Weekend recap

Last night, I was in bed at 10:30 and after reading for about 5 minutes, I turned out the light. I haven't been to sleep that early probably since Ella was an infant and I was in a constant state of sleep deprivation. And not only did I manage to go to sleep early, but Ella took pity on us and didn't wake up until almost 9 this morning. That means that I managed to get 10 hours of sleep (that last half hour was one of those rare moments when B and I managed to both be in bed at the same time without Ella bothering us, with neither of us needing a few more minutes of sleep. Half an hour isn't very long, but definitely long enough to get the week off to a good start...) Finally, FINALLY, I feel well-rested.

This past weekend was just too much. We had people over Thursday, Friday, a houseguest all weekend, people over on Saturday night. I didn't get home until 3:30 am on Saturday but had to get up at 9:30 to start making food for the people we had invited over for brunch. Then we went to the jewelery show and had people over for dinner. And once everyone was gone? We had to clean the house because we had people coming to visit the apartment at 10 am the next morning.

I had to really squeeze alot into a very short weekend, but in the end, it was so great to see my best friend from uni that it was worth every bit of exhaustion. She is so much fun and really inspiring because she just lives her life at 100 miles per hour every day. While it does make me a bit jealous to think that with a few different decisions on my part, I might be living her life right now, I mostly feel incredibly proud of her. Anyways, I think that a bit of jealousy is a good thing. It motivates me to do things and make that extra bit of effort- exactly what I need right now while I am sort of letting the whole job search float along aimlessly. I don't actually think that I would ever have succeeded the way she has or will ever, for that matter, even given the most perfect circumstances. Besides being incredibly intelligent, she is just one of those people that is so driven that she stands out from the ordinary. I feel lucky knowing her. And I hate that its been a year and half since I last saw her. I am promising myself right now, in January after we get back from Christmas holidays, I am booking a ticket to NYC to go and visit her and hang out for a few days, just us girls- no babies or husbands hanging around. Its an effort to keep in touch with old friends, but whenever I get the chance to see old school friends like L, I'm reminded that it is absolutely worth the effort.

And the jewelry show was great as well. I found a ring I loved by Brigitte Ermel but I don't see it on her website. It had an 11 carat round pale pink stone (from Brazil but some weird name that I have never heard of) and it was set in pink gold, with little diamonds in a circular design all around the band. But it was really expensive for what it was and B was not totally won over. I did try on the Polymnia ring which you can see on the site, with a 13 carat fushia tourmaline surrounded by pink sapphires in yellow gold but it was slightly out of our budget at 11,000 euros (and just to clarify- by that, I mean it was WAY out of our budget). Figures that it was the one that I absolutely adored. In the end, I found a ring at a different stand with a cabuchon stone set in brushed yellow gold (will post a photo when B brings it home). I couldn't decided between the aquamarine and the dark green tourmaline so B negotiated with the man to buy both of them. Obviously, that is so ridiculously generous that I just said thank you, but also,I do think that it is a bit silly. They are big rings, I could only wear one at a time so what on earth will I do with two? Since we didn't have any money with us, B is going back this morning to buy them, but as he was leaving the house, I did say that maybe he should just choose one and then I can go and find a pair of earrings somewhere else. Then, I was thinking even more about it, and I really loved the Brigitte Ermel ring with the pale pink stone. Its so girly. And its really smooth and heavy, the lines of the ring are just what I like. I actually dreamed about it last night. So when he popped home a few minutes ago to pick up some papers that he forgot, I told him that maybe I would rather he didn't buy me any jewelry this year and next year I could get the more expensive ring? He said no, he's buying one right now. So thats that. I'm sure he's not going to bring home the one I really really like. But the second choice is pretty as well so I have nothing to be disappointed about. Its just that I prefer to wait to have the perfect thing rather than something less than perfect right now. Only, its a present so I don't really feel like I should say much either way.

Days where the biggest dilemma is choosing which piece of jewelry to buy are my favorite. If only they came up more often. And the icing on the cake? All this frantic effort to keep the house clean, entertain endless streams of guests, and go out all night has resulted in a totally unexpected weight loss. I was actually terrified of stepping on the scale today because I've had so many big, rich dinners lately and have had no time for yoga. I figured that I was going to see a scary big number. Instead, I've lost about 3 pounds over the last week. This is the turning into the best day ever.