This month's post will be pretty bloody short; I've decided that it's not worth discussing any of the work related bull shit. It's the same old stuff. I'm beat down, pissed off, wiped out, and still foolish enough to think I can make a difference.
At any rate, we'll move right along to a few of the highlights (all three of them) of the past weeks since early November.
I did sneak away to Heidelberg to spend a weekend with a former colleague (someone smart enough to get out of the rot) and his family. This involved the opportunity to push a 2 year old in a stroller up the cobblestones of a steep incline to the castle. Frankly, it was totally worth it, even though I broke a sweat. We spent an afternoon checking out the castle, then walked down through the Christmas markets of the town. Quite a nice way to spend a Saturday.
The relatively enjoyable weekend continued through the Sunday, when I got back to Frankfurt to meet a friend at the local markets in my own town. I'm sure there's more to do at the Christmas markets than drink Gluhwine, but I'm not much of a shopper, so I settled for sampling a handful of the different hot bevvies. After three, one tends to feel pretty fuzzy, and I enjoyed myself right through the night until I woke up Monday morning to go to work.
Funny, I've been strolling into work around 10am recently. Most of that has to do with the fact that I just can't bring myself to get out of bed in the morning. Of course, it might help if I would go to bed before 2am (and a cratefull of beer) every so often. Then again...
Take last Tuesday, where we gathered for another outing at the markets. Once again we drank toasty bevvies, then headed back to the pub for a little lively atmosphere, which ultimately meant that once again, I stayed out past bedtime.
Christmas in Germany is a bit festive, I'll admit. With the temps being near freezing, everyone stays bundled up, and, as every place is nonsmoking now, there's always a small crowd outside of every restaurant and bar at any given moment during the evening.
This past Sunday night, several of us went down to a Spanish restaurant in the neighborhood. They were having a little sing along where, instead of Christmas carols and shit like that, we tended to sing all the folk songs that several of us would remember from our youth. Again, I'm not sure what makes "Take Me Home, Country Roads," so popular among the Germans, but just about any time I've seen someone whip out an accoustic guitar, this song gets sung.
Actually, it makes me smile to see and hear so many folks enthusiastically singing so many goofy folk songs. I'm always a bit surprised to see that both young and old people all seem to know these songs by heart. (I'm not even sure I can sing "Dirty Old Town" start to finish without a cheat sheet)
I'm burning a Beatles CD for a friend, and it's almost finished, so I'll wrap this up. No particularly fantastic news to report other than that I'm now able to stomp around Frankfurt with an ipod; what the fuck was I thinking for waiting so long before buying one of these? I've been enjoying irritating people on the train by blaring various bits of angry rock and roll. And, in the three weeks that I've owned it, I've twice gotten off at the wrong U-bahn stop, and one morning got on the wrong bus for work, which actually would have been pretty funny had I not already been in trouble for being late 4 days on the fucking trot.
Speaking of angry rock and roll, the other week the night before an International football friendly, about 40 football hooligans came into the pub for a couple of drinks before heading out to rumble with folks. It was quite the interesting few minutes, but fortunately, rather peaceful.
So, I've got about 60 hours of work to do tomorrow during my last day in the office before holidays. That pretty much means I'll be working throughout the Christmas break. Lovely.
keep the faith.
bryan
soundtrack - anything you want...just turn it up
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