Who's got the funk? Does being in a funk count?

Oh my poor neglected blog!

Terrible how busy I've been.

All the things I listed off in my last post (months and months ago, I know) have served to keep me effectively distracted with all kinds of whatnot.

This weekend is the Berlin half marathon--which I won't be running this year, although I signed up. The winter was essentially one cold after another for me and my doctor advised me not to train with any kind of upper respiratory funk. So I didn't. Which meant I didn't wind up doing too much training. The Schatz is planning on running, I think he'll pull of a much better time than last year. It was hard for me to admit that I wasn't going to make it, but the amount of junk on my plate at the moment means that every day that isn't a war of attrition is an exercise in prioritizing. So whatever. There are other years and other races.

My Facharbeit is due Tuesday--I've got it done, now there's really only the fine-tuning left. It's been so long since I've actually had to organize a paper over ten pages that my structure is kind of junk. Got to work on that. I'm not that proud of it...despite the topic being near and dear to my heart. Time and resources didn't allow me to make it what I really wanted it to be, but perfection is the enemy of done. And I really do want to be done.

After that, there's the defense of the paper--in about a month, and then two exams in mid-May. If everything goes according to hoyle, I won't need to have oral exams and I'll be done. I've submitted a round of planning for the rest of 2011 and 2012 at the adult education center where I do some freelancing...we'll see how that works, not knowing any details of my potential university schedule.

Work at the moment is a battle. Right now we've got a decent amount of staff (two precious interns both born in the 90's, one of whom is forever in my good book for complimenting my make up) so it shouldn't be that stressful, but somehow it is. It seems like I'm throwing my energy into a bottompless pit every day. When I'm not there, I'm thinking about how to solve problems we have, how to deal with difficult parents, coworkers, etc. I love the kids--they are really everything, but it really is time for me to be done with this job, before I drop dead of exhaustion. I hardly have energy to hang out with friends--the Schatz has to drag me out and persuade me to have people over, both of which are unheard of circumstances. I'm hopefully that it'll have an end soon enough, though. Keep your fingers crossed that I hear something from one of the universities soon (it probably won't be until July, realistically speaking). Le sigh.

The good news in this dreariest quagmire of work and stress is that spring has finally sprung in Berlin. I love springtime in this city--the buds on the trees are ready to burst open with those first pale leaves and the days are getting so lovely and long. It does really make life at this latitude worthwhile. I'm counting on the sunlight and steadily increasing temperatures to get me through my exam prep and these last few months of work. I've started counting down the days...

I feel kind of terrible that I've not posted in so long and then when I finally do, it's just full of ennui. Life isn't all terrible--we were in Switzerland at the end of February and it was delightful. We're getting a return visit in mid-June which I'm looking very forward to. We'll also be headed back to the Harz for Easter with the Schatz's grandparents. I already had to give his grandfather our estimated arrival time so that he could start his menu planning. I think I'm going to start fasting now.

I'd like to be able to say with some certainty that my next post won't be so long in coming, but until I'm done with this certification nonsense, I can't promise anything.

I hope everyone's well.

Zürich is rainy and other thoughts

Hello lovelies.

Greetings from once-sunny now soaking-wet Zürich.

Normally I don't have too many problems with the weather. This Summer has been quite nice...some heat wave, low humidity, a bit of rain...but the thing is, I'm living out of a suitcase and I have been for the past 2 weeks. Due to ridiculous weight limits for inter-euro flights, I was only allowed a paltry 20 kg of luggage. This left no room for multiple cardigans or rain boots. Hell, the only close-toed shoes I have with me are my running shoes! Long pants are also underrepresented. This has to do of course with the weather while I was packing. The foreseeable future looked like HEAT WAVE.

Oh well.

While visiting the Kunsthaus yesterday (GREAT collection folks. Really. And Wednesdays are free entry. Go if you're here.) I got stuck in the rain. In leggings and birkenstocks. I was wearing a windbreaker which got the worst of it, but generally a weather-appropriate clothing FAIL. I therefore announced yesterday that should the weather again be so miserable, I would refuse to leave the house. So I'm here. Doing laundry, watching old school disney flicks and waiting for the DHL man to bring me my latest Politkovskaya book (side note: I love that woman.).

All in all, not a bad way to spend a day of vacation. The Schatz is worried that I'll be bored and cranky, but I tried to persuade him he's got nothing to worry about...unless the DHL man does not bring my book. In which case I will not be bored, just cranky.

But let me tell you a bit about Zürich.


I know I already posted an overview of the city, but now I've seen some more things, taken some better photos and generally been here a bit longer. So I feel like another post is in order. I might not have done the old girl justice before.

So. Zürich is not really that exciting. It is beautiful, clean and full of great luxury shopping if that's your thing. If you don't mind paying substantially more than you would elsewhere, Zürich is the place for you. However, being as I am, a fan of alternative funk, I'd been searching in vain since my first visit, trying to find at least a single street with a few funky hip stores doing cool things. All leads I thought I had turned out to be funky fata morganas, and I was getting discouraged. Lord knows I'd really racked up the kilometers traipsing through Zürich and searching. Finally I stumbled across a website of an exberlinerIn living in Züri and though she listed mostly things that were not anywhere off the beaten path, she mentioned a store called EINZIGART. (einzigart.ch) in the Josefstraße in Zürich. I put in on my list and did my daily wanderings which included the Haus Konstruktiv (very very cool: hauskonstruktiv.ch) and a loooong walk through Zürich's "red light district" (rather tame if you don't count the occasional junky and the ageing prostitutes). By the time I got to the Josefstr. I couldn't even remember why I wanted to be there. And I walked down the wrong end of it first--lots of neat restaurants and a lot of indian folk but no cool stores. So I walked down the more boring looking side and PRESTO, a la peanut butter sandwiches, I see the SHUALA concept store. I couldn't really believe my eyes, I went in and had a wander. It's one of those stores that's a dime-a-dozen in Berlin (spoiled, I know) featuring handmade stuff from various european grass-roots designers. (shuala.com) It's cool, but vasssstly overpriced. I bought a bag just to convince myself this wasn't another hipness mirage. I continued my meanderings and found all kinds of neat stuff, including said EinzigArt store (really, really neat stuff there folks.) and another store called something like Liliputans...it was full of the most unholy kitsch you have EVER seen. We're talking everything available in red-white polka dots, plastic flowers and childrens toys in shades of bright my eyes weren't used to. Di-vine.

I recommend walking the street from Langstraße to its end (Hafnerstr.) which is also a treat. Just around the corner is a store that blew my mind...Garten Eden, full of antiques, the odd plant and really great glassware. In the Hafnerstr. itself there are a few hip-seeming clothing stores, which I didn't bother checking out...they looked cool enough.

I can't tell you all what a relief this was to me. I felt quite guilty passing this city off as lametoast...turns out there are a few highlights after all.

The whole waterfront thing tickles me. Not the Züri See...it's nice but often very crowded with cosmetically augmented older women (botoxed face+bleached blonde extensions+silcone rack+short shorts with jiggly chicken legs = unaesthetic, sorry. I don't usually bodysnark, but if you are that gungho with the plastic surgery you kind of invite it.). I'm talking about the Limmat. It feeds into the Züri See along with the Sihl and if you walk upriver, you encounter some nice places to swim, grab a coffee and just enjoy the day. Unfortunately, due to all the rain, some have had to close. The river is getting a tad full.

There was also the Swiss Ironman here last weekend and this Sunday is apparently some kind of national holiday (hence, I believe, all the flag-action in the photos) involving fireworks. I'm almost sad to be flying out on that day.


But only almost. Really, I miss Berlin and my apartment and my friends and using the smart functions on my smartphone. Vacation is cool and all, but I kinda want to go home now.

Good Afternoon!*

(Aren't these pretty?)

Hello, folks.

I'm not entirely sure this is in fact, a good afternoon...but I am determined to make it positive and not just productive (yes, it is a quarter past three European Central Time and I am FINISHED with my planning for the week. Normally I think about STARTING at this time. Ole!). So productive I have been.

Just not so positive. Despite a prettypretty princess bath and a chat with my Dearest. Perhaps it's the weather. Friday was so lovely and then Saturday and Sunday were so nondescript. Not warm, not cold, not sunny, not entirely cloudy...just terribly bland.

Perhaps it is also bland in regard to the last few days. I've been flitting all over tarnation, discovering delicious whatnots like Piadine (combines börek--a sort of turkish crepe usually filled with spinach and cheese or a ground meat mixutre only crispy and with FRESH italian fillings--procutto, arugula, fantastic cheeses) neat little shops full of neat little things, catching up with friends and just generally enjoying my lovely little pants off. I suppose that a Just Work Sunday is a bit of a let down.

Good, so now I've figured out where my general funk is coming from.

What about the other great mysteries of my life?

For example, why is there so much subtle residual glitter around here? I don't strike myself as the glittery type (unless of course there's a glitter epidemic at work. These things do happen. There will be a period of a few weeks where everything MUST GLITTER. Then of course, I'm covered in the damn stuff and it doesn't scrub off well, I can tell you.). For some reason, however, the back of my relatively new phone has a distinctly glittery sheen to it and when I washed the mattress pads and duvets, the next things to come out of my washing machine also had a sublte glittery sheen. Do I sweat glitter? I know I have a rouge that sort of shimmers...but I apply that to my FACE and not my ENTIRE APARTMENT. My lotions do not glitter and I have one body powder that does. Which I don't often use, due to the fact that body powder is kind of tricky to apply. The bathmat usually winds up looking like some kind of glittery drug explosion just happened...

So this is my question to you, folks. Where doth this glitter come from? And why?

This is what I think about instead of plotting my next career move. Or dreading my next career move. I don't dread going back to school. I'm all for it. It was my idea. I feel baldy for the people I'm going to be hurting/leaving behind. Which then leads me to contemplate the idea of living your life for other people. I think there's a difference between being selfless and loving and really basing every major decision in your life on someone else. I know, I've been doing one and attempting the other. I'll leave it to you, fair readers, to figure out which is what. Be that as it may, I know I have to move on and do Something Else with my Life. I even have an idea as to what that Something Else could be. At least a vague one. At the moment, it's a question of bureaucracy and finances. Two great loves of mine. Just kidding. You'd be hard pressed to find two things I dislike more. I also know it's time for me to (wo)man up and take care of the uncomfortable business in my life myself. Without diversions or excuses.

Ugh.

It's just that I hate uncomfortable business. We're talking about people who have trusted in me, given me responsibility and money and who are counting on me. And I don't think they're going to see it coming. I just want to do the Right Thing...that is of course, without having to work there for the rest of my professional life.

Anyway. Enough of that.

I feel like I've been so productive today that I MUST be forgetting something. It's just not possible that all of my planning and printing is already done, school work included. I keep thinking of other things I might maybe have to do...and I can't come up with anything, other than to call my parents (but not until 6pm CET) and clean the apartment--and if there's anything else to be done, I'd rather do that first.

*think think*

*think think*

I can't think of a thing.

However, I did have a perfect Eiskaffee yesterday (coffee with vanilla ice cream and in this case, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and sprinkles) and my friend Carina had the perfect little strawberry ice cream mini sundae. And there are pictures.

*I am almost certain that I've already shared the anecdote of my maternal grandfather always saying "GOOD AFTERNOON!" in a resounding voice whenever we woke up after spending the night there. He was always up first, even when we were little and treated 8am as if it were 2pm. Whenever someone says "Good Afternoon" to me in a pleasant, normal voice, I think of my grandfather trumpeting this greeting throughout the entire house.

In that same spirit,

GOOD AFTERNOON!

Enjoy the last vestiges of weekend, lovelies.