Under Construction

As is symbolic of many things in my life, my apartment is constantly 'under construction.' I'm normally trying to find ways to improve it somehow.

I recently embarked on three goals for my apartment.
1. Plants. Vital to winter depression avoidance strategy
2. A window shade for my bedroom window. Help keep the cold out and for obvious additional privacy.
3. A shower curtain for a makeshift shower in my bath tub.

I've completed one out of three. I am hopeless when it comes to a drill. Instead of being able to get my shades installed, I only managed to drill three holes into the wall before giving up. Of course the holes already there (far left) are from the previous owner who didn't manage to leave his shades(el cheapo). Why didn't I inherit my father's technical sense? Any of it?

I present Exhibit A:What I managed to have much more success with was my selection of plants. Perhaps I inherited Dad's green thumb. One of the few stores open on a Sunday in Germany, I had a very enjoyable plant shopping experience. I also accepted the challenge of trying to raise an African Violet. They're temperamental and hard to grow. Otherwise, I am very happy with my plants. I hope they grow and that I don't kill them!

I present Exhibit B:

Oh, and this so happens to be my 100th post. Yay me!

Sleepless in Aachen

I'm convinced that sleep deprivation is honestly one of the worst things that a human can experience. Ever. I just tried for six straight hours to sleep to absolutely no avail.

Even after working an exhausting ten hours and stressing all day about my rental car situation, I still wasn't able to drift into the sweet lullabies of slumber. I hate that. Now, I have to drive an 90 minutes to the airport to pick up my family. I'm so excited to see them but my lack of sleep isn't helping my mood.

Oh, and Sarah Palin...really $150,000 on clothes? What 'hockey mom' has that much ice to throw around? Doesn't she take pride at shopping at that devil of a store Wal-Mart? Sigh.

I hate politics.

SNL

I may not like Sarah Palin, but I have to give her credit, she went on Saturday Night Live. That is never an easy thing to do for anyone, but she was clever enough to keep up with the satirical scenes that I saw anyway.

You can watch the "Palin Rap" and other SNL sketches with Tina Fey (my new hero) here.

Traveling Enough....

I'm not traveling enough. That would require money, time and an idea where to go.

I of course want to see the large cities of the world, dive head first into awkward but promising cultural lessons. However, I have a strong desire to go see the fine points of nature around the world. I've never been to the Grand Canyon, never really been on top of a mountain, things like this. I want to go to New Zealand and watch the sun set on the farthest outpost of the world. I want to eat food from a Taiwanese street vendor and climb down from the hills of Dubrovnik and descend into the city perched on the Aegean Sea.

So much to do, so little time and money. I need a job with lots of vacation time. Better yet, be paid to travel the world then write a book or articles about the experiences. Keep dreaming, Christopher.

The Morning Dew

It is obvious that the cold, crisp and painfully beautiful sunrises of autumn have begun their daily ascent. Like a brick in the face, a chill has settled into my apartment only chased out by the comfortable warmth of my wall radiator. However, to keep my gas bills low and keep more money out of Putin's pockets (something ridiculous like 60% of Germany's natural gas comes from Russia, ugh) I don't keep my heat on in the evening. That means the polar bears need to wear their ice skates for the first 25 minutes or so. Afterwards, it at least becomes reasonable.

The leaves of the trees that line my street have been raining down in a colorful array of gold, brown, green, maroon and other beautiful autumn hues. It is a delight to watch them flutter to the earth but not a delight to try to walk on the sidewalks or pick out leaves from my car every morning. I fear that in three weeks all of the leaves will be gone leaving me with a barren wasteland of dead trees to look out at from my window on a daily basis. This Sunday I am going indoor plant shopping. This is an important facet of my 'fight winter depression' strategy this year. He or She will sit lovingly in a warm, sunlight prone corner of my apartment and I will do my best to care for my green friend. It is suggested that you should talk to your plants. I don't believe this will be a problem for me as I talk to myself already. Might as well seem like I'm doing it in the name of plant growth.

The impending visit of my family from the States to Germany is now in death mode. Think flight of the bumble bee. So much to be done in so little time. Friday is schedule day so we will see how much work I have to accomplish before Thursday morning. Next Saturday we head out west to London via the Chunnel (Eurostar). We have arrangement and a general idea of the sort of thing we'd like to do in London. I still have no idea what we will do the following week. A trip down to the Mosel is always enjoyable. I really don't want to spend so much time in Aachen. At the same time, this is also my vacation time. I figure we'll see different cities. Rental cars are already ordered, must figure out this weekend what to do.

TO DO

1. Install final window shades, shower curtain.
   
2. Sweep, Mop final touches (Tuesday/Wednesday)
3. Finishing touches on London trip. Prepare for after London Germany trip.
4. Inform gym of two week break.
   
5. There should be something here, but it's eight in the morning.

Gotta run. The Germans want to learn English and I shall answer their call.

And thus I declare my 2008 political dedication...

It's not like I'm some crazy BO fan or anything like that. I have my reservations regarding the aforementioned candidate for the 2008 US Presidency but I also believe that his competition is about as competent as a limp noodle. My candidates foreign policy could use some fine polishing but until I run for office 2020, there really isn't much I can do about that. Besides, the thought of Sarah Palin (aka COW) being a heartbeat away from the Presidency makes me want to vomit, profusely. Eight years of piss poor leadership, out of control government spending and international embarrassment have done nothing for us. I'm not interested in another four. Therefore.....

See latest stories on Yahoo! News

I'll probably piss off some people, but hey, it's my blog, my vote and my very educated opinion.

Patriotic duty for 2008....check

In what can only be described as ridiculous, I've paid eight euros in total to exercise my right to vote. Four euros to send the postcard to request the absentee ballot and four euros to post that baby back to the States. Either way, my patriotic duty is complete. I protected democracy by voting in the 2008 Presidential Election and other races for the Great State of Ohio. To the credit of Dayton area election officials, I received my ballot in less than ten days after sending the request form. Amazing really.

I did my research before simply voting. I researched the platform of every presidential candidate, state senator and city councilmen to the best of my ability. I even researched the platforms for Green, Socialist and the 'Constitution' parties. Honestly, there are some freaks out there (read: Constitution Party). Either way, my vote was cast today as I sent back my ballot (it weighed 80 grams!!!). I'm a good citizen.

Dresden was amazing. I love that city. The Altstadt, Neustadt and crossing the Elbe to go back and forth. It helps that I have many friends still there as well. It was tough coming back to Aachen. I'm going to try and make it out to Dresden more often. Its totally worth it. However, first, certain people from Dresden have to come here. Work is busy busy busy. I've got 44 hours of teaching time this week, not including Saturday (thank God). Next week I'm not accepting so many hours, escpecially if they're going to make me teach on Saturday.

I have so many thoughts on the election, economy and world news that I'd like to write about but I simply do not have the time. I need to be preparing for classes this week, the GRE, the Foreign Service Exam (pushing back till February...again!) and the German certificate exam that I want to take. I need to clean as a dirty bomb was set off in my apartment. There is crap everywhere.

In other news, I began reading The Art of Travel by Allain de Botton, a British author. The book was a birthday gfit from my Mom and I'm loving it so far. I need to write some book reviews on some of the other books I've read recently.

I want to start my own library.

Dresden!

In Dresden through Sunday baby!

I love that city. So excited to see so many great people and I need the break from Aachen.

Florence on the Elbe, here I come!