Relaxing October Weekend

This post actually is a lot like one of the “Jumble of Thoughts” posts, but I like to at least keep up the illusion that one day I might write a post about one single topic again :-) I wish I had some #treeporn photos to spice up this post, but this is the only one I was able to take this weekend, even though I was outdoors today and took a few more photos of other stuff (see below). There were some more colourful trees, but I just didn’t manage to take decent photos with my phone and I didn’t take my camera, because it wasn’t charged.

I spent a really relaxing weekend, even though I was quite busy. Yes, that’s not a contradiction. Now after five weeks at the new job I just realize how much of my weekends I sometimes spent fretting about having to go back to work on Monday. Or having to work on stuff for job#2. It really feels like a weight has lifted of my shoulders, a weight I hadn’t realized was weighing on me so heavily. Yes, I’m still so incredibly happy about the new job. Even though I sometimes still wonder if I’m really up for all the stuff I have to do. Sometimes I think I’m in over my head and that I can’t take in all the new stuff I need to know and how to do it. But on Friday I felt like I made the first really useful contribution to our current project and that felt pretty good. At least I want to feel good about it.

After the usual chores on Saturday I spent two hours at our local Greens office tutoring one of my fellow Greens how to work with the CMS of our website. It was long due, because I neglected the website regulary and it needs to be updated more often. So hopefully other can take over that job from me soon.
In the late afternoon I took advantage of having my own car and drove to a larger town in our neighbourhood, because I wanted to browse through two certain stores (didn’t find what I was looking for) and because I wanted to finally get a Starbucks Card (those were retired in Germany for five years or so) and to enjoy a Caramel Brownie and a Latte again. I admit I’m a tiny Starbucks Junkie and not being able to just drop by one of their coffee houses on my way to work or after work to get a Latte to go, is the only thing I miss about the old job. There is no Starbucks close to my way to work now.
Anyway I enjoyed a relaxing 90 minutes or so at the coffee house, watching people, using the Wi-Fi to catch up with my online reading (blogs, twitter) and just having a good time. I can’t recommed the Apple Crumble Latte though. It wasn’t really bad, but just not my thing. Apple and Coffee just don’t make a good match for me. But the brownie made up for it and so did the cute toddlers on the other side of the room and the adorable large dog next to me ;-)

I slept in today (what a luxury), went out to get some bread rolls for breakfast and a newspaper and enjoyed reading that during breakfast. I have to say, that it was the right decision to cut down the time I spend in front of my TV catching up with various shows. While I often spend my breakfast time on the weekend watching TV I very much enjoy reading a newspaper during a long breakfast for a change.
After a week of rain and storm (at least so it seems) the sun graced us with her appearance today. I decided to make use of it, because who knows how it will be next weekend? So my mom and I drove to our local (well it’s in the next town, but still) open air museum. It showcases the historical development of handicraft and technique in our region and I’ve always found it fascinating. My last visit was back in the 90s I think and my mom hasn’t been there even longer. We didn’t watch many of the workshops or went inside the old buildings, just enjoyed the beautiful weather while strolling around and had a nice afternoon.

I had actually planned to be productive for a bit more after posting this and create my characters and plot for my NaNoWriMo project. But it got later as I planned so this will have to wait another day or to. Or at least writing it all down will have to wait. My mind won’t stop thinking about it in my spare moments either way :-) I’m very much determined to participate, but I know that I will have to be well prepared to actually make it through it. I’m taking notes from one of my favourite writers Elizabeth George and her guidebook “Write Away”, which gives some really helpful advice. Had I known that it would be so much work to prepare for even starting to write I most probably would have shied away from the whole idea. But the idea was already imbedded in my creative mind and I can’t get rid of it ;-)