Some requests I've been getting ...

okay, really this only applies to Ericka, but for those of you hangers on who are waiting for my typed words to give you every nitty gritty
detail, you're just going to have to wait.

it feels like the trip was a year ago. i need photos to actually feel like i was there. i am sad because already the memories of the entire escapade are fading.

i'm getting the pics this week. hopefully they won't break the bank.

in other news, i'm taking evan ice skating tomorrow night for date night!! i'm excited because i don't think he's very good at it and that means he will have to hold my hand and there will be lots of body contact. woowoo!!

Patrick Stewart is on Frasier!!!!!!!!!! (thanks for the reminder ryan)

Really Good Week

Today is my Friday. It's actually Thursday, which makes it even more special because it means I can light candles, write, and listen to David Gray after the house is clean and Evan is asleep. Normally I'm too tired to do this, but since vacation I feel differently about things. Being away from all the stress and all the little things I took for granted really made me appreciate them.

So I'm smoking a little pot, drinking a little wine, and reflecting on my good week. It's rare that I end a week feeling so good (it could be the dopamines from my run earlier) and I am feeling open and less than cautious, so I will share.

This week the following things happened:

1) I got accepted (and decided to enroll in) a Master's program. I'm going to get my MBA and a Master's in Human Resource Management. I need a big deep breath because my lungs feel like they are going to burst against the pressure of my rib cage. I am really feeling the gravity of this situation. It's a lot of money ($37,000!)and it might change my life. I mean, many things change one's life, but this feels so important. I never knew how much a master's meant to me until I decided to do it.

For clarification I think I should tell you all that I'm not going to some fancy school like Berkeley or even a private school like St. Mary's. I'm going to a place that is small and allows me to keep my day job so I'm not bitch ass poor, although I will be when I get out. The loans are staggering, especially since putting myself through UCSC cost me $25,000.

I just hope my brain is worth it. I think so.

2) I've been having these awesome, super productive meetings with my boss lately - he's listening to me like we are equals. This feels strange to me since he is a doctor and I am, as far as I can tell, a white-trash kid with some good business sense. But it's cool. Really cool. It's awesome to know that someone you respect and look up to also respects you and values your input into his or her business. I mean, if I were in business for myself it would be really hard for me to listen to someone else. (Hence the master's .. that way I will know who to scream at when things go wrong)

He trusts me with his business. And his money. And his staff. It's like being queen of a very small universe; you know the place you rule is miniscule but it still feels damn good.

Momentum

I love the way it feels to be in motion, intellectual, physical, emotional, or otherwise. I love the feeling when something important takes hold of me and sucks me in. I succumb to it on a cellular level.

So yeah, a lot of momentum this week and it feels damn good. There are some people out there I am missing (Steve, Liz -both of you, Jess, Ryan, and Sam). People I would like to share these events with, but I'm too shy and somehow I'm embarrassed for feeling proud.

I hope your week was as good.

Kurt is back!

here's what he had to say:


i wanted to know if i could have a picture of you ? i was going to tell you i never seen the po dept so paraniod acting .. lol it's quite amusing to watch. I went to see what my friend was talking about and they are pretty funny there about as smart as a 15 $ puppet . anyways i been busy with work i just wanted to meet the ragging blue flanel whenever your free .


so i don't know understand most of this message.

there is, however, one thing that i do understand.

he refers to the ragging blue flannel , confirming both that he's an idiot, and that someone who's known me for ten plus years is fucking with me.

raging blue flannel was my handle back in the days of BBS's. he's an idiot for misspelling it. typo or no, it's someone's name, someone he's trying to mack on.

Coincidentally I met my friend Sam through the BBS's.

Sam, I know you have a hand in this. Tell me who your freaky friend is.

Thursday, September 4th...

Evan and I rent bikes and ride around downtown Salzburg. Then, as Evan is leading us home (I should know better by now) he makes a wrong turn. I notice him doing it, but I think he's taking us home a new and exciting way. (I should really know better by now)

We get lost. At first it is fun and clever and we both think we are so cool not obeying the bike laws in Austria, and it is only scary when riding in the street with traffic. We stick to the sidewalks when we can, which is either rude or illegal because pedestrians are giving us odd looks and sometimes shouting things at us.
We are speed demons! We can't pause to understand their gibberish!! We are excercising in the sunshine of Austria!!!

Finally, we fail to locate the mountain that is our landmark, or the fortress above the middle of downtown.

But we're having fun so we keep riding.

Evan takes the lead again (really, am I that lazy or just really that stupid?!) and we head underneath what looks like the Auto Bahn on-ramp. There is a metal guard-rail on the right side, but we are going so fast we don't have time to make a ninety degree turn and get on the bike path.

We enter a tunnel on a very narrow, high speed, two lane road. The cars are driving a minimum of 100km/h. They are blasting by us, and we are pedaling furiously, trying to shorten our time in the scary (but exhilarating!) tunnel. There are 15 inches between us and the traffic; we are riding at top speed, and all I can think is, "Please dear god, don't let me biff it here."

Of course we make it through okay, crack up, and come to the Coca-Cola factory, and the Stiegl factory.

A plane flies over head - we are near the aiport, a fair way off from the main part of Salzburg.

But then we find a huge park and ride all the way home on a snuggly-safe path.

Later, we go to the wedding rehearsal; I practice ringing a Tibetan ceremony bowl.

We go out to dinner with Tom, Carol, Maria, Kim, Pep, Rachel, and Noah. I order a mixed salad: iceburg lettuce with tomatoes drenched in italian salad dressing. Underneath this lettuce disguise is potato salad, shredded, pickled cabbage with rye seeds, and cucumber salad. A delightful surprise - you really get what you order.

Get back to Pension Gugg and drink some wine with our gang.

Weird shit that happens to me...

And you know what, it's getting kind of creepy.

So you all know about classmates.com, right? Well I'm registered there, but who isn't?

Yesterday I get an email from them saying I have a personal message that is about to expire. Curious, I open it. It's from someone I either don't know, or can't remember.

His name is Kurt and well, yeah.

He claims that he got my info when I put it on a demo list for CD's ... this is possible, but I can not remember any specifics.

He tells me he is looking for a girlfriend in between school and work.

So I ask him if he knows what I look like because as far as I can tell we've never met.

His latest message reads:

Somebody i know says they know who you are ... anyways if you ever want to meet i could do lunch or something. btw what did you think of my picture ? anyways ttyl


I know someone is fucking with me, I just don't know who. Fess up.

Cute girls in pink dresses get free coffee from Starbucks

Apparently.

And it's happened more than once, with different workers.

Weird.

I've been getting free coffee for dayz there ... I don't get it.

Today I ordered the following:

(2) tall lattes (normally $2.30 a pop)
(1) tall caramel macchiato ($2.65)
(1) tall coffee ($2.55 - I think)

for the low low price of $5.85.

Wowza!

September 3rd

a.k.a. Meat and Cheese is not a good hangover food.

So I'm hungover for nearly the entire day. There is no greasy food to be found in Austria (which is weird considering they only eat meat and potatoes) but still ... nothing. We go to the other B&B where most people are staying (the Frauenshuh) and Pep, Kim, and Evan convince me that a beer will make my hangover disappear.

ha.ha.

So I barf, while my employer watches from his bedroom balcony. Then, he and his wife invite me into their room and proceed to give me a shoulder rub and put a cold compress on me. How sweet. I have it so good.

Then, a chartered bus comes and picks up all 50 of us to take us on a tour of the Lake District on our way to Andrea's parent's house. The bus is pimp, but I feel sick for most of the ride; it doesn't help that everyone on the bus is getting tanked.

We get to Andrea's parents house where there is home-made schnapps (and the two sips I got down were excellent, nothing like the bar crap) and a full on pig being roasted, ten chickens, and all sorts of other food. It was great. They had an authentic band come and play some polka for us and they did some Austrian type dancing.

The whole thing was really neat, but I was too tired and hungover to really appreciate it.

We left around midnight - everyone was full, exhausted and happy.

Tuesday, the 2nd

Oh Tuesday. Tuesday was such a great day. Definitely one of my favorites for the entire trip.

So I woke up with the sunrise (again) and bugged Evan to wake up for about an hour. Then I gave up and read for about half an hour. Then I fell back asleep and slept in until Frau Gugg (that's "goog") woke us up with a phone call. Andrea had scheduled a group tour for us to go to the Salt mines and we had 40 minutes to shower and get to the other B&B before we left.

So we do the tour - our guide's name is Mannfried. He was super cool. We went driving around (in the rain) the hills of the alps, and eventually into Barvaria to get a tour of the salt mines. We were with Rob's family (Rob is Andrea's husband) - his sister's and their husbands. They were all very cool. So on our way to the salt mines we pause at the documentation center of Eagle's Point. (That was Hitler's stragetically placed Alpine Chalet). I bought the biggest pretzel in the world there ... I think it was larger than Nick Rozema's head. :) We even got a view of the place when the clouds parted momentarily.

Then we do the salt mine tour and we got to cut in front of a two hour line because Mannfried hopped over the turnstyle to get us in faster. We dress up in traditional miner's garb with leather pelts on our butts and walk through the mines learning about the way they do it and what not. Then it's down the miner's slides we go! That was super fun. Evan and I were especially good at it and got some great velocity. We made the others jealous. Then we took this barge across this cavern where apparently the salinity is higher than that of the dead sea. Wowza. They let you taste the water if you want and it was damn salty.

Then we came home and napped for a bit.

That night, we end up going back to Die Weiss with a fraction of the guests who are in town for the wedding. I had to ask some older cabbies for directions (in german) and then decipher them because Evan told everyone that he knew where we were going. Haha. I should have known better. But it was cool because we got there okay.

So we get to Die Weiss and order second dinner and start drinking Sturm and beer and Schnapps. I become very friendly with Jamie and Pete - two of Rob's long time friends. We share food, opinions, and shots. And I get drunk.

Then, I got balls.

I approached a table of Austrians to discuss politics and rant about America. Of course, I have to do this in German - and managed to have a very heady conversation with a guy who speaks some English. We alternated between Deutsch and English. I had a crush on his friend Wolfgang (everyone is named Wolfgang there) and I spent about an hour and a half talking with them - still drinking.

Tremendous fun.

So then, I guess we were still hanging out and being generally obnoxious when Evan and Pep and Kim decide it's time to go home. Pete was still with us, but his wife had left already. I showed him my boobs and he complimented Evan on them ... there may or may not be pics, we are not sure. So Pete calls Evan Seabass the whole time because Evan looks just like his cousin's husband and his name is Sebastian a.k.a. Seabass.

So Evan and Pep get Pete and Kim and myself outside. And then it's easy ... all we have to do is get a cab back to the hotel. But nobody speaks German but me ... and in Salzburg they don't speak as much English as you might think. At this point Pete and I are trying to unlock and steal (?) cars from the street so I'm not much help.

Then I found an unlocked bike. muahhahah. (yes Amber, just like that time in SC) So I get on the bike and I am preparing to ride away (to where, I don't know) but Evan and Pep literally hold each end of the bike so I am pedaling but not going anywhere. (This story made me laugh so hard I cried when it was told to me later). I guess they got me off the bike and into the cab. But stupid cabbie won't take five people, so Evan (Seabass), Pete, and I pile into a cab.

And then the singing began.

As it turns out Pete and I know almost all the words to every song in the Sound of Music. So we bust into song on the ride home, at the top of our lungs. Evan keeps telling us to shut up and we just keep changing the song, and if you've ever seen the movie you know there are many songs to choose from. So for ten minutes our super annoyed cabbie has to listen to us mock his country; in an effort to reduce the noise cabbie rolls down the windows in the back of the car. Pete and I could care less, but much more sober Seabass is cold, so Seabass keeps rolling up the windows.

Something like this:

The hills are alive ...
(windows down)
With the sound of music ....
(windows up)
Aaah aaah aaah ahh ...

The rest of the words escape me right now ... but maybe I can only do it when drunk. I'm not sure.

We drop Pete off at his hotel and send him to his wife, and then I decide it's a good idea to sprint back to our B&B. (we didn't have any more money so we couldn't afford the cab the 200M or so back to our place).

And then I went to sleep. And that was Tuesday.

September 1st

Monday. We got kind of a late start, but we met up with Steven to do the downtown Salzburg thing. It was cold and rainy and windy. So we head into town via the bus, which is great and only takes about 10 minutes. (although walking only takes 20 minutes and saves you about 3.40 EU round-trip).

Anyway, we get into town and we walk up to this really awesome fortress called Festung Hohensalzburg. It's been standing since about 1000 a.d, although it wasn't complete until about 1400 a.d. or so. If you don't know a lot about the history of Salzburg you should know that it was run by the archbishops of the catholic church and remained a soveriegn entity until about the mid 1700's when they surrendered to Napolean without a fight. Prior to this surrender, the fortress was never conquered by force.

Anyway, the fortress has a room with all the portraits of the archbishops who contributed to the building of the fortress, generations of people who helped create and bulid the thing. It's set high up on a hill, (and the walk is steep) but you get a fanstastic view of the entire city and beyond.

Salzburg is famous for its salt, and because they had such an abundant supply they were able to salt their meat and live for months in times of siege.

The story of the red bull

In case you don't know, Salzburg is the home of one of my favorite beverages, Red Bull. You might not be impressed with it as a drink, but that's okay because in a minute you will be impressed with the reason they call it red bull.

So back in the day before the fortress was even completed, the Turks decided to invade Salzburg; instead of confronting them at the fortress where they knew they would lose, they decided to lay siege to the city and starve the Austrians out. Well, the Austrians only had one bull left to slaughter and eat and they knew it was only a matter of time before they had to give in. So they painted the bull different colors (yellow, brown, black, red) and had it run around the fortress grounds each day, to confuse the Turks and make them think they had several bulls left. Apparently this worked because the Turks finally gave up thinking that if they still had that many bulls left inside the fortress there was no way they could wait for them to starve.

And because of this there are bulls all over the city in random places painted in various (and sometimes patchy) colors. Like outside cafes and stuff.

In addition to this fascinating story, there is a full on museum about this fortress and they have an entire room set up to display weapons and armor. It's most impressive because when you walk in, there are about twenty soldiers coming at you with spears, swords, and maces, and they are all at least partially dressed in war armor. It's amazing.

So that was the first day in Salzburg.

We also did Mozart's house that day; it was neat to see the original sheet music and musical instruments, but the huge amount of tourists with flashing cameras really put me off and I retreated as quickly as I could.

THE TRIP

I'm going to itemize the days for you all ... and it will take some time, but I will eventually get them all done. Sorry if the posts are long, but a lot happened.

here we go:

August 30/31st

We got to the airport really early. Like three hours early ... but then we waited in line for a long ass time and realized we should be in United's domestic area, not Lufthansa's international area. duh. So it wasn't so bad.

Then, we get on the plane. And that's all fine and dandy, but we get breast feeding mom (no, she was not hot, boys) and her baby. And she makes me climb over her to use the restroom ... and she was rude. The entire flight to Denver. It's okay though ... I figured we would be switching planes soon.

Plane switching commences. I sit next to crazy Russian lady who mumbles to herself the entire flight. Also, her thighs spread like jelly onto my seat and underneath the arm rest such that the arm rest is at a 45 degree angle most of the flight. I don't sleep. I get nutty.

I take an ativan. Thank god for that. I conk out too late in the flight and end up transferring flights in Frankfurt as a walking zombie. I don't remember any of it ... at all. Ask evan. Apparently I woke up just in time to ask a cabbie (once we were in Salzburg) to take us to our B&B. so my german was functioning, but the rest of my brain wasn't.

we sleep.

we wake up and andrea (that's my co-worker who got married) is at our B&B with her fiance's brother, Steven. We decide to go out for dinner, which really means get some food with your drink. We go to a place called, "Die Weiss" (i think that means the white, but i could be wrong). anyway, it was really cool and in the bottom of their glasses it said, "Macht Spass im Mund" which literally means, "make happy in mouth". That cracked me up, especially since I read it and knew what it was.

So we had this drink called Sturm (storm in english). It's only available three weeks out of the year and basically it is white wine that hasn't completely fermented yet. It's very sweet and fruity, kind of like a wine spritzer, but very high in alcohol. Then we tried some schnapps which is nothing like the crap you used to drink in 7th grade. This schnapps is more like slightly flavored vodka, and it burns the entire way down. But we got a sampler of schnapps and we passed each shot around after yelling, "Prost!", which apparently means Cheers.

got home around 12:30. Slept. I woke up with the sunrise ... don't ask me why because I can't do that here. But we had a great view of the hills and watching it rise was beautiful.

Woah nelly.

it's been a long and exciting two weeks. and i have so much to tell all of you, from the beauty of salzburg down to the nappiest and worst motel i've ever stayed in. (it had bed bugs)

i am thoroughly broke, but i am now the proud owner of an italian leather jacket, some wine, a crystal necklace from austria and various and sundry other goods.

all in all the trip was excellent. my german was impressive, even to me, and i think i could learn it fairly easily to the point of fluency. that's exciting.

i learned a lot while i was gone, about america, other cultures, myself and evan. i think though that the most important thing i learned over the course of the trip was that i need to eat a lot more (and a lot more frequently) than most people i know. this proved to be a problem in other countries, especially when normal people only get hungry every six hours or so. and i drink a lot of water and that is very expensive in other parts of the world.

it's about 7am my time so i need to sign off and hit the hay. suffice it to say i've missed you all and will post with wonderful and exciting stories in the days to come. i missed blogging so much i had dreams about it.

bye.