Christmas traditions

This is the first time I've been with family for the entire Christmas season in many years. I have never once in my life played touch football, whether holiday or not. Yet, this morning I awoke with such a desire to have a bunch of people over, throw the old pigskin around, and then come into the warm house to some spiked eggnog and eat some dinner. My family and the odd guest or two coming for dinner will not be enough to play the game I've envisioned. Is it wrong to be saddened by not partaking in a tradition that has never been ours? I'm pretty sure no one even has a football.

what I want for Christmas

Last night I was caught off guard. Out at a bar a friend asked me what I want for Christmas. Through some kind of miracle I didn't just point my finger at the boy across the table.



I was able to recover my senses and tell her I wanted not just a keyless entry for my car, but a remote engine start to get her all heated up.


Maybe I should have just pointed across the table?

on remembering

Lately I've been remembering a lot of random information. Maybe it's living back with mom that brings old forgotten memories flooding back? But in addition to this, I've been pondering the things I've forgotten.

I can't remember the name of Becky's girlfriend from when I first met Becky.

I don't remember Andrew's last name yet he played such a large role in my life for those months.

But I do remember the only time I've ever been skiing, snowboarding or on a snowmobile.

I remember my dad and Buzz Manzer standing next to that giant pine tree between the houses, the tree that they raised on beer, stories and urine. I always walked up at the end of a joke that they promised to tell me "when you're older". Yeah...I'm older...but no one remembers the jokes like I remember they're owed to me.

I can't remember the sound of my dad's laughter....but I can remember the feel of the skin on his arms.

I remember my first license plate: CA 3JUY619 and my first driver license number but none since. Great joy when I moved back to CA...they gave me back my original driver license number! The only one I've ever known by heart!

remiss in my duties

I have been terribly remiss in my blogging duties.
I have left Czech Republic.
I spent 10 days in South Carolina lolling on the beach.
I spent a few wonderful days with friends in NYC and CT.
I was reunited with loved pets.
My mom, Kiyomi, Kazimir, Charlie Parker and I drove across the USA in a truck full of my stuff.
I am now living in Redding CA.
I go to school to be a teacher.
I have completed one semester with one more semester of schooling then one semester of student teaching and then I'll be a teacher, certifiable.

VISA!!

Where was Jeff when I needed his urging to post the most important thing in a long time....I HAVE MY CZECH VISA!!! I'm currently living in the Czech Republic LEGALLY! I travel in and out of the Schengen Zone! Finally!

Yippee!!

about a missing post

The other day on the way to work I wrote an entire new blog post on my iPhone on that cute little yellow lined paper note section. The problem is....on Monday afternoon my phone froze. Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal, just hold down the top button and the home button and shazam, the phone restarts. Well....my top button doesn't work. So, this is a short post about a post I wrote the other day (that I can't remember anything about but I know it was good!) that is currently locked inside my phone.

If you, or someone you know, can help me restart an unlocked iPhone with a broken top button....please let me know!

This is the thanks I get!

I'm sick....again. I feel really bad about it. I actually HATE canceling my classes and disappointing the kids! Some of them actually look forward to my class!! How great is that? (Last week, during a wave goodbye type song, a little boy started crying. After the song I asked his mother what was wrong...she said it was because HE DIDN'T WANT TO GO!! I love my job!)

However, I'm fairly certain that it is because of THEM that I am sick...AGAIN!

My friends recently took over the care of 4 children. They went from 0-4 in one day. And it was her recent status update that made me feel better about being sick. She said: "There's an exponential increase of sickness at our house from pre-kids days...unbelieveable." That's why I'm sick! I went from being around 0 kids to being around roughly FIFTY. And it was her friend's comments that added to my happiness....that it gets better! Every year you get more and more used to being around the germ piles and stop getting sick as much. Yippee!

So I guess the thanks I get for teaching young kids that this picture means "cow" in English is to get sick every couple months....well then...I'll take it!

what DOESN'T make me feel better?

To make me feel better about the heat being off last night....My roommate, who's flat this is (it was his grandmother's before him) just told me that it was off for two weeks during February of last year because the kettle was broken. THAT doesn't make me feel better!

the universe and her crazy ways

For about 2 days I couldn't find my iPhone headphones anywhere. I had just about decided that I had lost them, that I would have to buy new ones, when i found them yesterday tucked in a rarely used pocket of my backpack.

Last night....Kazi found them.


I guess when we've resolved to buy something new, the universe will make sure it happens! (Actually, I just looked more closely...he only chewed the left ear. Which means they're still fine for phone calls, just not that great for music. He's only a partly bad dog!)

Baking in Czech

I bake. I LOVE to bake. Anyone who's been around me, or especially anyone who's lived with me, anytime in the past probably 8 years has reaped the benefits of my baking. I'm no pastry chef, but I do a pretty good job.

I miss my pink KitchenAid mixer. I miss my beautiful clean mixing bowls and cookie sheets, used exclusively for cookies. I miss words like "cup" and "tablespoon"! I miss things like 350F. I know...it's not that hard to convert those things to grams and Celsius, but I miss the familiarity of working my way through MY kitchen with MY tools!

So, after being in a foreign country for about 6 months, I finally decided to attempt to bake something. That was the easy part. I talked to my roommate about the Czech words for "flour", "baking soda" and "baking powder" and headed out to the grocery store. I thought brown sugar would be easy...but after two stores just opted for the unbleached sugar to use instead. At the first grocery store I showed the woman the words for "baking powder" because I couldn't see it anywhere. She finally handed me this little packet. (They put everything in little packets here.)


Then I asked for "soda" because I still didn't see that either. She was puzzled, looked around for a bit and finally handed me "saf-instant".


There was no peanut butter (for the peanut butter cookies) to be found at store #1, so I headed off to store #2. I was skeptical about the "soda" since my roommate told me it would say "soda" on it. At store #2, where I picked up the way over priced Skippy, I found something with the word "soda" in it. Upon arriving home, my roommate told me that the first woman sold me yeast. (And I'm not 100% sure that the "soda" I got is "baking soda".)



There is nothing at my flat with which to weigh anything. So, against all of my fine baking instincts...I had to EYEBALL all of my ingredients! It was painful!

However....despite all of these things...I got compliments on my peanut butter cookies. They were NOT phenomenal....I wasn't all that thrilled, they were certainly not my best work....but they were a crowd pleaser!