The Moving Diaries

I know I have been writing about rediscovering Zurich, and getting reacquainted with it, and new beginnings, and everything is lovely.

But today I find myself at home, while my husband and daughters are at the pool, and I’m in a different mood.

I chose not to go, thought I could use a quiet moment, because ever since we got off the plane it feels like it’s been people, people, people, and things to do, and schedule stuff, etc. I’ll just take a breather and chill, I told my husband. But when, when have I ever been known to just take a breather and chill? Ever? I’m always doing something. I can never just relax for more than 30 minutes. So I asked myself: ok, if I was in NY now, what would I do with my time? And that’s when it just landed on my head like a brick. I MISS MY FRIENDS. So. F***ing. Much.

I know, I already told you I miss my friends. But I also miss my other friends. The ones who don’t live close to me but I can call and chat with and stuff.

And I miss my other other friends. You know who they are, come on, many of them are your friends too: Target, Sephora, Nordstrom, Whole Foods… I miss them!

I could have gone browse the beauty aisles at Sephora now, with all this free time. And try out a few colors from the OPI display, like I did with Sarah the day before we left, and we both came out with our nails painted all different colors (because it’s not like I was going back there any time soon, so I felt free to be tacky and embarrass myself, plus it was fun to do, just ask my 10-year old).

Or I could have gone to Nordstrom to look at bags, and try some shoes on, so I know which ones to add to my wish list and which ones I have to stay away from like they are infected with the Black Death.

Or I could have gone to Whole Foods, bought a bunch of natural beauty products to bring home and use for a home spa afternoon of pampering.

Or I could have taken the time to flat-iron my hair properly. Which of course I cannot do now, because stupidly, I let my flat iron get packed for the container. Because the voltage is wrong and I figured I wouldn’t be setup for non-EU electronics (except for the laptop, which is a vital necessity and for which we had a converter handy.)

So many things I could have done. And now I’m left here to wonder if I should maybe pop out to Starbucks, which is only 3 tram stops away, and then come back and read a book.

I’m so bored. And I can practically hear you say “You pathetic little thing, don’t you have any friends there?” I do. They are working. Or home with their families. Also, Swiss people tend to be whiny about distances, because Switzerland is so small, everything is close together so driving 30 minutes becomes “But that’s so far!” I kid you not.

When my husband told people he worked in Basel (6 years ago) but lived in Zurich, a 45-minute train ride away, people would treat him like he had completely lost his marbles. “But why don’t you live in Basel?” people would ask. Dude. Have you seen Basel? It’s ugly. It barely looks like Switzerland at all. All grey and full of industry and Big Pharma buildings. Yuck.

But I digress. I tend to do that when I’m bored, I do thought zapping, like that annoying thing people do with their remotes when they cannot settle on a TV channel.

Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes… friends. I don’t even have the other Friends on DVD here, it’s all in the container. And before you think I’m a creep who secretly films her friends, I should tell you we are now talking about Friends. Here, have a taste. And if you are so bored you got to the end of this message, be a dear and give me a ring. Or send me a cheesecake or something.

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