The Short Maturen Wedding

Jbird has made a little video of the wedding in Michigan.  I don't want to post it publicly for their privacy but if I haven't sent you a copy and you'd like to see it, please let me know so that I can email you the link.

I'm listening to you

I want to become a better listener.  I want to be able to really hear what someone else is saying, without needing to offer advice or an anecdote from my own life.  Teaching put me in the habit of telling others where to next.  But why is my advice better than their own?  I want to learn to help others think about where to next without telling them what I think they ought to do to get there.  I think this involves more listening, perhaps some asking of questions, and less telling.  I'll need to bite my tongue and think before I speak.  Maybe I will get better at it with age and wisdom.

Gullible or...

There is a man that has knocked on our door twice selling a magnificent cleaning product.  Maybe its' magnificent, he wasn't very convincing.  It supposedly removes ink from cloth, he showed me himself, but I can't be sure that was a true ink pen he used.  He's really pathetic, I even wonder if he's homeless.  I can tell he's been told 'no thanks' many times by the way he turns to leave after every few words.  

The first time it was easy, I had students arriving and I could say "sorry, I'm busy" and close the door.  But the second time I was stuck.  He remembered me as the music teacher, his daughter even plays viola*.  I also happened to have stain remover on my grocery list.  Lastly, his product has only a small number of ingredients in it, one of them being citrus.  They were all the criteria I had in my head, I had no excuses.  The only issue is his product was rather pricey, although it's meant to be concentrate.  Jbird says he's a great sales man.  I say we don't give enough money away to people in need.  I'd much rather pay this sad man than one standing at the lights with a sign.  Anyway, I really do need a stain remover, I'm sick of not quite being able to get stains out of clothes with my baking soda recipe.  I hope he uses the money well.

*I didn't tell him that I play the viola before he told me that, I promise. 

A view of home

I watched a couple of these NZ ads.  They're narrated by our local cult celebrity, and I thought they were nice enough to share.  They're not based on exact truth.  Helicopter rides are not an every day affair, and we don't all live in the South Island (in fact, I think only 1/4 of our population does) surrounded by those gorgeous mountains.  We'd like to, but it would be pricey (to pay for the helicopter rides) and cold (to live that far south).  It doesn't really matter where you are in NZ, the scenery is always very pretty.  Not like here in the States: once you're on a highway, that's basically all you'll see.  Concrete.  And the tips of dry corn or another unknown crop.  I guess that's a fair description of the midwest.  Though I know there is other scenery to behold, our travels just haven't taken us there yet.  Anyway, in my opinion, NZ is always a good view.  I don't think that's the tinted glasses of the homesick speaking either.

User Pays

This is the only NZ replay I have been able to find from the Olympics.  The only one.  Just in case you don't bother to check it, it's an iphone video of a t.v. screen of NZ winning a gold in rowing.  I viewed exactly 6 minutes of the opening ceremony.  The US and NZ has cut me off.  And I feel mad about it.  NBC has the rights.  I don't have a t.v. and won't subscribe to NBC online.    Even if I chose to pay to watch it here, it would all be US centric.  I'm not that interested in the US's kabillion medals.  Or listening to them pat themselves on the backs. 

No NZ site will allow me to view olympic replays.  I don't really know who they're trying to protect and with our increased global worldliness, I'm not used to being left in the dark.  I read the NZ paper each morning and have mostly  been able to follow how we're doing, but it's getting harder to keep up.  And I want the darn replay!

I happen to be proud of my little country claiming victories.  What's the point of the Olympics anyway, except to promote nationalistic pride? And if I am feeling frustrated, I'm less likely to try to 'participate'.  I'm more likely to start cutting the ties.  

And that's my rant.  Mostly.

The wounded became the nurse

At the end of a supremely fun weekend of many happy moments, Jbird heard one of his best mates was passing through Bloomington and they decided to meet at a bar.  As I like to prepare myself for the week ahead on Sunday nights, I declined the extended invitation.  I knew Jbird wanted me to come too, but I wanted him to enjoy this short visit with a friend he hadn't seen for a long time, without me holding him back.  I definitely don't like a late night on a Sunday.  Jbird, however, is on summer vacation so it was kind of perfect for him.  About an hour after he left, I realised I needed to meet this guy, I'd heard so much about him, so I decided to join them.  Jbird wasn't picking up his phone - which is pretty standard fare for both of us - so I tried biking to his favourite local bar, hoping to find them there but they weren't.  An hour later he arrived home to pick up some liquor and try to convince me to come to a new friend's house for cards and drinks, and to meet the old friend.  After some discussion we decided I'd drive and he'd bike so that we could leave at different times.  I tell you all of this to give some necessary detail, but also to let it be known that I can be spontaneous, even though I don't always choose to be.

We went, they drank a lot, we played cards.  I felt happy to have some new friends.  At around midnight, I said my good nights in a weird "alright, I'll see you around", kind of way. I guess it was late, they were drunk, I was sober, and there was a cat that I was allergic to: I was ready to go.  I shook Jbird's hand - it was a joke, you had to be there - and told him to bike home carefully. At the time everybody was acting like it was time to call it a night, Jbird was even on his bike when I left, saying his own farewells.  

When I got into bed later, I felt a little bit worried about Jbird so I tried calling him.  And texting.  Not that I really think he'd answer if anything was wrong, I just wanted to know that he was okay.  When there was no response, I decided his phone was probably in the car but I was too tired to get it to find his friend's phone number and call him instead.  I figured he was probably alright, I was just being a worry wart, and I fell asleep.

Four hours later, Jbird climbs into bed.  We talk briefly about the night, how much fun he'd had, he was sorry he didn't come home when I did, and I start to drift off to sleep again.  But he's breathing funny.  Then he asks me to turn off the fan, he had an accident and the air hurts.  After my earlier worry, I panic a little bit: Are you okay? Did a car hit you? Can I put something on it?  It turns out that on his way home he rode into a land island at high speed when he was checking behind him for cars and flew off his bike.  He takes a pain killer and we decide a little bit of wizard ointment will help his grazes.  For some reason, I cannot deal with dressing the grazes.  They're not really awful, I've seen worse, but it's like my body goes into shock. The combination of the worry and then something actually happening has sent me over the edge.  The room is too hot and I can't breathe so I fuss around getting the AC working and then put my head between my knees, apologising all the time to my wounded soldier because I can't help him when he needs me.  

Eventually we both lie down on the bed, talking, and the next thing I know someone's shaking me "I've got you, I've got you, it's okay." but I can't work out who this person is, he looks so strange. I feel as though I've been dreaming and for some reason I'm on the floor. There's a weird buzzing in the room and I can't hear properly.  I'd fainted and fallen off the bed.  Slowly my wits come back but the sensation won't pass.  The room is spinning all around and I have a terrible ache in my stomach.  So I crawl to the loo, unsure which end will explode first.  Oddly, I don't throw up but I have diarrhoea.  I had always thought this kind of a situation would call for throwing up rather than the other.   

It's Jbird who brings me a bowl, water, then chilled water, and finally ice wrapped in a tea towel.   Later when I'm shivering in bed he turns the AC and fan off telling me I'll be okay, and he'll put it back on if I need it.  How pathetic, my husband falls off his bike and it's me who needs the nursing.  The next morning there's blood on the sheets from his wounds and I feel as though I've been hit by a bus - most likely more for the lack of sleep than anything else.  He sleeps on and off all day and I manage to dress his wounds without fainting again.  I think we'll be okay.

tea towel - kitchen towel

loo - toilet/bathroom, obviously

land island - raise curb in the middle of the road. What do Americans call that?   

wizards ointment - an amazing herbal remedy for open wounds found in NZ

Local Carny

When we first arrived in America, we went to the Maryland State Fair with our buddy Alana.  I had been surprised to see they had 'circus freaks' on show for fair tokens.  I'd thought they were an 1800s kind of thing.  One of the highlights at that fair was a squealer race, racing piglets on their own miniature race track.  We enjoyed wandering through the produce, flower, pie, and jam competitions, and tasting local honey.  Funnel cakes and candy floss, face painting and corn dogs.  We were new to America and looking for the American experience.  And we got it.  Not that these things aren't available elsewhere in the world. They are.  But this was all done with an American accent.

Jbird spontaneously took me on a surprise date to the Monroe County Fair this weekend.  I have been feeling stuck inside with my books all week and it was time we made use of the car we've been lent, it was a treat.  We went on the ferris wheel and the tornado for a dollar a piece.  We had pineapple whip and country style lemonade (aka: cordial).  We sat and people watched, spotting cowboy boots and screaming toddlers, as well as Miss Monroe County Fair stuffing her face with fair food.  Everybody was stuffing their face with fair food.  Then we finished the night off at the derby.  What more fun could you ask for than watching beat up old cars purposefully ram into each other until they can't move any more?  It was loud, adrenaline fuelled, and exhilarating.

Lego wire

I tried wading my way through The Wire while we were living in Baltimore but by season three, I couldn't take any more senseless violence.  The show provided fun shots of that city we had grown to love, though it was a little disturbing that it was 'based on truth'.  And a good reminder not to go out alone at night.  Did you watch it?  If you did, you might like this lego version which shows all five seasons in five minutes.  It's pretty neat. 

A visiting kiwi

We had a kiwi guest last week stop by for lunch.  She's originally Argentinian but I knew her as a little, little girl in Auckland when she was BFFs with my mum and we'd see her all the time.  It turns out her mother was a professor at IU and her brother's still here.  She visited him here just last year but we didn't know of her Bloomington connection and she thought we were still in Baltimore.  At the time, I noticed on that-social-networking-site-which-shall-not-be-named that she was at Indianapolis Airport.  I commented on her post, asking why she was there and telling her where we were.  Turns out she had been in Bloomington for two weeks and was on her way home.  What a surprise.  

Her sister-in-law passed away unexpectedly last week so she is here again to help her brother and attend the funeral.  She made sure to include us in her visit this time.  It felt so strange, and so normal, to have her over being all kiwi-like.  The world feels really rather small at a time like that.  It's a fun kind of story to tell.

Gingerbread deliciousness

In my opinion, ginger works extremely well in sweet treats, ginger crunch and and gingerbread men are up there in my top-twenty treats to bake.  This year I have also been baking this ginger bread recipe which has a yummy chocolate icing*.  The combination of spices in the cake batter and melted chocolate and whole cream in the icing are decadent.  The only change I made was halving the icing recipe as I didn't have time to pipe decorations and I didn't have crystallized ginger.  This left more than enough icing on top.  My in-laws would disagree, but I think crystallized ginger has a funny texture and flavour, and I wouldn't have used it even if it had managed to sneak itself into our pantry.  The cake held its own without.

*icing: glaze