jens is gone until friday! and without him, I have run out of other ways to procrastinate photo assignment. which will get done tonight since it's easy enough and will be quick once I buckle down.

but now that I've seen more than a season of Dollhouse, it's clear that it's the same as Firefly but without the space cowboys. Where shall we start? A character list.
Topher's Wash. That was clear from the first episode.
Paul's Mal. Made even more apparent recently from all the times he gets beaten to a pulp and sticks to his ideals.
Echo is River- a skinny, dark-haired asskicking girl who recalls and speaks to countless personalities? hel-lo!

It could be argued that:
Boyd is Book, especially considering the last episode I saw
Adele is Inara (I know, ironic choice considering the REST of them are the ones doing the companioning!)
and Dr. Saunders is Simon.
Sierra might be Zoe but that's more purely from looks than any other.

who does this leave out? Jayne and Kaylee. I guess Melly could have been Kaylee, that long while ago.

Now, I don't know if Buffy aligns in this same way, but...


on another note, I'm going to be in Addis in two weeks. and my bottom teeth are moving thanks to one rogue homefry from brunch with Jo more than a month ago, which bent the permanent retainer in there. the dentist said there was no problem, but there is a bit. it's changed the way I say S and now I feel a bit of a gap between the middle two that might be forming. problematic?


off to write the aperture assignment. you know how they say ADDers have problems with dopamine? aka the reward hormone? I think this is why I always "reward" myself before doing anything worth rewarding. hee.

i'm going to electric picnic today! I've been waiting for nine months (since last christmas) so needless to say it's a bit surreal and hasn't quite sunk in that it's actually this weekend. I gotta keep getting ready and packing. anyone who wants to be jealous, look here: www.electricpicnic.ie

I had a cool dream and an awful dream. In the cool dream, I could teleport and I was learning how to bring things along with me- a sofa from room to room. Teleporting felt like falling asleep while I was concentrating on where I wanted to go and it was harder to do with people watching. In the crazy dream we saw a spider on the ceiling about seven inches long with big fleshy front legs and a peacock feather on its head, looked it up online and learned it was the very deadly Jewel-something Spider. We got it down to the floor, where it turned into a tiny fat green goblin and started howling or exhaling, then led it out the door. I called poison control immediately because that's what the Wikipedia article had told me to do and I was worried it had exhaled some poison before we got it out the door. They had to search the entire house for a spider's nest, and to do it they had to remove every tile and appliance. I think they had to search my car too. Then the bell at the local school rang and woke me up.

Today's a windy day and last night was really cold. It was Matheus' last day and I didn't realize it, and he didn't come to school for his last day so I didn't get to say goodbye. I liked him. It was also Yan's last day, and she had just started to open up and smile more in class. Sigh.

I've got stuff to do- I promised them a movie so I'm making up a lesson plan for Blood Diamond, which I haven't seen, but Jens owns. I found tons of stuff online for the class. And I need to give it in today if I want to show it next week. Joanna's on holiday so I won't count on any of the sub-administrators to be bendy like she was for Wall-E. Also I have a doctor's appointment for more foot freezing, and some cleaning to do before I show up to a belly dance class at the Y at 6:30. Tomorrow's the farmers' market and the Festival of World Cultures and on Sunday Jens gets home! and I go zorbing at noon.

today was hard. I talked to Mom about my life and how I'm not doing anything that fulfills me, and about frustrations with life. then I talked to Jens about how we had different expectations for my learning German this week. and then at the end of class time I had five students left and they told me I needed to be stricter. I have been rather aimless in my teaching this week, and it was what I needed to hear. these sentences sound pithy in summary but they were difficult conversations, especially the first one and the second.

anyway, then i came home and took a Lush bubble bath and started a book Mom had recommended to me (Digging to America). these have made me feel good, though I worry I'll be up all night reading.

back to it.

sunburn and watermelon, my summer's now complete. Hope for more days like today (as it was until about 3:30). And now it's midnight and I can go to bed. If tomorrow's sunny, I'll go running. Hope so. I also would like to see more lightning if Ireland can manage it.

I feel a bit iffy, and I'm blaming it on the frozen "lamb grill" (aka half-thick burger) we got for free for spending €20 at the halal store which I ate for dinner. Next meal will not be completely made up of frozen food (lamb, falafels and paratha!)

jens has been gone for five hours and I miss him already. I am making a list of things I should or can do this week to occupy myself, as I'll only be working one shift per day as far as I know. Now it's sunny and warm out so I'm going to sunbathe on the roof terrace with Salman Rushdie and a new CD, wine and cheese and crackers. Quel snobberie. I already went to the farmers' market today. For this week only, it's covered with a big tent (left up from some event last week) and it was so alive and buzzing with the open, stall-less plan. I'd love for that to happen every week. The flower lady had gorgeous purple and rust-colored arrangements which I'd've bought if Jens hadn't brought two sets of flowers home last night. Loaded up on fruit and veg so I'll eat healthy this week. If anyone wants to chat, now's the time. I've even resolved to send emails more regularly (since evening time is reserved for Jens).

Now, more basking.

I was having a really good day until I read my email and heard about some of the bullshit the radical right are pulling out in my country of citizenship. Honest to God, "death panels"? How is Sarah Palin allowed to speak in public? Don't answer that, she has the right to free speech- but sometimes I wish we could have a common-sense censor (or perhaps a truth censor?) who'd punch Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck in the face. Maybe it's worse than I imagine- after all, I only read the emails from my lefty mailing lists and I know those guys are sensationalizing to get more contributions. Still, calling people Nazis is NOT OKAY, EVER. And it's wrong to conflate issues that the President has, as far as I know, made no official statement on (and when I co-googled Obama and euthanasia to try and find any official position, all I got were pages of righty hysteria) with the program he is pressing.

Death panels. The fuck.

Ken Gordon can be a bit crazy for my taste, but his email this week is spot on. ( cut for rambles re respectful debateCollapse )

Anyway, I had a great morning- spent the class time chatting with the last three students left, was totally flabbersquocked by the TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE ad in the paper that it's out TODAY?! blindsided with joy! I mean, not totally, because we all know the movie is going to be a Hollywood rom-sellout of the book (last I checked, Ingrid's not on the character list on IMDB, for example...) but will still see it, of course. And Jens's friend Tharani is coming for the weekend, so that's gonna be cool... and we're going to see Sam Sam the Bubble Man today at the Science Gallery. I'm most looking forward to the advertised fire bubbles.

it's been a long time. This weekend's just been too awesome not to post about.

so first of all, I'm living with Jens. I've got a new computer. I am teaching at Abbey in the evenings again. I have signed up for a course in interactive media production which starts in October. I taught teenagers for a month at a summer school where KK was the DOS. Spanish teenagers are hellions and I have no desire to go back to that experience. Now I'm doing my third straight week with college-age Spaniards at Swan, and they are a blessing- probably my favorite class yet.

Friday night we went to the new IKEA with Nina and Paulien and bought a plant and a whole bunch of house goods that makes me feel more like this house is ours, not just his.

Saturday we went to the Cake Cafe and had the last cream cheese pancakes of the day, then to Stephen's Green and bought Villeroy and Boch wine glasses on big discount, which Jens says are really nice and we couldn't have gotten that cheap in Germany. At the farmers' market I had a mushroom taco from Gus and Theresa, who I haven't talked to in ages, and a gorgeous-looking heirloom. On the way home I visited Fallon and Byrne and splurged on the vanilla malt ice cream I've been eyeing for a year or so. And I found out that they now sell Goldfish. I don't need to hoard that bag from the States any more!

Today we straightened up, including putting some clothes in the Ikea compartments which makes the shelf look so much nicer. Jens dropped a lava lamp on his toe, and I'm worried just a bit because it was so heavy. Now, we've finished making hummus and guacamole and are in the process of making a lasagna totally from scratch (minus the canned tomatoes and the veggie mince, but including the pasta and the actual sauce). I IMed with Jens's dad in German with really minimal help from him!

Next week I'm working a KK-last-summer week: 9-1 at Swan, and then covering an Abbey afternoon class for the next two weeks plus my regular evening class. I didn't want to turn down Abbey because money's money and it's a high-level class, which means less work overall, and I couldn't say no to my Spaniards because I like them so much. They're super motivated and listen and work really hard, so I hope they'll see their progress. This weekend we've been cooking big meals (like curry and lasagna) that I can eat during the week.

Back to the lasagna sauce!

I had the strangest dreams.... that Avi came over and I gave him back some shirts he'd given me, then he tried to be funny and I told him no. Then I was talking to Emma, who had a sore throat, to try to convince her that Denver needed a commuter rail link to Lakewood. And then they took me to what they said was my house in Lakewood, but the bottom floor was all kid-sized. I told them this wasn't my house and they said they'd changed it for a reason. The ceilings were about five feet high. There was a mini fridge and some drawers. Upstairs was my actual bedroom, though. I don't remember why they said I should be there, but there was a reason.

After that I read a book that looked like it should be a kids' book but talked about the king forcing himself on women, using metaphors of ice cream, I think. I was transported to the kingdom and watched the king have his way with another woman (or maybe we were My Little Ponies), then knew I was next so (and this took place in my bathroom in Lakewood) I twisted his arm back and started to choke him. I told him I didn't want to act that way, but that's how he treated us, and I didn't know how else to treat him if he didn't treat us differently. I got to my room and turned on some music, and then my mother, who was either the queen or the housekeeper, came in and chastised me about the volume and about how many Lush products I had and I told her only one of them was new. That's when the alarm went off.

More on life later. I gotta move two suitcases to Jens's house now.

from thursday, abbey has terminated my evening class contract. I was the last one left on the eleven (eleven!)-month probation period, which means the only people left now are long-term there (some only by a matter of months)- but they're still getting fired too. Abbey is in trouble, I think. Still, somehow this will all work out. I'm teaching Spanish teenagers in the mornings this week for 20 hours... and then I choose a school to go to, get a student visa, and teach through the summer and see what happens in the fall. I'm going to study tourism, for the fuck of it.

School options: I've looked at two so far. If I get a student visa, it'll be the same as before: work full-time for half the year and part-time while I'm in class.

Eden costs 1250. It has three-month semesters and breaks - July-Sept, Oct-Dec, Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun. I want to start in the October semester but they say my visa will be out of the limits of writing-letter-to-immigration-to-keep-me-in-here (three months).

Portobello costs 2400. Its course lasts the schoolyear. They say they can write a letter keeping me legal through the summer- but I just realized I may not be able to work on the extension-like stamp they can get me. I'll call and ask them.

There are a whole bunch of other schools around (with 4400 approved courses, I'm spoilt for choice really) that i have to look into. but it's just not freaking good. No one will apply for a work permit, and after June 1 it's really gonna be impossible with the rule changes they're bringing out