SOYL Contest

I've been thinking about this for a while, my favorite summer time memory. The first summer that came to mind isn't necessarily my favorite memory because it's not all good. So I've been struggling with this, do I choose something light-hearted and fun to talk about? Or do I get serious? As I think about the summers of my childhood, I remember being the pool ALL the time, reading, or day camp. This was all before the age of 16, after that I remember working all summer. So I decided to write about something more recent.

It was the summer of 2003, I had been dating derek for about 3 months, when he left for a summer program in Paris. There was a lot going on that summer, I was 25 and my schedule was packed. I was teaching 4 classes at an interior design college, I was taking 2 classes at DePaul and I on the weekend I set up in a grocery store and gave samples of wine and spirits. It was non-stop, as I write about it now I get exhausted.

My parents, sister and brother-in-law were in-town (they all live in Florida, where I moved to Chicago from) for my mom's cousin's son's wedding. It was the 4th of July, I had to work (wine and spirits gig) from 12-4pm and I was to go to my uncle's for a bbq afterwards. I was late, like always unfortunately as hard as I try I typically am 10-15 minutes late, so I was rushing into the store with a cart full of stuff I needed to set up my table and it happened. As I was walking quickly through the parking lot, I felt a pop in the ball of my foot. It hurt so bad I had to stop, but since I was 25 and invincible I took a deep breath and kept on walking. I hobbled around Jewel getting my stuff together to do my job. Which kept me on my feet for the next 4 hours. Then I just kept going! The craziest part of all of this is that the day after was the wedding, then I was leaving to meet derek in Paris the day after that!

So I made an appt to see the nurse practitioner at my dr's office, she looked at my foot and it didn't seem to have any swelling or bruising which are typical signs of being broken. So she thought that it should be ok in a couple days, gave me some pain killers because she knew I was going to Paris and I'm not about to sit around in my hotel room while I'm in Paris!

We all went to the wedding, I had to modify my shoe choice. I haven't worn heels since then. I left for Paris, met derek and had an amazing time! We spent a couple days in Paris, then took a train to Basel in Switzerland. I have to say that Switzerland is one of my favorite countries in the world! I would move there in a minute! Basel was great because we were staying at one of derek's friends houses. It was awesome because I was able to get off my foot for a while. We had so much fun there! Drank beer starting at 10am almost every day, went to the FC (Football Club) Basel against FC Zurich, in which we were in the 2nd or 3rd row. We were at eye level with the soccer players! It was incredible, the best sports game I've ever been to! They won which was awesome because everybody was celebrating. It was derek's friends birthday so he had a huge bash at the house. It was awesome we had the refrigerated keg up and running at 9am and the party started shortly afterwards and continued on until I couldn't party anymore and went upstairs and passed out.

We left Basel and took an overnight train with many stops and changes to Amsterdam, then went back to Paris for another couple days before coming back to Chicago. It was an incredible trip that I will never forget!!! I learned a lot from that trip, it brought derek and I closer and is part of the reason we are still together I believe, and for the first time in my life I realized I was mortal. I realized that I can get injured and have to slow down. I went to dr when I got home and found out I broke one of the bones at the ball of my foot, the sesmoid (sp?) bone and was in a boot for the next 2 1/2 months!

I haven't been the same since that injury, my body went all out of whack resulting in illness and a whole bunch of things that I may write about in another blog. I'm looking for my pictures, I've gotten a new computer since that trip so the pictures are on a CD somewhere...if I find them I will post.