Checking in from Germany. I am in Herzogenaurach Germany for a week for work. It's become more and more fun to come to Germany in the past few years as colleagues move from the US or other countries to Germany. I was at a 4 night minimum stay previously, but now I am up to a 5 night minimum stay for the following evening plans:
Day 1: Dinner with my Chinese Friends Victor & his wife Mei. Victor & I were in a 3 month training program together in China about 7 years ago, and shared an apartment with 6 other classmates.
Day 2: Dinner with my Manager, occasionally her husband & Son, and my counterpart in Germany
Day 3: Dinner with a former Colleague from Portland Jan & her Husband and their adorable little boy Nichola.
Day 4: Dinner with a former Material Department Colleague Helene and frequently her beautiful little girl Olivia, occasionally using their kitchen in exchange for a pie offering. (although the one time I did this so far her husband Stuart suggested that BOTH pies should stay in their household!!!)
Day 5: This was my big surprise this week. An old colleague I was quite fond of left adidas last year to move to France to work. He had worked in Portland for a few years, and just in the last 6 or 8 months we became close friends. He was quite anxious to leave the US and after he left I emailed him a few times but never had a response, so I assumed he was just moving on and did not have an interest to maintain contact.
Yesterday on the way to a meeting as I was walking by some desks I saw this former colleague! What a shock! I said, 'Hello! What are you doing here?" He said he just started working here. Then we said, 'let's catch up this week.' Knowing how things had been left, I wasn't sure he was serious. Today I came back to the hotel and had left my key in the room, so when I went to the front desk to ask them for a key, they told me this colleague had tried to call my room yesterday! (They are not so timely with messages...) So, I tried to call but could not reach him and left a message. I was sleepy so I took a nap in my room, then later went downstairs to get some breakfast. I ran into some vendors in the lobby waiting for their friends to have dinner with and had a drink with them and spoke with them. After their colleague came, they left and I went to the restaurant. I saw another vendor (Whom I have just met one or two times before) sitting outside with a book, so I went to speak with him and ended up sitting down and talking for quite some time. Later, the "mysteriously re-appearing ex-Portland colleague" appeared and I invited him to join me for dinner as I still had not eaten. We all sat together and had a nice dinner and conversation. When it came time to go up to our rooms, this former colleague came to the 3rd floor with me as his room is on the same floor. We stopped and were talking and I teased him that he never answered my emails. He told me actually he had sent me several emails and thought I did not answer his, and had felt terrible that I would just end the friendship in that way. He said he felt quite a bit of a wreck when he saw me yesterday because of how he thought I treated him after he left by not answering his emails, but I felt the same way!
So somewhere there are emails floting around on the internet waves from me saying, "how are you doing? Why don't you keep in contact?" and emails from him saying "Is this really how you want to end our frienship? By just not writing?"
It's amazing that even in this day of modern communications and quick responses a letter from the Post office is far more dependable than an email. I wonder, before email, how many people watched friendships or relatioships crumble on account of not recieving letters via post? When it is so easy to write on a computer and send an email without thinking about it, your words can be light and without meaning. Perhaps it is time to reconsider the value in a handwritten letter...the value of a stamp on an envelope...the value of a trip down the block to the post office box.
The happy ending to this story is that now, I need my trips to extend by one day, because I have been able to reconnect with a lost friend, and I will look forward to dinners on Germany trips in the future. However, it does reinforce the gravity of words, or at least the importance of mainting communication.
Just yesterday when I was at dinner with Victor and Mei, we were discussing the Earthquake in Sichuan. Victor had been in China just after the earthquake and he said to me, "When I come back from China, I realize, this thing that happened is so awful, so big, that now if something is wrong to me, I should not complain. I must not complain, because I am so lucky to have my house, my family, my life, a job....and how can I complain if some little thing is wrong, because I have all these things."
We have so many things- it's easy sometimes to think "I wish I had this or that...", but it's true wealth to realize the value in what is most importand:
Family, Friends, Love.
"Smoke gets in your eyes...."
There was a whole lotta marshmellow love going on last weekend...
We even had one of the Grandma's there to show us how it's done!
First Smore!
And some of the kids were Experts in the world of S'mores!
the Pink Twins: Little Pink 1 & Little Pink 2
Little Pink 1 gets her flower groove on...
Strawberry Picking
Contemplating who she should throw the water balloon at!
Swimming Pool is OPEN!!!
Ice Cream Social (yes, this meant I was the last person in line...thankfully there was a little bit of ice cream left for me!
Ice Cream makes you THIS cute! 
Okay I know I wasn't going to name names, but Frank, Take a good look at the look on her face...How many years until she is a teenager? I think she already has eyes in the back of her head! It sure looks to me like that's an "ooooh DAAAAAD" kinda look on her face!
Way too cute for words...
Quietly Observing.....plotting...this is a little boy who is looking forward to his first big belly flop & splashing everyone in the pool!!!
Cuteness!
Waiting for the Hayride!
The Hayride!
Again.....wasn't going to post names, but who can resist? Cecil finds his long lost Twin... (Although this is not the man to tease too much- He makes some quite fantastic coffee which I was ever grateful for this weekend!!!)
The little one shows the big one how to REALLY make the Gong go....
As you can see we all quite enjoyed picking out our favorite shaped ladybugs- thanks to Mary's Mom!!!
I dropped Molly off at her Grammie's house and went to the hospital to wait. Stopped into see Heather & Brent and let them know I was there, then headed out to the waiting room. I had brought several projects & reading material with me, and was prepared to wait. As most of you who read this, I've become quite good at WAITING for things to happen. :)
He weighed 8 lbs, 2.7 oz, just .1 oz more than Molly when she was born! 21 1/2 inches long
