Looking Forward

Lately, I have been feeling like I am at my wit's end. Seriously. It has been raining nearly every day for the last three weeks. Sure, we had a few hours of reprieve this weekend, which we spent at the Barbecue Festival. The weekend before that was pretty nice too, and we definitely took advantage of that. But every other day - basically every day that I have not posted about - it has been raining, and/or dreary, and/or cold. We're talking 60 degrees and rain. Day in, day out. What kind of weather is this for mid-June?

The daily view out our windows. The camera doesn't even pick up the pouring rain, but trust me, it's there.
The camera DOES pick up the grayness. Isn't it gross?

Looking down at the street

This is not okay. This is depressing. I just can't handle it anymore! I'm seriously losing my mind. I'm sick of the gray sky. I'm sick of the fog. I'm sick of the dampness. I'm sick of the sound of water splashing as cars drive on the street. I'm sick of umbrellas. I'm sick of having my windows closed because it's either raining in, or I'm freezing. I'm SICK OF IT ALL.

This weather has made the last few weeks pretty rough for me. I already told you about my recent stress last week, but when you add this gloominess to it, plus Eric being busy at work and working long hours, I'm so stir crazy, lonely and bored. I can't even get out to take Achilles for a walk. Even Achilles is particularly lethargic on dreary days like this.

He's a broken man.

The only thing that is keeping me sane and feeling somewhat upbeat is thinking about our upcoming Europe trip! Three weeks from right now, we'll be enjoying our second day in Budapest, and preparing to leave the next day for Györ for my cousin Jacob's wedding. Some of our plans have been slightly adjusted, and others are coming together a little more, so I'm getting really excited.

One thing I'm pretty excited about is a dinner cruise on the Danube with my mom, Heather, and my Uncle Peter (and Eric, of course!). My mom has been checking into this for us, with much-appreciated help from Jacob, and it's looking like it will become a reality. The cruise we're looking at includes a wine-tasting along with dinner! Wine, a Hungarian meal and a beautiful evening view of Budapest? Sounds like a great evening! Jacob may also join us, which would be great.

Another thing that added to my excitement was a Hungary "brochure" my cousin Jacob and his bride-to-be put together for us tourists. It was so cute! It explained some Hungarian history, plus listed things to do and see in both Györ and Budapest. I particularly liked this excerpt from it, explaining a little bit about Hungarian wedding tradition:

Doesn't that sound fun? I can't wait for the wedding! My other favorite part of this little brochure was the Hungarian phrases Jacob and Zita included for us to learn. Sure, there were the usual "please" (kérem), "thank you" (köszönöm), and "where's the bathroom" (merre találom a mosdót?), but there were also a few more with a little more personality, or that we might find particularly useful:

• Egy korsó sort szeretnék. "I would like one large beer." (Mmm, beer. And a large one at that.)
  
• Szeretnék egy üveg finom Magyar vörosbort. "I would like one bottle of fine Hungarian wine." (I get the feeling this one was geared towards my mom, me, Heather, Molly and my Aunt Debbie. We've been known to enjoy some red wine. Though I don't know that one bottle will really cut it.)
  
• Rossz néven vennéd, ha azt mondanám, hogy szép tested van? "If I said you had a good body, would you hold it against me?" (Courtesy Monty Python) (Always good to have a cheesy pickup line to use once you've effectively mastered - thanks to lots of practice - the "large beer" and "fine wine" translations.)

Aren't they fun? Jacob and Zita have also told us they want to take us around Budapest when we first get in on Wednesday, then to one of their favorite restaurants at night. I'm so excited. And they are such good hosts!

So, I'm psyched about Hungary. I'm also psyched about Scotland, of course. We did make a minor change to our plans for Scotland. Eric decided to skip golfing at Kingsbarns Golf Links on our second day in St. Andrews. This will not only save us some money, but this way he can fully focus on playing the Old Course on Monday without worrying about being sore for Tuesday's round at Kingsbarns. Also, if for some reason he can't get on the Old Course on Monday, he can try again on Tuesday. Assuming he does play the Old Course Monday, we'll use our free Tuesday morning to enjoy a leisurely breakfast at our B&B (my dad tells me Scottish breakfasts are amazing), then we will go to the British Golf Museum and play at the Himalayas Putting Green, which according to the St. Andrews golf website is a "fabled course that changes daily." I don't know what that means exactly, but we'll find out!

British Golf Museum
(photo from here)

The Himalayas Putting Green
(photo from here)

So, even though he will be cutting a round of golf, Eric will still have plenty of golf-related fun during our time in Scotland!

Thank goodness for this trip, because seriously, looking forward to it is really keeping me sane in the midst of the nasty, nasty weather. I'm also looking forward to this weekend - we have lots of fun stuff planned. Of course, it is all dependent on the weather, so we'll see what happens. Our old friend/roommate/groomsman Jeff is coming up from Washington, D.C. for the weekend. Weather permitting, we'll be picking up some barbecue from Daisy May's tomorrow night and going to a free showing of "Top Gun" on the deck of the Intrepid, which could be so fun! Saturday, Jeff, Eric and Jose are going to the U.S. Open, which they are very excited about. Then Sunday, Eric and I might head out to Shea Stadium to see the Rays play the Mets. Please, please, PLEASE stop raining by tomorrow evening so we can do all this! PLEASE!!!!

Everybody do an anti-rain dance for our weekend plans, and my own sanity!