Another great truth

shutupmerlin:

I don’t understand why tampon ads always show girls on their period like dancing and wearing white skirts and making out with someone and stuff. 

Surely a more effective advertising campaign would be a bunch of girls in various states of misery

Like, curled over in bed going WHHHHY and eating chocolates on the couch and sobbing at the end of The Notebook and getting angry at not being able to open a jar and crying when the cat doesn’t want to cuddle

Followed by ‘We understand. We’re sorry. Let us make it a little less awful.’  

And the wrapping shouldn’t be like pink with polka dots, it should be dinosaurs stepping on buildings and stuff

I literally L-ed OL, and plus this is the right idea. Not to take it too seriously, but in addition to being humorously put, this point of view also seems to highlight our cultural fear of female bodies and their associated functions.

(reblogged from seemysunshine)

a great truth

In third grade: Learn cursive, you will use it for the rest of your life

Middle School: Write in cursive if you want, but make sure it's readable

High School: Please don't write in cursive

College: If you do not type it I will not grade your paper

Duties

While my host is out on a ride with a guest, I will go spread out the piles poop around the field. That’s just how I doo.

Bob Dylan, “Buckets of Rain”

One of my favorite Dylan songs.

This is about half of what I did today, on my first day of living the quiet life. Other activities included playing with the dog, reading, and visiting the horses. 

Thoughts on clouds

(This is out of order, but I can’t figure out how to edit the posting date…)

May 23, 6:25pm

We just took off for Berlin. It was cloudy in Newark, and when we gained enough altitude, we broke through the clouds into blue skies. It’s beautiful. I realized how much I love that moment on a flight. It’s amazing to me that there’s hardly anything at all above us - a very few clouds. While we’re up here, we’re cut off, physically, from the world below. It’s also pretty neat to see what the tops of clouds look like.

I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s something so physical about the experience. When I’m far away from someone who’s really important to me, I can almost literally feel a string between us. I can see it in my mind’s eye. Somehow that seems related to the feeling I get from flying over the cloud cover. I feel, maybe, like that string is missing, the one between me and the world, the planet. Like we’re so close to outer space or something. If we just kept flying up…

The feeling isn’t the same when there aren’t any clouds below - I mean, when I can see land, any at all. I guess it’s still there, the feeling - I feel it, but it’s not quite as profound.

I feel an expectation with travel, especially travel for no particular reason (i.e. business trips don’t count, or trips for competitions…), that the traveler will find answers. But maybe that’s not the point. Maybe the point is to realize that you don’t need and/or can’t find answers, and to instead think of more questions. I was thinking about that feeling with the cloud cover, and the closeness to space and so on. I thought, I don’t know how to explain it yet, and I’ll probably be able to explain it, if not fully then at least better, when I get back. But then I asked myself how I’d feel if I can’t explain it, when I get back or ever. I wondered if maybe part of the allure and beauty of the feeling is its mystery. 

Maybe it’s because I started reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance today, but I thought, what if part of living is not necessarily the answers you find, but the questions you ask?

Also, this is the cutest. When I have a horse and a dog, they will take each other for walks.

Only a Few Problems

May 23, 13:45

I’m locked out. Not but four hours in Berlin, and in fact this is my second minor emergency. That’s actually too strong a word, but so is “disaster,” and “problem” doesn’t quite capture the situation, either, with the opposite shortcoming. 

I have all the necessary keys, and I even tried them out on the door while I was inside, with the door open. Apparently one of two things is true - either the lock doesn’t work the same way when the door is actually shut, or I’m doing something wrong. I’m certain the latter is true, and perhaps both.

I just hope none of the other residents (oh, it’s a flat, and I’m in the building, but not the apartment) get home before Astrid or Armin come back. That would just be the most embarrassing. It’s 145pm, and I’m fairly certain Armin has already come home for his break. He said Astrid should be home around 230ish, so I’m hoping she’ll come soon.

The #1 issue is that I’m parched (it’s about 80º F out there), and I’m sure I’m legitimately dehydrated from the flying and the heat.

Issue #2 is that I’m soooo sleeeeeepy. I think as a result of both dehydration and fatigue, I have a mild headache, and I’d like to nip it in the bud. Prior to getting locked out, I had resigned myself to a fateful nap, despite my better jetlag judgment (that said, though, what jetlag judgment?).

There’s no water around except a crateful of large water bottles sitting in front of a door downstairs. I can’t bring myself to take one, though - what if someone catches me?? It’d be just my luck that this building has a sense of trust about leaving things outside their doors, and I’d be the jerk who stole something.

Also, my feet are still swollen.

I could walk over to Armin’s teashop - only 10 min away - but for one thing, it’d be just my stars that Astrid would show up moments after I leave. More importantly, though, my shoes are hurting my feet. I knew they would, and that’s part of why I brought them. I figured, I won’t be walking anywhere that’s clog-friendly very much, so I might as well give them a chance to really get broken in when I do wear them. I do not regret the decision, I just wish, this time, I’d worn my flip-flops. 

The first minor emergency, by the way, was at the airport. Like a fool, I forgot to write down the address of Armin’s teashop, to which I was supposed to take a taxi after landing. Naturally, Berlin-Tegel had to be the oldest airport ever, so wifi was nearly impossible. I sheepishly asked for help in English, and had to go to an internet kiosk, then back to Information for euro coins, but they sent me to Currency Exchange, as well as check-out-that-free-kiosk which was 100% defective. Eventually I went to Curr Ex, but the for-pay kiosk was not taking money cooperatively, so in a fit of desperation I tried my computer one more time. Chrome? Nope. Fine, I’ll try Safari. Oh!!

I have no idea if using a different browser actually helped - if Chrome was confused or something - or if it just so happened that at the point when I tried Safari, the wifi in general coughed the fly out of its throat. Regardless, I got internet and found the addresses and phone numbers. I succeeded in engaging a taxi, but only with some help from one of the drivers who was on a break. Why, Deutschland, would you use a blue sign with a blod red X over it just above the word “taxi”? I guess X marks the spot in Germany.

The Skinny

Now that I’m in Germany, and will be writing about my travels, I thought I should explain what it is exactly I’ll be doing while I’m here in Germany. I’ll be working in the lakelands of NE Germany at an equestrian vacation spot. Guests come out to go on trail rides that last anywhere from a matter of hours to 3 days. There are four horses, and I’ll mostly be tending to them and the property, as far as I understand. I think I’ll also be riding with the guests sometimes, but since there are only four horses, I’m not sure how often. 

My employer’s name is Anje Wiegner, and I’ve spoken with her on the phone and emailed with her a lot, but we have not yet officially met. I’m currently staying in Berlin with her parents, Armin and Astrid, until tonight (Thursday) when we’ll drive up to the property in Schlemmin. 

opcion:

bearded vulture (por iPhotograph)

This vulture has really got it goin’ on.

(via theanimalblog)

I take that back. It’s also cloudy, so it’s unlikely that anything will look cool. Unless we fly over a mountain, and there’s a parting of the clouds. Also unlikely.

The Time Is Now

I’m about to board my plane! I’m about to go to Germany! Ah! Well, first stop Newark, NJ, but that’s only a 3-hr layover, so it basically doesn’t count. And the sun is about to arrive! Our plane is supposed to take off at 614, so I think maybe the sun will be rising at that point. 

please hold….

Well poop, I just consulted Google, and it appears sunrise is officially at 532 this morning. No matter, it will still look cool in 45 minutes. 

Okay, here I go.

I didn’t think of that

I am packing for Germany, and I decided to put on my tall boots to see how my new boot socks feel. It didn’t really occur to me that my boots wouldn’t fit me the same. The problem is the calf. So I’m wearing them while I pack, trying to stretch them out. Is this going to work? I know not. I just hope my muscles don’t cramp up from all the pressure.

"But if you knew you might not be able to see it again tomorrow, everything would suddenly become special and precious, wouldn’t it?"

- Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore (via hazor)

(via hazor)

Here’s the photo finish, right at the wire. I’ll Have Another is in the foreground, and you can see Bodemeister’s muzzle just on the other side of I’ll Have Another’s neck. He won by literally a head’s length. 

I just thought, what do they call I’ll Have Another in daily life? Nothing about his show name lends itself well to a nick-name or a name “for short.”