I love spring in Estonia!

Well, that’s spring! Today as I walked down the street enjoying the beautiful spring weather I saw this and just knew I had to take a picture. That’s right, today, Friday, March 28, 2008, when beautiful green shoots of grass should be sprouting up in fields filled with wildflowers, the snow has taken over. Welcome to spring in Estonia. The snow is white, the grass is dead, I am cold. This is annoying. I want it to be warm! I want to go swimming! I want to go around in a T-shirt! Or at least just a hoody! I mean seriously, last year it wasn’t this bad. Notice that nasty slush? I did, or more specifically my feet did when I slipped in it. Notice how deep that snow is? Guess who had to trudge through that! Yeah, yeah, you get it. Spring hasn’t come yet and I wish it would. Well whatever. At least the sun was out! I love the sun! For the first time in months I went out with my sunglasses! It was great. I am so happy! I put on ATC’s “Around the World” and sang, “The kisses of the sun/were sweet I didn’t blink/I let them in my eyes/like an exotic drink” The sun was great. Though it did make it seem as if I were swimming through slush at times. And if I couldn’t jump so far then I would have been in big trouble. But it was okay. I was happy.

And that was the subject of youth group at the Methodist church. Happiness! I was one of the four people who said they were very happy today (on a scale going from very unhappy to very happy). Because I’m just generally a pretty happy person. Who cares about snow and slush and yuckiness, I’m alive and happy for it! Today was interesting because Liis came up from Tartu and so her and I were bickering as usual. But then, because she doesn’t know her away around, I walked her back to where she was staying. It was interesting because as we walked she told me about some creepy guy who had stalked her, and then we picked up a stalker! We had been speaking in English of course, and when drunk guys in need of more alcohol hear English they make a connection really fast. English=American=Money! So this guy started following us. But, being drunk, he didn’t do it in a very sneaky, stalkerish fashion. So, having just finished a discussion about a creepy stalker, I walked a little closer to Liis and we both sped up a little. I thought we had lost him when we got to the front door of where she was staying and just as she was pulling out her phone to get them to let her in our stalker friend rounded the corner. Being the quick thinking and bold defender that I am I quickly suggested we walk around the block so he wouldn’t know where she was staying. Because drunk or not, having guys who follow you home at 10:30 PM know where you live is bad.

So we walked to the end of the street and talked a bit more, and because this particular street was disgusting and slushy, our friend the stalker decided we weren’t worth it and left. But then on the way back she commented on how nice I was being to her, and I pointed out that despite what she might think I actually really do care about my friends. Remember, this is the girl I described as being hard to figure out because she can seem like a hard-hearted jerk and still remain your friend. And for most of the last two years I’ve returned the same to her. This led to a discussion of when we used to be friends and actually act like it. And we nailed the cause. This same cause that you may remember I was freed of in my now hidden “I’m free” post. So now we’re meeting tomorrow and I’ve got a mission. Someone who was a close friend to both of us hurt a lot of people very deeply, and hurt both of us, and in the process did a lot of damage to our friendship. Now this juggernaut of relational destruction is mostly out of the picture, so I think it’s time Liis and I became friends again. True friends, like we were years ago. So tomorrow is a new day, and it should be interesting. I’m on a mission of reconciliation. Let’s see how this works out. But before that I need some sleep, so good night!