Off on a hair-brained adventure (as usual)

Well, actually, right now I'm still laying in bed, in my pj's, surrounded by a stack of books. This is the life! Or something.

But I'm leaving in abouuuut an hour or two for Glasgow, where I'll spend one last glorious day with my fiance (read: working on my dissertation while he gives a beer tasting). Tomorrow, I'll head for the airport at 0Dark:Thirty (which will really be broad daylight, but really early. Yeah, summer!) By that afternoon, I'll be meeting my brother at the Port Authority so he can walk me home, since I've never been!

Then, as usual, the crazy's gonna hit. Wednesday I'm trying on wedding dresses with my mom & sister. Thursday, I get on another plane out to Seattle, where we'll reunite with the rest of My Big Fat Family of Northern European Descent (I'm not kidding. It's a little like this and this when we get together, but we're not Greek, and everybody's named Bob, instead of Nick). Then I get to see my cousin get married (!) on Saturday. And after that...well, who even knows. All I can say is that it's going to be some awesome family time, and I get to be out there till the 2nd of August before I run home to The Final Countdown: Dissertation Edition.

Away we go!

i need a dollar dollar, dollar is what i need

Sometimes, when I'm having a crappy day at work, and the hoover is heavy, and I have to mop the floor twice because it's still sticky from the sugar bowl I dropped cleaning up after breakfast, and I'm sweaty because the heating's on, and silly American tourists have been tipping in dollars instead of pounds, and I've been told off by the kitchen for messing up an order....I sing this song to myself, and pretend that I'm in an indie film montage instead of my crappy day. Hey, it's the little things.

Story-time.

Once upon a time, in a far-away land, there lived a girl*. One day, the girl met a boy**. The boy and the girl liked each other, which wasn't a big deal or anything. Until eventually, it was. That's when they figured out that sometimes, when you like each other for a long time, you fall in love-- which is exactly what they did.

Then one day, while they were both busy with other things, they realized that being in love was great. It was so great, in fact, that they decided that someday, when they were a little less busy, they should get married.

Well, the Other Things kept coming around to bother them, and they kept taking care of them, which kept them pretty busy for a while. And the boy thought to himself, "Man. These Things won't quit. What's the point in waiting around 'til they do?" (Full disclosure: the girl might have been involved in this conversation).

So he bought the girl a ring, and got down on one knee, and asked her to marry him.

She said yes, obviously.
(She also asked if she could wear the ring yet. He said yes to her, too.)

And in the next few weeks, the boy and the girl floated around on a cloud of joy and love and really shiny jewelry.

But the Other Things were there below, lurking. So when the boy and girl finally decided it was time to climb back down into their real world (which mostly consisted of books and un-met word-counts), the Things pounced!

Feeling frightened and wholly unprepared for a battle against the Other Things, the girl and the boy clambered straight back up to their cloud where they could daydream in peace about world travel and wedding venues.

Note to the Reader: this story is in search of an ending. Will the boy and the girl ever come down from that cloud? How will they ever defeat the Other Things? Why does Christy tell such crappy stories?
Stay tuned to find out.




*unnamed, to protect her identity.
**unnamed, to protect the story's continuity.

an ex-pat Independence Day

The Fourth of July has never really been my favorite holiday. Don't get me wrong-- I love my country. And I am so incredibly thankful for the privileges that come with living there. But I'm just not wildly patriotic. Actually, I've really come to enjoy the ex-pat facet of my identity. It's kind of a fun thing for me, feeling at home even outside of my own country.

But then, I'd never spent Independence Day abroad.

Now, I know we (we, being the US. obviously?) declared independence from England, which is technically a part of the country in which I'm currently residing. Buuuuut let's be real here for a minute. We've established that Scotland and England don't play nicely together. In fact, most of the things England likes, Scotland hates, just to be contrary. So naturally, there's been an amusing amount of interest in America, and all things American, probably just because yesterday was the day we "told England to f*ck off" (co-worker's words, trying to understand what Independence Day was. Oddly correct and fantastically succinct summary.) Other reactions included:

1. This was years ago, but it remains my favorite story--a Scottish friend of mine sent me a Facebook message on the 4th of July, congratulating me on living in a country that had successfully managed to declare its independence from England. Poor Scotland.

2. Lots of "God bless Amurrrrica!"s spoken with truly delightful impressions of an American Southern accent.

3. Questions about what the point was. ("No, no, we didn't actually get independence that day. We just...um...told England we wanted it. Officially. On paper. And now we celebrate with fireworks. Don't worry about it.")

4. And, of course, the ever-confused look on American customers' faces when I wish them a happy Fourth of July and it slowly dawns on them I am in fact an American, too.

I've also experienced a bizarre phenomenon, in which I suddenly feel more compelled than ever to talk about my country. Like I said. I've never been particularly vocal about how much I enjoy the US. Now that I'm living abroad, however, it's like I think it's the greatest thing in the world. I jump at the chance to explain how fabulous the US can be (or how strange it can be. That happens a lot too). Maybe it's being so far from home that's got me a little homesick for the ordinary things--you know, like...Tide-to-Go pens. AND CHICK-FIL-A.

But then again, I've been having headaches when I don't wear my glasses, so dropped into Specsavers yesterday and had a free eye-exam/consultation with an optician, and came out with even more information than my private eye-doctor has ever given me back home, plus a prescription for new lenses that will be oh-so-freaking-cheap. So as far as trade-offs go, I think I made a pretty good choice. Ex-pat suits me...For now, at least!