Whinging about bobbles.

Friday night looked something like this...


Because of this, we thought doing this the following night was a good idea...


We decided our Irish friends needed an introduction to a proper Thanksgiving. I mean, we seem to have turned ourselves into beacons for anyone holding a foreign passport and we feel compelled to show off our version of 'Americana'.

Between four of us, we created an entire Thanksgiving dinner within one day without much notice. That is, we woke up around noon after surviving the night before (see aforementioned photo about Friday night) and motivated ourselves out the door and to the grocery store. From scratch- or darn close to it- we came up with a full meal. It was an achievement and super fun all at the same time. For me, it was my Thanksgiving since I'm not headed home this year. As a sidenote, I should mention that pre-holiday time tends to be more exciting and worthwhile to me than any actual holiday. The boys tried sweet potatoes for the first time and didn't think they were anything terribly remarkable. Everyone had a good time. Especially when the box competition started. Basically, you lean over without bending your knees or using your hands and you pick up a box with your teeth. Since the boys had such a poor showing, we allowed them to bend one knee so they could get a bit closer to the ground. Even then, three of us (oh yeah, me included!) beat them without any help. Yay us? Yay yoga?


Ich hab die echte Gummibärchen! Haribo macht Kinder froh (und Erwachsene ebenso)!

I finally received the package from D. Lovely gal sent over real German gummi bears (die echte), Toffifee...and an Advent calender. So many little doors to open up, so much effort and self-restraint not to do so.


Favorite sentence of the day...A. to Y, 'When does the ass kicking commence?'

Venting and making fun of it. What more is there to say?

Started going to the gym again...muscles are being punished.

Yes. Finally. Back to the gym, which is a good thing because I tend to let myself off the hook as it is. Actually paying for a membership for a gym right around the corner on the way to the subway is my kick in the pants to actually use it. Now, I can get back to eating anything and everything without as much regard.

Got the Kölsch glass home in 1 piece instead of hundreds.

I think I was on my 7th or so drink of the night so, I have to admit that the Kölsch didn't go down as smoothly as any other previous experience with the beverage I'd had. Either way, I mentioned to J. I liked the glass, but didn't want it to end up in 100 or more pieces in my bag so he swiped it from my hand, and put it away in his pocket asking 'What glass?' Certainly. We headed over to Manitoba for another pint (Brooklyn Lager goes down easier than Kölsch...what has become of me?) and after explaining the plastic bottle of brandy in J's pocket, he remember the glass in the other pocket...it made it home, but just barely. The first thing I did when I got home was just drop my purse on the floor. Brilliant. The glass survived. Rejoice!

Just met Jamie Oliver. Brilliant! However I will still only collect his cookbooks for the pictures and not for the use of cooking.

Oh yes. Jamie Oliver. Love him. Love his books. Love his shows. I made my college roommate sick watching the Naked Chef series. If you've watched them you know the camera work was a little 'Blair Witch Project' esque. Jamie was just walking through the green market in Union Square with what seemed to be a publicist and another coworker, perhaps. So, I started digging around my bag with one hand while walking up to the publicist and asked if I could get a photo. I kind of feel like a moron now since I didn't really say much to him. What was I going to say, 'I love you, your shows and your books!' ? Um, no. Not cool. Well, the publicist took my camera and somehow turned it off so Jamie and I stood there like buddies staring at her. I figured what had happened and turned the camera back on. Anyway, shot taken. So, I was even uncooler and just said 'thanks'... Next time I run into Jamie, I'll tell him I love everything he does.

Two minutes in Bridgeport was more than enough and not recommended.

E., S. and I motivated and organized ourselves out to the CT yesterday. I was actually kind of amazed that we got ourselves out there. We rented a car at the airport and drove up there. No directional issues until we got to Bridgeport. For some reason, we couldn't seem to get ourselves out of that town. I stopped into a gas station to ask for directions and walked out smelling like a combination of gasoline, exhaust fumes, cigarettes and curry. Two minutes in a gas station, crazy. Anyway, we made it and that is what is important.




Watching history being made...I will no longer need to be 'from Canada' when I travel.

I was excited Tuesday night. I watched election coverage all evening and even when all of the networks and newspapers started announcing Obama as the winner, I still thought there was going to be some crazy event like recounting votes or some other rediculous stunt to delay the results. It wasn't until McCain gave his 'defeat' speech that I was really confident that Obama was indeed the president elect. The insane thing is that I don't think I'm all that crazy for thinking 'it can all be taken away' until it all seemed too confirmed to be taken away. So it is... I also feel pretty good about not having to explain 'my country' to foreign friends. I am saying this from experience from the last election.

Rocking a pink wig, wings and covered in glitter. Just a regular Friday around here...

I saw one vampire child on my way to the subway today and a pregnant prom queen while walking down 6th Ave during lunch, but not too many costumes otherwise. That is, outside of the office. We've got some random wigs and headbands in addition to major league sports outfits and super heroes. I have got a pink shaggy wig which, funnily enough, doesn't look too different from my real haircut. And, a pair of glittery wings which have covered me and my whole cube from top to bottom in a layer of glitter.

On Wednesday, I met up with C & A (the Austrians) and I showed them the view from LIC of Manhattan. They were estatic and it definitely hit them that they were in NYC. It was cold and the wind kept reminding us of that, so they took a few (hundred) photos and then we headed back up to the train while they told me about their day and the crazy things they saw. This included a batmobile and the naked cowboy. We headed to Woodside for a little pre-Halloween pumpkin party/America's Next Top Model. And, this is what happened...

*Non Twitter initiated topic...

Today and yesterday were self inflicted stress and pain. They just were. I had shit due ages ago and I had it started. Other work stuff just got in the way so I didn't complete it and I'm in the dog house. I am honestly a little unnerved by how much this affects my whole being. My face is hot, I feel a cold coming on and I'm in a gray mood. It feels like the time I got into a huge fight was C. many years ago. At that time I remember being completely on edge and self censored in a way to try and avoid all types of conflict and my shoulders were so tight I might as well have been a professional weightlifter.

On the reverse, I do have to acknowledge the kindness of acquaintences. A friend of a friend stopped by today while on her vacation and she brought some German magazines for me. I am at a very desperate level of trying to get my German back up to a minimum crappy level of conversation. (minimum-crappy, that's descriptive, isn't it?) I'm reaching for straws, that's for sure. At any rate, I'm meeting her and her friend tomorrow evening to show them a view of Manhattan from the Queens side and then taking them to a pre-Halloween party including pumpkin carving! Yay!

In NY and coffeeing. I miss the Twin Cities (until snow hits and then I dislike it until spring).

I miss the Twin Cities when I'm not there. This past visit, I missed it even while I was there. It's always inevitable that I'll get up and go- I want to be a mobile person, I strive to be a mobile person, however this time the Cities was different. I hit the perfect part of the year, fall. The colors change, sweaters come out and my friends had time to visit. I was able to plainly see the path in life I didn't take by leaving Minnesota. I know I wouldn't have ultimately been happy if I stayed, but the blatant view of 'what I could have had...' was unmistakable. The thing is that I'm still not ready for a life back in the Cities. I'm closer to it than I was a few years ago, but it still feels like a life to settle down into. It's the 'settling' part I can't quite commit to.

Grand Ave...oh how I miss thee...

MacGroveland/Grand Ave./Summit Ave/Cathedral area is fantastic. This is one of my favorite areas to have a coffee in when I'm at home. The neighborhoods are cosy, the food is brilliant and the coffee is great.

Live from Minnesota

I feel my social calender while in the Cities has been kind of full. It's a little betraying because if I lived here, I wouldn't be nearly as busy. It has been nice to see so many friends, though. I am glad that it still 'works' between us all despite all of our various paths since our friendships began.

Landed. I'm here. I'm fine. I need a little more sleep.

I am here in Minnesota. At JFK I had to get rid of a few things from my suitcase because it was too heavy. Since I decided to pack my suitcase with only un-did laundry, I threw out some old shirts and stuff. A young couple looked to be on their way home with some overpacked bags and their mother supervised their unpacking, downsizing and packing. Actually, she didn't do much supervising of them as she did me- at one point she saw me putting things in a separate bag (which would shortly find itself in the bin...) and was like "if you're just going to throw it away, I'll take it..." Um. No. As I mentioned earlier, this was some nasty laundry. Why would I throw out new clothes? I got up to the check-in counter and the check-in lady looked at the bag and then looked at me..."You're over by 5 pounds. Do you want to check in a second bag for $25 more or pay the excessive weight fee of $100?" No lady. I don't have another bag and I don't want to spend any more money. Finally she decided to overlook the few pounds... I am keeping this in mind for my return trip. I am kind of annoyed by the new charge for luggage, at least on domestic travel. My previous trips in the recent past have been international, so I haven't had an issue with weight limits (because they're higher!) or even extra charges for checking a piece of luggage. This is certainly a new world of flying for me.

I am in the land of 10,000 lakes. I wouldn't be a good Minnesotan if I didn't somehow mention that there are actually more than 10,000 lakes here...

The descent into the Twin Cities is always nice in the fall...the leaves hadn't quite changed color, but it was just starting. Topped it off with a Caribou after landing: perfect.

Kein Alkohol ist auch keine Lösung. Ich hab es immer wieder versucht...Es würde gehn doch es geht nicht gut

This is basically an extended Oktoberfest post. The good thing is that the Oktoberfest evening ended early enough for me to get home, sleep a few hours, pack and then head off to the airport.

Minnesota here I come! (As long as Northwest doesn't go bankrupt and I survive fake-Oktoberfest activities tonight.)

The countdown for MN always begins a few days before departing since I like to make sure the airlines aren't going to go bankrupt. Northwest manages to file for bankruptcy what seems like once a year. And now it looks like Sun Country is following the same path. Perhaps I may never make it back home in the future!

The word 'Oktoberfest' fills me with a mixture of concern and excitement. Concern because of my personal experience with consuming liters (notice the word LITER is in plural) of a certain beverage in Munich. That whole experience and story will need to be saved for another day when I feel like talking about Italians, Ami's (exchange students and soldiers) and a never ending trip on the train. The excitement part is that remarkable German connection...even though I know it's a Bavarian thing...and Bavaria was never my favorite part of Germany...it's German nonetheless and even the idea of a Germanlike outing is appealing. When we all actually gathered at the bar, it never ended up being German or even fake-Oktoberfest-y. I guess it doesn't matter much in the end...a good time was had by all and that is what counts.

The Epic Battle was fun, but I don't know if we won it...

This sort of relates to the 'No Pants' post I made earlier. The group who brought you No Pants on the 6 Train also did a little something called the MP3 Experiement on Governer's Island. A hysterical time was had by all. E. and I rode the ferry to the island with a couple hundred fellow participants and a person in a bear costume. Full on bear mascot type of costume.

Correction: Happy Indian Birthday K!
This is the properly published headline. Me, E and K went out to dinner as sort of a pre-departure dinner. We went to one of the crazy Indian restaurants on 1st east of Astor Place. It is one of those restaurants where they put up every decoration...strings of red christmas lights, blow up balls and dolls are hanging from the ceiling. Anyway, E and I decided it would be halarious and only fair if we declared it was K's birthday...and so it was. After we finished with dinner the lights dimmed and a disco ball started with some crazy version of 'happy birthday' over the sound system. Halarious.

Happy Indian Birthday J!
Ah, the first published attempt at the Indian Birthday...without use of the nickname.

No pants is funny.
A. It just is. No way around that.
B. It's a semi-known event which occurs on the 6 train.
C. While getting ready to go out on Thursday night, I looked out the window and saw my newest interest: the overweight woman who has not yet worn pants while cooking. Let me explain this a little more since I sound like a freak at the moment. This woman cooking with no pants is like my own mini auto accident- the phenomenon where you want to look away, but can't seem to pull your gaze away from the window. I can't stop wondering why she feels the need to cook without pants. It seems like an almost-danger situation. The weather was fall-ish, so it was definitely not too hot or cold, even considering the heat from cooking. It's mind boggling. Anyway, she made her way into my conversations for the rest of the weekend...

Happy American Mexican German Birthday C!
Birthday's happen. Birthday's are celebrated in Mexican restaurants. Birthday's occur for German's visiting NY. Birthday's happen for a guy on a day when it wasn't his birthday. Put this all together and you get an unsuspecting German guy in a Mexican restaurant wearing a sombrero and told it's his birthday. We considered it a great time to teach him about cultural exchange.

Wienerschnitzel. Echt.
J is Austrian. So J & C volunteered to cook dinner for us. Wienerschnitzel. So good. I wanted to steal their passports. I don't do much cooking. I would really like to do more of it and learn how to throw something fantastic together. Ah, aspirations. Anyway, I have to say that even cold Wienerschnitzel consumed after an evening of drinking is really good. It quelled my hangover; unfortunately it didn't have the same effect on the boys. As inferred, we had dinner and then went out to Tonic in Times Square for a sort of work-related event. Ok, it was an open bar sponsored by another digital company and my coworkers and I all attended. Hence 'sort of work-related.' A guy from a random agency decided to share the only German he knew with us "Ich habe eine Grosse Schlange." Right. He then looked at J & C and told them not to tell ME what he just said. So, I told the bastard I knew exactly what he said. This is why learning foreign languages is so important and interesting: strangers say the darndest things!

Oh my twitter.

Zwei Fliegen mit einer Klappe schlagen.
I love getting a lot of things done, I just don't like multitasking quite as much. I get so distracted. I will start about ten different things and one completely irrelevant task will come up and I'll follow that like a pretty shiny thing to a baby. It happens. I'm working on this. Aparently, not working quite hard enough because I'm writing this instead of doing one of a million other things.

I think I see B rate celebs wherever I go. Then again, who doesn't accidently look like a B celeb sometime?
I have been seeing reality TV stars lately. I'm not 100% sure it was even them, but I figure the odds are good. This is NYC. Their reality shows took place here.

Coffee-ing for a little while. Or, the rest of the day. I do what my addiction asks.
Three cups today. Strong.

Glad Glen Hansard is keeping me company.
I love-love-love Pandora most of the time. Particularly when my mood and Pandora sync up. This typically happens when Glen makes an appearance.

Hong Kong in Heels

My feet hurt. I walk significantly shorter distances in Hong Kong so I convinced myself to torture my feet almost every day with heels. I am a flat shoe kind of girl. All sorts of cute shoes came into my life recently from scouring clearance racks and heels have taken over my shoe collection. Last night I was out for dinner and miscelaneous fun in LKF. The feet were fine at Azure on top of LKF Hotel. I got hit in the face with exhaustion while everyone danced around me. The EuroCup games take place at a rediculous hour in the Asian time zones. I woke up at 4am to catch the end of the Germany/Spain game that morning and was paying for it. The hour was almost completely unreasonable to wake up at, Germany played hard but lost the game and I was out late: all three of those factors felt obscene in my head at midnight. Had Germany won the game, I think I would have felt less tired! Ha! Anyway, we went across the street to a club and I almost went home at that point. But, W. grabbed me to have me at least get a stamp on my hand and then I could take off if I wanted to and still be able to come back. Well, with a stamp already on my hand and the Q. standing at coat check, I ended up in the club. It was the July 1 holiday the next day so we drank (straight from the bottle/service) and danced until the Queen and I escaped around 3am. We walked down the street to find an ATM and my feet were killing me. The slight wedge heel held up all day, but wasn't being friendly anymore. I think an apology is in order. I am sorry for torturing you- my feet- but you did look really cute.

Long time no blog. :)

I have been in India for the past few weeks- this is week 4 and a half and I really do like it here. It's not easy, but there is just something about this country that I just like and I can't shake it.

Since I landed, I have spent the majority of my time in two major cities, been in four minor auto accidents, visited the dentist once, worked more hours than I'd like to admit and have managed to almost forget to take my malaria pill every week.

Cities: Bangalore and Bombay. Completely different. It's the same idea as Minneapolis and NYC. Both are great, but different ideas about city culture. Bangalore seemed more 'close knit', or perhaps I just ran into all of the right people. My driver Mahesh (...sounds weird...'my driver'...he was the guy that drove me to work everyday...if you saw how people drove you'd understand why...) was super friendly and tried to teach me phrases in Kannada, told me about his brother and his new wife, and tried to show me what I should avoid. In Bombay, my driver seemed slimey...didn't show up on time and tried to lay guilt trips on me to get a tip. Bangalore is a good sized city, but there wasn't really too much to see. It's just a big city. I did manage to walk around and peek into shops without getting hassled by street vendors. Let me just say, I love that. I absolutely hate getting cat-called and hassled by street vendors. Here in Mumbai, when I took my first cab to work, I ended up paying double the fare. I also get hassled by every street vendor when I walk by because a 5'8" gal with short hair wearing western clothes tends to stick out. At the same time, there is just something about Mumbai that I can't get enough of. It's fast paced, brutally real and in your face. These are the same things I like about about NY. :)

Time to face reality. No one will necessarily speak about the reality of this city because its blatent enough not to. I pass through slums on my way to work. In NY, I will pass homeless people on the sidewalk, but entire communities living on the street is not something I encountered until I got here. It is one thing to think progressively and read about poverty, but it is quite another to sit in an airconditioned car with a driver holding my backpack with a laptop and a bottle of water inside of it and look out onto the street and see entire families sitting on the side of the road- sleeping, holding their babies and washing up.

I'll finish up this blog later. I need to get out onto the street for a while and away from my computer, which I've chained myself to for 12 to 14 hours a day since I landed.

I have been totally crazy/sleepless/confused/lost/lazy for the past few weeks. I would like to think it all started when I left for Malaysia, but it could just be my personality.

A. Before I left for Hong Kong and Malaysia, I had to pack up my desk because they were moving my entire group to the office downtown during the my trip. So, I ran around looking for boxes and making sure I remembered to bring everything I would need for my meetings.

B. Leaving for the airport became a bit of a pain in the ass due to the downpour that occured the moment I stepped out the door with my luggage. So, I dragged my luggage down the block trying to look pathetic enough for a cab to pick me up.

C. I landing in Hong Kong as well as Malaysia with no problems. But, during the week in Malaysia I can describe my schedule as attending meetings for 8 hours, doing some group activity and dinner for another five hours and then working in my hotel room for another couple of hours then taking a short nap until attending the next day's meetings.

D. Just before leaving Malaysia I managed to get an awful sunburn. Awful. I went on what I thought was going to be a short and meandering bike ride which ended up being around 30 kilometers on the side of a highway dodging stray cattle. It was an experience and I think I would do it again, but would have liked to have been more forewarned.

E. I landed back in Hong Kong without my luggage. It was lost somewhere in between Malaysia and Hong Kong. During this time one of the baggage handlers hit on my boss and gave me his phone number. No luggage for 2 days.

F. During my time in Hong Kong the bridge in Minneapolis collapsed and my apartment flooded. I luckily called home to find out that everyone I knew was fine. But, I did return to my apartment in a disaster state. My landlord did pull all of the flooring out and put in new linoleum (why? probably really cheap because who in their right mind installs linoleum anymore?). But, the apartment was still messy from furniture being moved and bits of carpet and dirt stuck to the floor and spread throughout the kitchen. I am still cleaning up after this!

G. Back to the sunburn. I had burned badly enough to start peeling. Major peeling. It looked like some sort of nuclear side effect. This plagued me on the plane ride home- I am sure the passenger next to me was hoping and praying he wouldn't catch my surely contagious skin disease. And, I ended up buying a new dress to wear to the wedding I attended soon there after. I had to buy something that would cover up as much of my skin as possible because it was pretty yuckie. I carried lotion in my purse for two weeks.

H. Job. Omg. I have been in job limbo for weeks. And, it looks like I will stay in this limbo for another few months. I am actually hoping for a job that does not yet exist. Until this job can be created, I am more or less SOL. Either that or I need to start hoping something else opens up.

Good things have happened as well; got to hang out at a beach resort in Malaysia and visited the bustling metropolis of Hong Kong, got to see friends, finally received my visa for India, working on project most people in my position wouldn't get to touch, did half of my laundry yesterday... So, things aren't by any means terrible.

This is what happens to watermelons when they go bad...

Actually, this watermelon behaved itself and we made it sit in the corner with a bottle of vodka. That's just how we roll.

I spent this past weekend out of the city (yay!) between the Hamptons and Montauk. A friend of a friend's parents have a house out there so a bunch of us went and crashed there for the weekend, which was loads of fun.

The funniest part of the weekend was when two classmates of one of the people showed up. No one else knew them at all while the rest of us were all sort of in 'six degrees of separation' from each other since social networks tend to web us together. Anyway, the two newbies to the group were weird. The gal was ok- just a bit quiet. But the guy was just uncouth and loud. He was the epitome of 'ugly american.' He complained about the food- which he didn't help cook. Then, he expected people to serve him and bring him things. Everyone ignored him and kept on eating and talking and when he brought it up again, someone basically said 'Well, I'd walk in the kitchen and find it if you want it.' At that point he got the blatent hint and walked into the kitchen to get ketchup himself.

The rest of the weekend was halarious and I am more on the tan side of skin tone instead of translucent. :-)

Around the world...without the fun Daft Punk beat.

I may be going on a business trip. And, perhaps I won't. I've got about as much information on this as anyone does. The only thing that I do know is that I will be spending 41 hours on an airplane within a two week period. If we make it a three or four week period, you can add 3 to 5 more hours to that total. This number seems quite large since I get bored really easily. Even on my last flight out to California, I watched a marathon of Footballers Wives and still flipped through to the other channels just to see if there was anything else on. During all of this, I also had a freshly stocked iPod, two new magazines, a book and my laptop. What would I do with 40 hours of being stuck on a plane?

If I do indeed go, I can only hope and pray to sleep for 20 of those hours. That leaves me 20 or so hours. A couple of movies I guess? Maybe a few magazines as well? It might be high time to actually use the Korean book and cds and see if I can learn something. All in all, we'll see.

I think I am about as excited to go as I am not to go. Is that possible?

Lately, I have felt like I've been a step behind. I will concentrate on a couple of things and somehow everything else on my plate goes completely wrong. And, if I try to keep an eye on everything, I just end up going back to do things over again because they weren't quite right the first time around.

I wonder what it would take for me to pick up and move to Berlin? I was talking to M. last night about how my memories of Berlin are made up of certain people and places there. But, at the same time, I am not completely tied to those people and memories. For some reason, I believe it would be just as new, fun and exciting if I went there now and had some new experiences. I can dream, can't I?

There aren't enough hours in the day and I can't get my mind off of that. If I try harder, will things fall into place for me-a bit? I feel like I just need a break- either someone needs to cut me some slack or I need an actual break away from things so I can start again and see how far I can run with it all.

On another note, I started going to the gym about a month ago. No huge changes, but I can say that I am feeling a bit better, overall. More balanced? And, my clothes still fit. Haha! That's a real indicator. Really, I am feeling just a bit less self conscious...or perhaps just as self conscious and not as negative? Or, maybe it's because my clothes fit and I don't have to worry about shopping-spending money-worrying about spending money-etc. :-)

Still working out my plans for the next few months, that being travel for work and traveling home. I can't believe it's already June and I am planning my time up through October already. It's as if the summer is already gone and it just got here.

Report card time... I haven't written in a while and a quarter of this year is already behind me. In terms of my New Year's resolutions, I am not doing terribly well. Reading is ok. Exercising failed for most of the first quarter of the year, but I have forced myself to go for a run twice this week. However, my exercise doesn't nearly compete with the huge amounts of indulgent foods I have consumed in the past two weeks. Correspondence with friends? Not terribly good. Learning korean? Also not good. But, I did send an email today inquiring about a beginners class. Travel...I was in Arizona for a conference, that's it. So, the travel category is also not doing terribly well. I will have to give myself a solid C for my performance this quarter.

Hopefully I can do better next quarter!

I do wonder if it just my lifestyle here in NY. It is just not as conducive to my better habits. It is just so much easier for me to fall back into bad habits. I have learned there is a price for convenience in this city. Most of the time it is things like $10 sandwiches and $5 coffee. However, my lifestyle has lent itself to convenience and I am paying with long hours at the office, eating unhealthy food and not exercising. I need to stop this.

My keyboard is set to German.

At first, I did it to be quirky. But, it turned out to be a really convenient quirky setting. I use the German letters such as ä or ü far more often than I thought. There is one drawback though. I can´t seem to figure out where the 'at' symbol is. So everytime I need to use the at symbol, I switch the keyboard language back to English, make the at symbol and then switch the keyboard to German again. I figure it is a small price to pay for quirkiness.

I talked to my boss last week for the first time in months and I think I like us being in contact. Up until last week I enjoyed knowing that I had a boss, but that it never got in my way. Some people see their bosses almost everyday and that was never really necessary for me. But, I do find it really interesting to talk to her once a week now. Unfortunately, she asked me to think about what I want to do (when I grow up). This is the same question that gets thrown around at work functions, mostly because no one else knows what they want to be either. I can´t just answer 'I don't know...uh...ballerina?' A. I have no aptitude for it. B. I don't want to be one. So, Ì am going to try and come up with some tentative ideas before our next meeting and see if they can be grown into a job. Basically the point of doing my job is to put myself out of a job. Funny, right? But, it´s true. The better and quicker I can work on my projects, the faster I put myself out of a job. It has been the point of the job since I started and the reason for me to stay on my toes and shoot for the next assignment because if I set myself up correctly and play my cards right, I can do whatever I want.

On a completely different note, I might try to make bread today.´ We'll see if I make it out of the house, to the grocery store and back to my house again. Oh distraction...it always happens.

I am currently reading Not so funny when it happened. The book is unfortunately not so funny now, after it all happened. It´s a book of random travel stories, but even I have some funnier travel stories. Meh, what can you do?

Ich druck immer meine Daumen darauf.

I have been feeling a real pull to travel, lately. I talked to a friend of mine in Germany a few days ago and I feel like I am a world away from everything there. It´s as if I have been ´away from home´ and I have to work to keep up to date. I do not understand how I can be homesick for a place that I didn´t grow up in, and yet wish I could be there all the time.

I started subscribing to podcasts of the news in DE so I can at least hear German on my train rides to and from work. I feel it is an improvement from not hearing German at all. And, the woman I talked to about German classes on the Upper West Side never sent me the brochure and registeration like she said she would. Work has been a bit crazy, though. So, I don´t know if I would have made it anyway.

In relation to my New Years Resolutions I´ve got this podcast thing going, and I am reading Harry Potter auf Deutsch. I don´t know if I can read it fast enough or if I´ll even finish. But, it made it´s way into the competitors circle so I´ll see how it goes.

Back to work, my co-worker who just left had to do an exit interview before she was officially done. And, she told me I needed to watch it because the HR lady told her that 10 out of the 10 people she interviewed that day all said that they did not have a life-work balance there. I can totally see how that can happen. I live it. But, moreover in NY I´ve noticed I hang out with my co-workers here more than I have anywhere with any job I´ve had. Even as an intern, I was able to get all of the interns together once to go out for drinks and that was it. Once. So at least in NY, we get all up in each others´ personal lives and work invades life and life invades work. At the same time, I really like what I do and I never thought I would ever be able to say that. I am really luck to do what I am doing and I think every once in a while how I really got a lucky break. The timing was right, the job turned out to be fantastic and I get to meet and work with some of the most facinating people around the world. At the same time, when will the luck run out? At any rate, I am going to ride this luck as long as I can and see where it takes me.

I am getting old and I don´t travel enough. That is the quick and dirty. If you don´t have time to read the rest of this post, you more or less know the whole story with my first sentence. If not, keep reading.

I am getting old. For the past few months, I always thought I caught a glimpse of a random white hair when looking in the mirror, but could never find it when I tried to investigate it closer. Well, this weekend I found multiple white hairs. I am old! I made various promises to myself over the past few days- to eat better and organic food when I can...to drink more water...to sleep more...to do yoga regularly. I am hoping this little concotion of life altering methods will help curb or at least postpone my white hair. But moreover, the white hair is simply an indicator of my stressful and work-focused life.

After meeting A. a couple weeks ago, my aspirations in Germany started to creep up on me again. I have started thinking about grad school, timing and locations in Germany as well as what I want to be doing in 10 years. Overall, I have come to no conclusions. That is to say, I want to live in Germany again. I constantly fear my German skills are slipping, but I don´t have any sort of advanced skills in my job which would help propel me in any sort of direction if I went there. So, grad school would definately be a consideration since it would give me a visa to go and stay there as well as a purpose and degree for being there. But again, no real direction as to what I would study. I´ll consider all of this for the next few years.

That all sort of leads into my not traveling much. I do little bits of traveling here and there, but I haven´t been on an adventure in a while. Like a real proper adventure where I hop on a plane or train, end up somewhere and wander. The world is too big for me to stay in one place. I need to move. I thought about going back to Germany for a couple of weeks. Perhaps, I´ll consider that. We´ll see where the year takes me.

Hannover

One of my co-workers, M., had two of her German friends in town last week and I managed to hijack them shortly after finding out about them. Last Monday she mentioned how they where in town, so I met them as she was leaving the office. On Tuesday morning I asked her if we could hang out and her response? ´That would be great! I don´t want to hang out with them!´ Um...what? Turns out she had a cold, was really tired and just didn´t feel much like going out. Plus, she didn´t actually know these guy very well. They happened to be friend of friends of hers. So, I gave her my number to pass onto the boys and we arranged to meet on Wednesday after work.

We meet and I received the standard question of how and why I speak German. For me, I feel as this is the one story I have told more times than any other story about myself. I went through an entire year´s worth of this question while I was in Germany, in addition to starting my job and working with the German team who were also suprised I knew German. So, I explained the story in short and we hit up a bar. It was really funny to talk to them because this was their first time in NY and in the US, so their observations were funny. We met up with some of my other co-workers, so we were speaking in English with them, but every once in a while A. would stumble on a word and I was able to translate it. (It is almost always the other way around! I felt über-proud of myself!) We then hit up another bar down the street, and this being a Wednesday night, we left by 2am. Girl has got to work in the morning, right?

We made plans to meet the following night around 9 or so in Midtown, and we hung out at an Irish pub, again with many of my co-workers. So, by the end of the night, a few of the Mädels here were convinced that German guys are fantastic. But, it was a fun two nights for me because I was able to speak German whenever we weren´t talking to my co-workers...or I was able to translate when we ran into hang-ups.

The whole thing made me completely homesick for Germany, though. Every once in a while I will just feel like I am missing something. Sometimes a bit of schnitzel and german music will cure it. Other times, I just have to wonder when I´ll go back next.