I need to organize better. At last count, I've lost several bills (found just past the due date), at least $20, a Metro ticket, three rings, one necklace, a CD, and an action figure. All within the last 25 years.
I have never taken the notion of losing things well. I was the kid having nightmares about misplacing library books. I had nightmares along the same vein about raging fires heading towards my house while I scrambled to save all of my dearest possessions (and there were a lot). I used to take all of my favorite toys (and there were a lot) into the basement during tornado warnings.
Now there are times when I imagine how much less clutter there would be if a fire did hit my place (sometime when Apollo and I were both gone, of course). How much less stuff I could get by with, really. And yet still, the memory of each and every lost possession I listed in the first paragraphs rankles, standing for a lapse of judgment and vigilance. Drop your guard for a second and something you take for granted is gone.
I know this is one more manifestation of my tendency to carry the world on my shoulders. "You've lost something, and it's all your fault; you could have paid more attention, you utterly horrible person; why should anybody trust you with anything if you can't take care of it?" And I know I have way too much stuff, and that if I kept better organized with the things I have they would be less likely to become the things I had. But my heart aches over the lost things, anyway.
The parable of the missing coin shows quite a knowledge of people.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Greatest Hits
Kerri has already explained this, but for those of you who don't read both our blogs, I'm going to explain it again.
At some point during our travels, Angie, Kerri, and I (Lost fans all) came up with the idea of doing a European tour "greatest hits" list. I realized soon after voicing how cool I thought this idea was that I am not the sort of person who finds it easy to narrow anything down that far. (The other girls took 400-600 pictures. I took over 1200. I have been through them three times to narrow them down to a highlights reel and still have 870.)
So I am copping out by doing my five top fives.
Five Favorite Sights with Fictional Associations
5. Lacock Abbey, where many scenes of Hogwarts were filmed.
4. The back of the house from The Sound of Music, a building interesting enough in its own right for Kerri and I to start snapping pictures of it before the guide told us it was part of the tour.
3. Balliol College, alma mater of the beloved Lord Peter Wimsey. It was closed to visitors but open to those with a special request, and I fortunately know a real live person who is an alumnus, so I got to go in and look around and take pictures for both of us. (Thanks, Ken!)
2. The bust of Mr. Darcy at Chatsworth, the house used as Pemberly in the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice.
1. The Sherlock Holmes museum, fully furnished in classic Victorian style and dripping with Holmes ambience, down to the in-character actor (or WAS he an actor?) who told the curious Angie he had worked there for over a hundred years. Also features some rather eerie waxworks (sorry, "eerie waxworks" is redundant).
Five Nicest People (or groups of people)
5. The woman at the hotel in Salzburg who was so helpful she called the tour company for us before we asked.
4. The people on the bus to Oxford who volunteered all sorts of information. (Elderly woman: "This is the famous Maudlin Bridge." Elderly man next to her: "Spelled 'Magdalen.'"; Woman sitting behind us who overheard us what stop we should pick: "Just get off the bus when I do. [a moment later] Now!")
3. The businessmen from India who took turns sitting with us on an overcrowded train from Vienna to Salzburg. One of them almost mistook us for English because our vowels weren't as drawn out as he expected from Americans.
2. The Spanish guy at the internet café who asked Kerri for help on his résumé. She was referring him to me just as I was springing forward, glad to be doing something besides waiting for a computer. I gave him helpful advice such as "You don't want to have a smiley face in your purpose statement," and then as he left I got a big grin and two thumbs up in exchange for a simple "Bueno suerte."
1. Ahmed and his older brother, the pair in front of us in line for the Eiffel Tower. They made standing in line for 45 minutes fun, and we were such pals by the time we got up to the ticket counter that they just went to the second level, as we were doing, instead of all the way up to the third, as they had been planning. Later we ran into them on the street, and so had the fun of meeting someone we knew in Paris.
Five Oddest or Most Unhelpful People (or groups)
5. The French (all stereotypes need perpetuating, right?).
4. The people of Austria were odd in that we were seemingly invisible to them. They would walk right into us, or not move for us. One time Angie dropped a suitcase on somebody's foot (accidentally). I still don't think the person reacted.
3. The UK immigration blokes were odd, too. One of them looked at me as though I might be a terrorist after I split off from my group to get into a shorter queue (that's English for "line") and the other seemed suspicious that an engineer (Kerri) and a governess (Angie) could be friends.
2. A man from the hotel in Paris sold us to another hotel after running us through the streets with no help beyond taking what was obviously the smallest and lightest piece of luggage from the person best equipped to deal with both her luggage AND cobblestone streets.
1. Two out of four men we talked to at our last hotel were clueless, incompetent, and seemingly not particularly concerned with our specific needs. (Yes, we have an extra person; no, we don't want to pay for a whole other room. Yes, we do want sheets for the couch; no, we don't care if that's good for your job, we just want to sleep.)
Five Unexpected Things
5. Laughing hysterically with Angie over some slight picking on Kerri.
4. Being in Leicester Square during the world premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
3. Swaying all day (and into the next night) after our sleeper train ride from Salzburg to Paris.
2. Tasting an anchovy.
1. Being thrown totally off schedule due to a major traffic jam and finding myself thinking calmly, "We did our best, and it didn't work, and God has something else planned for us, so it's all okay."
Five Things That Were Planned That I Had Never Done Before
5. Asked somebody next to me on a plane to switch seats with a friend of mine.
4. Used an ATM.
3. Checked into and out of hotels.
2. Spent the night on a sleeper train.
1. Drove on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car (the latter was more confusing).
At some point during our travels, Angie, Kerri, and I (Lost fans all) came up with the idea of doing a European tour "greatest hits" list. I realized soon after voicing how cool I thought this idea was that I am not the sort of person who finds it easy to narrow anything down that far. (The other girls took 400-600 pictures. I took over 1200. I have been through them three times to narrow them down to a highlights reel and still have 870.)
So I am copping out by doing my five top fives.
Five Favorite Sights with Fictional Associations
5. Lacock Abbey, where many scenes of Hogwarts were filmed.
4. The back of the house from The Sound of Music, a building interesting enough in its own right for Kerri and I to start snapping pictures of it before the guide told us it was part of the tour.
3. Balliol College, alma mater of the beloved Lord Peter Wimsey. It was closed to visitors but open to those with a special request, and I fortunately know a real live person who is an alumnus, so I got to go in and look around and take pictures for both of us. (Thanks, Ken!)
2. The bust of Mr. Darcy at Chatsworth, the house used as Pemberly in the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice.
1. The Sherlock Holmes museum, fully furnished in classic Victorian style and dripping with Holmes ambience, down to the in-character actor (or WAS he an actor?) who told the curious Angie he had worked there for over a hundred years. Also features some rather eerie waxworks (sorry, "eerie waxworks" is redundant).
Five Nicest People (or groups of people)
5. The woman at the hotel in Salzburg who was so helpful she called the tour company for us before we asked.
4. The people on the bus to Oxford who volunteered all sorts of information. (Elderly woman: "This is the famous Maudlin Bridge." Elderly man next to her: "Spelled 'Magdalen.'"; Woman sitting behind us who overheard us what stop we should pick: "Just get off the bus when I do. [a moment later] Now!")
3. The businessmen from India who took turns sitting with us on an overcrowded train from Vienna to Salzburg. One of them almost mistook us for English because our vowels weren't as drawn out as he expected from Americans.
2. The Spanish guy at the internet café who asked Kerri for help on his résumé. She was referring him to me just as I was springing forward, glad to be doing something besides waiting for a computer. I gave him helpful advice such as "You don't want to have a smiley face in your purpose statement," and then as he left I got a big grin and two thumbs up in exchange for a simple "Bueno suerte."
1. Ahmed and his older brother, the pair in front of us in line for the Eiffel Tower. They made standing in line for 45 minutes fun, and we were such pals by the time we got up to the ticket counter that they just went to the second level, as we were doing, instead of all the way up to the third, as they had been planning. Later we ran into them on the street, and so had the fun of meeting someone we knew in Paris.
Five Oddest or Most Unhelpful People (or groups)
5. The French (all stereotypes need perpetuating, right?).
4. The people of Austria were odd in that we were seemingly invisible to them. They would walk right into us, or not move for us. One time Angie dropped a suitcase on somebody's foot (accidentally). I still don't think the person reacted.
3. The UK immigration blokes were odd, too. One of them looked at me as though I might be a terrorist after I split off from my group to get into a shorter queue (that's English for "line") and the other seemed suspicious that an engineer (Kerri) and a governess (Angie) could be friends.
2. A man from the hotel in Paris sold us to another hotel after running us through the streets with no help beyond taking what was obviously the smallest and lightest piece of luggage from the person best equipped to deal with both her luggage AND cobblestone streets.
1. Two out of four men we talked to at our last hotel were clueless, incompetent, and seemingly not particularly concerned with our specific needs. (Yes, we have an extra person; no, we don't want to pay for a whole other room. Yes, we do want sheets for the couch; no, we don't care if that's good for your job, we just want to sleep.)
Five Unexpected Things
5. Laughing hysterically with Angie over some slight picking on Kerri.
4. Being in Leicester Square during the world premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
3. Swaying all day (and into the next night) after our sleeper train ride from Salzburg to Paris.
2. Tasting an anchovy.
1. Being thrown totally off schedule due to a major traffic jam and finding myself thinking calmly, "We did our best, and it didn't work, and God has something else planned for us, so it's all okay."
Five Things That Were Planned That I Had Never Done Before
5. Asked somebody next to me on a plane to switch seats with a friend of mine.
4. Used an ATM.
3. Checked into and out of hotels.
2. Spent the night on a sleeper train.
1. Drove on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car (the latter was more confusing).
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Ten Best Things About Being Back Home
(in no particular order)
- My parents meeting me at the airport (a total surprise to me)
- Welcome home voicemail
- My own shower
- My own bed
- A cranky-yet-pleased Apollo
- No more exchange rate math
- No more lugging everything I own on the whole continent around with me
- Cell phone service
- Easy and convenient access to drinking water
- Driver's wheel on the left side
Trip details forthcoming....
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