Monday, Monday

Evie has graduated from her infant car seat to a bigger "convertable" car seat that has the capacity to be rear facing now, and forward facing when she gets older. I ordered this new car seat online and had been expecting its arrival since before Christmas. Sometimes things take forever to get here, and I wasn't in any real rush, except that in my mind, this car seat would make things better and easier as far as running errands is concerned. The infant car seat was very convenient in that it snapped into a base that remained secure in the car, enabling you to pop the carrier out and go rather than struggling to unbelt and resecure the baby with every stop. The problem became, however, that while still within the weight limit, the infant seat was becoming a tight squeeze for Evelyn. It was apparent that she didn't like the contained feeling down in that little bucket and would struggle against being secured each time I needed to get her in. I thought this problem would be eliminated by the new seat. Also, while the quick carry option was very low hassle, it was getting really heavy to haul both baby AND carrier, and I was really looking forward to just having the girl to carry around rather than the girl plus 10+ extra pounds of plastic.

As it turns out, the new car seat has somewhat failed to live up to the super-powered vision I had created in my mind. It's perfectly fine...seems very safe and is relatively user friendly, but Evelyn still hates getting strapped in, and now that the seat doesn't pop out, she gets strapped in with EVERY stop. She is not pleased with this new development, and I can't say that I'm thrilled about it either. Also, the infant seat had a little umbrella cover thing that was adjustable and blocked the sun. The new seat is without such a feature, and Evie has made clear this is not acceptable.

Anyway, all that to say, we're adjusting to this new way of getting about. In preparation for a shopping trip tomorrow we stopped by to fill up on gas today. I should state first that the military has special arrangements to get gas on post at a reduced price compared to the German economy. With this arrangement comes certain regulations, however, and our gas consumption is rationed. There's also a whole system in place for how you're able to purchase it. This system has fairly recently been "upgraded" (haha), and now you must first present your papers to a cashier before you can even begin to pump. For those of us with infants, this means getting gas suddenly becomes a rather involved chore.

I pull into the station and notice a sign that states that regular unleaded is no longer going to be delivered on post. It's either Super or Super Plus (read Expensive or Expensive Plus). Yay. I unlatch Evie and we trot across the parking lot and into the store so as to show the cashier our papers and get authorization to pump. We then march back out to the car, I set Evie back in the car seat while I pump, then retrieve her once more so that we can trudge back inside to pay (there's no pay at the pump). Whew.

While we're inside, the guy in front of us in line asked the cashier about how the price converts to liters and whether we pay in euro or dollars. After getting his answer he responded, "Wow." Thinking this was a kindred soul, I commisserated, "Kinda sucky, huh?"

"Actually, it's great!" he replied. "Compared to the economy (the price of gas on the German economy), that's amazing!"

Of course, he's totally right. We have a really sweet deal compared to the price of gas in Europe, but there I stood, fixated on my forced Super gas, annoyed at the production it was to get it, and comparing instead to the lower prices in America.

I end up venting on here a lot, so I know it must seem that I'm full of complaints. The truth is, I do appreciate what an opportunity it has been to live here. I get annoyed listening to people in the community complain about EVERYTHING, and yet I end up complaining myself. It's really not that bad. I know that. On the other hand, I can't help but be slightly annoyed when people rant and rave about how much they love it here and how they hate to leave. To clarify, that's a totally valid opinion and I fully respect it. Europe definitely has a different pace and lifestyle and I can see how some people would prefer it. I think the reason I get annoyed is because I feel like I've failed by not sharing in that opinion. I have kind of a lot more to say on this thought, and I think I'll save it for another time. It's getting late and we have a fun-filled day tomorrow.

One final note--I started my online class today! I'll be learning about the Adobe Creative Suite and hopefully will soon dazzle you with all of the things that I will learn this semester.