January 23, 2003

• Overreacting and other OVER words:

  
  

  Have you ever had something happen to you and you overreact.  You know you are overreacting and yet somehow you just can’t stop yourself.  Here are some other OVER words.

  
  

  overwork:A wonderful little ditty that the entire population worldwide has taken on as it’s theme music.

  
  

  overcompensate:That terrific little thing that makes me try to do everything for everyone at the exspense of everything else. As in:You needed that done tomorrow, let me do that NOW!  See i’m not defective in anyway!

  
  

  overkill:You need that mosquito killed….let me get my CANNON.   (this goes hand in hand with overreact)

  
  

  overwhelmed:Life on a day to day basis!   For most people….don’t lie you know it’s you too!!!

  
  

  overextend, overexspose, overestimate, oversensitive, look at all the wonderful over words.  okay I know I overreacted.  Just can’t help myself sometimes!

  
  

  SPAIN!!! You Totally Awesome place you!!!

  
  

       I Remember landing at the airport.  (After a VERY long, thankfully, uneventful flight.)  It was strange to me because it was the first time a plane didn’t pull right up to the terminal.  Everyone de-planed (odd word)on the side of the runway and then got onto a shuttle.  What surprised and alarmed me more than a little were all the soldiers with machine guns and rifles.  The shuttle took us to the terminal where we went through customs, and walked by more armed men.  Finally you get into the main terminal, more armed men, and yeah there’s Barry.  PHEW!  Can we get the hell out of here and what’s with all the soldiers? (Basque terrorist threats) 

  
  

       All I wanted to do was sleep, but some yahoo had told Barry that if he kept me awake until dark that I would adjust better to the time change and have less jet lag.  So we went to a 4th of July picnic, where I got to meet fifty people while in a seriously impaired state of mind.  (For months after people would know me and I wouldn’t have a clue where I met them.)   We didn’t have a house.  So we stayed at an Air Force motel even though we weren’t military.  Wasn’t that nice of the Air Force?  That was the longest, part of the whole house search.  Barry went to work fairly early since he and the whole crew had to drive clear across Madrid to get there, while I laid around and watched armed forces tv.  Can you say boring!  It was during this period of time that I started smoking again after a full year of being quit. 

  
  

       We had left Al and Em with my sister, I knew they were fine, but my mom overdrive wouldn’t quit.  I was constantly trying to call which was hard as hell because of the time difference.  That and the fact that I had no transportation so I had to take a bus through foreign territory to get to a phone.  Plus it cost SIX DOLLARS a minute to call.  So between the incredible boredom and being worried so much over nothing.  I started smoking again!  I know…what a dumbass.

  
  

  back to the story:

  
  

  We finally ended up renting a condo next door to Barrys’ boss.  (That turned out to be a godsend, his wife and I became really close.)  It was in a suburb of Madrid about 30 min. from Torrejon air force base and about thirty min. by bus from downtown Madrid.  So even though it was way to big for what we needed and cost way to much($1000), we took it.

  
  

         During this time we also bought a little Ford hatchback.  Not pretty, but very dependable.  Before we left the United States both of us had gotten an international driving license.  The Spanish wanted us to get a Spanish license so we did that too.  The class consisted of a 120 question test and a whole day of memorizing signs.(I heard later they made it easier)  None of the European signs have writing on them, very handy since I didn’t read Spanish.  I was positive I was going to fail miserably and totally humiliate the entire American contigent.  I PASSED!  (And before I ever left Spain I agreed totally with the signs.  Who needs writing, it just confuses people.)  I was ready to drive!  Yeah right!  Did I mention the driving.  To this day I think there is a law in Spain that I don’t know about that says you are legally obligatd to pass EVERY car ahead of you reagardless of the speed needed to pass said cars.  These people live and drive at full tilt boogie every day.  Usually 136 kph  which is about 85 mph.  Six lanes bumper to bumper.  This is like driving 55mph for most Spaniards.  They will also go in reverse down on ramps if they’ve takin’ a wrong exit!  I spent most of my time in the car praying NOT to die in Spain and if I did please ship the body home for burial. 

  
  

       The kids Finally got to come to Spain on Allies’ 8th Birthday.  Aug 19th.  I had been without my babies for six weeks.  Man was I happy.  My sis came with them and so we planned on doing all kinds of fun things.  The possibilities were endless for the sheer amount of things to do.  Traveling around was just the beginning.  First I had to get them through the jet lag.  Kids being kids they didn’t take more than a day.  Sister on the other hand went straight to bed and didn’t get up for three days.  It nearly drove me crazy.  Then when she did get up all she wanted to do was go back to the states to be with her no account boyfriend.  To this day I think she blew a wonderful opportunity.  Though we did get to go some places and have some fun before she left. 

  
  

  When we get together next time I’ll tell you about our first trip into Madrid on our own.Talk about TOURISTS!!!!

  • 12:48 pm
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