It's the right time of the year for gettin' philosophical

[In case you hadn't noticed, most of my titles are plays on lyrics to songs from decades ago.]

It is pretty sad that the only time I write anything here these days is when I feel overwhelmed.  To be honest, my only problem is that I have a bunch of half-finished projects preying on my mind, and a bit of post-holiday mess in my house. Plus we have gone mostly vegetarian, but I worry about our nutritional intake, so that is on my mind. And I would like to plant a garden this year, and planning for that is on my mind. There's only so much mind to go around!

Interestingly, work is not on my mind. I don't think I even mentioned work before meeting up with some friends at their New Year's party, and I've only dreamt about it once or twice since Xmas Eve. I am so happy to finally be able to lay my work down when I am not in the office. I wasn't able to do that when I was freelancing.

That being said, there are a lot of changes coming up at work, what with a colleague taking an extended leave and a new person coming on board, plus moving to a new building, and a bunch of deadlines. The only thing I can do is to take it one day at a time.

I remembered that Germans wish every. single. person. they meet after January 1st a Happy New Year, so I may have to carry around a notepad for the next week to keep track of who I've already met with. Between that and remembering who you say Sie to vs. Du, I don't know how Germans keep it straight.

Nee in Germany needs to rev her brain back up

Stupid train, makin' me late

For want of anything else to do since I finished my book and all my friends and relations are unavailable for texting, being either fast asleep thousands of miles away or teaching, I guess I will post an update.

You wouldn't think you could be at a job for 5 months and still be confused 2 out of 5 days each week, but that is the situation I have found myself in. Just when I think I've understood something, I find out it is going to be changed, or dropped, or that it only applies in special cases, none of which apply to us. Even more strange, everyone--including my boss--assures me that this is standard operating procedure at our company. She has even commented on how quickly I seem to be picking things up. (Insert ridiculous astonished emoji.)

Hannah finished her training program and promptly tossed every piece of paper related to it except for her diploma in the garbage. Now she is applying to go college in the fall.

I recently learned there is an American expat group at my company, so I went and had lunch with them yesterday. There was some talk about politics, but I managed to avoid a lot of it. The news the last couple of days has been making my heart race and bringing tears to my eyes, so I am not ready to delve into it just yet, especially with people I just met.

The lack of rain is starting to piss me off. I am not organized enough at the moment to ensure that my new plants are getting watered, and John has kindly been watering them for me when he can, and only slightly snarkily telling me about it. Now we've had two days of likely looking clouds turning out to be lies, and I catch myself cursing and muttering under my breath while walking outside, daring it to rain.

Nee in Germany feels like a nut, but not a coconut, because that shit is gross

Tootling along

I really am amazed at the speed of the postal service here. I dropped an application for a job ticket for the train in the mailbox on Monday for pickup after 4 p.m., and I had the ticket in my hand when the mail was delivered before 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

Once I had the ticket, I decided to go back and double check the bus routes and times from the train station to my new job. Turns out, I won't have to ride my bike. There is basically a shuttle to and from the train station to the job site. So that is one less thing I have to worry about before Day 1.

Yesterday I went to meet my author, but he hadn't made as much headway with the manuscript as hoped, so I came home early and painted two windowframes. Even with the set-backs of his tardiness and the time needed for the oil paint to dry, I should have both of those projects done before starting my job.

Today I went and got my hair cut. The last time I went was right before my job interview in November, and the stylist remembered me and my self-inflicted bangs. John wasn't happy that I'd decided to stick with the shorter (not short!) hair style, but I'm the one who has to deal with it.

Now to see if I can find that knitting pattern I was looking at last night. I have some acryl+mohair yarn a friend gave me, and 4 balls have gone into a thick, giant scarf, but I still have 3 balls left.

--Nee in Germany needs to keep busy

Hand-flapping, ahoy!

I'm steadily closing in on the start date for my new job, and I am trying not to freak out. When I freak out, I start to hyperfocus on logistics, so I am now planning out my daily commute. If we still lived in Heidelberg, it would be a straight shot to my new place of employment, but now I will have to take the train to Heidelberg and switch trains. I plan to keep a bike at the train station since my job site is not that close and the bus does not appear to run in conjunction with the train schedule (what?!). Anyhoo, John bought my bike off our neighbor several years ago, and I have never used it, so it is time to make sure it is in repair, etc. I spent some time online this morning looking for a rear light, a bag I can attach easily, and some rain gear. Yesterday I tried out my new bike helmet -- purple! -- and took my bike for a spin. I think I am going to have to get on it even more between now and Feb. 1 if I don't want to show up dead to my office.

I still have some work to do on my final translation, too, plus some painting to do on the windows. I'm trying not to freak out about those things, but I am a natural freak-outer, I am afraid.

Finally, I heard this morning that Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries had died. She is roughly our age (John and me), and something like that really shakes you. It's not that I really knew anything about her personally, or that I can't listen to her music anymore, or even that I've been reminded that I could die young, too, but it is like another thread connecting me to my younger days has been snipped. At some point in each of our lives, if we live long enough, everything that came before us is no longer there, and we only have the things that came after us. Not that there is anything inherently bad about that, but I imagine it is a serious adjustment, and a constant reminder that we're next.

-- Nee in Germany has lots of feelings this morning

Quick

Apparently there is a series of Detective Conan movies, so I've got to finish this quick so I can go watch one on tv.

Today I put the finishing touches (finally!) on a book I translated and sent it to the publisher. Yay!

I worked on the last section of the second book I translated, but I'm not quite done. Boo!

I put the first layer of paint on one of the windows we are refurbishing. Yay!

I only missed one day of exercising this week. Woo!

--Nee in Germany likes to count her achievements

The sun! It burns!

The sun came out today, and it was the most glorious thing I've seen. I ran to open all the curtains to let the extra light in, and I noticed it had been sprinkling. The Germans say the devil is beating his wife when that happens (rain and sun). Later, I heard on the radio that last month was the third darkest December since they started recording hours of daylight in Germany. It sure felt like it! But now that it is less overcast, it is getting colder. Oh, well, if it is not cold in January, when should it be?

That being said, I bought my first spring flowers on Monday to help brighten the place up. They'll be dead soon enough, but I needed a bit of yellow/orange to counteract the gloom.

I'm within 1500 words of being done with my translation. As John pointed out, this may be my last one ever (thank Gnu).

I like to rub my face on my cat, but she doesn't always like it. John could appreciate my statement to the cat "Thanks for not ripping my face off" from a linguistic perspective as a unique utterance, but otherwise he found it weird.

--Nee in Germany picks cold and sunny over gray and warm any day

Nee's Busy World

I feel like I should be drawn as an animal in a felt hat, a la Richard Scarry, with all the errands I was running around doing today.

John had noticed that something was chewing on the plastic sacks of recycling we store in the cellar/garage until pick-up day, but it wasn't every time, so he didn't worry about it. But then we found a hole chewed into a plastic sack of cat food, with a dead mouse hanging out of it, so he set out 4 mouse traps in the cellar. All but one have disappeared, leading us to believe that something else is living in the cellar and feasting on the carcasses we are so kindly providing. So one of my errands was buying more mouse traps and a live trap big enough for a marten (basically a weasel). Technically, martens cannot be hunted, so we are going to try to trap and release any we catch.

(This is what Germans think of when they think of martens.)

In less rodent-y news, I bought John a bunch of ornaments dripping in irridescent glitter for Xmas, but he wanted something he could put on his desk, so when I saw a pillar candle covered in irridescent glitter on sale at the supermarket today, I got it for him. He could have been more appreciative; he's lucky he didn't end up with a giant, glitter covered suppository.

--Nee in Germany is pooped

Trying to catch up

After flying to Texas, plus the holidays, my sleep schedule is way off. John goes back to work on Monday, so I guess that will help me get back into an earlier to bed/to rise rhythm, which I haven't been able to do myself with my alarm clock.

I made delicious carrot soup today. I usually follow a cookbook religiously, but I don't usually get great results. Since my soup cookbook basically follows one pattern -- saute onions, add veg until soft, add broth and simmer, +/- dairy -- I decided I would do it from memory, more or less, and it turned out better than ever. Also, a dallop of sour cream on top and some fried crouton-thingies are delicious!

This weekend I need to do some "onboarding" stuff for my new job. I am very excited to get the ball rolling on that.

If it will stop raining for more than 5 minutes, I am going to take my bike for a spin to see if it needs any repairs. John has to get his bike into the shop soon, so he can take mine, too, if necessary.

--Nee in Germany helped take down the xmas tree today

Keeping our kayaks ready

It has been raining non-stop for a couple of days now, and the street along the river is closed for the second time since New Year's Day. Luckily, we live way too high up the hill for the rising river to be a problem at our house, but our little village may not be so lucky if the lowest cellars start flooding.

I starting refinishing two windows that had crumbling putty mumble mumble months ago, and today John and I finally got the glass and putty put back in on one of them. I broke a few panes while getting them out in the first place, and it turns out that the windows are NOT the same size, because my replacement panes only fit one of the windows, so now I don't have enough glass to finish the other window. I guess I'll have to write back to the glass dude to see if I can get the glass recut or replaced.

I think we've just about finished our leftovers from New Year's Eve, but it has been a bit ridiculous. John has been drinking champagne with lunch, and we are both stuffed with meat. I'm glad I'm getting back to my exercise routine, or I'd feel even more bloated than I do.

I was away from home most of yesterday to work with one of my authors, but it took us so long, I wasn't able to meet Hannah to do some jeans shopping with her. She went with her boyfriend instead, and I got the bill. I guess I'll wait until the weather improves to do my own shopping.

--Nee in Germany washed her bike in the rain today

Resolving resolutions

Now is the time to think about my resolutions for the new year, but mostly I am just trying to get back on track after the holidays and my recent traveling.

I had been doing one of those 30-day exercise challenges, on top of some stretches, but hadn't had time or space to keep up with it while I was in Texas, so I am starting over on day 1 today. That means I should have gotten through all 30 days before starting my new job on Feb. 1.

John and I had also gotten away from eating so much meat, but our guests over the holidays were big meat-and-potato types, so now that they are gone, it is time to dig our chickpea recipes back out.

Being around my family reminded me that I haven't done such a great job in the recent past at staying in touch, so that is something I want to make more of an effort at.

My only real resolution is to take a hard look at my internet habits and really think about what they contribute to my happiness. There are some personal blogs I follow that I know I will keep up with, and facebook is my main means of communicating with a certain segment of friends, but otherwise I may cut way back. When I was at my sister's, they hardly watched any news on tv, mostly local stuff, and it was a pleasant break for me. I think doing the same thing online will help me feel less anxious this year. Starting my new job will also take up a lot of my mental energy, and I don't want to burn through what's left with 9gag and hyperpartisanship online.

--Nee in Germany has to use her brain, ouch!

Happy New Year!

I guess my resolution is to get back to blogging more. I just read back over my most recent entries, and I realized that all of my postings from 2017 fit on one page, and that made me sad. Onward and upward!

John is underway to Mannheim to deliver his high school friend and family to the train station to return to Paris. They spent several days around Xmas in Paris and at Euro Disney, then came to us for a few days leading up to New Year's Day, and they are flying back out again tomorrow, if the weather in Dallas allows it (people on FB have been reporting icy conditions in north and west Texas).

I myself only got back from Texas a day or two before they landed in Europe. My sister was able to have her surgery the second week of December due to a cancellation, so I hopped on a plane to spend two weeks with her. My mom came as well, even though she had bronchitis and probably should have stayed home and taken care of herself, and my other sister came one weekend to check in on us. When I left, my sister's recovery was going quite well, but she took a turn for the worse once the steroids and surgical drugs finally cleared her system and had to go back to the doctor, but a new round of steroids seems to be helping immensely.

While I was gone, I found out I got the job I had interviewed for the last week of November! I was able to handle most of the stuff for accepting the position via email, and after I got home I was able to get a signed copy of my contract back to them before 2017 was over. I've been so busy that I haven't really been able to think about it, but now that the holidays are coming to a close, I've started dreaming, which is always a sign I'm digesting something.

At our New Year's party last night, my friend was asking if I'd be able to finish my last translation gig (a book) before starting my new job, and I was all, "Sure! No prob!", but I still have 3000 words to go, and I feel less booze-fueled confidant this morning. I still think I can get it done, but there are lots of other things I would like to do, too, and I am less confidant about them.

I'm starting the new year by getting organized, not in a Fung Shui or Marie Kondo way, but by clearing my desk and swapping out my calendars. A little bit of organization goes a long way in making me less crazed (although the leftover lava cake I just had with coffee is counteracting that at the moment).

--Nee in Germany needs more than a little bit of organization

Trippin' Balls

...not me, our cat. She was doing the typical cat thing -- running around like a lunatic, suddenly stopping, pouncing -- and I thought she was just being a jerk, but then I saw her eyes were almost completely dilated. I don't know if she got into something (one of the bugs seeking refuge in our house?), or if that is what normally happens when cats act like they have a ghost chasing them, but I'm hoping she'll calm down and maybe take a nap or something.

I gave my bangs a whack the day before I was notified about the job interview, and the rest of my hair was so long it was getting wrapped around my neck while I slept, so I was in desperate need of a haircut. The place I had gone to a couple of times before did not make me happy (refusing to cut bangs into my hair, not trimming my bangs after I had given myself bangs), so I called another place even closer to our house (a 2-minute walk instead of 4) and the stylist had an opening at noon yesterday, so I went. The book of hairstyles she showed me was a bit, um, dated, but she actually listened to what I wanted, while also making some suggestions herself, and we agreed on a cut. I liked the stylist, and I got a good vibe off the salon itself, so I think it is going to be a better fit for me, even if I now look a bit like the lead guitar player in an East German rock band from 1984. Before she started on my bangs (like I said, whacked), she muttered, "This is going to be a challenge", but she gamely took them on, and they do look better now. As I left, she repeatedly urged me to let her trim my bangs, I could pop in any time, etc. She literally said "Bitte bitte bitte" at one point. So I think I now have a stylist, and I have a week for my hairstyle to settle in before my interview.

Every November, I start reminding myself of how old I will be on my next birthday, since I hate surprises. That gives me a few months to get used to the idea. John thinks this is weird, but he also has no idea how old he is, so point to me, I think. 45 45 45... I weirded myself out the other day thinking about my older cousin creeping up on 50.

I'm writing this more as a way of remembering than reporting, but our neighbor suddenly passed away over the weekend. John and I saw a hearse parked in front of our house Saturday evening, but we didn't know who they were coming for at the time. Our neighbor was 86, but he had been in good shape and mentally fit, right up until he had a massive heart attack and died on the spot. I passed him Saturday afternoon on the street on my way to the store, and apparently he went home soon after that and had a heart attack while his wife was in the next room getting his lunch. He was such a nice man, and he befriended John over his gardening efforts and always had a kind word about his shed-building project. He and his wife were a fixture in our street, and we saw them out and about together all the time. She is not doing well, and we are all very worried about her.

Nee in Germany

Bit of a surprise

I mentioned previously that I had applied for a job, but that particular job got lost in a departmental shuffle at the company. After that, the company implemented a hiring freeze, I heard from a friend, who also encouraged me to keep applying, which I have done 2 or 3 times since the spring. The last posting was the one I was most interested in, due to the type of work, but a couple of weeks after sending off my application, I did a bit of googling and found an article from a German business magazine warning that the company probably would not end their hiring freeze before the start of 2018. That allowed me to mentally shelve my application and prepare for another automated rejection once the job posting expired.

So imagine my surprise when my cell phone started ringing last Friday afternoon (no one calls it but occasionally Hannah, and she was at work). I have an interview next week!

via GIPHY

I shouldn't brag -- except as my friend at the company says, I should think more like a man! And men don't say that, haha! -- but I know I can make a good impression in person to back up my application materials, so I have a very good feeling about this.

The timing is also good for me. Even if they decided on the spot to hire me, it is unlikely the paperwork could go through before xmas. My sister needs to have surgery, and I want to be there to help out, but she doesn't have a date set yet. She may have a date after her next doctor's appointment, though, and that is 2 days after my interview; I have my fingers crossed that she can get a date in December, and then I shouldn't have any problems going for a couple of weeks.

Obviously I am all discombobulated and such, which is why I am typing this instead of translating. I still have ca. 12k words to go to finish this book, which I would like to get done quickly, but my brain is not helping with smart-making!

Nee in Germany spends a lot of time discombobulated

Update in photos

It's that time of year again, when John gets out his down comforter, and I get out this purple monstrosity:



When John saw it on me this morning, he basically said, "Noooooo!" And literally said, "Why couldn't you send that home with your mother?" Too bad, so sad.

We had a pet bat for half a day. More accurately, we had a bat lost in our house that took refuge behind Hannah's baby picture on the wall. When the sun started going down, I put it on the windowsill outside, and I guess it eventually took the hint and left.



The river has flooded again for the first time this winter, so John had to go warn our paying guests to move their car or risk getting towed or washed away.



And we had our first snowfall, too, although it was actually rain changing to snow and back again, multiple times, so there was no chance of it sticking around. But I figured I ought to document it.

--Nee in Germany is killing time while waiting for said guests to check out this morning so she can get back to work

Unexploded Nee

Well, turns out I am not working as a tech writer at the moment. The company I applied with is so dynamic that there was a reorganization before they could hire me, so there was no longer a job to hire for. It was very upsetting at first, but a friend who works for the company feels confident I will find a place there in the long run, so I am trying to be sanguine about the whole thing. In the meanwhile, I have finished translating one book and have started on another.

John and I have gotten into the habit of filling our terrace with plants in the summer. Most of them are seedlings we want to keep a closer eye on or want to protect from snails & slugs, like these chili plants I bought John



But some probably have a permanent home there, like this rose "tree" John bought me



Still, I need to get up in the garden today and give my potato plants some TLC.

We are hosting a young man from Sweden while he attends language school for a few weeks this summer (son of a friend of a friend), and it is a bit weird having a teenager in the house again. He's mature and mostly self-sufficient, but he is just young enough (and inexperienced at traveling by himself, plus didn't speak much German when he arrived) that I find myself mothering him. Makes me appreciate having a grown child even more!

Luckily, our friends have a daughter his age, and she was kind enough to take him around one afternoon at our request, but they hit it off so well that he has been included in gatherings with her friends the last few days, which has made him feel less homesick and more confident in his language-learning abilities. Shacking up with someone who speaks a different language is probably the best way to learn another language, but making friends is good, too.

He is also lucky that he arrived after I stopped being in puffy rage mode. With my IUD, I hardly ever have a period anymore, but I still do occasionally get PMS (basically). This last time has really brought home to me how the body can make chemicals (hormones, etc.) that will fuck up your brain, and you might not even notice the change, at least not at first. I am usually a pretty cheerful person, and love a laugh, but when the last wave of hormones struck, I had no chill. Hell, I had negative chill. Reading Wil Wheaton's tumblr and blog, I can see the parallels with mental illness. I realized I was not myself and was being a jerk, but the best I could do was apologize to John and just try not to let my knee-jerk responses out. Oh, and hope that it would pass sooner rather than later. I think I have come out the other side; luckily, it is about as infrequent as my periods, so I hope I won't see it again any time soon.

Nee in Germany was puffy but she struck like a cobra

Can't hold back any longer

I am not yet ready to post about this on fb, but no one is going to read this, and I am going to explode if I don't blab it to someone besides John, so here goes:

I've got a very promising interview for a tech writing job next week.

via GIPHY


I took a couple of language tests on-site a week ago Friday and got to meet some of the members of the team that is hiring, but not the boss. Now I am set up to meet the boss and the team next week, and the team member who set up the appointment made it sound like she really hoped to snag me.

AIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I am so ready to be done freelancing and adjuncting. But there is a lot to wrap up before I can start working full-time for someone else, so I needed to get this out so I can get back to all of that without exploding.

On the up-swing

I just want to brag that I managed to move my hard drive over to a solid state drive without fucking it up! (Okay, I didn't manage to change the partition sizes on the first try, which was part of the reason for doing it in the first place, but I figured out how to fix it.) It only took me about 12 hours total (minus all the research and parts ordering in advance). I'm going to keep patting myself on the back for another day or 2, ok?

I was reading somewhere about organization systems, and how the best of them are only as good as they are a good fit for *you*. That totally made sense to me. I'm not a big smartphone user(1), so it wouldn't make sense for me to decide to adopt a smartphone-based system. I have been trying to come up with a unified paper system, because I love paper and writing by hand, for a while, and it was only recently that I came across the Bullet Journal. Hannah had ordered a hardback, full-sized journal that she couldn't use after all, so I had the perfect starting place, and it has been working for me pretty well so far.

(1) My cheap Android phone is chock full of bloat, so I am down to Google-everything and WhatsApp, and I *still* don't have enough space for updates (!).

The previous point also applies to exercise. If you don't enjoy it, you won't do it. I *really* need to do it, so I've been trying out step aerobics and dance-based exercise routines. Luckily, a friend shared a tip about the Fitness Marshall, and I've got about 3 songs I play through. I fell off the wagon recently, but once I have gotten through my colonoscopy this week (woo!), I plan to get back on the wagon.

Nee in Germany has a lot of work to catch up on now that her computer is back up to snuff

Quick check-in

Had our first snowfall this morning, but not too much. Now I'm making chicken and dumplings and thinking about crashing in front of the tv.

Nee in Germany needs to pull herself together

Happy New Year

As is our New Year's tradition, we spent NYEve with friends, and in a newer tradition, we stayed overnight. That meant we could stay up drinking wine (John only) and singing karaoke (both of us) for as long as we wanted and not have to worry about being drunk or tired on the drive home.

We are still waiting for snow, but this was the view when we left their house this morning:

Then we came home and whipped up some Nutella brownies (only 3 ingredients!) to take next door, where we were invited for traditional Korean New Year's soup. Tasty!

Now I am going to lie in front of the tv with John and Hannah for a while.

Nee in Germany has been social to the max

Reading: Unmentionable

Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners, by Therese Oneill, uses the same conceit as The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century, by Ian Mortimer: the author accompanies us back to a certain time period (here, the Victorian era) and explains how you would be expected to live in order to fit in. In the case of Unmentionable, the focus is on upper-to-middle class women and the expectations and prescriptions particular to them.

Info-wise, I found the book interesting, even though I was familiar with quite a bit of the general outlines. The explanation of how forceps (or the lack thereof) may have changed the course of British monarchy was fascinating, though. I also found the quotations well chosen and well "interpreted".

Style-wise, I generally enjoyed the tone, especially in the more straightforward explanations and in the ironic commentary, but sometimes the book veered too far into "humor blog" style for my taste, especially in places where I had difficulty parsing what was meant because of the fragments used, mostly in the first half of the book.

All in all, I found it a quick, enjoyable read for the holiday break,

Nee in Germany has a big To Be Read pile