can't sleep.

i am excited about my birthday, SUPER excited about seeing old friends again, excited about different friends meeting each other.

too bad--perfect sleeping temperatures tonight. mmmm, 68, how i love you.

so i have this little list of things to say on my blog and now two weeks later some of them don't make sense.

"jon stewart said 'snuffy smith!!!'" reads one. i guess my favorite sexy host mentioned the comic strip that makes me hate the world most. interesting. thank god i've never had to see that piece of shit since i moved out of ohio--des moines and chicago papers don't run it. probably because it's not funny.

let's see....oh! this one i get. i just finished _haunted_ by chuck palahniuk, author of _fight club_. it was extremely disturbing. yet i kept reading it. and i never went looking for this book. i just needed something to get me through eight hours in the teeny-tiny shop where i work. it did the trick. i grabbed it at random, recognizing only the author's name and having read none of his work...or so i thought.

you see, i have pretty damn good eyesight. good enough that i can sit behind someone on the bus and read their newspaper while she's reading it. and i was on the bus back from nate's one time and i was checking out the book a girl in front of me was reading. and i thought, what kind of fucked-up shit is that? it's so violent! and lo....as i was reading this strange, ugly, fascinating story, one of the last chapters in the book struck me immediately. i knew exactly where i had seen it about three weeks ago. coincidence? or is mr. palahniuk trying to tell me something?

i have here also a note that says "i never want to live a life where the traffic report part of the news is important to me."

and, finally, a sign i saw:

"You Can Earn Your High School Diploma with in 30 Day"

maybe i'll try sleeping now. toast and yogurt in tummy, blog guilt off my shoulders...fan on my face...sheet on my back...

eek! i didn't even talk about the german exam. it was okay. i feel okay. even satisfied, perhaps. but certainly not cocksure. or even sure without the cock. the first passage was difficult. it was about austrian patriotism. the second passage was about the flu vaccine, so it was easy to understand and there were lots of good medical words that barely needed to be translated.

i will find out in about a month if i got a "high pass." okay, now back to bed.

the new MD on "celebrity fit club" looks kinda like barack obama. take that, cable-less nemesis! ;)

i am so pleased because i finally thought of something original to make myself for supper: BBQ tofu, cheddar, and fresh spinach in a WW tortilla. yum. love barbec/que.

so, my german class met today. i am not the only one who admitted that the practice exams for today were "brutal" and that "i almost cried." (except, i really did cry--emotional day yesterday.) so i feel relieved b/c our teacher says we're all at the point we should be at now, and it's going to get better.

entertaining weekend. i went to clint's birthday dinner at the kit kat club. it's a place with astonishingly good drinks and mediocre food and a drag show every half-hour. i had a lemon meringue pie martini. it came with a froth on top that stayed intact throughout prolonged sipping, thus definitely conveying the "meringue" theme, while the "pie" theme was reinforced by the graham-cracker-crumb rim job (oh god, sorry, not what i meant, but i think i'll leave it and see if i get crazy google hits). i mean crumbs ON the rim of the GLASS.

anyway. i was broke after dinner, barely had money for the bus home, and had to stand up in heels on the bus. suck-o. slept well though.

saturday morning i busted some brunch with atool and erik. yummy yummy cultic vegetarian brunch. lazed around their place for a while and met the roommate. all was good.

our class is done with the german textbook and we are now doing practice exams, the real exams from the past 3-4 years. i haven't felt so stupid in years. probably since the last time i had to do a greek sight reading exam. i actually cried last night simply because i couldn't translate the damned paragraph. i mean, these things make NO sense. for example (zum Beispiel): "We want to predict the historical development from the transformation in the attitude of people toward music in the duration, and to imagine first only the unheard-of diversity in the effects of which music is capable. Hardly any other art had such an immediate influence on the human soul, and namely in good senses as well as evil ones. There is music of repulsive triviality and alarming depravity."

obviously this is a problem with my translation SUCKING, but still! does that make sense to anyone else?? oh, here's a winner: "At first we must simply put up with a given and indisputable fact that certain arrangements of tones in many people, of which we approve, that they possess a special sensitivity for music, emotions and feelings, possibly arouse also thoughts."

i am so glad i have class today so i can relieve this horrible suckingness.

the fourth of july was very fun, very relaxed, very very good. i went to the BBQ being held at the house of two of my friends from school and a friend of theirs. i saw a lot of people from school, which i hadn't in a while, and i met some new people too. after about three hours of nibbling and drinking, i went to nate's apartment. we ate some more and drank some more, and then we ran over to stand on john's roof.

incredible. i have never seen so many fireworks go on for so long. we stood on the roof for probably an hour and a half, turning around and watching the fireworks 360 degrees, all around, every neighborhood shooting off their own displays.

the next morning colleen and i went out for breakfast. we chose the first place we saw, and that was...an experience. we were the only two customers. there were all kinds of people back in the kitchen, i guess having their morning social hour. then some guy came in and harassed the lady making our breakfast and some other lady told him to get lost. we didn't really order breakfast, either. she just sort of whipped up something. eggs, bacon (oops), french toast, and a little salad garnish--cucumbers and tomatoes and such. and coffee.

so, a pretty rockin' holiday all in all.

"four minutes to go time! every year, on time! let's go! i'm looking for the pipers...."

yes, there is a parade forming in the parking lot below my windows. so i'm up here jamming out to the band and watching the kids with decorated bikes and the girls in the drill team and people with banners advertising their shops. it's a good kickoff to the holiday. i've got two BBQs to go to today. yay! i made two bowls of pasta salad.

HORSES! oh boy!

"stay behind the band! DO NOT GO in front of the band!"

i am also trying to do my german Hausaufgabe for tomorrow. i don't think it will quite get done. oh wait. it is now "go time." so it's getting quiet. and i think i can work now. whew! quite a morning...it started with tape-recorded banjo patriotic songs as the registration began. (the band is infinitely preferable.)

now to do some german, shower, and get ready.

i realize now that i devoted an entry to the speaker of the turkish parliament, and i never said a word about the king of jordan! well, i was on my way to grab a little lunch and was thinking about checking emails at work, and when i got to the building....well, i didn't get to the building. in fact, i was not allowed to cross the street to the side where the building is. a policeman told me gruffly to get back. i said, but i work there, can't i get in, and he said no, no one can get in. and then he said it was the king of jordan. barricades, black SUVs, cops everywhere, and a huge crowd of people just standing there. well, i have a little bit too much to do to gawk. (yeah right) but it was hot out so i just went on my way....a different way, with no barricades and gruff cops. later i found out that no one was there. everyone who works full-time had been told to stay home that day. the shop wasn't open. the museum wasn't open. so i guess i didn't miss out.

in other news....

german is going well.

i've been invited to a couple of parties coming up. fourth of july BBQ and clint's b-day at a martini bar (chance to look foxy in this heat?)

i'll try to earn money where i can, realizing that i may not get a second job for the summer, just lots of short temp things.

it's cherry season, yum yum.

my mom has a new job, yay mom! and dad LOVED his father's day present (hint: it's an instrument of death, entirely unexpected from his veg daughter).

frank wanted to play tic-tac-toe with me for control of the relationship. i think he might have let me win, because i never win games of strategy. i think he might have been drunk, because i don't understand the logic behind that at all. um....he might come visit me in august. keep your fingers crossed.

there are beautiful men everywhere here and i don't feel lonely at all. it's the best of both worlds. i get to look at everyone on the sidewalk and in the library and on campus, yet i am entertained to bits by a frozen pizza, some cable TV, and the newspaper.

i started reading a book by joseph campbell. Big Ideas there.