Washington DC by Night

When you've got amazing friends, sometimes you get to do incredibly fun things... like visit the monuments at night.

I think I'm going to like it here.

Sarah

The 5 Worst Things About Being Short

Yesterday I shared with you what i thought was the best stuff about being Short. It turns out, being short has some drawback, too. Here are my top 5 worst things about being 5'00 and under.

1. The Armpit

So you're standing in the bus. There's no place left to sit. Around you are many commuters, and everyone is packed together like sardines. They cling to the tops of the railings, you try and hold onto the post in front of you - and you catch a whiff of the most putrid, sweaty, uncleaned armpit you have ever smelled. An arm is extended right about you. You turn your head down. Riding the bus, you live in the pits.

2. The Friendly neighborhood Arm Rest

You're talking with friends, as you do. It's a nice day, all the birds are signing, the sun is out and nice and warm. Suddenly, a shadow blocks out the sun. A weight is applied to your head. You know immediately what has happened.
You have become an arm rest.
The person next to you leans casually on your shoulder or head, chatting amicably with your friends. Like a friend leaning on a friend, this not new: but as a giant using his short friend as a walking stick, you start to feel yourself shrinking away.

3. The Worst Angle

Have you ever told someone "You've got a cold coming on" before they even knew?
Everyday, you look up to your friends, chatting with them as casually as you can under the circumstances. You know their every booger. As the light hits their makeup, you see their every poorly blended seam. You see your male friends trying to grow a mustache. You see your female friends trying to hide theirs. It's tough, living life from below.

You know you're short when every evening you need to apply arnica gel to your neck from having looked up all day. Why does everyone have to be so much taller than me?

4. The BMI Inconsistency

I'm 5'00 tall. To be healthy, I need to be 120 pounds TOPS to be healthy. My taller friends? They get an extra 40 pounds wiggle room! My portions are smaller than theirs, and I need to be more careful what I eat, because it SHOWS!

5. The Three step

You've probably all experienced this at some point. Your friends are walking, chatting, and you exhaust yourself keeping up, taking three steps for every one of theirs. Soon, you're almost running to keep up. Shorter legs are  pretty inefficient.

There are many more. The feelings of inadequacy. The feelings of shrinking, or of being invisible. Every day I have to deal with jokes that hurt me more than I can say. People have told me it's my fault, that i never ate enough vegetables, or soup in some cases, while I was growing up. But it's nothing more then genetics, and I have no control over that.

And I can't do my dream job of being an astronaut, because I am too short for NASA's requirements.
I will never got to space, because I didn't grow an extra two inches.
I've stopped waiting for a second growth spurt. It's never going to come.

Being short had many drawbacks, but the benefits help to balance that out. So to all those short people out there: keep enjoying the leg room!

Love,
Sarah

5 Reasons it's Awesome to be Short

I've not grown since 8th grade, so I'm now a 4'9 girl whose French friends are at least five inches taller than. It's tough. The world is a strange place from down here, and there are some things my height doesn't let me do. It does, however, have some benefits.
Here are five great things about being 5'0 or shorter.

1. Leg room

Have you ever flown on a plane? Your knees hit the chair in front of you, making it impossible to move? Two large people sandwich you on either side, making you feel like a sardine in its can, unable to even breathe. Then the food comes, and you have to somehow balance the tray, your knees, and the people next to you so as not to make a mess. And you have to sit like that for hours on end.
Not us short people. For us, an airplane is an inconvenience, but at least we can have the slight comfort of fitting in our seats. My feet barely reach the chair in front of me.When food comes, I can pull out my tray, lean back, and enjoy the TV selection while my neighbors struggle to get comfortable.
I'm not saying I actually enjoy flying. Just that I have less reasons to hate it than most people do.

2. Hand me downs

Everything fits.
If a friend is going through their closet, it's so easy to say "Do you still want that?" and save a shirt for yourself. When a friend has made bags of donations clothes, guess who gets to look through them before they move on? That's right, the short girl.
And you think these clothes are not as good from being second hand? My new aeropostale shirt says otherwise. My ralph loren vest tends to disagree. The fact that these people are giving you their clothes rather than to some stranger means that they care for them.
So when 50% of my wardrobe is hand me downs, I can not complain.

3. The "Cute" Effect

When you're short, everything you do is suddenly cute. It's some magic I don't seem to understand, but that doesn't make me any less grateful.
Maybe it's something to do with being "mini". Who doesn't like mini things? Smart cars, mini coopers, mini bagels, mini golf, all wonderful things that are sometimes called adorable. It's like kittens or baby elephants. They're just smaller versions of the norm, but so, so cute.

4. The Best Angle

You know how (supposedly), taking a selfie from slightly above makes you look better?
Guess how short people are seen by the world.
Yeah.

5. The "Let me help you with that"

When a person like me goes shopping, it's a struggle. Items on higher shelves are out of reach for good. Luckily, there's always someone around who will help you get it down. Most of the time, tall, attractive young men. So... there's always a plus!
And when you're carrying anything, people immediately jump in to help. Maybe being short bring out the best in people.

So, as you can see, it really is great to be short, in many ways. However, I will follow up this post soon with reasons that it sucks.

So, 'till the nest time,
Sarah

Buzz Aldrin is the coolest.

No, seriously.

We saw this yesterday at the smithsonian, during his talk on his new book, Mission to Mars. Which I got. AND HE SIGNED IT!

Ok, Nerd moment here. But seriously one of the coolest days ever.
Then I saw a bit of DC, took some obligatory tourist shots.

That's all I have for you tonight, Folks.

Tchao,

Sarah

Kittens!

One of the toughest parts of being a TCK is not having the relationship with grandparents that "normal" kids get.
When you live on the other side of the world, all you've got are your parents and siblings. Your friends make up your extended family, and you see them on such a regular basis that your grandparents seem, at first, like strangers your routinely see once a year.  That is, until you see what grandparents really are. Once you grow up and know how much they hurt not seeing you. Seeing you grow up in photographs. Hearing of your accomplishments over the phone. With today's internet age, that is beginning to change: but Skype just isn't the same as being there.

As a kid, a grandparent's visit was second christmas: they would come bearing gifts, presents that would otherwise have been handed to you every one and a while if you had lived down the street from them, all given at once. It was mayhem. it was marvelous. Birthdays meant gifts for both kids, because it was cheeper to ship everything at once.
A visit to them was a momentous occasion. They would truck you around to all your extended family (great aunts, second cousins, all included) and show you off. "These are my grandkids from France!" Was said every few minutes. "Speak French for the man"as well (less liked). And that's when shopping would happen: enough clothes to last an entire year. I never had to go shopping, other than with them.

So as I grew, my relationship changed: and I realized that they were not giftgivers. they were not Santa. They were family, and it hurt them to be away from us. And it began to really hurt me.
My relationship matured. It pushes me to try to be the perfect grandkid, to make them proud, to try and spend all the time I can with them, however I can.

What a blessing to now live two hours from their doorstep.
My grands came down to pick me up and brought me back to the family farm, just for a 24 hour stay. It was wonderful. I just love to see them. We talked about graduation (and how there are no ceremonies in France) and about my trip to Monaco (they were impressed nine of us lived in a flat together for a week without any catastrophes). She fed me and would not take no for an answer; He told me stories of aliens and secret treasures. I played with the kittens who were born there. You deserve a photo, don't you, attentive reader?

OMG Kittenz!!!!!

I was also on a mission to find their lost weeding photo, for their anniversary next week. So, awaking at 4:30 (thank you, jet lag. Yes, still) I made my way to the upstairs to search for it. Unfortunately, my grandfather awoke then, because of course, great grandpa (still living on his own) wants help getting dressed every morning at 4 am. I made up some excuse about using the upstairs bathroom so as not to bother them. But their photo was nowhere to be seen. 

I skyped my father, and he managed to come up with a sneaky plan to go over to my great grandfather's and find it there, by telling the grandparents he was looking of a photo of him at 15 on a lawn chair (never found it - I don't know where he got the idea for that one). Lo and behold, he did have the picture. The only one, it seems.

So that was that.

My face is breaking out in pimples. I guess I'm not eating as healthy as I should. Oops!

Anyway, more kittens:

See you all soon,

Sarah

Because I like to carve pumpkins. Sue me.

Today was the first time I ever carved a pumpkin.
So much fun!
I was covered up my arms with pumpkin guts as I tore the unborn seedlings from its fertile, meaty womb, pulling all insides out to be tossed, and carving upon its still warm flesh.
Wow that sounds gruesome.
Here are some pictures, though:

I forgot to take into account the curvature of the pumpkin - so my design looks a little wonky. But who cares? I had a blast making it. The cheep kit purchased at the nearby garden store broke pretty much the instant I started using them, so I resorted to using a nail and a screwdriver.
My host little bro (7) told me it looks like a "scorpion viking knight with an eyepatch". I personally don't see it, but I give him points for creativity. Love that kid.

Anyway, off to visit my grandparents tomorrow! :)

Bisous,
Sarah

Pictures, Projects, and Crayons.

Today's going to be mainly text free. I'm just going to show you what I've been up to rather than telling you.