I'm Feeling Giddy!

I have a lot to write about, but here's one to start off...

It's so awesome when you get to spend time with a friend just talking and laughing and knowing that person likes you anyway. I say some of the dumbest things EVER, but your real friends don't care. Friends like that are pretty rare.

Two humorous stories.

First, I've been listening to Russian CDs and tapes in my car on the way to class every week. Annabelle is in the car with me for an hour -- there and back. She's usually back there reading a book or looking out the window or playing with her lizards (you get the picture). Every once in a while she busts out a Russian word that I know I know I should know, but I don't! She just yells out "KNIGA!" (book) or "MOLODETS!" (well done!). It's hilarious. But it's even more hilarious when there are witnesses. For example, today Gigi and Gavin were visiting and Gavin had picked up Annabelle's piggy bank.

Gigi said, "Annabelle can Gavin play with your piggy bank?"

Annabelle -- with great enthusiasm -- yelled, "NYET!!!" It was so hilarious.

I am a huge REM listener. I think they're one of the greatest bands of all time. But anyway ... Andy and I had an REM CD in the car and we were listening to it on the way home from dinner with Gigi, Carlo and Gavin last week. The song "Imitation of Life" was on and Andy and I were singing and being silly and, suddenly, from the backseat, we hear this little voice doing the "come on! Come on!" chorus and the up and down vocal sliding of the word "cry" that the song has throughout. It was amazing and beautiful and awesome to hear her singing for one of the first times ever.

Potpourri for $100

Russian is really hard. When I am studying I find myself asking: "Why? Why are you doing this?" Not only is the stuff hard, but getting babysitting and getting down for class and finding time for homework -- it's all tough.

That being said, being on a college campus makes me long to go back and finish my MA. It's fun to be back in class. And, hokey as it sounds, it's fun to learn. I love Russian, so all the hassle of getting there and back with a toddler and cramming in bits of study here and there is worth it. But once a week for a language like Russian seems almost unrealistic. I need to be in a class everyday to keep the momentum going, but once a week is not only all they offer, it's all that is realistic right now.

I am trying to reconnect with old friends. It's like for the past two years Andy and I have been in a battle just to stay alive and we're finally coming out of the really hard part. We've been in [town] for a year now and we've both realized we really have no friends and few prospects. I'm trying to reach out to old friends hoping that, though time has passed, it won't matter. I've come to realize not everyone feels that way. I am really such a naive little girl sometimes.

Andy and I both miss ATL desperately. It has been suggested that it's a golden memory that we miss, not reality. And, I am sure there is some truth in that. But I really miss the friends I had there. I miss Andy's friends that he had at work. I miss cold weather. I miss going to Thrashers' practices. I miss living in a smaller "big city." I miss the beauty of the rolling hills and greenery and kudzu. Our favorite restaurants. The shopping. The church. The general vibe of the city. It's very different here. It's not the town we grew up in anymore. Atlanta, really, is the town we grew up in. If that makes sense. Anyway...

Annabelle is very funny. Her speech is starting to take off. She learns scores of new words everyday -- and remembers them. It really is fascinating to see the light click on in her head when she learns something new. I doubt I look that cute when I learn that a preposition in front of a noun in Russian changes the ending of the word. No, nyet. I am sure I don't. But Annabelle learning? That is something special to see.
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