However; today, I have spoiled myself by doing exactly what I think of as soon as I think of it; including household chores, errands, and a random afternoon bath. On days where I feel like being lazy or alone (or both), I usually put off all of my obligations, which only adds to my anxiousness and keeps me from having a completely stress-free day. It's as if I spend the entire day thinking of everything I should be doing but then fight these responsibilities by telling myself, "NO! Today you must relax!" And so I sit in one spot and do nothing, but never actually relax because my mind is on everything I should be completing. Today has been so pleasantly different :)
As soon as I was half-awake this morning I thought to myself, "I am not going to Crossfit today." Yes, I still love my Crossfit classes, coach, and peers, but this morning the bed felt so cozy and inviting that I didn't want to start thinking about when I had to get up in order to be somewhere other than my nice, warm, bed. I also noticed that my back wasn't aching, and I was so relieved to wake up for the second day in a row without pain, that I gave my body permission to just have the day off. More importantly, I decided not to feel guilty about taking a Monday off, either. When I did roll out of bed, I took a nice shower and took the time to fully un-pack and put away all my laundry. I tidied the kitchen, started a load of laundry, and then Cammy and I went on an hour walk to enjoy the fact that it is sunny and pleasant outside today. I mozyed to Kauflands where I picked up a bottle of federweiser for Cody and I to enjoy tonight along with our dinner, and after a small lunch, took some time to practice my German with Rosetta Stone. As soon as my back started hurting, I laid down to read, then got up to take a warm bath, and here I am now; sitting up in bed, updating my blog. A relaxing yet slightly productive Monday, indeed!
You may be wondering why my back is hurting, and I admit that I haven't written about it because I don't want any negative impressions of Crossfit coming from anything that I write on my blog. I blame nothing and nobody but myself for my recent issue with my back, but I did manage to tweak a muscle/nerve/who-knows-what in my lower-back about a month ago during a workout. I have tried giving myself time off, only to become stiffer and more sore. I have had days with very little pain and days where my back nags at me from morning until night. Most of the time, once I finish stretching and warming up in class, I feel limber and experience little to no pain during my workout, leading me to feel strong and mostly pain-free throughout the day. Unfortunately, just as I thought I was maybe healing, I had a very rough day in class on Friday. Thankfully, with help from Rob and some extra time doing exercises, stretches, and experimenting, I think we may have me on the mend. Taking the weekend off for our FRG girl's trip to Poland was most likely the best thing for me to do as a follow up.
And so we come around to what I originally wanted to update the blog on: my weekend Polish Pottery Trip!
This Saturday morning at 6:00 am, five ladies and myself packed ourselves and some small pieces of luggage into an SUV and drove ourselves the five hours to Poland to buy some pottery. If you have never heard of Polish Pottery... well, neither had I until I came to Germany and was introduced to it by other military wives. I wasn't even particularly impressed with it until this weekend, to be honest. Polish Pottery is hand-painted ceramic pieces for every dining or cooking need under the sun; you can buy coffee mugs, tea pots, saucers, plates, bowls, casserole dishes, wine glasses, serving bowls, muffin "tins," cookie jars, and the list goes on and on and on. You can decorate with it, but it is also fully functional (depending on the quality you buy) and as we found out, you can even find polish pottery dildos. Yep. I really couldn't make that kind of thing up.When we arrived in Poland, I realized that I know absolutely nothing about the place. I felt bad that I couldn't even pull up one random fact about the area from my brain full of random knowledge. It was definitely different than Germany, and looked kind of sad and run-down in places. But there is no shortage of Polish Pottery!
We hit about 6-8 stores once we got to town, with a delicious and surprisingly cheap meal in between (Poland does not use the euro, and you get a very favorable exchange rate-- think 4:1). We checked into our hotel, The Blue Beetroot, and went to one last store, and came back to have a couple glasses of federweisser (wine before it is wine- yum!) before our scheduled beauty appointments. I was the lucky one to go first and loved my 45 minute massage, which I feel that I have so desperately been needing. We all came and went from our reserved table in the dining room and I enjoyed a raspberry beer, a greek salad with bread, and spinach perogies (my first perogies ever!) for only nine euros! Once everybody had been pampered and stuffed with delicious food, we wandered upstairs for our pjs and some sangria. As I sat chatting with the group, I was so relieved that none of my fears about spending 24 hours with five females had come true- plus, you know when your nighttime conversation is about twerking and zombies that you have found a good crowd :)
We all woke up and met downstairs for breakfast consisting of, orange juice, breads, homemade jam, croissants (mmm my fave!), fruits, yogurt, cereals, scrambled eggs, sausage, ham, sliced meats and cheeses, and full carafes of coffee and hot chocolate. Incredible. Yet again, all of this was only six euros! Can you say spoiled?
I had already decided that I was done shopping and would just look around at the stores we stopped at on the way out of town, but the first store we went to on Sunday morning had my favorite patterns of all! Everybody has their favorite Polish Pottery store, and now I know why; these pieces were absolutely beautiful to me! For the first time, I felt the need to buy entire sets all in one or two patterns- I was in love. So, even though I had already spent what I wanted to spend, I got myself a beautiful colander and a little sugar and creamer set in my two favorite patterns.
The drive home was full of conversation ranging from serious to silly and we even stopped to have a picnic at lunch time. With all the fun we had, I think we were all ready to get home, see our husbands (or boyfriends), relax, eat dinner, and unpack our treasures! We got to Bad Windsheim around 5:00 pm yesterday and all gave hugs goodbye, having survived almost 36 hours with zero accidents, spats, or conflict of any kind (I think that's pretty impressive for any 6 people spending all their time together, not just 6 females). Cody had picked us up the largest size pizza that Best Pizza carries and Kevin came over to enjoy it with us. The boys actually liked everything that I had bought, and Cody was extra excited about the cookie jar I brought home, as I thought he would be.
As if the weekend couldn't get any better, after we got ready for bed, Cody called his grandma and dad, who informed us that the Bengals were playing Green Bay. We then realized it was only 8:00 at night and not 10:00 (as we had both thought thanks to Cody, haha), and we got up and watched the game. I made a double batch of cookies for the cookie jar and we got to see the Bengals beat Green Bay 34-30! We both went to sleep very happy, indeed :)
P.s. If you are wondering why there are no pictures- between all of us, we never took one group photo the entire weekend! I think we were all too busy enjoying ourselves to worry about it :) Plus, I'm already excited to go back, anyway!
I hope all of you had a great weekend and are having a wonderful Monday, as well!
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