It's been a good week. Maybe not the best week ever, but that would be a pretty big ask, and I personally don't like to inflate the expectations. It's kind of like those folks who head out for the night on the town with plans to make it the "best night ever," only to find themselves severely disappointed at the end of the evening.
Sure, I was pretty disappointed in myself right after I watched the dumbest movie on Netflix at the start of the week. It was not so much that I was disappointed in the quality of the film, but rather the irritation with myself for simply not turning off the TV and not throwing away 2 hours of my life.
This week I continued my goal of drinking about 4 to 5 liters of water each day. It is a whole lot easier to do when the temperatures are as warm as they have been. Overall, I am quite sure that my body appreciates what I am doing. Yes, going to the Klo every 15 minutes can be a bit annoying, but the benefits certainly outweigh the negatives.
At the Kiosk on Monday evening, I was telling a friend about my recent water chugging initiative, and the word "chug" became one of the words of the evening. There is really not a German equivalent, though I suppose saufen could work.
(Quick pause while I step away from the computer to visit the bathroom; it's 10am and I have already drunk a liter of water).
So, as we continued our Kiosk Abend, Teddy told us about his concern that his season ticket to the Eintracht had not yet arrived. Normally, the pass arrives to the ticket holder a few weeks after the season ends. I pointed out that this was a World Cup year, and sometimes that changes up the summer schedule a little bit. He conceded this point, but was still curious as to why it had not arrived. Furthermore, he wanted to make sure that he was home when it arrived in the post, so he hoped that it would arrive before he started his holidays.
At the kiosk, there is a little counter where one can rest their beer (or whatever), but the space is not huge. Our group is usually 4 to 5 guys, so we take up a little bit of room. This regularly means that other patrons will ask if we are part of the queue. Sometimes it can get pretty busy for Papri (the nice woman who runs the kiosk) and people do try an make sure that there is some sort of order.
At any rate, this particular evening, a blind guy with his guide dog approached the kiosk, and I moved out of the way so as to give him sufficient room to get to the counter. He has come by the kiosk before, and I had noticed that with all of us standing there, it might appear that we were all waiting in line. Meanwhile, Teddy was continuing his complaint about the delay in getting his season pass, and wondered aloud if he should call the ticket office. As the guy waited for Papri to give him his change, he turned to us and said, "Did you not read the notice that they sent out, saying that the season tickets would not be sent out until the end of June, so don't bother calling?"
We were all a little surprised, not least of all, Teddy, who sheepishly clarified that he had not read the "fine print" from the notice. The guy continued chatting with us for a few minutes, and explained that he had always been a season ticket holder to Eintracht, also. When he was younger (he is around my age, I think) he still had his sight, and apparently once he started losing his sight and knew he would eventually be blind, he made the decision to continue going to the stadium for the matches. It turns out that there is a little section in the stadium where a fan can sit and have access to a sort of "play by play" podcast. So, he attends all the home matches, too.
I think this is a really cool thing. I never have considered this before, and it gave me something to think about. Teddy immediately asked if the guide dog got to go in the stadium, too, which is a question I wanted to ask, myself. The guy answered that his dog had to remain at home, but the access to the stadium was sufficient. With that, he wished us a pleasant evening, and headed on his way.
It is experiences like this that make the Kiosk evenings so absolutely brilliant.
I remained in a good mood during the next several days, even though the heat and humidity was starting to annoy me. Of course, the oceans of water I was consuming kept my body pretty fluid. I had a chance to skype with just about everyone in my family and it was good to catch up, even with the frequent interruptions ("I'll be right back, just need to step down the hall a moment")
Thursday morning, I started having some problems with my espresso machine. The normal pressure for proper espresso should be between 9 and 12 bars. I was suddenly only getting 4-5 bars. This usually meant that the coffee was too coarse, so I had to adjust the settings on my grinder. Unfortunately, this proved more difficult than I thought, and I ended up wasting about 250 grams of coffee as I mucked around with my machine. I exhausted my supply without resolving the issue, so, after a quick trip to the bathroom, headed to my local Rösterei and purchased another kilo or two of coffee. It was extremely hot and humid, and I was feeling really frustrated.
Once I got back home, sweating heavily, I picked up my phone to send a text to Nadja, saying, "it's hot." Out of nowhere, suddenly the skies turned grey, the bottom fell out, and for the next 30 minutes, I experienced one of the finest storms I can recall in the past 5 years. The temperature dropped about 8 degrees.
It was awesome.
I changed the content of my text message to "hooray for rain" and pressed send. Nadja and I had been caught in a rain storm a few weeks ago, which required me to dash home and get her a rain jacket so that she could walk home. This storm from a couple of days ago was much more lively. Rain was blowing into my kitchen, but I didn't care. I felt like that guy from the 80s 7up commercial. We traded a few more messages, and then finally the rain subsided, leaving things quite a bit more pleasant than they had been earlier in the day.
My coffee machine seemed to react, also. After a couple of adjustments to the grinder, my coffee was back on track, and I was back to 11 bars of pressure. In fact, I seem to have gone from one extreme to the other, but personally I like a bit more oomph in my espresso.
So, as the work week came to an end, I traded a couple of mails with Chris, wishing Lori and him a happy anniversary. He gave me the quick update that his oldest daughter was off to a little college experience for the next few weeks. We had discussed this last year, and, not only was I quite impressed and proud, I was very thrilled that she would likely be going to my alma mater (re: bacon roo post from a few weeks ago). As it turns out, she will be going to another strong school for this academic experience. Still, it is a great opportunity for her. I am really pleased.
Let me be clear, this is not really a Doogie Houser thing, but it is quite remarkable. She is a 7th grader, after all. For me, I like the contrast of a girl who is quietly brilliant, but very apt to misplace her sunglasses and/or manage to get her tennis shoes wet by slipping into a fountain, sometimes simultaneously. Of course, that does not sound too different from the average college freshman, all things considered.
For me, I think it just cool. We need to encourage our young folks to pursue education, and let them find their way. Another friend of mine has just started taking her 8 year old daughter to the library more frequently, and is amazed at how she is really getting into reading.
I have always been an avid reader, and have very fond memories of spending time in the library myself as a child. I firmly believe that the experience helped me to be a pretty good student, and here years later, I can proudly say that I am a guy with an ever so slightly above average intelligence that has to urgently go down the hall to the gent's. Again. 3 liters (now) of water doesn't like to sit around for too long. Should make for an interesting afternoon sitting outside the pub, which is where I am headed as soon as I finish this piece.
see you out there
bryan
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