Good News, Bad News: Berlin

Good News: I took a vacation! I visited friends in Berlin this week.
Bad News: Berlin wasn't really warm enough to be a spring break destination. And although it was promisingly warm in Minnesota when I left, we've gotten 6 inches of snow since I got back.
Good News: Berlin is great, even in the snow.
Bad News: Berlin is great, even in the snow, except when the public transit workers are on strike. This leads to a deadly combination of really cranky city-dwellers, picket lines, overcrowded Ersatz-transport, and lots of people driving (on slick roads) for the first time in years.
Good News: There are a lot of Berliners who think "it's annoying that they're striking, because it takes me an hour and a half to get to work, but I think it's good, and I support them, because they probably do deserve higher pay." Oh, those Europeans....
Bad News: I am not nearly as understanding, since I too am underpaid but still have to pay for a taxi to get home after 10pm.
Good News: Other than that minor glitch, it was a nice vacation. I recovered from the mutant super-virus that ruined the first half of March for me soon after arriving in the city. I got to meet baby Mathilde, who is very sweet, and reconnect with Inga, Sandra, Patrick, and Leo, as well as kebab, Turkish honey, and currywurst.
Bad News: I did not do homework. This could arguably be listed as Good News, but since I now have a week's worth of reading and writing to do, and only two days in which to do it, it feels much more like Bad News at the moment.
Good News: I did relax in Berlin. I even read a book for fun (The Master Butcher's Singing Club, by Louise Erdrich, which I definitely recommend).
Bad News: I'm having serious bakery fantasies again. Having relaxed makes the oncoming stress of school, the conference (coming up this Friday), the lack of summer plans, and the general anxiety about my future really unappealing.
Good News: It's almost April. So the semester is almost over.
Bad News: It's almost April. Every passing day chants "there's not enough time, there's not enough time," and it's getting louder. It's probably Worse News, though, that my calendar is speaking to me....

No, really. Timing is everything.

Regarding my the-world-is-against-me-waah-waah-waah post below: it wasn't until later that I realized today is Daylight Savings. Why couldn't this silliness have happened on a weekend without midterms?

Good News, Bad News: Timing is everything

Good News: I'm trying to be more patient with the world and not let little things ruin my day (week, month).
Bad News: This is really hard when I feel like a physical manifestation of Murphy's law. It's not usually that big a deal when my bus is ten minutes late, but ten minutes is much longer when I'm at the bus stop at 6:30am and it's 20 below (not an exaggeration). It's not that big a deal when I'm sick, but when I'm sick at the same time Rob is sick at the same time I have midterms, it definitely darkens my mood. It's not that big a deal when strange computer techs come to my office to fix the department computers, but when they are loud, it's early, I'm sick and trying to study, I'm tempted to fix the computers myself. With a hammer.
Good News: I may not have much patience at the moment, but I also don't have a hammer.
Update: The techs keep announcing "security breach!" in weird Trekie voices. I would go work in our quiet study room, but I found out that that's where their "base of operations" (i.e. lots of techs with donuts) is. I might start carrying a hammer.

Good News, Bad News: Sock Monster

At our house, socks (usually Rob's) sometimes disappear. So we end up with a bunch of single socks, and every once in awhile we give up hope that their partners will ever turn up. We donate most clothes we can't use to Goodwill, but even they probably don't have much use for single socks, so they usually end up in the trash.
Now, if you know me, you probably are familiar with my intense dislike of throwing away potentially useful things, and you may also be familiar with the hoarding problem I have. There are shoeboxes I've had for at least 5 years, some of them full of fabric scraps, lace, buttons, and other "potentially useful" things that I've had since junior high. I don't have any use for them, but someday I might get a sewing machine and start making my own throw pillows. Or something. This might sound ridiculous, but after those rare occasions when I do get rid of things, I often regret it. Deeply. (I'm still mourning the loss of one fantastic pair of black pants, lost in the purge of 2005. And a wonderful, one-of-a-kind sweater that I gave up in 1999. )
So last week, when Rob was going to throw away a bunch of ostensibly useless single socks, I stopped him. Surely those socks could be put to good use! Rob probably suffers most from my pack rat tendencies, so I can't really hold it against him that he snorted and rolled his eyes. But instead of squirreling the socks away in another shoebox, I sat down right there, stuffed some of them into others, tied some knots in them, and ended up with some new dog toys: the sock monsters!
Good News: The dogs love them. This isn't suprising, since Nick has always enjoyed curling up with Rob's dirty socks, and Cricket licks Rob's bare feet whenever she gets the chance.
Bad News: They're definitely less sturdy than some dog toys we've owned. It's been about a week, and there are sock bits all over the house now.
Good News: They're more sturdy than some other dog toys we've owned, and the sock monsters only cost ten minutes of my time.
Bad News: Rob reports that now, Cricket snaps at his socks when he puts them on in the morning.....

Good News, Bad News

Good News: it's Valentine's Day (love, candy).
Bad News: it's Thursday (classes, general malaise).
Good News: Cricket likes her bone.
Bad News: she also likes whatever Nick is chewing on, flip flops, pb & j, steak knives and ibuprofen.
Good News: I'm posting dog pictures.
Bad News: that's because there's nothing else really positive/ interesting/funny enough to report.
Good News: this week is almost over.

Good Idea, Bad Idea

It's been a rough week at school. I feel judgy and stabby and disappointed, and I'm more likely to be gracious and kind to my colleagues here if I have an outlet for snark/frustration. But even here, I'm trying to be balanced and not just see the worst in everything (which you probably realize is my first instinct). So:
Good idea: puppies.
Bad idea: wearing all beige, all the time.
Good idea: coffee breaks.
Bad idea: the philosopher haircut. It's kind of like Fabio's hair in the 80s, but because someone is too busy thinking big thoughts to find a brush or get a haircut, it's scruffier. It may substitute for philosopher's stubble, if said philosopher lacks facial hair, but will not prevent the philosopher in question from thoughtfully stroking his chin as if this were not the case.
Good idea: Turkish idioms (you can't fit two watermelons in one armpit).
Bad idea: interrupting.
Good idea: using precise language.
Bad idea: using academic buzzwords (intertextuality), filler phrases (if you will, as such), and icky words (moist, virile). Minus ten extra points if you use all three in one sentence.
Good idea: being flexible with a syllabus so as to take students interests into account.
Bad idea: being flexible with a syllabus because you are a) lazy, b) disorganized, or c) so you can waste half an hour showing the class YouTube videos irrelevant to the reading I worked so hard to do.
Good idea: putting a new, innovative spin on a standard, frequently taught class.
Bad idea: turning a standard, frequently taught class into a venue for you to reminisce about the good old days/confuse your opinion with fact/bond with students about how much you like the same band.
Good idea: taking a critical look at common attitudes and popular opinion.
Bad idea: failing to take a critical look at your own attitudes and opinions.
Good idea: recognizing that you are here to learn (humility).
Bad idea: believing that you are here to pontificate (arrogance).
Good idea: learning about marginalized groups.
Bad idea: learning about marginalized groups, only to decide that you too are marginalized, then repeatedly beating me over the head with how marginalized you are.
Good idea: rising above.
Bad idea: taking the bait.
Good idea: puppies.

Me & My Dayquil

Me & my Dayquil are best friends. It's like the ads for My Buddy dolls in the late 80s, where the kid takes the doll everywhere with him - to build a secret clubhouse, on a trike ride, climbing trees. Remember those? Only instead of a doll, I have a huge bottle of bright orange cough syrup. And instead of laughing with joy while I riding my trike through a meadow, I'm coughing and hacking while I trudge through the icy cold campus to my office. Ok, actually not very much like the ad at all, except my drugs go everywhere with me.
The good news is that I went to the doctor, and I don't have SARS. I do have an upper respiratory infection (lungs, throat, and sinuses...which makes me wonder what constitutes lower), which they think is viral, so there wasn't much they could do for me except make jokes about what a nice baritone I have. Seriously, I sound like a lounge singer who smokes 5 packs a day (until my voice cracks like a 13-year-old boy's). Not quite how I envisioned the beginning of the semester....