Ashley Gets Lost

I am torn between feelings of “how did that happen” and “fucking finally” after January seemed to last at least 94 days, most of which were fairly terrible.

I heard a rumor that there was a flu going around after Christmas, and I made the executive decision to book a little apartment in Matala, a little hippy beach village in the south, for New Years. I was thinking if it’s anything like my personal little beach village, it would absolutely not be hopping with people. And I was so right! We had to drive over a village or two to find dinner the two nights we were there, which included one delicious dinner at a place that boasted having mama’s cooking. Mama took our orders and then proceeded to go back into the kitchen and cook for us. Papa kept pouring the raki, which should have killed any possibility of germs in anyone’s systems.

Alas, we were not so lucky. A few days after coming home Joshua came down with a “cold” that was not a cold. It was the flu that’s been going around. Then Felix and I fell like dominos. I only felt SICK sick for a week or so, but since then I’ve been suffering from epic fatigue. The kind where taking my daily nap is not an option but a necessity and is then barely satisfying.

I’m finally crawling out from under the veil of the plague.

Here’s what I did on my winter illness vacation! 21 books!

If you did not buy a ticket to bummer town, feel free to skip the next four paragraphs.

Last summer/early fall was so fucking wonderful ya’ll. Everything felt right and fun and magical, and I felt loved, supported, and surrounded by people who were happy I was here. I was riding so high on life that the anxious weirdo in me should not have been surprised when life knocked me off the pedestal.

I’m not going into details here because small town/village bullshit, but the person who I thought was going to be one of my very best friends forever decided to let me know that she had changed her opinion of me over text on a Sunday morning.

It broke my heart and sent my central nervous system reeling. I’ve spent a good part of this fall and winter healing my heart and rebooting my spirit. I want to be a bad bitch, but it turns out I am a sensitive gooey marshmallow hearted being after all.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk about it at all, but it has been an unfortunate part of my international moving experience.

***END OF BUMMER BREAK***

However, my long awaited visit from the best girl a girl could ask for happened in December. I think we’ve been best friends for something like 28 years now, and having her here was medicine for my broken heart.

I hired my favorite Athens photographer to give us a little tour and take some photos of us, and it was so much fun!

10/10 experience. If you need a photographer in Athens, let me know. I gotta guy!

Laura and I have been long distance breast friends for something like 20 out of of 28 years. She lives in Washington state, and I was in Colorado before we moved. I used to go visit her once (maybe twice if we were lucky!) a year before the pandemic, and I’m so grateful that she spent her time and money to come across the world to spend a couple weeks here with me.

I don’t know when I’ll get to see her again, so I’m so grateful to have some beautiful memories of the time we spent in Athens.

In other news, I’ve started taking private Greek lessons, so I’m getting a little better every week! With my hodgepodge of beginner/advanced beginner knowledge, I needed someone teaching just me to start at the beginning (to cover what I might have missed) and skip over the things that I know pretty well. I am very much not interested in having homework. I feel like I’m in elementary school over here. Sometimes it feels really good and like I’m making progress, and other days it feels like I’m never going to nail this shit down. Opa!

The three orange boys are well. Felix is alright and has started working more hours this month.

Last week was the two year anniversary of our dog Chunk dying, and I decided I needed a little brightness in my day. So I made myself a new tote bag. With lots of pockets so I’ll stop spending forever digging around looking for things like pens or a deck of vintage Chippendale’s playing cards. I used some “orphaned” quilt blocks for the extra fun bits.

It’s about time to start dinner over here. We’re having butter chicken. What’s for dinner at your house?