A break

I’ve been on a break. I just kind of checked out from reality and let myself disappear for a few days. No email responses, no daily facebook checks, no blogging…none of my normal routine. I need to get around to reading and responding to all the messages and kind inspirational words that I know are there, but I wanted to make sure I could really absorb them, not just fleetingly glance at them while I was still licking my wounds. I still have a bit of a season left, but I found it difficult to motivate myself to continue on in regular fashion right away. You work so hard to reach this peak, and then all of the sudden you find yourself on the other side of it, and my body and mind are just a bit lethargic.

But nobody is paying me to sit on the beach in Nice or walk around the streets of Paris as a full blown tourist, so I’m back on the grind with a few low key meets in Italy that I hope will get the juices flowing again and put me back on track to finish the season strong. My diet of cappuccinos and croissants may have set me back a bit, but it was good for the soul and hopefully my civilian lifestyle didn’t take too much of a toll on my system.

Here are a few pictures from my mini break. I hung out with my friend Debbie, who had came to Berlin to see me compete and then was spending a little time seeing more of Europe. She let me tag along until I had somewhere else to be.

-Me on the streets of Nice. Cities in Europe are just so much cooler than our cities in the States.



-Me and the Debster at the beach.


-My favorite pastime. Reading a book…on the beach…under an umbrella. Life doesn’t get sweeter.


-View of the City


-Looking out over Monaco…contemplating how I can get enough money to live there!



-In Paris…being tourists.


-After all the normal shots of the Eiffel tower, we started getting silly with it.


-Drinking cappuccinos…another favorite pastime.


-Realizing the cappuccino is 6 euros!!




-Standing in the lobby of our hotel. You never realize when someone might be snapping a picture!