The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round...

... Alright, I just had a flashback to my au pair days. I guess I will sing myself to sleep for the next three weeks.

So, Busses... Busses are those funny things I had to take to get to work every morning for a whole ten days recently. Has anyone ever noticed how a bus is like a micro-society (I think I made that up)?

First day taking the bus: Keeping your eyes on the floor. Shyly saying "Good Morning" and "One, please" and "Thank you" to the bus driver who's silently taking your money and printing out your ticket. Then taking the first available seat (only later realizing it was the one reserved for the handicapped and feeling bad about it for the next 12 years), not looking at the other passengers, but feeling their eyes burning holes in your back. Of course, they are all talking about you and sometimes also write essays about your behavior which are then reviewed by some secret panel.
The third day bringing far more confidence for you. Having the seatplan and all the off-limit seats learned by heart. Being able to ask the busdriver an actual question (just don't mention the fact that he didn't shave properly!). Smiling at fellow passengers is actually resulting in them smiling back from time to time.
Knowing the busdriver's first name and shouting a "Good Morning" with half the bus shouting back is a sure sign that Day 5 is all it's supposed to be. And then there's Day 8 starting off with asking your fellow passengers' questions about Life, the Universe and ... uh.... Everything and them knowing about that bad rash you suffered from when you were 8 1/2.
What's there to say about Day 10? Someone new is getting on the bus, sitting down in the reserved seat. You proceed staring holes in their back as it is indeed outrageous to sit in those seats. Then it's going ahead with essay-writing, not before having a good old discussion about the whole issue with all the other passengers. You're getting all curious what the secret panel will say about that.

Day 11? Well, you sit in your newly repaired car and curse the bus in front of you which is crawling along at a snail's pace and keeping you from arriving at work in time.

Happy Black Tuesday, Everyone!

If I have to listen to one more overly sweet lovestory today, I will rip my ears off! (would that actually prevent me from hearing those stories? I don't think it would. Oh cruel human anatomy!) They had the supposedly cutest lovestories on the radio all day today. It was the radiostation that's on at work! Where I cannot flee it! A horrible feeling of doom kept on rising inside me during the whole 8 hours. I like to think of myself as a survivor: Someone who just made it out alive...

One lovestory would have been fine, but why do they have to over-do everything? Why why why?

Anyway.... I have nothing against Valentine's Day! Nope! Just don't force it on me!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

I have the distinct feeling that nobody but me can hear this distant sound of a hammer hitting an anvil. It must be in my head and my guess at the cause of it might also be pretty accurate: Red Wine! When will I grow up and stop drinking as much red wine as I did last night? At least I friggin' deserve the headache I got. Shall I be proud of it and thereby make it into something positive?

I am currently very very unhappy about my citizenship. I am part of an increasingly evil group of Westerners who allow insensitive and insulting cartoons to be published in their newspapers. Moreover, we don't scream for those evil journalists to have their hands hacked off. It's outrageous! But that is not why I'm unhappy about belonging to the evil part of the world. What really makes me sad is that we don't have civilized flag-burning parties and - this is even worse - we aren't allowed to just go and randomly burn buildings. Really, it makes me want to pout and stomp my foot and burn my passport. There's nothing more civilized and sensitive than spending a Saturday night out socializing by the warmth of a burning embassy. And we are denied this simple pleasure! I'm all for a revolution! And a bloody one this time, please! I've had one peaceful revolution in my life and it was boring. I think I'll now go and see how many reasons for being insulted I can find in my Peanuts cartoons. Charles M Schultz, I'm onto you!

Creative Chaos

I'm drowning in absolute chaos (Absolute Vodka would be much more appreciated right now)! Work is crazy. I sometimes do yearn for my own office with an actual door in it. ... And then it dawns on me that working in chaos and noise is preferable to not working at all. Oh well....

I need to be creative 8 hours a day right now. The pressure! While I'm responsible for all the writing, I'm surrounded by those visual people working with me in the Creative Pool. The radio is on full blast - which doesn't bother me at all. Hey, I already mentioned how educational it is, right? From time to time, however, there's a day like today: People keep calling, ordering stuff to be designed and printed in the next - oh - two hours! Everyone keeps having to switch computers ("Oh, I need to use InDesign. My computer won't start it. Let me have the Mac for a sec, will ya?"), I am constantly forced to forward files from one computer to the next, my boss is running around like a maniac (He has his own office, dammit! Why does he have to keep visiting us?), the plotter is making weird noises and keeps eating huge chunks of film, and I keep getting calls from the printing workshop to help out with some screen printing. Why I haven't attempted to put my head in the laser printer (Geek Suicide!) is beyond me.

In all this chaos, I am expected to write all the website content and today I was also to write a press release.
"Oh," I hear you say, "first semester PR class. How easy!"
NOT! It took me hours to write one damn page. I'm a disgrace! It's a good thing I only have an inkjet printer at home. If I owned a laser printer.....