It's only 1:40 in the afternoon but I have already declared this day a complete waste of time. Don't get me wrong - of course I'm grateful for each day to be alive, thankful for my many blessings, etc. But in terms of productivity today has been a failure. And that feels like a big deal because I have so much to do. Believe it or not, in just one short month our first "year" in Berlin will be over and we are heading back to the US for most of the summer. We are all excited to see friends and family and beloved Missoula, but I am really starting to feel the stress of wrapping things up here before we go, not to mention planning each day of our time at home so that we can accomplish everything we need to do and see everyone we want to see.
I had really really really wanted to have the house COMPLETELY in order before we go home, so that when we return I can focus entirely on other things and not spend ANY time in our 2nd year on shopping for furniture, appliances or other things we need. But I'm running out of time and the days are getting busier with end-of-the-school-year activities. So, every day counts.
Today's schedule was this:
1. Drive kids to school (because of the vet appointment later).
2. Swim at the gym.
3. Take cat to 10:00 vet appointment for glucose check and to pick up special diabetic food that I have to order from the vet.
4. Come home and catch up on 6 months of accounting for our property rentals.
I did #1, although the kids were actually a few minutes late to school, so I can't really say we did it flawlessly. Next up: head to the gym. I changed quickly into my swimsuit, wondering if the pool would be crowded. The pool at my gym is pretty useless - just one lane and then a larger lane-free area. Every time I have been, there have been 5 or 6 people in this tiny space. And I have never seen so many people swim so slowly. Even the lucky person that gets the lap lane is typically moving down the lane at a glacial pace, usually doing breaststroke. Also, the pool isn't set up for lap swimming; there are no markings on the bottom and no flags or other visual for reaching the end of the pool. The last time I tried to swim, the pool was completely full. I did stationary pool jogging next to the lap lane until that person got out. Then I politely asked one of the two other people who were sort of hanging out looking like they were waiting if she was waiting for the lap lane. She said no, but before I could move over into the lane, the other lady beat me to it! She then proceeded to swim so slowly up and down that I could complete a full lap (down and back) before she even reached the other side. I haven't tried to swim since that day, more than a month ago.
So this morning as I was changing I wondered how crowded it would be. It's kind of a commitment to decide to do a swim workout. You can't see the pool until you go through the door to it, so you have to take a risk and commit in the locker room; then once you're changed you make your way back there and see if it's a zoo. I went through the first door and got my first look at the pool (through a 2nd door). No ripples - could it be that I would have it to myself? As I went through the second door I had a sneaking suspicion and it was confirmed by the blockaded path to the pool - it was closed! Argh. There had been a sign up on the locker room door for a while, something about the pool, but I hadn't paid attention to it because a) it was in German and b) I hadn't used the pool in so long. But sure enough, the pool was closed for 3 days, starting last night. I didn't have any workout clothes, so I had to abandon the workout altogether.
At this point I still had about an hour before I had to leave to take Rhythm to the vet. What to do? I stopped into the grocery store in the same complex and bought fresh bread and veggies for tonight. Now what? I texted my disappointment to Dan and he suggested I go swim in the lake nearby. Hmmmm. The lake is cold and it was only 8:45 in the morning. But maybe that was what I needed to salvage my workout. I drove to the lake. It took longer than I had thought it would. And took me in the opposite direction of the vet. By the time I was parked, I had a completely inadequate 15 minutes before I would need to leave to take Rhythm. Abort.
I answered a few emails and then began the drive to the vet. I may have to find a closer vet at some point. This vet was pretty convenient from our old apartment in Charlottenburg but is almost a 1/2 hour drive from where we live now, with limited parking and considerable traffic. But they are diabetes specialists, so I have stayed with them despite the inconvenience.
The vet saw me immediately, which was good. But that was the end of the good part. I haven't figured out the diabetes practices here. In Missoula, I took Rhythm about every 2 months to the specialist for a glucose check. I would take him first thing in the morning after the kids left on the bus for school. I would feed him but wait until after the visit to give him his insulin shot. The vet would prick his ear, test his glucose level, tell me if there were any adjustments to his dose, and I would be on my way. But here, they have only done that once. Twice they have done a big blood analysis. I thought I would get the ear prick today but I wasn't sure. I also wasn't sure if I should give him his shot before I came. I did, since the appointment wasn't until 10 a.m. and he usually gets his shot with breakfast. Anyway, today I saw a new doctor that I haven't seen before, and he asked me a bunch of questions about Rhythm's dosage and behavior. I told him that Rhythm's glucose levels have never stabilized since we arrived in Berlin. He seems to feel fine, but he drinks and pees too much and his glucose always measures very high. So we don't have it under control here. This doctor told me that he didn't want to do any testing today. He wanted me to come back another time when I haven't fed Rhythm and do some more involved testing. Ugh. Another trip to the vet. When I went to check out I asked about the food I had ordered. "It hasn't come in yet. But it should come in this afternoon." Argh! I'm not coming back a 2nd time in one day. So I made an appointment for next Monday to bring Rhythm back and also to pick up the food.
It was 11 a.m. when I finally got home, having accomplished nothing except purchasing some bread and asparagus. Well, I still had 3 1/2 hours to get my paperwork done at home. I made myself a cappuccino and sat down at the office computer. I pulled up the Windows virtual machine on our Mac. Hmmm - this looks different. Where is Quicken? Dan tried to fix something on that computer a few days ago and wiped the hard drive and was supposed to have restored it from the backup. But everything looked different and I couldn't figure out how to access the files I needed to get the accounting done. So much for checking that big task off my list.
In a desperate attempt to salvage the day, I turned to retail therapy. There are still some things we need for the house and now that I can drive again, I can go pick things up in the car. So this seemed like a nice opportunity to do some online shopping on the used furniture store and set up some appointments to go look at/buy bookshelves for my office and/or a chair or chaise lounge for the bedroom and a chair for my dressing table.
I couldn't find anything. I browsed through every category of chair and lounge I could think of, but didn't see anything that seemed the right size, shape, price, location, etc. I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for for the bedroom, so it may take me a while to locate something that feels right. But a bookshelf - there are hundreds of bookshelves for sale on ebay kleinanzeigen. Every time I have ever looked for furniture I have seen bookshelf after bookshelf. But for some reason today there weren't many, and when I got down to the specific dimensions I need, I found nothing. I searched for cabinets. I browsed the IKEA site for things I might want and then searched ebay for the keywords. I expanded my search to include mirrors (which I still need). But all to no avail. There are simply no products for sale right now out of the thousands on ebay that fit my needs.
And so it came to be that at 1:40 I declared the day useless and unproductive. And now it's 2:32, time to walk to the bus stop and pick up the kids from school. I hope they accomplished more today than I did...
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