Josh just called, he bought 2 plane tickets to London this weekend. When I was much younger, my family (including my grandma) spent 2 weeks in the England area visiting my big bro when he was at school at Oxford but all I remember is seeing lots of castles and palaces and having soft boiled eggs for breakfast. Okay, maybe I remember a few other things, but I definately didn't appreciate the trip as much as I should have. Josh and I wanted to go somewhere this weekend because I don't have to work Friday or Monday and it appeared that the cheapest flights go to London. Greg, any good recommendations for this coming weekend??
This past weekend Josh and I decided to go to Koblenz Germany to participate in a half marathon. We took off Saturday morning and drove behind Lorintz, Jean, Abby and Jon (two couples). It was a close call that we made it because about 30 mins before the group took off, Josh and I had just concluded our "non-talking" period of 22 hours. It was our longest disagreement thus far and afterwards all he had to say was that we were going to mark June 6th on the calendar as "longest fight" and "one year of being in the army." My response to that was "maybe you should take that as a hint." I laughed a lot and he only laughed a little. He did tell me at the end that he needed to have a long talk with my dad about this stubborn side of mine even though I keep telling him "thats just how God made me." :)
Jean was going to run the half marathon with me and Abby was going to be our cheerleader. When we went to sign up Jean saw that there was a 10 km and Abby sounded interested. So I freed Jean from the half and her and abby did the 10 km. We went back to the hotel before and abby and jean actually took off at 3:30 to start the 10 km. Our race didn't start till 6:30 PM (werid I know) so we didn't have to catch the train till 5:30 pm. It ended up that our train was delayed so a group of about 500 of us didn't start the race till 7:10 PM. Walking to the race, I got really quite (I was starting to get nervous) and Jon asked me if something was wrong. Josh said, "Please, just leave it....she doesn't get like this very often." I laughed...but I'm not sure why I did. For some reason Josh can say just about anything these days and I will laugh at it...even if it isn't funny.
The race started and I was pretty sure that I was going to die at 3 km (a half is 21 km). I tried to slow down but didn't manage doing so until 15 km. It was then that I really thought I was going to not make it. I ran right behind Jon the whole time and managed to do the drafting the entire way. At 15 km I told him he was my inspiration and he looked like he wanted to kill me. Pretty sure that I will never ever put my body through that without training more. Somehow I managed finishing a little under 2 hours with Josh finishing a little under 1 hr 50 mins. He was holding two cups when I crossed, one red and one white, and I looked up at him and told him to please get them away from me. I was pretty sure it was wine, but found out later it was gatorade. For the next hour, I tried to clear my nausea and once we got back to the room and showered and got an appetite, Josh came in very pale and not looking too great. He looked up at Jean and Lorintz to tell them he didn't think he could make it to dinner. He told me to go but I insisted to stay back. He was very bummed but as soon as he laid down, he started to shake and get the chills. He fell asleep while I watched him. It may be when people I love get sick and I get to take care of them that really ensures me I was meant to be a nurse. I know Josh doesn't do too well when I pull the sympathy card (when I'm sick) but it is a complete opposite story with me. I definately loved taking care of him.
Jean, Lorintz, Abby and Jon came back around midnight and one hour later Josh woke up stating he was hungry and we needed to get some food. He awoke in a pool of sweat so whatever he had was broken, he felt great and was hungry. Him and I took off and ended up downtown Koblenz at a doner shop (it is like a gyro stand in the states). It is amazing food and I am not sure if food ever tasted any better than it did at that moment.
This next week is only 4 days of work and then we will be flying out on Friday. I will try to contact some of you before than to chat but I think you all are great, miss you guys tons and can't wait for visitors.
Love,
Gretchen
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