For the first weekend in two months, I decided not to travel, and instead to stay back at the Kartause, catch up on sleep, and basically do nothing. The week before this one I was on my post-midterm 10-day break, and it pretty much sucked the life out of me. Though travelling has been amazing, I have felt like I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, and though I had originally planned to trip it to Switzerland... when the plans fell all to hell and my group stayed here instead, I was relieved.

So, I took time to breathe for a change. I sat on my butt, read a novel (for fun!), watched a marathon of LOST Season 2 episodes, ate pizza and had my first Yagerbombs, and smoked the hooka. I chilled, and I can't remember the last time I felt ready to face another week. I even started writing a few new tunes. I slipped into the banquet hall as the sun began to set, and played and sang my heart out without anyone to bother me, and it was nice to bask in solitude for awhile: "But You have restored my joy, and You have regained my strength, and You have revived my heart, You've given me a new song and I will sing it for You."

And I thought a lot, too... about changes I want to make in my life, and things I'll have to face when I come home. About how much I love my family - I actually started to cry I was so overwhelmed with gratitude. Thank God at least I have moments when I don't take them for granted.

This was a really rough week for me- for some reason, Grandpa's absence was sharp. Every time anything went wrong or I started to feel stressed, even thinking of him a little made me burst into tears. If didn't have Marcus and Brian to make me pee in my pants laughing, I might just have moped around this weekend... and um, I didn't actually pee in my pants, but I came close. You guys are the best - and too bad if you won't be serious enough for 10 seconds to let me tell you so - you have been a huge blessing lately.

To the ones I love back home - I'm praying and thinking of and missing you all, and I will try to write soon about the insanity of my 10-day soon, but so far I'm not ready to relive it, ha ha.

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