Wednesday, May 31, 2006

what the ..?!?

what the hell? where did all these people suddenly come from? I guess, that's from the link on The Hose. Now I feel all pressured to write ... more regularly anyway, for everyone knows a blog is like a plant. I needs to be tended to, or it will die.
I'd like to compare my blog to a cactus. If my blogspot faces the same death as my plants, I'll be seriously depressed. Not only because that would mean no-one is reading it anymore but - worse - because that would mean I haven't found time to write. Like now. I really don't have time to write so I am talking bullshit.

before I go...
News in short:

- bought a new car. well, actually...it's a few years old. And it has 253.000 miles on it. (cheers!)

- must find better job (to buy better cars)

- I crashed my other car. And I knew I was going to. Had a premonition (spelling?) minutes beforehand.

- Rosa, Lucas, and Rick (Lucas' dad) came to visit. It rained for days and yesterday it actually snowed (2 days before June, mind you). You can imagine the fun we had...or better the fun they had. I was just very happy Rosa was here. Rick I wanted to kill at the end of the week. He is like Dario (with his bad habits) times 4. He's also a very sweet guy but I now finally understand why Rosa cannot/doesn't want to be with him.

- one of my dearest best friends (Anita) is getting married and she asked someone else to be her maid of honor (something about that this friend of hers asked her a few months ago and she felt obligated to ask her in return). When she told me (thinking I don't care about crap like that) I started to cry like a bitch. It was embarrassing. I am way too emotional lately.

- we still don't have our stuff (from the move) and it's been 2 months.

Monday, May 22, 2006

my blog sucks

my God. look at the statistics of the DailyKos Blog...




I will refrain from posting my own statistics for self-preservatory purposes. Also, it would just really be sad to look at (in comparison).

Anywho.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

happiness is not a matter of location

Reminder to myself: Happiness comes from WITHIN, dammit.

ok. so, I am trying to figure out how smart my move back to Austria was but I am too darn busy to really think about it. I guess, it also is just too early to evaluate...and ... somehow, I am convinced that my judgment is currently clouded by
a) too much work
b) the cold-ass temperatures (it is almost June, for Goodness sake)
c) the fact that I miss my friends with an incredible desperation

I know, that this place is best for my kids...at least, for the most part.
I generally feel safer...
Maia already got lost and returned in IKEA, disappears and comes back with all kinds of kids (usually girls a few years older than her) she makes friends with, goes to the neighbor's house to play, etc. etc.
I don't have to worry about schooling or healthcare, and I am already approved for the monthly child-credit from the state (about 180 Euros/kid).
She will soon walk to Kindergarden and then to school by herself and her/our lifestyle will be completely different. She will be a different child than if she were to grow up in the States (and in NYC)....tell me what you want - I can see it in the children here. They are very different in the way they are....more innocent, if you will. Dario pointed this out, as well.

However, despite all this, I have to think about what Rosa said to me: Don't sacrifice your own happiness for your child. They will be fine here or there.
But I am not sacrificing my happiness....I am just adjusting my preferences, I think. Sure, I like living in the States (maybe not in the big city anymore...it's too much stress....but I am sure I can find a nice spot somewhere)......but I think this environment here is best for my girls and isn't it my job to make sure I do what is best for my kids?

Now, if Dario becomes unhappy it will become a different story, for this is not his home....

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Must see URLs

(totally on the web 2.0 trip)...

Specially for the New Yorkers:
http://local.alkemis.com/ (check traffic via live webcams, listen to police radio, check subway discrepancies, etc.)
------------

http://www.digg.com (a news portal with a new approach to editing)
http://www.netvibes.com/ (make your own personal portal - very dynamic. very fast. very cool)

http://www.placeopedia.com/ map stuff
http://www.wayfaring.com also map/traveling stuff

http://jumpcut.com/ make your own video online.
http://eyespot.com/ same thing as above
http://youtube.com/ (which, really, you should know by now)

http://del.icio.us/ (tagging - a real big thing here)

http://www.peekvid.com/
yeiiiiihhhh….I get to watch some US TV! They even have Grey’s Anatomy! ...no Gilmore Girls, though :( ....yes, I am a Girlmore Girl addict. There, ...now you know it.... and no, I am not ashamed of it. The dialogue is excellent in that show.

http://www.programmableweb.com/matrix this ...is just kinda cool ..if u are looking for a tool

what is the freaking point of love??

What is the point of love? I am just wondering.
...What is the genetic purpose for love?
I am just wondering because I have noticed how often love is so misplaced that it really messes with a whole array of otherwise well functioning parts of our lives.
Why is love so out of our control? Why can we not choose who to love and who not to love?
We should at least be able NOT to love the people we also hate, for whatever reason. Or NOT love the people who really would just destroy our lives and order as we know it.

So, what is the freaking point of love?
Why does it make us blind to the complete disaster it could cause?

People have killed because of love. People have lost their minds because of love. People have done a whole shitload of quite radical things because of fucking love.
Why can it not be controlled? The pragmatist that I am I would like an explanation or at least a freaking theory that makes sense in the genetic make-up of humans.
What is the biological purpose for love?

This is almost as unanswerable (is that a word??) as the question about why God seems to distribute good luck and horrible fates quite strangely sometimes....but at least there I am already in a completely different realm. The latter is more a philosophical question, whereas my first question is rather a scientific question.
Any theories? Anyone?

Maia sez (die zweite)

Dario to Maia: Would you trade mommy for a horse?
Maia: No.
Dario: How about a thousand horses?
Maia: No.
Dario: How about a flying horse? Would you trade her for Pegasus?
Maia: yes!! :D
Me: (in shock)
Dario (to me): Don't worry. She was gonna trade me for an ant earlier. At least, you got up to a mythical character.
Me: Yeah,..I guess.

*****
Maia and I attended The Appasionata (a hugely successful horse-gala event travelling through Europe). When we bought a show-program for 5 Euros (about 6 bucks) we never even opened, by the way, she told the girl who was selling us the magazine that she loved her. The reasoning behind this is less a matter of emotional connection but more of fascination by beauty...or shall I say...superficiality. I really don't know where she's got that from.
Anyway, much later...as we were leaving the show actually, Maia turns to me and tells me Mommy, I love you soo much. -- ooh, that is so sweet, I say but before I can reciprocrate she adds: yeah, but I love the girl who gave us the program more. --Alrighty, then, I thought trying not to get into a discussion about how many times she has told me she loved me and how that now suddenly meant nothing... ;)
...the mama-drama....or vice versa.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

how Maia fell out the window

Maia fell out the window today.
First of all, a note to all fathers if left alone with your kids: Do not call your wife while the kid is still screaming in the background and then have the first words out of your mouth be "our child fell out the window!" You already know she is o.k., just still upset, why are you going with the shock- opening-line? This can have devastating consequences. I almost had a heart-attack. I was shaking, I couldn't even form a sentence.

In the end I didn't care about any of his reassurances that Maia was o.k. She fell about 7 or 8 feet and she was still crying, so I just left the office to go check on her.

Apparently, D had tried to plug in our X-box (the one we brought with us from NY ..i.e. 120V vs. 240V here). The thing burned out immediately (just as our DVD-player had the week before), producing big smoke clouds. Naturally he ran to the window to air out the room. He then turned back to the game console and next thing you know he heard Maia crying outside. Baby joined right in. A kind of solidarity cry, so to say. Maia had fallen out the living room window and landed on the path below it - a grid of concrete plates and gravel. Thankfully, Maia must have mostly landed on her arms and legs and mostly on the gravel. I told her to thank God for that...and she wondered if he was there right next to her, protecting her. He/She must have been, cause this could have gone awfully bad.
Thank you God!

the corporate world and me

wrote this Monday (1st of May) night but had no internet to post ...so I am adding it today.

I am beginning to wonder, whether I am made for the corporate world. Or maybe I am just too old for the corporate world, …in other words…I just don’t have that youthful, exploit-me-I-will-work-for-18hours-for-practically nothing drive anymore. I don’t care to kiss ass…well, really I never did, so thanks to my dad for the laissez-faire up-bringing….no respect for authorities.

Anyway, …today I spent from 9 am until 10 pm in my chair at the office trying to tame the news. I was signed up for holiday duty, which means you do the job of 6 people by your damn self. Others seem to manage this between the normal weekend shift-hours of 9am to 6.30pm. They even have time for lunch and coffee breaks. I on the other hand, did not budge and still managed to fuck up. I later on watched the late-night news on CNN with great despair – realizing how many stories I had missed during my shift – and a bit in awe about the fact that I had managed to single-handedly make hundreds of thousands of people (I forget the exact number of daily vol.at visitors) a tiny bit more ignorant (...at least about the day's news, that is).
Really, I do like the projects but the editorial duty is killing me. There is so much routine needed to complete the job in time and I seem to be unable to get into this routine, since I only have 2 days of editorial duty a week.

Anyway,…today when I finally arrived at home longing for some rest, I found myself faced with a mess, which was just impossible to ignore. Poor D, who had anticipated my home-coming since the clock struck 6.30 was laid out on the carpet – next to the electric heater - with a fever. The baby was sleeping happily next to him, missing a diaper.
Since I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, I welcomed the dirty plates from the kids’ dinner left on the kitchen table. I hungrily scraped off the cold fish-stick leftovers -something I would usually discard with a disgusted grunt – and washed it down with some flat soda.

Now it is almost midnight, and I have to be back at work at 9am. So, I better go. I hope Dario will feel better tomorrow. It sucks to be sick and have two kids to take care of.

Oh…a cute-zie report from the Maia front:

Maia to Dario:
You know, my favorite thing in the whole world are horsies. And then unicorns, and then Mami, ...........and then baby.... and then Daddy.

Maia sings a Good-night song to me and baby (baby being Nayla, who just turned two the other day) ;)
There was Mami and Maia and Baby and Daddyyyy…and they rode on a flyiiing horsiiiee…over the seaaa to Ameeeerica….and then a crocodile ate them…..and theeen a whale ate the crocodile….and sooo the crocodile got a belly-ache and spit them all out again….and soo they were in the whale….

I lost her there…since I was almost falling asleep but I told myself that I had to write this down. Of course, it would have been nice if I had actually stayed awake to hear the end of her song. Sorry…. I’m sure there are more crazy storylines where that came from. Will report again.