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.