Yes, I’m still here. I just haven’t got enough time to blog a lot lately.
But I will be back. Soon. Promise.
All our money goes to IKEA lately. A lot of money. A lot of time, too. So it’s a good thing I can at least get a blog entry out of it.
Thought 1: Will we go to the special kind of hell you go to for ignoring the IKEA instructions? Somehow they didn’t make sense to us, so in the end we did it differently and since nothing has fallen apart yet, we might get away with it. Although, if there’s that special kind of hell, we might pay for it in the end.
Thought 2: Do students of Scandinavian Studies go to IKEA to nick some books? Because even I thought about it and I don’t even speak Swedish. It’s so damn tempting and I doubt anyone would notice.
Okay, not the greatest thoughts I ever had, but considering I spent half of my day at work and the other half choosing, buying and assembling furniture, it’s actually pretty good. They don’t take credit cards at IKEA here, by the way. See, this is what I mean when I’m calling this a third-world country.
In case you were wondering: Yes, the husband is fine. As Kjersti confirmed, men do have the tendency to get lost in whatever they are doing, so that it takes them about twice as long as it would take under normal circumstances and naturally they always leave their cellphones at home, so the women can worry. Thankyouverymuch.
My whole week of vacation evaporated into a great nothingness. I don’t know where it went. I can’t believe it’s over yet. Where did it go? Why was it so short? What did I do? Why is it already Saturday tomorrow?
I can’t say. I haven’t even finished Kafka on the Shore, but I did get three new books, so at least I have a pile of book now and don’t have to worry about new book orders in the near future.
But, actually I know where the week went to. It went to cleaning the apartment, a trip to IKEA included, new furniture (mostly storage space), old things put on ebay for sale, sorting all my papers and finding out that I have even more money saved than I thought I had (I like when that happens). It went to my cousin’s birthday and configuring my aunt’s router so she can go online again. It went to leaving one highway because of a traffic jam just to be stuck in a much much worse traffic jam on the other highway. It went to throwing stacks of old magazines out, but that was part of the cleaning things. I just thought I’d mention it. It also went to a whole day in Cologne where I couldn’t decide on any bed linen or table cloth and I wore new and terribly uncomfortable tights, so I was so exhausted after my first trip to the changing room that I just gave up instead of giving it another try. So all my spending-money-like-crazy-plans were subtly changed into buy-marshmallows-and-orange-juice-plans. I didn’t even buy the fancy book on translating and the toy-store disappointed me by its new and surprisingly small collection of boardgames I do not care for.
Also, parking is so damn expensive, we should have come by train.
BUT, the apartment is very tidy and clean now. I love our new furniture, love that we have new storage space and putting the dishes in the living room might actually have been a really good idea.
This is the news. I’m tired and I have only watched eight episodes of Gilmore Girls so far. What’s wrong with that? Oh yeah, the cleaning. I forgot. Oh no, I didn’t. Too much evidence around me.
There’s only so much time that can pass, before I start worrying why my husband isn’t back from that errand he went out to run. Naturally he always leaves his cell at home, so I can’t even call him to ask what the hell he is doing so long.
I hate waiting like that. So in about three seconds I will start to imagine all the terrible things that can happen when one is out to buy new trashbags. I bet my imagination won’t disappoint me there.
Here’s the cake. I’m glad that it didn’t just collapse. The middle layer was our main worry, but it we managed to get it to my cousin’s in one piece – better even: in three pieces.
I must admit I am a bit proud (although my mom did most of the work, I was just her obedient little helper).
My mother is going to be here soon, so she can take me to my parents‘ place and we can bake a three-layer cake for my cousin’s 18th birthday.
Because we are damn nice people. And caring. Really really caring.
It obviously takes very little to make me feel good about myself. Tragically it’s the same in the opposite direction.
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
Come on, you do trust me, don’t you?
I really don’t know what else to write other that I love music. Especially when it’s really good.
Today we exchanged a dinner and helping my aunt with her computer for my aunt doing our taxes. I think this is how the world should work.
It figures that right on the Sunday before my week off I get a call and have to come in to work five hours. It was really necessary, so I won’t complain and it wasn’t that bad. Especially since I don’t have to work tomorrow in which case I would have been really pissed.
I still have to do one little thing tomorrow and then I can relax. Or try to relax. Or whatever. It should involve sleeping in, watching TV and pasta salad. My expectations are pretty low when it comes to vacation. I have a stack of books, a stack of DVDs, a list of things to do (mostly fun things), and all in all that makes me a happy girl.
Today I realized once more that I’m incredibly good at seeing the bright side. When I got the call from work I was actually thinking that now I would at least be able to get the documents I need for our taxes that were still in my desk at work. Also, I got to drive and listen to Rilo Kiley in the car. And now I don’t feel so bad for having a week off, because I worked on Sunday. Which is the stupidest thing ever to think, because why should I feel bad when I take a week of vacation? My contract says I get six weeks of vacation plus the four days still left over from last year, so why the freaking hell should I feel bad for taking them?
I have a strange work moral. I should get off it.
So this is the first day of my week off. Actually it’s the Saturday before the first day of my week off, but anyhow… I won’t have to go back to work next Monday.
A great way to start my vacation would be if the postman would ring and bring me Gilmore Girls season five and the first season of Battlestar Galactica 2003. That would really be cool.
Wait, there was a postman today and he did bring me a package full of TV show heaven. I’m not dreaming! For once my wish was granted and I can now enjoy my vacation to its fullest extent. (Naturally I called Andreas right away to tell him this fantastic news.)
Plus, my parents are back and I just came home from seeing them at my grandfather’s, after getting my books from the post office and some grocery shopping. My cousin’s 18th birthday is on Wednesday and my mother agreed to buy a DVD-Player together. What household is this that has no DVD-Player?
