Ashley Gets Lost

December showers apparently bring December flowers! We have had some decent rains here lately, and the landscape is appreciating it like nobody’s business. The ground is covered in lush patches of clover. Flowers are blooming. Everything is green and glorious. I cannot express in words how much this feels like the right way to be doing December.

I know “real winter” hasn’t started here yet, and we have some colder, wet months ahead. I’m looking forward to that as well, even if it cuts down on my scooter adventures! I’ve been getting my creative area set up, and I could be sewing if I wanted to! It’s just not that appealing yet with most of my supplies still in boxes. I’m waiting on organizational furniture.

In exciting international move news, we received our residence cards this week! That means we can travel again. And we put a down payment on a car when we were in Athens, and the sale has been finalized. We’ll have our own car next week after they ship it here from Athens. It’s been seven long months of rental cars, most of which were not very luxurious to drive!

On Halloween I noticed that the monstera at the bar had these funny cones on it, and my stepmom Kris informed me that they are fruit! After she mentioned that, I remembered seeing something about monstera fruit on the internet once. I mentioned to some of the staff that I was very interested in trying it.

A couple nights ago my favorite bartender Sotiris (no offense other bartenders, but he is my favorite!) sent me a message that he had harvested one of the fruits and heard I wanted to try it! So last night Felix and I went down for a most classy dinner of “The Devil’s Pizza” (basically an actually spicy pepperoni situation) and mozzarella sticks.

For dessert I was served a sample of the most elusive fruit! It tastes like pineapple, bananas, and mangos had a wild night in the jungle and this is their baby. Sotiris said it would be even sweeter in a couple days, but he was too excited to try it. These fruits have been growing for FOUR YEARS. I declared us members of an elite fruit club and said I wanted in on subsequent tastings.

It turns out he’s a gardener growing other fun tropical fruits as well, so we bonded more over garden talk. Right before we left, he gave me the most epic gift of all time: My own monstera fruit to take home and finish ripening on the counter!

Look at how wholesome and not at all phallic this fruit is. In 3-4 weeks I’m going to town on this baby. I feel very special and honored to have this shared with me.

On our walk home Felix and I stumbled upon this legit snail, which was very exciting as well. Poor guy had a very long journey to cross this street, so Felix relocated him to the other side. He probably thinks he time traveled. Like he made a 12 hour journey in seconds!

On Sunday I had a holiday lunch with my creative writing group, and it was a joy as always to see as many of them as could make it. Afterwards Joshua and I went to our favorite treats establishment with a view, Koukouvaya, which means owl in Greek. The door owls were looking very festive!

There’s a new cat down at the bar. Achilles and I named him Patrick, although I have already heard him being called other names by other regulars. We think he was dumped. He’s soft as a baby rabbit and so sweet. He purrs when I pick him up, and he always finds a friendly lap to snuggle up in. I left my bag at the table when I went in to pay, and I found him here trying to smuggle his way home with me. I have low key begged to keep him, but my efforts have been in vain as I was outvoted two to one on adding another kitty to our household.

In kitty news, Crash the handsome crusty old man who has been living with us for a month or so has been reunited with his girl Olya in Albania. I’m so glad they are back together!

Please enjoy this triangle of friendship situation I had going on in my living room this week. Everyone has been more snuggly since it’s gotten a bit cooler outside (and in!).

Lest you think my life is amazing every day, filled with sunshine and rainbows (and it is, usually), I’d like to inform you that we went approximately six days without water last week. The ultimate insult to injury being that it was dumping rain on at least one of those days! I’ve been trying to catch up on laundry the last few days as it’s been sunny and warm again. Please never take for granted the simple pleasure of having a clean body in clean sheets. I did it the other day and TRULY appreciated it after having neither for a while. Haha! It can get very frustrating finding a day with both water and sun for laundry, and Felix just got caught up on the dishes.

I was starting to feel very tired and worn down and have chosen to skip out on several social activities this week in favor of watching tv in my pajamas and working on crochet projects. I’m finally starting to feel more restored in body and spirit. I’m ready for a fun band night at the bar tomorrow and some orphan Christmas festivities next week.

I need to fix it up a bit, but behold my holiday window of joy! We decided we probably can’t have nice things like a tree this year with a tiny wild orange demon living in our midst, so this was my compromise. I still need to pop a few ornaments in there!

I hope you’re all staying cozy and feeling warm and safe and loved.