A New Camera Lens

I was going to wait until my birthday to post new pictures from my new lens that Rob got me for my birthday (but arrived a couple of weeks early); I couldn’t wait…plus, I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d blog about it.

Today was quite a good day for me.  For me, and I do LOVE you!  Most of my social life comes from my blog, so I do honestly and truly love to see traffic and comments on my blog, so I want to let you know that I’m really glad that you visit! (This is my 251st blog post!  Aren’t you proud of me?)

Well, I’ve been praying for sometime now that I would find a friend that is nearby, someone that is close to my own age and is friendly and is need of a friend that wants to take walks and have a coffee at the nearby bakery.  While I’m not afraid to do it alone, it does make it nicer to have a friend to do it with.  I’ve sort of been complaining to my husband that I don’t have a friend that lives nearby.  I miss T very much.  She and I used to live in Heidelberg together.  Our husband’s were in the same unit and they deployed together.  We were the best of buds while the guys were deployed.  After we moved to Hanau, we saw them twice.  I consider her my very best friend, though I have several in Denver (one I have known since Junior High School–now known as Middle School–that’s how long I’ve known her–plus she has almost the exact same birthdate as my husband (no excuse for missing her birthday, these days…LOL) and J whom I met in a college music class in 1997–she’s moving to Germany next month–woohoo!)  Anyway, I digress…

L’s hubby T heard Rob and I chatting outside his window and came down because he heard “normal” English being spoken.  Rob and I were taking Casey for a walk.  We wanted to see if there was a good place to take Codiak for a swim in the river.  We were walking the opposite way from our house. He rushed down to see if he could see us, but we had already passed.  He started fiddling in the yard and when we came back, Casey was playing with a Scotty.  After Casey was done playing, we stopped so I could take this picture:

Lonely Daisy
Lonely Daisy

When I heard, “Are you American?”

We ended up chatting for a few seconds, when he said, “Hang on, I’ll come around.”  So, he came around.  We chatted for a few more minutes and I offered my cell phone number to the couple.  “We only live up the road, so if you ever just want to hang out, just give us a call.”
It was an answer to my prayers.  I’ve been so tempted to make Christ prove himself, to say, “Well, Jesus, it’s been nice having you around to talk to and all, but if you REALLY love me, you’d give me a girlfriend that is nearby…” but I never did.  Trust me, I’ve wanted that, but I never asked Jesus or God to prove it.  I’ve watched “Miracle on 34th Street recently and I’ve seen “Touched By An Angel” and I’ve thought, why don’t I get an Angel.  I need an Angel (At least it’d be a REAL conversation!!!)  [Not that the conversations that I have with the bloggers or Christ aren’t REAL, but I’m talking about a one-on-one intimate relationship with a girlfriend.] Someone that I could chat with and have a cup of coffee–or lunch–whatever…
Anyway, so all of this happens so suddenly…I don’t mean to dominate the conversation, but I try to ask questions, try to draw them in…you know, be charming.  According to BlogThings, I’m quite the charmer!!  So, I have their number and they have mine.  I’m not sure that I should call them tomorrow…I think I should wait until Monday, at least…when the guys are at work…(so do I sound like a girl or a guy, I’m not sure…I haven’t made a friend in a long, long time…at least since T…and T and I hit it off right from the start).
T lives pretty far away (an hour away, but has a full time job as a Teller 1 at Community Bank and never have time off) and has friends of her own…one’s that live across the hall.  I can’t say that.  The neighbors that I have, albeit, nice, are German and call me the “F’ing American.”  I’m not sure if it’s an affectionate name or not, because her brother or brother-in-law (I can’t be quite sure) is American himself and calls him that regularly as well.  They always say hi to me when they see me, but never anything more.
L and I seem to agree that while we’ve heard there are loads of Americans that live in our neck of the woods (literally) but we NEVER see any Americans.  English is a rare trait to find.  While don’t speak much German, I know enough to get around (AKA restaurant German…hehe)
I’m quite happy.  I know that A.  there’s another American around and B.  We might actually get along pretty well.  Maybe God does work in quite mysterious ways.  I’ve been hoping for months that I would find someone around here that is willing to take on a friend for a few months.  I know it’s hard.  It’s hard to open up to someone, knowing that in a short time, you’re going to have to tell that someone goodbye.  I wanted to make friends with these women that I knew well over a year ago.  They weren’t too keen on getting to know me.  I felt so isolated and alone.  Rob said, “They’re leaving, they don’t want new friendships that they can’t maintain.”  So I saw his point (because my husband s WAY smarter than I will ever hope to be, plus, I never saw it that way before…moving soon or not…)
Well, I don’t see L like that at all.  I think she just wants a friend.  I told her that we were probably going to move in May, but that really didn’t seem to phase her.  She’s a military brat herself.  She explained something that I never really understood.  She didn’t move a lot as a kid, but her friends did.  I don’t know how many moves her kids have gone through, but she said that she’s moved 7 or 9 times since they’ve been married in 14 or 15 years (neither could remember how long they’d been married!)
Anyway, all I want to say is that I’m super happy and hope that I’ve made a life-long friendship.
So, do you want to see more pictures from my camera?  Well, I hope you don’t mind that these are all raw photos, no editing or cropping?  I hope you enjoy!