09.28.08
Ungrateful kid and school work
D just started arguing with me over how to write a story, telling me I was wrong….. Really? We looked at books that supported my argument, she said they were wrong (we are talking nationally renowned books here people, like HP). She claims that everything should be written in one big block, never changing lines.In this fashion:
Anna said come here. What is it said David. The dog barked and they got scared. I don’t like dogs Anna said me either said David. The bell rung ring ring ring. We have to get into class now the teacher said and Anna didn’t want to because she wanted to play some more and David did what the teacher said you are being silly Anna class starts now.
And on and on for pages. *shudders* D argued with me, the FICTION WRITER, the one with actual education in this…. *Sigh* Some days I don’t know why I try….I was going to do her hair today, since she didn’t want it done yesterday. Turns out, she doesn’t want it done at all, and was sighing over it and whining about it all morning. Hell, I’m not going to spend 2 1/2 hours of my time on someone who’s just going to be ungrateful! Screw that! If she wants her hair to look like one of the ghetto kids’, that’s fine with me, why should I care? She usually only sighs over it anyway and never once says thanks. She’ll just have to suit herself, I’m not going to keep nagging her about it, when she’ll want it done, she’ll have to ask, and ask very nicely at that.
I left the house yesterday to work on my midterm, and finally got it done. Hubby says it’s an A paper, and I hope so, I like it and I’ve put a lot of time into it. I posted it this morning, hopefully the teacher will correct it soon. However, it IS 7 pages, and we are 13 in the class, so it might take a little while.
Speaking of school work, I’m a little miffed about the work we have this week. All up until now, we have covered a subject thoroughly in class, read about a chapter a week (c. 50 pages) and some extra material and then discussed the subject. We even spent two weeks when we came to the ancient Greek civilization. It’s been pretty good. However this week, I have over 200 pages to read, and we cover in that everything from 50 AD up until circa 1400 AD. That’s 1400 years! IN ONE WEEK! That’s almost all the middle ages! And everything since the high point of the Roman Empire! 1400 YEARS! IS SHE INSANE? How the hell are we going to actually be able to remember ANYTHING from this week? You know, anything at all?! Maybe she deemed that those 1400 years weren’t very important….. ARGH! ITS SO STUPID! And we are skipping all of Russian and Balkan history, those pages she told us to skip? WHY?
I don’t know, it’s just stupid. And this is supposed to be a European history class, covering up to the 1640’s. It’s just frustrating. You can really tell that it’s an American teacher and an American book. Catherine the Great of Russia isn’t even mentioned. Entire Scandinavia has about 10 sentences in the 500 page book, and 5 of those touch on the Vikings. Yeah, touch, in a sort of “Well, there were Vikings, you know, and they caused some havoc in Europe for a while” way. Pathetic. It pisses me off, since I was so excited about this class and now it’s just not what I expected, since I expected to actually LEARN something, not spend my time being pissed at the author and teacher.
The Middle Ages are one of my favorite parts of history, and now we are skimming through it, and barely that. I’m very disappointed and are never taking this teacher again.
09.26.08
World Skating Stage – You can stop reading now Cathy…
Khoklova/Novitskiy is doing Paganini this year. Sigh. 06 they did Bolero, 07 Aranjuez, 08 Night on the Bald Mountain. What’s up next year? Carmen? Wouldn’t surprise me the least.Are they trying to get in all the over used pieces into their career?
So what else are going on? Belbin/Agosto are doing Tosca. I almost cried of terror… They used to be so nice and innovative! Last season they did Chopin and now this? Sigh. Jeremy Abbot is doing Adagio, which I am very excited about, I loved him last season. McLaughlin/Brubaker are doing Malaguena and West Side Story, something which is fine I guess, just not very exciting. My very favorite pairs couple Savchenko/Szolkowy are rumored to be doing Shindler’s list and I can’t wait to see it. Their long last year was positively divine. Kevin VDP is using Night on the Bald Mountain, a little over used, but I actually think it’ll fit him.
Kimmie is also doing Adagio, and I am very curious to see how she’s doing this season. I felt so bad for her last season and home she has a better 08/09. Zhang is going Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky, and I am not surprised. Baby ballerina… Evora/Ladwig is using Yanni’s Santorini, something which I am looking forward to, I love that music. Lysaceck is doing Bolero as a short. *Oh joy*. Let’s list all the stereotypical songs he has used over the years, shall we? Tosca, Zorro, Carmen, Four Seasons and let’s not forget, Romeo and Juliet. There’s honestly not much left! He should just do Warsaw Concerto and Swan Lake next year and be done with it. Gwah…
Stefan Lindemann is back this season, and I am thrilled! He is so adorable! Way too many people are doing Bebussy this season, especially to Claire de Lune, and about as many are skating to Memoirs of a Geisha. Dube/Davidson are doing Carmen, hugely disappointing. I can’t help being excited over Towler-Green/Poole’s Pirates of the Caribbean I just LOVE that soundtrack!
Now, many couples this year seem to be using Pink Floyd, including one of my absolute very favorites, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. I have listened to the song on youtube, and I don’t know what to think. I guess we will see, but I have a bad feeling about it. Very bad.
Christmas rip-off
I am a little upset. I had found this PERFECT Christmas gift for one in my family. It was perfect, and the prize was reasonable, maybe a bit on the high side, but still. I found this about a month and a half ago. Now when I go back to look at it, they’ve raised the prize with $20. EVERYWHERE! I checked BestBy, Walmart, Target, and they’ve all raised the price with at least $20. It’s INSANE. Now I have to come up with something better, which I know I won’t. So I am upset!
I am currently doped up on muscle relaxer. So I am fluffy, very fluffy. I’m still in a lot of pain, just not quite as much. I spent an hour crying on the floor over that I couldn’t make it up the staircase. Or you know, walk.
Ducks….
When I woke up this morning, I could barely walk. My entire body was seizing up, and it was extremely painful to take single steps, even worse bending over, or trying to straighten up. I know this is from skating. Or shall I say lack of. I got stuck at the sink in the bathroom, crying my eyes out, since I couldn’t straighten up after bending down to get my lenses out of the cabinet. I had to call for my husband so come and help me massage my back, to help me straighten up. I am now sitting (bad idea too….) with one of those slimming belts, forcing my body to keep straight, and also keeping it warm and sweaty, it’s less painful that way.
If you look at a skater like me, one of the idiots who have been doing it for 10+ years, you will notice that we are shaped like ducks. Our backs have a natural arch to them, creating a duck-shaped silhouette, with butt out and the rest of the upper body sits arched slightly forward, some more than others. When actively skating, this is fine. You work hard and keep those muscles needed to support “the duck” in shape. But when you quit, like me, the muscles deteriorate and can’t quite support your weirdly shaped body.
This week I have been completely neglecting to go to the gym. I have my first big midterm, and I’ve been working actively on it this week, and haven’t really gotten around to going to the gym. Bad. Very bad. I need to work out very often to keep my muscles warm and active, or I seize up, mainly in my back and knees. I wasn’t going to the gym today, but I am now going to, to prevent more pain and injury. I don’t even want to think about what’s going to happen when I get older and naturally start to seize up do to age…. Hello pain. My husband joked this morning and said that we would have to keep working out to literally the day we die. Unfortunately, I think he’s right.
09.22.08
Sticky writing
Remind me never- ever- to do a writing project together with my husband. It just doesn’t work.
He is a technical professional writer, and I am a creative writer, both by trade and soul. He writes methodically, follows the rules and structures. I am what he would like to call “sticky” writer. It’s an expression we pawned after him foolishly trying to take a Caribbean Literature class, and the people there were all lit-majors or English-majors. They spoke in a language that hubby definitely didn’t speak. They spoke of the feelings the text awoke in them, the way it flowed, tasted and sang. My husband, the darling, analyzed the text, researched the background, themes and why the author wrote the book, resulting in a analytical paper, structured to the tees, explaining the book. He ended up dropping the class within two weeks. He couldn’t take it the teacher wanted him to get involved, feel the text. One of his classmates in particular spoke of how the text had left him feeling sticky, wanting a shower. Thus came the word “sticky” in to our relationship and vocabulary.
Whenever I am to write a paper, I dig deep and go creative. The subject has to feel right, I do a bit of research and then I sit down, and usually write the whole thing in one sitting, writing what comes into my head and what I feel. Hubby on the other hand carefully string together maybe a paragraph at a time. He structure the hell out of it and think hard for every single sentence, often rewriting them multiple times. One reference I could draw is that in our academic relationship, he’s the Hermione Granger and I’m the Luna Lovegood. I feel it, he use facts and only facts. I am not saying I don’t care about the facts, I really do, I just let them flow a bit more freely. I know normally the HP character I would most relate to is Hermione, but in this case, I’ll be Luna. I feel first, structure later.
When it comes to writing, my husband does not understand me at all, and I chose not to follow what he does. It’s okay, I’m fine with it. We often get very frustrated with each other, seeing as we don’t really want to do what the other one is trying to get us to do, but it’s okay. I usually listen to what he says, agrees and goes onto doing something completely different. He usually looks clueless when I ask him something like “Honey, do you enjoy writing your essay?s”, gets confused, goes a little panicky and I let him go with a “Never mind.”
This week, I’ve got my first American midterm paper. He is trying to give me advise, which I know I should listen to, but just it’s not the way I work. I can’t write a paper like he does, I really can’t. It has to come from my heart, I have like what I’m doing, or it ends up being crappy. He’s talking to me like he’s talking to a child, explaining about paragraphs, introduction and conclusions. I know all this. Then he said that they have to FLOW. As if I doesn’t know that. I do flow ten times better than him. I do poetry for god’s sake.
I know how to structure a paper. Unfortunately I promised to let him read it when it’s finished, to use it as a practice for his editing class (I know that was VERY stupid of me, trust me, I’m already regretting it…). He won’t like it. He won’t understand it. Because even though it will be an academic paper, it will be sticky, because that’s what I do. That doesn’t mean that it will not be a good paper. Unfortunately, he will disagree.
09.17.08
Bu-hu…
I am feeling very sorry for myself right now. I just returned home from the doctor’s office, my second doctor’s office in the span of only two days. Yesterday I had a visit for my immigration papers, and they did a check up -very thorough…..- and drew blood to check for HIV and syphilis (gee… thanks…..). Everything very embarrassing of course. They drew four vials.
TODAY I had to go and get my tetanus shot (stelkramp, mamma), which is notoriously painful. My arm hurts, and will apparently hurt even more tomorrow. Oh joy. I also had to have blood drawn (again…. sigh, we are now up to 6 vials in two days, no wonder I feel a little bit woozy) to get *hold on, got to run up and check the note…* Varicella Titer. They are looking for, in lay mans terms, antibodies in my blood against chickenpox. I do seem to recall having had chickenpox as a kid, I know there should be a picture somewhere of Cathy and me in the bathtub all red and spotty. In case my memory has failed me completely, and there are no antibodies, I’ll have to have another shot against it.
Next Friday, the 26th, I have my last Gardesil injection coming up. I am so tired of needles! Anyway, I feel sorry for myself and would do well with some pity. Hubby isn’t that great when it comes to those kind of things! *Puppy eyes* My arm hurts!
09.16.08
Music and Foxtrot!
I’ve found this CD, and I am amazed. It’s…… wonderful. It’s haunting, it’s beautiful, it’s powerful, it has its moments of complete “soundtrackness”, and then some periods when it’s just weird. It’s suited for everyone, there are parts in there that could work for a little tiny Juvenile and things that could suit a Senior, both men and women. It’s the perfect soundtrack, it has something for every style of skater, if you are soft, powerful, melodic, slow, fast, beginner or world champion, it doesn’t matter, it has something for you.
The best part about it is that it’s by a little known composer. I know my way around composers very well, especially when it comes to soundtracks (my last year at Sectionals in Sweden I could sit and just listen to the songs being skated to and could point out “That’s John Williams,” “Alan Silvestri”, “Typical Danny Elfman” and so on. Amanda was rather annoyed with me…), and I only recognized one other movie on his list, so he’s not exactly mainstream (I’ve been trying to get my hands on that other movie’s soundtrack for years, but I’m still unsuccessfull), which suits my purpose fine. I’m not going to let you know what the soundtrack is, because then I’d be letting the cat out of the bag, and it wouldn’t be so rare anymore, and people would find it and skate to it. But Becky darling, I’ve found your new long program (for fall 2010)! *Just kidding*…. (Maybe not…)
About a month ago me and my husband signed up for ballroom classes at the local University, they have ballroom classes twice a week, 12-1pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today was the first time, and we had a blast! We were only three people there, more had signed up but were unable to show up this first time. The teacher was a small man in his 60’s, and we had a lot of fun learning the foxtrot. I’m already looking forward to Thursday!
It’s raining heavily right now, it’s like a grey wall outside the living room window. I am feeling for some rice cakes, but when i asked my husband to pick some up at the store yesterday, he came home with a bag of mini carrots. Not quite what I was looking for….
09.09.08
I hate being ill….
I am sick. We think it’s probably just an iron deficiancy, nothing worse. However, it does feel like I have a very small imp living inside my head, wacking my brain with a very large sledge hammer. I’ve been basically sleeping for the last two days, trying to move as little as possible.
When I get sick, I get cranky and start craving things that I can’t possibly have. So here is my current craving list: kexchoklad, sportlunch, hushallsost, billingeost, cinnamon rolls (I know I can make them, but they don’t taste the same as when mum does them…), chokladbollar (those store bought ones with coconut flakes on them…), Magnum, limpa, polarkaka, tekakor, festis, romerska bagar, kottbullar, potatismos, grilled pork that doesn’t taste like disgusting rubber, sockerkaka, Cathy’s kottfarssas, lemon cupcakes (those tiny little ones you can easily eat a whole bag of), chocolate in general, and so much more. I just wish they could open up that stupid IKEA store a little sooner…. Well well, there will be the Swedish Christmas fair in December, so hopefully I can get some of these things there…..
09.03.08
Skating…
I still miss it, you know. A lot. I hear songs and make up routines in my head, knowing very well that I will never be able to skate them. I find good CD’s to use for other skaters, for “my” skaters, the ones that don’t exist anymore. I do a lot of showcases, I have an entire show practically choreographed in my head. I know that I have left that part of my life behind, but that doesn’t keep me from missing it with every fibre of my being. I don’t regret my choices, no, but I still love skating and I miss coaching. I know I still have so much more to give, I could help so many children become better skaters. I feel guilty, I admit it. I feel like I abandoned the kids, not just the ones at the rink here, but also the rink in Sweden. Very few of those children will get the same kind of attention that I gave them. The rink here has stupid ignorant coaches that are only in it for the money, and the rink in Sweden lack coaches. Kids will fall through the cracks and leave the sport. Kids that could become something, someone
I know it all had to be done though, I had to leave, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling guilty about it. Hubby think I am silly, but this is how I feel. I haven’t seen any of the kids from the rink here since I left in February. It’s a little odd, it’s not a very big city. I try to keep an eye out though for the competitions in the region, to see how they are doing. From what I have seen, not that great. There’s a competition coming up in a week, and none of them have entered. There’s another in October, I guess we’ll see if anyone signs up. It’s a little obsessive, I know, but I still CARE about those kids.
09.02.08
Hurricanes
We are officially in the hurricane season. Gustav didn’t hit even close, so now we are waiting for Hanna, which they think will hit us here. Thankfully she moved from being a hurricane to “just” a tropical storm, but she can easily pick up speed again. They think she will hit us on Friday or Saturday, so we are going to stock up on canned food. I’ve never experienced a hurricane before, and doesn’t quite know what to expect. Hubby tried to explain it to me, but not very good. I guess you just have to be there. We can almost be certain that it will knock out the electricity, and if it gets really bad, our town will get flooded. It apparently happened a couple of years ago, and downtown was completely flooded. We live on a ridge though, so we won’t be washed away.
If Hanna doesn’t get us, Ike or Josephine will. We just have to stock up on food, water, batteries and have emergency plans in the waiting. We’ll just wait and see. I’ll keep you updated on what we’ll do.
I have a head-ace, and I feel very tired. I was going to finish my school-post today, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I’m not in the mood for writing about Greek politic procedures in the 2000 B.C.
