The professor...

...He's a DOCTOR now!!!!!
Upon my mom's recommendation, I am getting myself a drink.

Almost...PhD

In a couple of hours Prof. Grady is about to stand in front of a committee and defend his dissertation.

Please wish him luck.

Very appropriate

I take public transportation to work. In Sofia, we've got these taxi/bus hybrids called marshrutki that you can flag down from anywhere on the street (like a taxi) but still have a dedicated route (like a public bus). It's quite convenient, actually. If you're lucky, you get the speed and comfort of a cab for the price of a regular public transport vehicle. If you aren't lucky...you feel like you've experienced the spin-cycle of a fairly advanced washer. It's basically a crapshoot, but what are you to do.

This morning as usual, I hail my marshrutka. It pulls over a bit far from me. Marshrutka drivers seem to like to make people run for the van...like, they really want you to show them that you want to get in their particular car and that you really mean it. I am wearing heels and running as fast as I can and as I am running, I reach for my wallet and take my money out, open the marshrutka door and jump in. We take off before I have managed to pull myself together but I throw my money at the driver, he hands me my change and as he is speeding away, I reach to place it back into my wallet. And my wallet is nowhere to be found. Fuck.

I ask the driver to pull over, run back to where I got on, get on all four and search the area. Don't find anything, except for an old PEZ despenser and a broken keychain. My wallet was officially gone. Together with it: my ID, debit cards, credit cards, a bunch of bandaids, family pictures and one of the very first love letters that I got from my husband. Fuck.

***

People at the office were very sweet and supportive. They've all gone through the whole "report-a-stolen-wallet" procedure here in Sofia and know that I've got quite an adventure coming my way...dealing with multiple administrative offices and what not...My boss felt so bad for me, she actually went and got me a little pink wallet with a cute sheep on it. Her card said, When you lose something, you never know if you're not winning at the same time. Totally adorable, I know.

When I told my sister about it, she said, That's very appropriate.

See...in Bulgaria, calling someone a sheep means you're saying they're dumb. Not too far from the truth, given the circumstances.

Too much information, but still...

My sister Ina lives in Bremen, so a lot of our conversations happen online. We talk about work and life and exchange music and gossip and laugh A LOT. Every time I talk to her, 20 minutes into the conversation, I end up needing to go to the bathroom. I am not making this up, I swear. We say hello-hello and start chatting and inevitably, 20 minutes in, I’m taking a poop-break.

Ina says that this happens because she helps me relax.

Muxtape

It's been a little while since I've drunk-blogged...but here I am...Back from an awesome wedding party and all I want to do is tell you all that I hope there's tons of love in your life and that that you should all check out Prof. Kirilov-Grady's Muxtape. Due to Jameson overload, I've only added one song to my own account.

Peace out.

If you are starting to think you hate your job...

It's been a hard week at the office for me. Nothing bad happened, to the contrary. It was just hard. Lots of things to take care of, lots of people to talk to, lot's back-and-forth, lots of emails and pixels flying in all kinds of directions...Stress, stress, stress. I was complaining a tiny bit to my little sister who promptly alerted me to the following text:

When you have an 'I Hate My Job' day, try this...

On your way home from work, stop at your pharmacy and go to the thermometer section and purchase a rectal termometer made by Johnson & Johnson.

Be very sure you get this brand. When you get home, lock your doors, draw the curtains and disconnect the phone so you will not be disturbed. Change into very comfortable clothing and sit in your favorite chair. Open the package and remove the thermometer. Now, carefully place it on the table or surface so that it will not become chipped or broken.

Now the fun part begins.

Take out the literature from the box and read it carefully. You will notice that in small print there is a statement: 'Every Rectal Thermometer made by Johnson & Johnson is personally tested and then sanitized.'

Now, close your eyes and repeat out loud five times, "I am so glad I do not work in the thermometer quality control department at Johnson & Johnson."

Have a Nice Day and Remember, There is Always someone else with a Job that is More of a Pain in the A$$ than Yours!

And now I'm smiling. Hope you are too.

***
via alvin, via LifeSupport

Life

Anne Lamott is one of my favorite writers of all time. She is wise and funny and neurotic. Just my kind of writer. In her book on parenting, Operating Instructions, she quotes her son Sam (age 7) saying:

I think I already understand about life: pretty good, some problems.

Which, strangely enough, is exactly how I feel about it. What's been life like for you these days? You've been awfully quiet and I miss you.

Good things recently

Because I know you are just pulling your hair out, trying to figure out what the hell's going on with me...here's what I've been up to these days:

1. Dinner parties with people that make you laugh so hard, your face starts to hurt. Leaving the party only to get a call 2 minutes later from one of our friends saying I don’t remember the last time I had so much fun.
2. Listening to music with my husband. Active. Listening. Sitting down and listening to tracks we thought we had forgotten and realizing some songs still bring tears to our eyes.
3. Packing to move to our own apartment. It’s small but it will be ours. Well, my parents’…but you know what I mean.
4. Running around Sofia, taking pictures with the Professor. Photo projects are HAAARRD.
5. Getting more email from people saying Hi, my partner is Bulgarian too. Dropping you a line to say hi… It’s because of emails like this that I love blogging.

I know it’s been a little bit quieter here and I know that some of you blame my other blog for that. But after some re-shuffling of commitments and priorities, I will be able to handle both. Hope you’ll stick around.