Halfway home!

Hurrah! Today is the official halfway point in our stay here. From now on it is all downhill to the big return to Florida. I'm hoping the last half of our visit is less stressful than the first. Marking time here must be a popular pastime because I mentioned it to someone else this morning and she said it was her halfway point too.

A happy halfway-home discovery: my favorite Bakery at the End of the Road (BER) has a name: Furra Qerimi 2. (Furra = bakery, Qerimi = ???) I also found the bigger and better Furra Qerimi 1 which is down the road from M's office. They have, in addition to all my favorite bread products, a huge array of pastries and cakes and tortes and foccacia-like things. I justified our trying several varieties as we had to walk the steep hill down and back. Probably only about a mile, but an obstacle course of potholes,constructions sites, moving cars, parked cars, schoolkids and people. Walking here makes me feel like I'm in a video game called Mortal Street Combat.

I've learned a lot of things about myself in the past few weeks, some flattering some not. I've learned that I am soooo NOT a "Survivor" type person, happy to be cast out into the world with a bare minimum of tools and comfort items. I am REALLY dependent on my car. I LOVE my family wholeheartedly or I would have turned tail and ran weeks ago. I am ALWAYS an optimist at heart. I've also discovered a previously unknown Zen-like streak. I'm much more content to live in the moment, not rush around multi-tasking. I'll look at the clock after a busy afternoon playing Care Bear Mail Delivery with D and be amazed to see it's almost dinner time. Ok, so maybe that doesn't really qualify as a Buddha-like quality but it's a far cry from my usual mantra of "Hurry, hurry, c'mon, hurry." or worse, "Hang on a minute, we'll do it later." I will cherish these long, uninterrupted days of playing and talking and Hokey Pokey-ing in the living room. It is unusual to really not have anything else, let alone anything better, to do. I'm thankful for this, if nothing else. Ju faleminderit, Pristina.