My first post in quite some time. These past few months have been
hectic!
The story: at the end of this past summer, my husband and I were
looking for change and adventure, something exciting and different
to experience before we settle down and have kids. Several months
into searching for this next step, he was notified that a position
within his company had opened up in Southern Germany. We thought
that traveling around Europe would certainly fit the "big adventure"
category. So, with my blessing, he decided to go for it. He was rewarded
with a job offer, which he accepted.
Then came the fun part of moving our lives overseas! Hard to
describe THAT in a way that does it justice. The sheer amount of
paperwork involved, first off. The way having someone else pack and
crate your things completely and utterly randomizes
everything.
Having to unload both your apartment lease and car in the space of a month. Then the month
of living in a hotel without your things (and a shaky internet
connection, at best) in a new country.
Finally I received my art PC, which had been
separately air shipped, only to open the box and find the case
crumpled, motherboard crunched, and the hard-drives cascading in a loose pile -this in the
middle of two big client contracts. My amazing IT husband was able to
somehow still get my PC back up and running Frankenstein-style for temporary use while we waited for parts to come! At this point the damaged parts have been replaced and it is 100% operational and snug in a new case.
This was followed by the first month in our new amazing German apartment
where we were slowly rebuilding our home from hundreds of boxes and had even worse internet
connection (I did get a kick out of my ping being 666 though).
(Thankfully, we have a solid cable internet connection now!) I did very much enjoy seeing snow out of our windows for the first time.
In case that sounds like a litany of complains, I do want to make it
clear that I am happy to be here and excited about the possibilities
both in a holistic sense and for myself as an artist, especially now that the work of moving is done.
There has been fun mixed in too, of course.
An accidental dinner with new German neighbors (I rang their
doorbell by mistake, thinking it was a light switch in our building,
and we wound up invited to their dinner party), Christmas Markets...
wonderful wonderful Christmas Markets (including a medieval flavored
one in Esslingen), a lovely long weekend trip to Munich. Most of those before the
holidays.
There are many other trips in planning stage at the moment. I have bit
plans to see castles, lots of castles! Look out Neuschwanstein,
you're next!
Bonus: we also got an unexpected dog right before we were presented
with the Germany move. A week before my grandfather passed away in
August he had adopted a 5-year-old female Cocker Spaniel from the
local pound, who he named Lady. Being local (at the time) and pet-less we took her in
while he was in the hospital and decided to give her a permanent
home after. She made the flight over with us just fine and is doing great here.
Whew! So that is the "catch-up" post. Stay tuned for a new piece of wintry art!
4 comments:
and in the middle of all of this, you managed to produce one of the most lovely YA fiction covers i've seen. what a talented woman you are! :)
Thanks Kareyn! I definitely have some catch up to do: I haven't even shared the cover I did (nearly two months ago) for you with my "fans" yet =)
WOW that's a lot that happened.
But how cool! I never thought that an artist I really admire would live pretty close (well ok, The Netherlands is still far away, but not like USA far away). Who knows, whenever in the future I have a car I can stop by ;) !
I hope you all live well and have a happy new home!
Thanks Petra! We do have a car now. We will let ya know when we're planning to travel your way. :)Always fun to meet other artists!
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