There is such a thing as too much

I want to apologise first for being so late with this blog. So much has happened in the past couple of weeks since we went to St. Petersburg that it’s all a blur now.   Just to give you a run-down of recent events, we went to St. Petersburg (FANTASTIC – pictures later) and got home on a Sunday evening in time to hit a concert, had an impromptu dinner party a few days later (invited 1 who grew into 6) and the next day, began a 4-day weekend hosting a friend and her daughter for a huge cat show that was held in Moscow over the weekend.  The morning after we sent her home, we got on a plane and went to Texas for a week.  We just arrived back here to Moscow the day before yesterday and I can now sit down and THINK before we embark on another busy weekend.

Just as a peek, we LOVED St. Petersburg and would recommend it to anyone who wants a concentrated picture of Russia in a short period of time.  I’ll elaborate when Greg processes the pictures (you know he’s been busy when he hasn’t had a chance to do THAT!).   In the meantime I want to also say that sometime in the flurry of the past 2 weeks, Greg got offered a completely new job than what he’s used to and a promotion.  When we decided to put our hat in the ring for expat work, the entire reason was to do something different, see different places and expose Greg to new job experiences that would hopefully help his career in the future.  We thought in a few years something might materialize that would justify our gamble.  To say the least, we never thought it would happen this quickly!  Of course, we aren’t so naive as not to realize that the world recession had a part in this also.  The recession has hit Russia, the ruble fell almost 40 percent from last year and the oil producers aren’t getting what they need to get to be profitable.   In short, companies employing expats overseas are rethinking their strategies and if they can find a national to do the job, then they can save quite a lot moving an expat home.  So, we’re going back to the U.S. – Sugar Land, Texas to be exact – sometime the first part of June.

This has been very sudden for us and we really had mixed feelings for a while.  We really wanted to spend at least one summer in Moscow, if for no other reason than to gloat to our friends in Texas who have been gloating to us about the fabulous weather they’ve been having all winter.  I had my script prepared and everything, “What’s the temperature there? 100?!  Is it humid, too (knowing full well the humidity is horrible)?  Oh, it’s been 71 all week and sunny.  We love eating dinner outside at the restaurants, but I have to bring a light SWEATER for the evenings. “     All this imagined revenge has just whipped around and gotten me because it looks as if we came to Moscow in the worst part of the winter, and will be leaving just as it’s getting nice and getting back to Texas just in time to experience the hot-humid full-time.

Of course, we’re grateful for what has turned out to be a 6 month paid vacation in Russia, but it would have helped — for planning purposes — if we had known ahead of time that Moscow would only be a short stint.  Certainly I wouldn’t have gone through as much stress before leaving, but I also wouldn’t have cleaned out as many closets, either!    I was forced to do a huge overhaul on my life, which was sorely needed and I can say that my addiction to Abyssinian kittens is lessened, thanks to the Kremlin Abyssinian Addiction rehab program and I hope to stay Showhall-Free for life, with the help of friends who can feed me regular doses of unpleasant cat fancy gossip to steel my resolve never to engage in that dysfunctional world again.  

As to our remaining time in Russia, we’re going to try hard to experience as much as possible in the 6 weeks we have left.  Of course, we’re going to have to deal with ANOTHER move and major relocation, the sale of our house and perhaps a 3rd move in 12 months;but most of the basics have been organized and moved here, so we can simply move the necessities from this apartment to our new apartment in Sugar Land.   My days of closet cleaning will REALLY begin in June when I tackle the job of organizing 28 years of antique collecting into a compact and manageable space so we can sell our house in Victoria.    Yes, Greg’s master plan has worked and it’s oh so logical to sell, sell, sell!  I’ll miss the place, but it makes no sense at all to live in an apartment in Sugar Land during the week only to commute to Victoria on the weekends to mow, clean and basically do all the upkeep required on a huge house like that.   It will get old very quickly, I’m sure.  We’re going to take our time organizing and hopefully during that time the economy will recover and/or some of my real-estate leads will come along with the perfect buyer BEFORE we have to put it on the market.  So, my summer is going to be spent on ebay moving out the stuff I haven’t been able to resist buying for the past 2 decades!

In the meantime, people have been asking about the apartment.  Greg took a couple of pictures of the main living area, so I’ll share them with you now. 

Dining Room After

Dining Room before

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