Got up this morning, in a haze as usual. The toilet wouldn’t flush. Ugh, guess I’ll have to call the plumber. But wait, now the shower isn’t working… or the faucet. Turns out there was no water working in the whole apartment. And then I get to work (which is currently 4 blocks from the apartment), and the water is out there too. Water main break, won’t be fixed until tonight, if we’re lucky. Turns out I really need a shower in the morning to get my mind functioning. Caffeine is nice, but the shower is really vital to me being productive at work. Fortunately, my employer realizes that no functioning bathrooms = bad place to work and is sending us home early. Which turns this week into one of those fabled 2.5 day work-weeks. Woohoo.
Archive for December, 2008
Water, or the Lack Thereof
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008Do I Know It’s Christmas?
Wednesday, December 24th, 2008So I’m sitting here on December 24th, with some nice sunshine coming in through the window, and it’s sorta tough to imagine that Christmas is tomorrow. But at this point in my life, I’m kinda used to this and it doesn’t bother me much. On the other hand, I am no longer a single dude and need to make accomodations for my loved ones, which I’m trying to do the best I can.
Life in Belgrade is progressing well I think. We’ve been attending a lot of holiday parties over the last couple of weeks which have been nice, if nothing else to let us know that we are social beings. I found that the last couple of months in Miami/La Paz left me with a lessened sense of socialization, if that makes any sense. Basically, I didn’t feel like there were a lot of people in my life to interact with, and it’s nice being back in a normal social situation. The best part is that the people here in Belgrade are by and large really cool and friendly. Three years here won’t be a chore because of the people.
We are still in temporary housing, but did get to tour around our permanent apartment the other day and it’s pretty swank. It’s in a fun neighborhood of Belgrade (Vracar, for those of you keeping score) and is plenty big for Jessie and me. It’ll probably be another month or two before we get into it, but I think it’s worth the wait.
I’m a little sad because the mail came today, but we didn’t get anything major in it. I’ll have to get used to the mail only coming every once in a while again.
And that’s it. Have a good Christmas and keep your heads down.
Boom-shaka-laka!
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Summer of ‘93
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008Some days are honest, some days are not;
Some days you’re thankful for what you’ve got.
Some days you wake up in the army
And some days it’s the enemy.
Back in the summer of ‘93, everything in my life was on the brink of changing. I had graduated from high school, in a place where I had never felt completely like I belonged. I didn’t feel like the person I really was, but rather a placeholder. Mind you, I didn’t know who I was supposed to be, I just knew I wasn’t quite there yet.
Anyway, I was trying to prepare myself for the “self-discovery” I knew was coming (or hoped anyway). I saw myself becoming “cool”: listening to “cool” music and being culturally aware. Hence, I bought my first U2 cd. It was Zooropa, and that alone should I told me that I was barking up the wrong tree. All the “cool” people who listened to U2 had been listening to them for years, or at least since Achtung, Baby. One way or the other, Zooropa really spoke to me, though I will admit that I didn’t really understand what it was saying until years later. But the lyric that really stuck out was the one above. It was the one that said to me: no matter how bad you feel when you get out of bed in the morning, at least you didn’t wake up in the Army. (Understand that at the time, and to this day, my visualization of “waking up in the Army” is one of waking up cold and miserable in a foxhole somewhere with bullets whizzing over my head and artillery rattling my teeth, no so much just being a professional soldier which could probably be ok in the right situations.)
And I kept that in mind through the vague hardships of college, both scholastic and personal, and then in my professional life as I meandered around the world. It’s been a boon to me when I get a little down.
Anyway, I woke up the other morning with a different, personal lyric echoing in my head: Some days you wake up in Belgrade, and you know what, it put a smile on my face.