Expectations

Baden-Baden =  Bust-Bust

I quit doing New Year’s Resolutions back in 2007.  In 2007 I made a resolution to care more about myself than everyone else.  To focus on what I WANTED.  To heck with everyone else.  Within 6 weeks, I had wanted a divorce.  Grass was definitely greener on the other side.  THEN, God gave me a swift kick in the behind and I realized my expectations were beyond anyone’s reach.  The expectations I put on my husband, my kids, my friends, and myself were killing my relationships.  It was slowly (or quickly) turning me into a bitter, depressed person.  And I DID NOT want to be like that. 

So here we go to Baden-Baden.  I was looking forward to this spot in our vacation the most.  Chris showed me a video by Rick Steves of this incredible spa where you experience a Roman-Irish bathing ritual.  And of course, it’s an all-nude spa.  You only live once, right??   I’m totally doing this.  And I don’t give a flying hoot!  I. CAN’T. WAIT!!

We arrived mid-afternoon in Baden-Baden after a quick drive around the base in Stuttgart.  It’s Jan 1 and EVERYTHING is closed.  I knew this before hand, but it didn’t all set in until we were trying to find food.  I’m still glad we decided to travel on the 1^st because, well, with everything closed, you can’t do anything.  Might as well spend 3 of those hours on the road.

 

Our apartment was FABULOUS.  I can’t thank my friend Chrissey enough for recommending this place.  It was HUGE.  It’s exactly what we needed after being stuck with the kids in one room for 4 days.  PLUS, it had a washer!  And we needed to do some laundry.

With everything being closed, we ran to the gas station that was open and loaded up on pretzels (I really think Chris and the girls could eat nothing but pretzels on this trip and be just fine.  Me on the other hand, I have a hard time eating them, so I’m a little more high maintenance when it comes to food) chips, schnitzel, pizza, and spaghetti sauce.  We get back to our place and I cook everything up.  I’m not doing anything but laundry and relaxing for the rest of the evening.  Plus a rainstorm had rolled in really put me in the mood to just cuddle. 

After food, a nice long soak, and starting laundry, we settle in to a puzzle with the girls.  It’s all awesome.  We’re having a great time.  Time to go upstairs and pull the clothes out and hang them to dry.

First, I want to say that EVERYTHING I put in the washing machine had been washed several times before.  And, yes, I’m aware if you put colors and whites together, the whites can turn different.  BUT, I’ve done this before with NO issues.  And I assumed since it was basically underwear, socks, and a couple of shirts, it would be OK.  NOT THE CASE.  This should have been the first clue that Baden-Baden wouldn’t work out very well for me.  All the whites had turned a blue/grey color.  And 95% of the clothes were white.  I did put some of my colored panties in there.  (Why are you talking about your panties Gen??  That’s weird!!!)  No, what’s weird is my pink panties turned purple and my bright green panties turned dark teal.  HOW does that happen???  I still shake my head trying to figure out just what happened to our clothes.  We ended throwing away 2 wife beaters and 1 undershirt of Chris’.  It was just a waste.

The next day we get up and go walking around Baden-Baden.  It was pretty neat.  Very cute little town.  EXPENSIVE as all get out, but you only live once (YOLO! Holla!) so who cares.  We didn’t really see too much that’s worth writing about tho.  We walked past a casino and a beautiful church.  We found a little ice skating rink, too.  Chrissy and I paid 11 euro and had a BLAST ice skating.  I kept asking Matti to join us but she wouldn’t because Chris wouldn’t join us.  And she wanted to skate as a family.  

Matti is such a sweet soul.  She reminds me so much of my sister growing up.  I still think my sister is my soul mate.  I get teary-eyed thinking about how much I miss her.  We’ve had our ups and downs, but when it comes to it, she’s the first person I want to turn to when things are going bad.  Growing up, Shauna was always the shy one.  She never wanted to take a leap.  Me on the other hand would jump into the deep end of a pool without knowing how to swim and pop wheelies on our three-wheeler trying to throw my daddy off….  Poor Matti just sat on the sidelines of the rink and cried.  I tried and tried and tried to get her to skate with us and she just wouldn’t.  Then, of course, when we were done, she cried because she wished she had gone.  Unfortunately, another storm was rolling in and we needed to book it back to the parking garage. 

We headed back to the apartment after that.  Which I was OK with because Chris had a headache and I was feeling sleepy after drinking some amazing gluhwein that Chris didn’t like.  That’s one good thing about me.  I’ll never let that stuff go to waste.  If we pay for it and it’s not good, I’ll still choke it down.  If you ever get a chance, you should ask me about our trip to Epcot and me trying drinks from around the world.  It was fun.  Or at least what I can remember of it anyway!

We had gone to the grocery store before and stocked up on food.  Which is where we found out that our credit card had been shut off.  Which is REALLY frustrating when you took the time to tell both your credit card company and bank all of the different places you’ll be traveling over the next 3 weeks to AVOID this.  Earlier in the trip my mom got ahold of me to let me know our bank was going to shut off our debit card if we didn’t verify our information.  Luckily she knew to verify it and we weren’t left hanging.  MC on the other hand would have left us hanging.  After facetimeing with Chris’ mom and her calling the company, we’re back and going.  Not that it really mattered at that point. 

The next day we get up and I’m soooooo ready for my naked day at the spa.  It was going to be glorious!!  But no.  I had tried to book a couples massage for us earlier in the week and it wouldn’t let me because it was full.  The lady we were renting the apartment from told us you couldn’t book early, it was a walk in thing, so we thought we were safe.  Nope.  They were booked.  And, the only way to get anything else was to pay with cash.  Which normally would have been OK, but we only brought a certain amount of cash with us and I didn’t want to put 150 euro down for just Chris and I.  So I tearfully walked away from the thing I wanted most out of this trip.  AND, it was pouring down rain, so it wasn’t even worth trying to find something else to do.  Oh wait, I did try to find a cool waterfall place for us and failed miserably at that as well. 

The rest of the day was spent in our apartment.  Chris and I worked for over 6 hours on this puzzle.  Our goal had been changed to completing this dang puzzle.  We took a brief break for dinner.  Which actually turned out to be really nice.  We did a yelp thing and found a restaurant that sounded like fun.  And it was.  Chris had a nice house beer, I had a great glass of wine and they had STILL water!  Which has just been so hard for me to find here.  It was over $5 but I didn’t care.  I was so happy I was able to drink a glass of water that wouldn’t hurt to swallow or taste bad!

After dinner, we walked around the town a little since it wasn’t raining.  Of course everything was closed but the kids were able to run around and wear off some energy.

Making a wish!

The place we ate!

Hilarious display in some store

We headed back to the apartment and started working on our puzzle again.  We had so far to go on this dang puzzle.  It just wasn’t going to happen.  So, like everything else in Baden-Baden, it was crumbled and put back away. 

 I went upstairs to take a long hot bath.  I found a bath salt to use.  It was pretty.  Purple.  Nice.  Pour it in the tub.  Turn the water on.  Climb in.  Only to find out that the hot water had run out.  Chris had taken a bath before me and I didn’t give it enough time to warm back up.  So, I got out and got in bed. 

We said goodbye to Baden-Baden today.  I also said goodbye to any expectations I’ve had for this trip.  The first time it almost cost me my marriage.  This time, it almost cost me my happiness on the trip.  No longer will I allow expectations to rule my life.  I will learn to let things come and go as they please and not let thing ruin my mood. 

Here’s to a new outlook on our trip and a new outlook on life….again….