Whoa

I went and got all busy. Oops!

So, um, let me think. Tuesday. . . Tuesday, Piff and I got drug to the symphony. Symphonies are really long. Wednesday. . . Wednesday, I did nothing. I slept, I played on the computer, I ate, I chilled. Thursday was Nadja's birthday! I went to the train station and bought my tickets to Zwickau to see Allyson, and then I went to church for Nadja's birthday coffee! I drank tea. There was cake and I met Nadja's mom and sister and all sorts of other people were there, including baby Elizabeth, and we chatted and played with the baby and ate delicious things and it was good times. Friday was yesterday, right? The host 'rents and Piff and Anja got up early and headed off to the wedding that has them out of town this weekend, and I slept in late and was lazy. Steffi came over (her parents are out of town this weekend, too) and we had pancakes for lunch, and I played with Steffi's dog Harry. That night was Good Friday, and I had to go play James the brother of John! Basti dropped me off at church on his way to pick up movie tickets, and the service was really wonderful. I kind of made it into Good Friday and Easter all together for myself, and I had communion for the first time since I've been in Germany, which felt really, really good. I had really missed communion- I'm used to doing it once a month at least and I kind of need that, somehow. I was in a super-good mood after the service (remember how I kind of made it Easter, too?) and, as it happened, had some time because it was way shorter than expected and Basti wasn't coming for another 45 minutes. So I chilled with Nadja and sang songs like Jesus Loves Me and Shout to the Lord and Awesome God and Heart of Worship. I stole Nadja's guitar, and it is now my job to learn to play all my Ami songs on it and teach them to Iris and Nadja and Karin. Billy, that is your cue. I need songs! I need them in such a way that I can figure out how to play them! So, um, Basti came and I left and met his friend Felix and we went to the movies (we=me, Basti, Steffi, Felix). . . after adventures in the parking garage, of course. The movie theater was FULL. Steffi hypothesized that the crazy German law against playing music in the disco on Good Friday had something to do with this. Crazy Catholics. Fortunately, we had reserved our tickets on Wednesday, and Basti had picked them up after dropping me off at church, so we weaseled through the crowd and bought some snacks and ate our snacks while waiting for them to open our theater, and then went in and discovered that we had really great seats. I think it's neat that the movie tickets in Germany assign you a seat. German movies still have way way way more preshow commercials than American, including an intermission for some chicks to come in and hock ice cream. Also, no fun movie trivia, although the 10 For Two commercial hints at it. And I continue to prove that I am a sucker for things in my native tongue by getting way too happy at the Media Markt commercial where Oliver Pocher (he is famous here) sells a camera to a British couple. So cute! "I am Peter. This is Mary. We would like to buy a camera." "Take this one. It is very billig." "Thank you." "Please." "Good-bye." "Yes, it is!" And then the British guy says "ich bin doch nicht blöd" in his British accent and it's so cute. So, um, there was also the actual movie? Ice Age 2 had more serious moments than the first, what with Manny being all convinced that he is the very last wooly mammoth alive, except then he finds a girl wooly mammoth, but oh wait she thinks she is an opposum, so how the hell is he supposed to continue the species with her? Sid's voice bugged me, Diego is sexier than a cat has a right to be, and I was upset that he got only the tiniest of side-roles in the movie. One of the opposums was named Eddie, so I guess my dad would have liked that. And that crazy crazy squirrel seeking nuts. I will tell you that the only actual times I truly laughed involved the squirrel, and I always go into those scenes like "I am not going to laugh unless this is truly funny, I am not going to laugh just because everyone else is." And then it is really, really funny and I don't know why, but I laugh heartily. After the movie, we had a few less adventurous parking garage adventures, and drove to Steffi's house, where Felix picked up his car and Steffi picked up his dog, and then came back here, where we pulled out the drinks and the truth-or-dare. That game is great to play with a couple (Basti and Steffi) because you can make them admit things and it's wonderful. I went to bed with lipstick on my eyelids, and made it to bed far, far too late. I slept until, I don't know, noon and then dragged myself out of bed and put some clothes on just in time to greet Basti (who had slept at Steffi's, leaving me allllll alone), who promptly took me off to Steffi's for lunch. We had homemade döner and they were pretty darn good, but döner is so so so so filling. It was warm outside and we wanted to do something and maybe burn off some of our crazy lunch, so we pulled the bikes out and went biking! Really went biking. With Harry the dog in the basket on the back of Steffi's bike, like a certain other dog I know. So yeah, we biked. FOREVER. I think we managed at least 35 km, if not 40. That's a lot. It was fun, though! "Pretty" is not a word you can apply to the weather just yet, but people were out and it was warm, and I saw all sorts of areas around here that I did not know existed! Like lakes! Like a nude beach lake! The best part of German bike trips is that you get to make a pit stop at the Biergarten instead of the ice cream parlor. We finally made it home hours and hours later, and were immediately exhausted, so we made some food (a-and ate it), and Steffi and Basti retired to Steffi's with a movie, and I'm thinking about watching a movie, but I also really need a shower, and I'm sort of playing around with the guitar, but I don't know what to do with it, and the internet is not teaching me fun songs. So Billy (or another Sparrow), hook me up! I'm leaving Monday for a week, so you have some time, but I want stuff when I come back, so I have time to learn and then teach.