Papering: The Halfway Point

I was chatting with my Belgian friend Aya recently, and she was explaining how, in Dutch, they have a verb for "writing a paper," which translates literally to "papering." I sincerely wish we had this kind of word in English. My whole life, summed up in one word!

Right now I'm on draft #3 of the first of two essays, which means I'm definitely tired of looking at my own words. Plus, it also means that it's all written--even though it's not due till tomorrow?! I've literally never been so prepared to turn in a paper....which I'm considering a sign of growing up. PLUS, celebrations for the infamous MAY DIP begin tomorrow night, and I, for one, am thrilled to say that I will not be pulling an all-nighter to write this paper prior to jumping in the North Sea. If you're curious about that story, just take a wee scroll through memory lane. I think it had far more appeal back then-- i.e., before this year's "March Dip" left me with the desire never to be cold or wet ever again.

But you know, I think May Dip will be just what we (we, being the medievalist M.Litts) need to clear our heads--a nice swim in the North Sea. If nothing else, it'll totally wake us up to start our next paper...(groan)

adventures in candle-burning

...By which I mean, burning the candle at both ends. It's realllllly an adventure.

Which must mean that it's That Time of Year!

You know. That Time of Year when I disappear off the face of the planet because of all my essays (Apologies in advance!). When I start getting up early to write papers and work till late every night, then roll straight into a week of plowing through The Vision of Piers Plowman (if you're a big fat nerd, you'll know what a feat this was)-- plus have a visit from Greg, in which we mostly walked around town looking for good places to study. (At one point, he left me to pick up some takeout for dinner, and by the time he came back, I'd turned my hair into a frizzy ball on the top of my head in my stress. so cute!)

Luckily, we had class on Thursday, so the madness calmed down a little bit after that-- which, obviously, was a good excuse to attend a ball, right? It was faerie themed, so there were a lot of tiaras and flowers and flowy dresses (none of which I managed to bring here. awesome.)

There were gorgeous friends:

There was a ceilidh (you know how I feel about ceilidh...)

There were dance cards....

And dance lessons...

And so-

Much-

Tango.

(Yes, we were just posing for the camera--these are less than half of the tango-photos. and YES, we did take off through the line of dance because we couldn't stand not being able to tango for real...)

All in all, it was a great night, and I went home with sore feet and tired legs and a happy heart.

Unfortunately, I spent the rest of the weekend paying for it, as I had an essay (still writing it, actually) and a couple shifts at work. But it was all made up for the fact that I met a bunch of people from South Carolina who just looooooooove my hometown (Actually, they did that thing where they were like "Oh, you're from ___? Do you know ___?"--which pretty much never works...but this time it did! It was bizarre.)  So that kinda made everything a little more bearable :)

Now, off I go to write about nonsense words some more!

(photos taken from my excellent friend Caitlin's diligent Facebook tagging. Thank goodness for friends with cameras.)

a Saturday afternoon cacophony

So, just when I started to forget that I'm living in Scotland, I hear a parade of bagpipes and drums marching down my street.

...And just as I wrote that, the bagpipes faded, and I'm now hearing 76 trombones. Not in the Music Man sense, although that would make my heart pretty happy. Just "in the my goodness, those are a lot of trombones out there" sense. I think maybe I'm hearing the Kate Kennedy Club parade? From what I remember of the last time I saw it, it's a lot of people marching in cheesy medieval-looking costumes, and in the middle, they stop for a pint. Because this is Scotland. (And, because it's Scotland, it's cold and rainy, and they're still out there. I will not be.)

To add to the cacophony, I just spent some time muttering these lines repeatedly to work out all the interesting internal rhyme and alliteration going on:

Forflittin, countbittin, beschittin, barkit hyd
Clym ledder, fyle tedder, foule edder, I defy the.


[Outdone in flyting, poxed, filthy, hard-skinned
Ladder climber, befouler of the hangman's noose, loathsome adder, I defy you]*

(How's that for a giggle?!)

Conclusion: everything about this place is noisy--the instruments, the language, the rain on my rooftop... Aaaand I love it.

Happy Saturday!



*Translation loosely taken John Conlee's edition of "The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy," The Complete Works of William Dunbar (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2004).

Song for a Rainy Tuesday

So, despite being generally frozen in my flat, this weekend turned out pretty fantastic-- I worked Friday-Sunday, celebrated a friend's birthday, went to Vineyard for Easter (wonderful), skyped my family and heard lots of happy news, and had a really exciting meeting about a joint research project (that I'll gush about more later). And to top it all off, Greg came into town on Easter Sunday just as I was finishing work for the night. We spent yesterday in a teeny tiny coffee shop--he wrote his portfolio, and I researched obscure things, 'cause we're ginormous nerds :) We had our usual date-night-in (Indian takeaway from our favorite restaurant and a movie). But he had to be back in Glasgow for a workshop this afternoon, and I've got a term paper consultation, so he took the bus back this morning. And even though it'd been kind of drizzling all day, the downpour really began just as his bus pulled away.

I know I'm so lucky we get to have short, unexpected visits so frequently, and usually, I spend the days that Greg leaves reminding myself of all the other reasons why I'm so gosh darn thankful for this season of our lives (and also doing lots of work to distract myself). 

But the nice thing about living in Scotland is that you can pretty much count on the weather to be rainy when you need it to be. Like when you gotta say goodbye when you really don't wanna. So today, I'm feeling pretty gosh darn thankful for the weather....and taking it as a sign that I'm totally allowed to indulge my rainy-day mood by listening to Ray Charles and Betty Carter croon my feelings all day long.

Happy Tuesday, indeed :)

everything's broken! (not me, though. for once!)

Had to get that out there right at the top, given my penchant for breaking bones. So, fear not, friends and family, everything me-related is working fine and dandy! Apart from this nasty head-cold that had me inhaling steam from a cup of hot water with a bar towel over my head as a last-ditch attempt to survive work this evening. (hey, you gotta do...&etc)

But everything else appears to be broken. First it was the Vodaphone cell tower. Apparently all the sleet/snow/wind we had earlier this week had knocked it out (....as if this weather was surprising? we are in Scotland, after all. You'd think they'd have like, a back-up plan in place, or something. But no.) Luckily that was back up and running within a couple days, so I'm no longer cut off from the universe.

Meanwhile, the heating in my flat totally quit working. Then they came to fix it. And it quit working the next day. And okay. I'm all about celebrating Easter! You know I am! But I'm a little concerned that The Man (ie, the property managers for my flat) are going to let us freeze to death while they enjoy their holiday weekend!

Additionally, the hot water stopped working properly today as well (1/3 of a tub will not be sufficient, even for a person small as I am), and I spilled an entire glass of red wine down my trousers today. I do not want to smell like red wine upon arriving to work tomorrow.

But here's what I came to in my 10 minutes break this evening. Sure, everything's kiiinda broken right now. Admittedly a pain. And I've certainly some other less tangible, ragged bits and pieces floatin' around my life too, of course (Honestly, who hasn't?). But it's Good Friday, for goodness sake--so all I can really say is, thank God for the broken things.

thanks, Eric Church...

...for this gem. It was on my "gotta pump up for a 9 hour shift today!!" playlist, and it's been on a loop in my head all. day. long. 'Cause even though I didn't work a 40 hour week, I did do a 25 hour weekend, followed by that doozy of a shift today. Phew. Talk about jumping in the deep end! But I'm pleased to say that I've only made one or two mistakes that prompted a string of expletives, so I'm callin' it a pretty successful start.

To celebrate, I'm in my pajamas (of the wool-socks-and-jumper variety. Did I mention it's meant to snow tonight? What the heck, April?) One of my favorite beers, Brew Dog Punk IPA (shout out to Greg's bar!), was on offer at Tesco-- I've got one in my hand, AND one in the fridge for a rainy day. I'm about to watch the Game of Thrones Season 2 premiere like the giant nerd I am. And finally, I have a glorious day off tomorrow, which my aching, slightly booze-soaked bod could really use. Spain was bliss for my soul, but there's really something to be said for the utter joy of putting my feet up at the end of a long day.

Despite the exhaustion, however, I still really enjoy my job! (Specifically the bit where they pay me to stand around and pour drinks and chat...and yeah, there's a lot of cleaning. But that's going to be overlooked for now).  And because you know my affinity for lists....here are a few things I'm learning!

1. how to pour a pint of lager. More tricky than it appears. I'll spare you the obscene jokes that the boys I work with have been making as they teach me how to pour (plus, I'll leave your mind to wallow in the gutter trying to guess 'em!)
2. how to pour a pint of cask ale. far more complex and less forgiving. I look over my shoulders like a lost puppy every time I'm asked to do it. Luckily, lost-puppy seems to be a thing that works...at least in soothing impatient customers ;)
3. how to carry hot plates / keep a cool head. serving isn't tough, but it is a balancing act.
4. how to make a black and tan. This is a skill I'm incredibly proud of, but will probably never need. It's also the closest the bar will ever come to serving a "cocktail."
5. how to negotiate orders for drinks that a) I've never heard of, that are b) given by a mildly intoxicated person, who c) has a heavy Scottish accent. A winning combination.

The learning curve is preeeeeetty steep, so I'm sure I'll have some more to add to the list as time goes on. It's only my first week, after all! :)