Not Drinking

It's hard to be a non-drinker in Germany. Even though I don't drink, my friendly hosts (by hosts I mean everyone in Germany) expected me to have a full drink of something, anything, in my hand. It can be water, coke, milk, but if I put it down someone will immediately bring me another or ask, "where is your drink?" I can understand why those who drink alcohol want to drink one after another but why would anyone want to drink 6 cokes in a row? Or even six glasses of water? We went to a party early last week and I was offered three beers in less than a minute so I picked up an empty to appear liquidly occupied. It worked like a charm.

Thanksgiving Bear Week

Luke and I are in Cologne for Thanksgiving, an art opening and Bear Week. Luke was here last year at the same time and it was also Bear Week and Thanksgiving. What is it with Luke and Thanksgiving? Yesterday we were in a café when six bears walked in (they were not anything like the bears that messed up my cabin two years in a row) and I suddenly became very aware of my beard. My big beard. My big bushy beard. Not for the first time, I was glad I was not wearing my sleeveless, denim jacket. Come to think of it, where is my sleeveless denim jacket?

Cat

This morning I caught this little animal looking in my window - twice.

Flying

Over the years I have developed flight anxiety. It does not happen every time I fly and it is eased by simply sitting in the front row, preferably in an aisle seat. I am in a plane now and I am so far from my preferred seat that I am surprised that I am still in the plane. 34F in this plane means back row window.


The woman to my left (excuse me if you are reading over my shoulder) smells like cigarettes and a beauty salon. She smells exactly like my poor dead grandmother used to smell on Tuesdays with tobacco mixed in. Tuesdays were the days Nonnie (that’s what we called her) had her hair set.

I do not know why it is that sometimes I feel like freaking out on a plane and other times I do not. But I realized that if I am seated next to someone more helpless than I, I do not feel anxiety. It rarely happens that I am seated next to someone more helpless than I, but recently I was seated next to a newly hatched bird and I think situations like that bring out the protective father in me, if there is one in there. One tends to be a less effective protector when one is freaking out.

Different subject:

Now, I don’t believe that I have the most sensitive nose in the world or even in this airplane, but I can tell when someone has had an unfortunate movement at an unfortunate moment in a small space – an airplane lavatory. At least I hope it was in the lavatory. When the odor hit my nose I made a face to indicate that I was aware of the smell and then attempted to make a face that said, “Wasn’t me.”

Bed Time in Chicago

Sometimes I think there is nothing left to write about and then something like this happens.

The cat threw up on my bed. My bed in Chicago is in a room without a light switch so I went to bed in complete darkness and therefore did not notice the throw up until I had already stepped, sat and knelt in it. And then I wiped some of it off my heel and smelled my finger. "Not poop," I thought to myself with some relief. And then I went to sleep.

Don't Blame Me I Live in a Red State

The reddest state in the world.
I've been wondering; will we ever have another white president?

O'Bama

Political Fun Fact

I thought it interesting that Joe Biden's Grandfather's name was O'biden when he came over from Ireland. Oh, yea. Totally true. It's on the Internet (or at will be in a second).
Obama
O'biden
'O8