Donna Moss, Citizien of Canada :-)

I love the Canadian National Anthem. And I love Canada. For that reason I was really touched at the end of the West Wing episode 3.16. It was such a great idea to have “Oh Canada” played during Abbey’s birthday party at the White House to honour and cheer up Donna, who had just learned that she actually is Canadian and not a US citizien [don't ask, but it was a funny story and of course Josh fixed it in the end]. But it was so weird, because it’s the home of the US president after all. During festivities like this the band usually only plays “Star-Spangeled Banner” and “Hail To The Chief” :-)

I just love this series. All the characters. The writing. The wonderful dialogues and the very very entertaining and informative storylines. Love love love this series.

Miscellaneous, 2009/01/04

It looks like the Cologne Sharks won’t even make it to the pre-playoffs (10th in the standing). Theoretically there still is a chance, but it’s highly unlikely. Right now I don’t even care that much, which is strange. I guess I’m just so frustrated about how the season went so far. Frustrated and annoyed by the lack of fight and motivation and skill and a lot of other things in this team. I’m just… very very frustrated. They lost in Mannheim on Friday and against Krefeld at home today. In today’s game they once again gave away a 2:0 lead and once again lost in OT and got nothing more than one point out of this weekend’s two games.

They don’t have that many games at home until the season ends at the beginning of March. So I guess my last hockey game in Cologne will already be on the 16th January, because I’ve got to work on both the last game in January and the last game on home ice at the end of February. But I’m honestly not upset about that, I’m almost glad this awful and disappointing season will be over soon.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

More fun than watching or listenting to the Cologne games on TV/Radio is to watch the clips of World Jr hockey at the moment. I know we couldn’t afford Jaruslav Janus as a goalie, but maybe he could teach our goalie Frank Doyle a few tricks? Janus had some great saves in this quarter-final against the USA, which Slovakia won, by the way. Here is a 2min summary clip.

Surprise present from Bro3

When I talked with Bro3 on the phone this morning he said “I’ve got a present for you”. I hate it, when people say that and don’t tell me right away what kind of present that is. Yes, I know it would ruin the surprise and I don’t really hate it, but it makes me edgy anyway. Especially as my brothers and I usually don’t give each other presents. For christmas or birthdays or any other ocassion. Which probably sounds like we’re estranged or something, but we’re not. We actually spend quite some time with each other or in each others presence at my mom’s home, where Bro3 is still living and Bro2 is building his house right next door. We are just not that close on an emotional level. If I had serious problems of any kind I most probably wouldn’t talk to one of my brothers about it. It probably sounds like we’re an emotional retarded family :-), but actually we’re doing just fine. The way we managed to get through the hard times a year ago was proof of that. To me at least and anyway I didn’t want to turn this post into some sort of family therapy thing. Maybe I should scrap that whole paragraph?

I am SOOOO stupid! I Lost My Canada Scarf!

I never missed the unlimited internet access at work more than today. I had to get this off my chest and put it down on paper (well in bits and bytes) but knew I couldn’t post it until I got home now. So I just wrote it down anyway and mailed it home and am posting it now, before I grab a bite to eat and catch up on all comments, blogs and stuff I missed during the day.

I am so so so soooooooooooooo stupid. If it were anatomically possible to kick my own ass I would do it. Multiple times.

It was windy and chilly when I left home this morning  and I knew I had to wait on the train platform for a while, so I wore my scarf. My wonderful, awesome Team Canada scarf. I took it off on the train and put it on the seat next to me, because the heating was on and I felt so warm. When I got off  the train at the final stop in Essen I obviously forgot to take the scarf with me. ARGH! I only realized it when I left the bakery in the station and at once I went back to the platform. The train stays at the platform for a couple of minutes before it returns back to its starting point.

I asked the train driver if a scarf had been found, but as far as he know, there wasn’t. And then I hurried through the train especially the section I had sat in and asked the new passengers, but none had seen the scarf. I still have the tiny hope that it might just have fallen down and thus wasn’t noticed by them or me at that moment. No scarf was handed in at the main station’s lost and found either. I already called the rail company to report the loss and I hope, that the scarf still might be found (and returned) by someone. Someone who might realize that it’s not an ordinary scarf, but a scarf which means something to its owner.

I soooo could kick my ass right now!. If anyone want to come over and do it, feel free to do so. With my tendancy to forget/lose stuff, I think it’s good that I don’t have any pets or even kids. I’d already be in jail convicted for negligence. And the worst part is that I can’t really blame anyone except myself. ARGH!

It’s Difficult To Not Be Complaining…

This morning I was sure that today’s post could only be a really whiny one. And I’m still in mostly a whiny mood, but I should start with some good news after all: The meds already show some effect. My cheek doesn’t feel that numb and I think my mouth isn’t that crooked anymore. I’m rather confident that all the symptoms will resolve over the next couple of days/weeks.
Good News #2: When I got home from the IVs this afternoon I found an Amazon US delivery, which I hadn’t expected so soon. Yay! I ordered the CDs last week and even though I choose a faster (and more expensive) shipping, I didn’t expected it before the beginning of November. Thanks to the $/EUR exchange rate in our favour I got two new CDs including shipping for 24,50 EUR. Awesome. And I can finally listen to the new Ingrid Michaelson album “Be OK” and I really like it. I have to check out the second CD later as well, “Down To Earth” from Jem.
And some more good news: This morning the temperature was around 7 °C, which is not necessarily good news, I know. But that made me get one of my favourite Canada souvenirs out of the closet to finally wear it. Ok, I also wore it to cheer me up.

Blog negligence

I’m afraid my blog suffers from a bout of depression. It feels neglected and rightfully so. The weird thing is, that I’ve got things I want to write about like I always did. Probably not the most significant topics, as I didn’t find a cure for a fatal disease or found away to secure world peace and feed the world. Or something like that. Which didn’t bother me before and I don’t mean my inability to find a way to feed the world, although the problem is bothersome, but not necessarily solely mine to solve. I still get the “you have to blog about this” moments during the day, but then I never get around to do so, which is only partly due to lack of time. I would have had the time, I just couldn’t bring myself to write about all the insignifcant stuff like DVDs and TV shows and music. Although I actually want to. Does that make any sense? Probably not. And writing about an idea I had days ago is weird as well, because I sometimes don’t even remember what brought on the idea in the first place. My mind is a strange place at the moment…

Maybe looking at my new wallpaper made my mind go fuzzy :-)

My trip to Canada – Part III: Hockey

I didn’t take that many pictures during the games. More exactly I took close to none pictures. Hai_di already had her camera ready before I did and she’s the better photographer anyway. So this post will contain only a few pictures and one of them even taken by her. To witness my hockey glory *g*

We had our first hockey world championship experience already at Frankfurt airport. We booked an Air Canada flight and didn’t know that that would be in cooperation with Lufthansa and we’d had to check-in with Lufthansa. So we went to the Air Canada counter to check in. We entered the terminal and the first thing I saw was the logo of the German Hockey Federation at the Condor counter. And a lot of young men in suites. Could that be..? Yes, it was. The German Team on their way to Halifax! The two of us debated for a little while if it would be very embarrasing to open our suitcase, get our Team Germany jersey and have it signed by the players. Guess which side won :-)

My trip to Canada – Part II: Sightseeing

This will be a shorter post, I promise. A large collection of photos (and the photos in higher resolution) can be found here. I will just pick out a few of my favorites now.

Our first stop in Toronto was the Hockey Hall of Fame (who would have figured *g*) but I will cover that in a special hockey post. I think we’ve seen most of the “must-see” attractions in Toronto, at least from the outside. We didn’t have that much time, so we didn’t visit a museum although the ROM or the Art Gallery would definitely have been worth a visit. We’ll do that next time :-)

The golden Royal Bank Plaza was pretty cool to see. Real gold in the windowpanes and all of that for the sake of insulation. Neat!. And the CN Tower really is visible from everywhere. As long as there is not fog or rain clouds, then the top of the tower might just disappear.

My trip to Canada – Part I: The Canadian people

Yesterday afternoon I was almost run over by a car which was speeding over the crosswalk. Well I wasn’t really in danger, but still, he (those drivers always are male) sped although he must have seen me standing there. It only took two days back in Germany to get into mortal danger while crossing a street. Thus this first entry has to be about the totally unbelievably wonderfully nice and friendly and welcoming Canadian people, which would never put a pedestrain crossing a street in mortal danger. The Haligonians at least wouldn’t…

I really felt so welcome in this country unlike anywhere else before. The Candians are warm and friendly and considerate and still keeping a distance without really keeping a distance. They’re not like for instance Italian who also are warm and friendly and caring but who also can be too cheerful and too loud and sometimes invade just a tidbit too much into your personal space, if you know what I mean. It’s part of the Italian culture, so I totally understand it, but it makes me feel a bit awkward sometimes. But Candians also aren’t as reserved as for instance the people in Sweden. In Sweden you can’t just strike up a conversation (even if it’s just small talk) with anyone you just meet on the street (or at a hockey game). Maybe the people in Halifax just went out of their way talking to us because of the hockey fever :-)? Whatever the reason, I really really liked meeting and talking to them.

I felt welcome everywhere. Which might have something to do with the way we were greeted with “Hi, How are you today?” everywhere. It might be the usual ordinary greeting and the person might not really be interested in how I was doing, but it still felt nice. Although I still haven’t figured out what to reply really. Just “I’m fine, thanks”? Or “I’m fine, thanks. How are you?” Anyway it felt really welcoming.

Off and cranky

If I didn’t know better I’d think I’m PMSing. But I know it can’t be. So I guess I’m really suffering from a post-vacation or more precisely a post-Canada-depression. And some weird form of still ongoing jet-lag. And of not being able to really sleep at night. I feel so off! Didn’t I just wrote a post about exactly that before I left for Canada? *sigh* But I’m really listless and cranky! I don’t even like myself much at the moment. I tried to cheer me up with starting the first of my Canada posts this afternoon, but I couldn’t finish it, because I had to go to a green party meeting. And already started to question why I ever took on that additional function? And then I got home to find of the streets of my usual route closed, because of construction (“There are only two season in Canada: Winter. And Construction” *g*) and found Bro#3 watching hockey. How could Canada have such a hard time scoring against Norway (I caught the 2:2 tie and the 5-on-3) while they totally run us over with a steam-roller? *sigh* At least the score at the beginning of the third period looks more like the one I expected. I actually wanted to go to bed early tonight, but I guess I’ll keep watching the game. Snacking the “comfy” food I just got on my way home. Sorting through the Canada photos I want to show my co-worker tomorrow. When I’ll probably wake up just as cranky as I’ll be going to tonight. Thank god I’ve got Friday off…