick.

I’ll be back on Sunday, but only briefly.

A few days later, while most all my friends and family are sleeping in the early hours of Thanksgiving, I’ll be on a plane headed to Barcelona. It’ll be my first trip to Spain, and I’m anxious to be around a foreign language that I can understand. Maybe I’ll be able to have a conversation with a European girl for the first time in months.

I’ll keep you posted.

But for now, I’m sitting here staring at my backpack that is soon to be flung all around Europe, and I feel almost like complaining. I’m worried about my exhaustion: at this very moment, and when I get back from Spain next week. Work has been tiring. Hopscotching can be tiring too. I'm just a little sick of being exhausted.

But, tired is part of the game sometimes. And, God has me living in Europe and has given me the opportunity to travel abundantly. That blessing is pretty sweet and surly trumps the current urge to complain about the issues in my life.

So, I am tired and I will be tired, but no complaints from me.

I’m off to see new places.

Homemade Dinner

It is nice when a close friend comes to your place for a visit. It’s far better when they come to stay indefinitely.

Right now, my friend Heinz is staying with me indefinitely. His arrival here in Germany about a month ago has dramatically changed my lifestyle. Before Heinz, I would come home from work to an empty apartment and find some tv or, rarely, a book to keep me company. Occasionally, I would call a friend back in the US.

With Heinz, I come home to conversation. Companionship. Fellowship. It’s quite a different homecoming than I experienced during my first seven months here.

Before he found a job, I actually came home to a freshly prepared dinner most nights. It was exciting to unlock the door and wait for the smells to register. And, with “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” up-in-the-air, it almost seemed like marriage.

Almost.

Now, he has a job and the homemade dinners are a little less frequent, but we manage just fine. Besides, I’d take the conversation and friendship over the food any day.

I’m excited to see what the future holds for my friendship with Heinz. We’ve already traveled to Austria and made some fantastic memories. We’re headed to Spain for Thanksgiving.

We are going to get to “do” a lot of stuff over the months ahead, but I already know that my fondest memories will be sampling the dozens of beers in the refrigerator and just conversing about life.

It should be a pretty great few months.

Thank you, God.




...........................Heinz and me at Oktoberfest in Munich....................