Bad bookaholic.

It's no secrets I can't resist books. I would go day without dinner if it meant I could buy the book I've been wanting to buy for so long.

Well, I got the list of books for next year's writers workshop. Yikes!
Three books, look super cool.
Solutions for Writers: Practical Craft Techniques for Fiction and Non-fiction by Sol Stein, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg and The Creative Writing Coursebook: Forty Authors Share Advice and Exercises for Fiction and Poetry

Problem is, browsing Amazon I found six more books. Equally kick-ass sounding.
And all on writing. Love says we should just order them all, 'cause they would come in handy with my novel plans, but dishing out 90 £ like that scares me. We haven't had spare cash for anything like this for... ages! And now we have some spare cash, but I don't want to go totally bananas either ('cause we've already done that by buying the special editions with figurines of the LOTR extenden "Return of the king". One each, 'cause we couldn't agree on who would get it if we got just one).
But then again... I'll be earning some money now myself too, I could allow myself to splurge... And what the frigg, this is what I get my student loans for! School books and such... ahh...
We'll see. I'll let you know how it goes.

Must have!

This t-shirt. T-shirt Hell has the coolest t-shirts. Most of them are seriously offensive, but kinda funny too.
This one is one of my favorites. I need to get that one. As well as this one.
This one is funny as hell, but I don't need it.
This one is kinda funny too. I like the horns. Wouldn't this be perfect for our evil images, karla?

My man's a real man... errr...

A typical guy thing is to take care of the car, right?
Sure, Pea's not very stylish or cool in any way, but keeping her clean and waxed helps a little on how she looks.
One would think this was a mans job, huh? OK, so last time Pea got waxed and buffed, *I* did it. And struggled like an idiot because parts of the varnish is very damaged and you simply can't make it look shiny anymore.
Well, today I asked Love to join me buffing the car.
He's sweet, really, but used half the bottle of the expensive Autoglym stuff I bought before I even noticed. And when things don't work the way he wants them to, he gets irritated. This includes computers (especially computers!) and Pea.
So he was muttering something under his breath that I didn't catch. Good thing, probably.
But at times he surprises me. He doesn't do very manly things like pop up the hood and fiddle around underneath there. Nor does he speed. Or watch sports all weekend. In fact, he hates sports. And the amount of mindless action flicks is only a minor part of his extensive DVD-collection.
And he's less technically talented than I am. He's the creative type, realistic things don't interest him.
Which means that I fixed the stereo and put up my own curtain thingies.
And I built the guinea pig cage.
Well, at least I learn enough to not depend on a man to fix my things!
But when having said all this, I must say Love's absolutely perfect. I don't want a macho man who'll rather get us lost instead of asking for directions. I don't need a soccer idiot occupying the telly every saturday instead of doing something fun for both of us.
And he talks about feelings without freaking out. We talk, about basically everything.
He's a big softie, and not very macho, but he's just the way I like them.
And besides, he has more muscles than me and did really buff the car better than I could. Weeee!

Bah... tan?

I don't tan. Never. I only burn, painfully, if I don't apply SPf 12 or higher (and how the frig am I supposed to tan with that??).

Natusan Holiday Skin body lotion seemed to be a nice answer. Body lotion with a dash of tanning-thingies in it.
Yeah, if I could find it, sure! I looked all over town yesterday. Seriously every store thinkable... All sold out, everywhere.

Oy, people? Most of you tan perfectly fine, leave the cheat stuff to us pale whiteys! *lol*

But I did find it, when grocery shopping much later, so I'm ok.
Errr, well... Except for that I've never used anything like this before. I made sure to apply it evenly, but can't say I see much of a difference. Except on my hands. I've tanned between my fingers! Ick... Serves me right for being too stupid to use such things properly.

Ooo puuurty!

No, I'm not copying you karla, I was planning this entry yesterday already ;)

Yesterday was one of those tourist-trap days. Warm, sunny, blue and green. There's something about those days that is just beautiful. How do you know it's such a day? It's very hard to miss. Suddenly all you see is colour and it just brings a smile to your face. That's why those days are blue and green. If you've experienced it, you know what I mean.

But that's not the only reason why it was such a perfect day to me. I had the day off! I wasn't just sitting home alone during the day because I had nothing else to do, I had the day off from work! It's such a huge mental difference, I don't know how to describe it better.
And I had money. So I went shopping. I was all out of interesting beads, so the crafts shop was my first stop. Then I looked all around town for a specific lotion, but more on that later.
Oh, and popped by the Antique books shop. Mmmm smell of old books... (I'm weird, I know)

I haven't been shopping with my own money in so long... I felt very privileged, walking around (the gorgeous summer town this is) town, knowing if I saw a knick-knack I wanted, I could buy it.

Oooh! And in Sweden this weekend, we bought German hot dogs that we BBQ'ed. Yummm!
And Lidl had cheap cherries (49kr for a kilo, instead of the regular 110kr). Can it get any better?

Sorry...

... for not posting an update for a week. But it's been a very busy week! I've been working most of the time and had a visitor this weekend, so no time to go online.
Another thing is that my computer has completely spazzed and will soon be placed in a very dark, lonely corner (as in the closet). It shuts down a minute or two after starting it, which of course is annoying and makes it impossible to use.
But, Love has borrowed a kick-ass computer from work that he'll be using as long as he works there, so I get to borrow his old computer. It's a notch better than my old, and it's the one I'm using now, but I haven't gotten around to transfer my own stuff over to it. So it doesn't feel like my own yet... bah. But OK, enough of my boring computer problems. I mean, who doesn't have those themselves? Computer problems I mean. Computers are bad!

Work? It's coming along fine. My co-workers are a charming, funny bunch of people and as soon as I learn the rutines, I won't be bored when there's periods of no-customers.
I'm loving working with people again, it's something about it that's just... fun! Most customers are polite and nice, and some even somewhat flirty. I have, for instance, discovered that being very nice to foreign men/boys... well, they take it as flirting. But hey, I got tipped! *lmao*
The free coffee at work is a bit dangerous though. I am very sensitive to caffeine, and after two cups (it's so yummmmy!), I'm a bit hyper and very chatty. It works with the customers, though.

My shift Thursday was a bit too much. For the last week, we've had really warm and sunny (lovely) weather, and on Thursday the AC crashed. At the end of my 8 hour shift, the temperature started sneaking below 30 degrees C, but most of the day it was up at around 32-34. Whoa! I drank about 4 liters of water that shift, and still had a band of crazy monkeys discoing inside my head.
And Thursday was Midsummer day here, which is always celebrated by BBQ'ing, preferrably outdoors. Love dragged me along to meet up with friends right after work, even though I would have preferred to just 'lapse on the couch.

But this weekend was great! Love had a friend coming over that he hadn't seen in ages (and I hadn't met her at all!). I was a bit skeptical, but all unneccessary. She's one of the sweetest people I've met. And she loves books just as much as Love and I, so we hit all the book stores in town. Then we went out to BBQ and go for a swim. Like I said earlier, we've had a week now with amazing weather. And Saturday was perhaps the loveliest.
But the water was still too cold for my taste. I always put my feet in to check, and if it still feels cold after a minute or two, there's no way in hell I'm going to submerge myself further. But Love and Bilbo (her nickname) are fullblood vikings, so they went for a quick swim. Loonies, I tell you. I completely blame my German heritage for being so frozen. I mean, I'm only half viking, how can anyone expect me to be cold resistant? So I stayed on land, being the land lubber I am.
Yesterday (as in Sunday), Love, Bilbo and I took the ferry over to the other side of the fjord and drove to Sweden to stock up on meat and cheese for the summer. If you live in Norway, you have no trouble understanding why. Meat is expensive. And a lot cheaper in Sweden. So a whole lot of us do this. Fill our fridges with meat. I mean, two kilos of chicken filets for 90 swedish kr? Not bad. Here you pay 190kr for one kilo.
Anyway, it was a great day for a drive. And Pea behaved better than expected. Weeee!
Speaking of Pea (the car), I'm set on getting my drivers liscence now. The extra money I make from working now? Saving it up for taking the neccessary lessons to get my liscence.
I'm tired of having Pea standing there and me being unable to drive her. And another thing, if Love and I want to take a road trip through Europe next summer, it would be nice to switch drivers every now and then.
Oh well, we'll see...

Too much to handle.

Last night I had a very upsetting call from a friend. I won't go into specific details, but she had tried to kill herself shortly before the call.
This is upsetting enough alone, but she had called me earlier yesterday asking if I wanted to grab a cup of coffee with her. I had told her I had already plans to picnic with Love, but I would love to have that coffee the next day. She said she needed to talk, but she didn't sound so alarming. In fact, she often does call to talk and I usually listen, knowing that talking about stuff often makes it easier to handle. But there was nothing really out of the ordinary yesterday, so there was no way I could have known. But IF I had known, I would of course ran right over to her.
So, 95% of me is just real worried about her. The other 5% is pissed because I feel responsible. I don't need that. I've had a quite traumatic experience similar to this where the person actually succeeded in their atempt (not going into details here either, simply because I can't). I'm still struggling with handling that, so this whole new ordeal is just another burden to that.
Thank everything holy my friend realized in the last minute what she had done and called someone! And she's being taken to a ward now to be looked after, so I hope they'll manage to patch her up somewhat. At least patch her up enough to make her realize that ending it all isn't the solution.
It's so damn frustrating to know a friend you care about having such problems. I mean, we all have our own demons to deal with, but knowing how much pain a friend is and realizing that you can't do much about it... to me, that's horrible. If someone I care for is suffering, I want to make it better somehow. I always take it very personal when I can't. But sometimes it is impossible to make things better, sometimes it's too much to handle...
It's so upsetting... I am very upset now, in fact, so upset I have no idea if this post makes any sense at all.
But I'm not the one needing sympathy, she is. I just hope she'll get the help she needs.

My poor feet...

I had my first two days of learning the ropes at the new job this weekend. Which is why I haven't posted any update all weekend either.
You know, standing upright for eight hours straight makes your feet really sore (duh!). And I had totally forgotten how awful you smell after a day behind the hot dog bbq.
But besides that, I'm so far very pleased. The first thing I had to do, was to read though a workers contract and sign it. Which was such a relief... 'cause last year, working at the convenience store, I had to fight for two weeks to get it, and afterwards everyone regarded me as a troublemaker (which is possibly why they totally ignored that I had lessons at college twice a week, even though I told them). I quit, of course.
But all the formalities look good at this new job. Yay!
And I get free coffee at work. That must be the one perk I will really cherish. Mmmmm coffee! With milk and chocolate in it. Yahooo!
There are other perks also, but I haven't got the complete overview yet. I mean, I don't feel comfortable about nagging about this right away. It's just... stupid.

The weather this weekend has been amazing. Warm and sunny and.. yah... So Love and I took a blanket with us and went to one of our favorite spots by the sea yesterday. It was wonderful, until a pack of crazy Norwegians showed up, with the intention of going for a swim.
I checked the water, it was cold. But they jumped straight in. Like I said, crazy Norwegians.
Well, one of them hesitated and made the loudest screams. He was the only one wearing a wetsuit *LMAO*

This and that

Had the meeting with the job people. Sounded good to me. I'm actually having my first day tomorrow, to learn the ropes. And trust me, by now I'm so desperate for a job I don't mind spending my weekend working. Not even when the forecast says this will be the first real summer days. I can always go out afterwards.

I'm in a great mood nowadays and it feels completely weird. I've been so worried and so caged up in the apartment, I haven't felt like myself in... ages. Now I will get out more often and things are finacially looking better for us. "Feriepenger" is such a nice word! It feels good to actually feel like a real person again. To not wake up and want to go straight back to sleep because you know the day won't bring any good.
Summer is helping too. Walking barefoot makes me happy, strange as it sounds. I hate shoes and socks. And that combined with living in Norway... bah. But summer means I can walk barefoot around the house and wear sandals outdoors. Yay!

But, getting late now and need sleep for tomorrow.
Sorry about the ranty post... will try to be cheerier tomorrow ;)

Have I ever...?

(Shamelessly nicked from Cy)

Have you ever?

Snuck out of the house........ Not that I can remember.

Gotten lost in your city......... It's not that big, so no. I have gotten confused about directions, but that's more due to my lack of space intelligence.

Seen a shooting star.......... Several times. I used to be out for hours with my telescope when I was younger.

Been to any other countries besides Canada.... Err... I haven't been to Canada. But I have been to a few others though. Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, UK, Ireland.

Had a serious surgery........ No

Gone out in public in your pajamas....... Yes

Kissed a stranger........... Nope

Hugged a stranger......... Uh.. dunno

Been in a fist fight........ Yep. Well, I would have, if the chicken turd hadn't ran away, that is.

Been arrested.......... No. I'm a good girl!

Laughed and had milk/coke come out of your nose...... Yeah, coke. Ow...

Pushed all the buttons on an elevator........ That never really did the trick for me. My pranks were more sophisticated (well, those I did, that is)

Swore at your parents......... I'm not sure. I've yelled, but dunno if I swore? I'm not much of a swearing person. Sure, swear if you want to, but most Norwegian swear words have to do with Christianity and therefore makes them useless to me.

Been in love....... Yes <3

Been close to love....... Huh?

Been to a casino......... No

Been skydiving.......... No! Why whould I volunteerly fling myself out of a perfectly functioning air plane?

Skinny dipped........... Not since my tits grew out.

Skipped school........... Yeah. Music school, all the time, unfortunately... I haven't skipped any college lessons though. I skipped at music school because it was so hectic I felt very fried sometimes and unable to attend class... Simply sat down with a piano instead and relaxed.

Seen a therapist........ No

Done the splits........... No, never. I was never very limber, but always had great balance.

Played spin the bottle........... Who hasn't?

Gotten stitches.......... Yep, when removing the moles last fall

Drank a whole gallon of milk in one hour.......... No. I hate milk, because when I was younger I HAD to drink one glass every day. That of course made me not want it, but I had to sit at the table until I had finished it. Because I'm quite stubborn, that sometimes took hours. And not such a good idea from my parents, as I developed a serious hate for milk.

Bitten someone........... Yeah, but not hard. I bite Love all the time. He's thinking of getting me a squeezy toy to chew instead.

Been to Niagara Falls........ No

Gotten the chicken pox....... Yes. The neighbour kids had it, and mum sent us over so that we would catch it too and be done with it.

Kissed a member of the same sex....... Err... It was a "russ" thing. I got a nice, pink feather! :D

Crashed into a friend's car........ No. But I don't drive, so... I do have the cool "Liscence to crash" tshirt though!

Been to Japan......... Nope. Love really wants to go, but I'm very skeptical. Too many people for me.

Ridden in a taxi............ Yes

Been dumped........... Sorta

Shoplifted............ No, never. Not even as a kid.

Been fired............. No. Resigned? Yes.

Had a crush on someone of the same sex......... No

Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back........... Like that's not something everyone goes through?

Gone on a blind date............. Yes, and it was AWFUL.

Lied to a friend............... Not heavy, mean lies. White lies? Yes.

Had a crush on a teacher............ Not a serious one. Not a unserious one either, when I think of it.

Celebrated Mardi-Gras in New Orleans........... No

Slept with a co-worker............ No

Seen someone die............ Almost. But not going into that, if I do I'll just break down.

Had a close friend die........... No

Been to Africa............ No

Driven over 400 miles in one day........... Uh... How far is that? *checks* Not that far, is it? It's a bit further than from here to my parents. So, yes.

Been to Mexico.......... No

Been to India............. No

Been on a plane............ Yes, many times. I'm always worried it will fall down though.

Seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show............. Actually, no.

Thrown up in a bar.......... No

Purposely set a part of myself on fire............ No

Eaten sushi.......... Noo, but I would try it.. I think?

Been skiing/snowboarding............. Skiing yes.

Met someone in person from the internet............ Yep.

Lost a child............. No

Gone to college/university............ Yes

Graduated college/university............. Working on it.

Fired a gun................. Not a real one

Purposely hurt yourself................. Not seriously. I scratched myself real bad when I got the tetanus shot (so that I wouldn't feel the shot), but that's not exactly serious.

Taken painkillers............... Who hasn't?

Been intimate with someone of the same gender............... No

Whoa... work?

It looks like I've found a job. Finally!
The gas station that interviewed me last friday seemed to be impressed enough to call back today. So I've gotten the job, if I want it. It's a two weekends a month job, but the man said it could be more, but I would hear the details when I meet up with them next friday.
Sounds good to me!
But I will, of course, know more on friday.
But still... a job! A frikkin job! Whooo hooo!

This day has sure been good so far!

'Fessing up

I have a dodgy past. Very dodgy. I rarely talk about it, for fear of mockery. My dodgy past was also a no-talk during my music school studies, obviously.
So what was my crime? I was a die hard, plastered the walls with posters, screaming at concerts Backstreet Boys fan. So if you just pick up your jaw from the floor now and don't panick... *lol*
It started very innocently, as a rebellion. The "cool" kids in my school listened to REM and Smashing Pumpkins, and I always wanted to do the opposite, to make a statement. So yeah... Picked Backstreet Boys. So did my best friend (she lurks around here somewhere by the name of Eileen). Of course, it didn't help with them being dreeeamy boys also.. *ahem*
Anyway, this was back in 1997. I was... 13?
Things spiralled a bit out of control back then. Eileen and I spent all our money on magazines that had posters and such, and had a bit of a competition going on for having the most posters on our walls. But Eileen's mum, unlike mine, was completely loco for BSB also, so Eileen won the contest easily.
But OK, I lied about the screaming at concerts thing. I didn't scream. Well, I did at the first one I went to (I've been to four), but that only made me dizzy and lost me my voice afterwards, so I learned the hard way.
But we had a lot of fun at those concerts. It was a period where Eileen and I spent a lot of money on seeing everyone we liked in concert, and we got very mosh-pit savvy after a while. One of the funniest memories I have, is our plans for how to get into the hotel BSB were staying. We seriously planned on making the 1000 NOK we needed for one night at the hotel by writing dirty stories for dirty magazines. Unfortunately I was unable to be dirty like that. Eileen? I'm not sure. Or, pretty sure she was able to, but she didn't want to show me any of her dirty stories. *LMAO*
I wasn't half as crazy as some of the worst German fans the Backstreet Boys had. But I had German relatives who knew I liked BSB. And there was a whole lot more insane merchandise in Germany than here. Unfortunately, I say now, because I find it pretty embarassing having BSB bed sheets and puzzle and paint-by-numbers... But back then I was the queen of cool and caught up a bit to Eileen and the having-the-most-BSB-items contest of ours.

I can't believe I'm typing all this. I still find it extremely embarassing. And Love loves mocking me about it. But I'm not chucking away my cds. I mean, they're cheesy and all, but it's... memories?
But... the reason why I got into this now? Got the new cd today, "Never Gone". And I'm giddy like a little girl again. I'm completely loving it! It's not exactly totally different from the old BSB, but it's a new, fresher sound. Not so much eJay-like. It's pop, of course. But there's nothing illegal with pop. And I should have no guilty feelings for my taste in music, it varies from metal to classical to... obviously, pop.
And I am not ashamed of liking this album :)
But hey... we all have our dirty secrets, haven't we? We all have that one CD we hide away from visitors and perhaps Loves also. We all have our guilty pleasure. I guess this is mine?

Oh, and Eileen? I am so definitively in on the concert. September 29th? I'll make sure to keep the date free.

Possible expat future?

Love has been dealing back and forth with a company that want to make an animated film for some months now.
Now, suddenly, they might want him to not work from here, but over... there. Over "the pond" and all the way on the other side. As in San Francisco. Holy sh...!
Nothing is decided, it's still just possibilities. It depends on the financing and on how much he would earn and what they want from him and... But he's very excited, because THIS is what he really wants to do. Scratch teaching bratty kids how to do it, he wants to do it himself. To earn his living with animations. To be a real animator, not only a teacher.
It's his big dream and if he gets the offer, how can he turn down the chance of a lifetime?
But then there's me... He doesn't want to go alone, and I don't want him to. But I'm in the middle of my studies here... which, to be honest, isn't that big of a problem for me. My opportunities when finishing this bachelor, has sorta been limited more and more, which annoys me. So I'm not even sure I want to finish the bachelor. So, studies are no problem.
Then there's the issue of where to put all our things. According to Love, storage isn't that expensive. OK, that problem solved... But... our babies! Our darling piggie babies! We can't take them with us. And I refuse to give them away... and mum and dad has no room for them. Love's parents? They have room, but are they willing? They're not really the animal-persons you have to be to take care of such animals. Bah...
But this isn't really a problem yet. As I said, nothing is final and we have no idea if this will be something we will have to consider or not. But Love is all worked up and I know I wouldn't let him refuse the offer if he gets it. I simply can't, it's his dream.
But... I have no idea what I would do over there... Oh well, why worry before we know if I need to worry?

Stupid cold

I have snapped up a cold from somewhere. In june! No fair... But it's already getting better (knock on wood), 'cause I've been gulping down large doses of vitamin C. It tastes horrible, but can flush out nasty bacteria, so... Unlike Love, I force it down, even if it tastes horrible.
And so what if I am a snotty Kjersti for a few days? It could be worse.

Weekend

So... Mum and sis spent the whole weekend here. Having mum here was really sweet, but sis... dayum, puberty much? Moody little thing, that one. And had to be entertained constantly, otherwise she would resort to sulking. To be honest, it was quite tiring. I hope I wasn't that bad when I was at her age. I mean, you couldn't even say "no, wait till later" to her without her stomping off to a corner to pout! Yikes! Yes, I know it's not entirely her fault, but it's pretty annoying, isn't it?
But mum was sweet, as always. She loves it here, and I'm not "helping" by taking her to all the beautiful places either. On friday, we took them out for a BBQ piknic by the sea, and she was all green with envy with us. I mean, it's our "regular" place to go for BBQs, and while we've had time to adjust to it being such a beautiful spot, she was caught off guard.
I half-way panicked when walking over there BTW. There were people there! Someone had taken our spot! Then, when we got closer, we saw it was just Simon and friend with girlfriend. Naturally. Simon showed us that spot, so why not? They were just sitting there though, no BBQ. They didn't stay long either, but long enough for Simon to wolf down some chili nuts, so he was pleased.

OK, saturday... Mum wanted to hit town to shop. She was determined to find me some clothes, as I haven't really had any money for such things for... ages. It's a bit funny, 'cause reading Miss M's blog, I see she had a similar experience this weekend too. I guess mums will always be mums, even when you're supposedly old enough to take care of yourself.
Anyway, we looked in every clothes store thinkable. I didn't really find anything of interest, except two tshirts in the last store we went into. Both turqouise of all colours to pick from. I've always detested turqouise and refused to even try on items with that colour. But these thirts were really cool! One has big flamey letters spelling "Destruction Derby" and "Liscence to crash" above it in white letters (my favorite! It's hilarious!) and the other mum picked out because it had a VW van on it, the same type I was (which dad likes to tell all my friends) conceived in. So of course I had to have that one as well. And trying them on, to my astonishment, I look good in that colour. Instead of making me look really pale (I am!), it makes me look a bit more tanned. So, yeah... my disgust with the turqouise colour has taken a blow *lol* I'm actually very picky when it comes to what I put on. I don't give a rats ass about fashion, to be honest. Never have. Actually, I get kind of annoyed if I buy something and find out it's very "in". 'Cause, the way I see it, fashion addicts really don't have a style of their own, they're just sheep. Take the Ugg boots for instance. They're not in anymore, I know, but... WTF? They're UGLY!
But I was always a weird kid, clotheswise. I started wearing black as a fourth grader, and kinda stuck to that for... years! It's actually the last two years I've begun experimenting with colours, even colours I've never particulary liked. Like red. Being an 80s child, I kinda had my share of red and blue in my childhood. But now? I have several red items in my closet. And now turqouise also. But I'll never wear baby pink. I have my standards to maintain, geez... *lol*

But OK, back to mum's shopping spree. The two tshirts was apparently not enough for her. She got me one of those thingies where you put salad into and spin on a handle so that the water jumps out of the salad. That was real nice of her! :D
But most of all, I'm thankful for her visit. It was so nice having her here and to get to spoil her a little. She's always working so hard, and never get pampered. So I made sure she got nice dinners and didn't have to do anything housey (oh well, she vacuumed for me once, but she wanted to test my vacuumer. Weird lady).

Oh, and she passed her exam, and did really well on top of that. She got the message yesterday and was all extatic. She's actually so clever she gets to have another exam around christmas, instead of in a year! Which means she'll finish a two-year programme in a YEAR.
My mum's clever, I tell ya!

Visitors!

Yay! We're getting visitors for the weekend. Mum and my sis are coming over to spend the weekend here. We'll shop, barbeque (if the weather stays nice) and hopefully I'll take mum to my class' end of semester gathering *lol*
Mum's uber-cool, I love her. And wouldn't mind bringing her to the class-thingy.
I need to buy that lady an irish coffee. Even though I don't really have any money, I will buy her that. She's studying too, healthcare, and had her first (and final for this semester) exam on monday and I'm very proud of her. It blows my mind that she's capable of studying while working night shifts AND having a whole house to take care of ('cause it's not very likely that my bro and dad helps out.. bah!). I know I wouldn't handle it.
Another thing that's fun about my mum, is that she's tiny. Not very tall and not very chubby either. But what she lacks in size, she has in temper. You don't mess with my mum! I remember in Germany once, an idiot snuck in and took the parking space mum was signalling that she was waiting for. She dragged that man right out of his car (and he was big too!), gave him a lecture I'm sure he still remembers and shoved him in the car again. And he backed out, giving us the space. Like I said, you don't mess with my mum.

But I fear our apartment will be used as vacation spot for half our family this summer. That's the "downside" with living somewhere others go on holiday. I can totally understand them, I love it here myself, and honestly? I don't mind having visitors. I so rarely get to see my family nowadays anyway, so it's perfect that they want to come see us. Hmm... actually, I haven't seen mum since... easter? That's weird... But we talk on the phone every day, maybe that's why it seems so weird to me.

Sucky sucky.

We have these carpets in our bedroom. Ikea, of course. It was love at first sight at Ikea, and I actually changed the whole plan for the bedroom, colourwise to make these fit in there. And they do.

But they're dust magnets! As is our livingroom carpet (it's black, how dumb can you get?). But, unlike the livingroom carpet, it doesn't help to vacuum these carpets! It just... sticks! Arrrrgh!
And our vacuumer isn't particulary sucky either (hah, no pun intended), it's more than good enough. But the carpets apparently love being dusty.

It's driving me insaaaaane, yes? *coo coo, coo coo*

Being invisible?

Love and I were out driving Pea yesterday and met a whole bunch of seriously dumb car drivers.
OK, Pea isn't the largest, most intimidating car there is.
But, it's bright fuckin' red, people! It is not invisible! Yet still people were on several occasions flinging themselves out right in front of us. Haven't they heard of "duty to yield right-of-way" (uh... at least that's what the dictionary said that "vikeplikt" was in english)??
And damn, our brakes aren't as good as they need to be. So, we need to fix that. Or get a "kufanger" mounted on Pea (those thingies that SUVs and such have in front, that fence-like thingy. Called "cowcatcher" in Norwegian.)
Actually, a kufanger would be fun. Don't know if they make those for tiny little old Ford Fiestas though.


Sorry, I'm not really that pissed as I sound. I am actually in quite a good mood. Finished the first draft of my Dogville analysis yesterday and had guidance on it with my professor today. Who basically told me that it was good the way it was. So, I'm finished! Done, finito with studies for the time being.
Now what am I going to do with all my spare time?

Apply for more jobs? Go to those TWO interviews from the two places that called today? This is seriously weird. I haven't heard anything from any place I've sent an application since... before Christmas. Now? Two calls in one day. Within three hours actually. I'm spooked!

OK, first call was from a gas station. I've worked at one of those before, not my finest hours, but... It is a job and needing one badly, I will accept it if I get it. And it won't be as boring as working in a grocery store.

The second call was from a discoteque who need wardrobe attendants. Hey, I'm basically applying for any job that is within my reach, and I didn't really expect them to call anyway. But when asking if I needed to bring anything, like for instance my papers, the man replied no. "We look for personalities." Uh-oh... I'm not sure what this means. And I'm not sure I would pass the bar on that one. Sure, I have personality enough, but I'm not the miss-bimbo-dancing-queen type. In fact, I can't stand those types, so what am I doing applying for a position at such a place? I must be mental. But I'll see how my first interview goes. And still apply for more jobs, I guess.


Oooh! Got my suprise from Love! I got this :D
Get Fuzzy is one of my absolute all time favorite cartoons, and of course he knows this. And since I was such a good girl and finished my paper, he told me where I could find my surprise (he's still at work). Too bad now I know one of his hiding places. You didn't reckon with that, Love, huh? Or, probably he did... he's not dim.

Happy 100th!

Today is Norway's 100th year anniversary for divorcing the Swedes. Hoorayh! Lets celebrate by going to Sweden to buy cheap meat and cheese!

No, actually? One would think they would have celebrated more today. There was this one big public concert in Oslo, but newsflash, not everything is about Oslo. In my city? Nada.
And Norwegians are usually so pompous. Hmm... weird.

Rummy's on a visit in Stavanger (Norwegian oil capital). He's sucking up to our minister(lady) of defence so that he can hide away some weapons here that he apparently doesn't want in the US. Oh well, he doesn't have to do a lot of sucking up at all. Our m.o.d is brown-nosing enough as it is.

The visit isn't very popular with the general public. There's been several demonstrations and people are just... upset. As you've probably guessed, I agree with them. It's kinda like that "Mufasa"-thing from the Lion King. You could say "Rummy" and I will shudder.

The things that they say sometimes...

When driving over to some friends today, Love saw a lot of interesting things. As in unusual cars. So I casually tell him that, it must be nice to have so many different big toys to look at when we drive around. Love replies "Well, I shouldn't be looking around for boobs, now should I? Besides, there aren't any boobs around except yours. But that guy over there has long hair, he could pass for being a girl if I saw him from a greater distance."
Following his gaze, I asked "But did he have boobs?"
Without hesitating, Love answers "Dunno. He may be flat chested."
Huh?

Customer... support?

Yesterday, when trying to publish my entry about the Medeival festival, I only got errors. Huh? I try logging into my ftp account using my ftp program, still errors. Login incorrect, it told me. WTF? How come my password suddenly stopped functioning? I tried logging into the email account that comes with the ftp-thingy too, same response. Seriously, what the fuck?? This password has been functioning perfectly fine for almost a year now, and we haven't had any messages from our provider saying we would get a new password.
So... I send them an email yesterday, simply explaining that the password isn't accepted anymore and wondering what's wrong.
Got a reply this morning (whoa! that was fast!) saying that I must be using the wrong password and that they'll send me a new one by mail. This is quite disturbing on two levels. One, you would think I made sure I was using the right password, right? I quadruple-checked it! And even if I had misspelled it so many times, I would have gotten the right one when using the ftp program because it is saved in my profile there. Ergo, I was using the correct password. Arrgh! I hate it when people assume I'm stupid. I'm NOT! I know what a password is and how to use it.
Disturbing (and annoying) level two, it'll take days for that bloody new password to arrive. Which means you won't be seeing my updates here in a while. Bah!

Whooo hoo! Flat on his back... err... tummy!

We did go to the Medeival festival today. We'll probably regret it when we run out of money a week before pay day, but for now I'm very pleased with our decision. Because it was fun! The location was perfect, the old part of town with a castle tower, church ruins and all in all... a super-cool place even when there's nothing going on there.
And today, seeing the place bustling with people in costumes and all the booths and the knights and armours and... oh my...
When we arrived, a choir were singing chants. Pretty cool. Then the jester show which we wanted to catch. Loads of colourful costumes, acrobatics and flame blowers. And a funny, chubby man who laid down on a spikey mat. What more can one ask for? Actually, it kicked ass and was worth the entrance price alone!
After that, Love sniffed out some Medeival soldiers that were having an educational performance on weapons and battle techniques. Major drooling going on for Love, and when they sent out a sample of chain mail for all the audience to look at, he didn't want to pass it on!
And I was the one with the camera, so he was begging me to take loads of photos. Which I did, of course :)
The soldiers were very entertaining. Especially seeing what damage a sword can really do! They had hung a pork ham up for one of the men to cut at. First with padding and chain mail, then just padding and at last nothing for protection. You could already see two dents from the first two attempts, but nothing more than equal a serious bruise for a human (or, possibly internal damage if the blow was hard enough). But the unprotected blow? First he did a blow standing still, just slashing with his arm. Huuuge gash in the ham. Then he added a step for extra energy. Whoah... Cut straight through the bone of the ham! I mean, seriously deep cut. If it had been a human thigh, you could just carve off some muscle and skin, and the entire leg would fall off. Yikes... Those things, swords I mean? Dangerous stuff. And that kinda explains why REAL medeival soldiers didn't fence, but tried to get a lethal or unarming blow at the first try.
There was, of course, a Knight Tournament also, the big crowd pleaser. They even did the Queen thing, from "A Knight's Tale". Five brave knights, with squires and all. And they did a whole bunch of different exercises including apples, hoops, wooden men and the much anticipated final... jousting! Whooo hooo! One of 'em landed flat on his tummy. Or, he did jump off the horse and it was first after he had lost, but hey... a man off the horse is always interesting (well, not really). Oh goodness, it was so surreal to watch. If it hadn't been for the fact that most of the audience were wearing normal clothes and there were booming speakers, one could easily imagine oneself being 1000 years back in time.
The market was also an experience of its own. They were making all kinds of foods that smelled very unfamiliar and people from all over Europe were there with their handmade stuff. I saw loads of beautiful jewelry, pendants and such, but alas... no money for that. We did however try one of the foods. Meatballs on a loaf of bread. The bread wasn't interesting, but the meatballs were the best I've ever tasted in my life. I have no idea what kind of spices they had put in there, but.. yummm!
Oh, and the costumes... ahh.. *sigh* *drool* I want one, real bad. This festival is a bi-annual thing, so in two years I *will* have a costume to wear for it. Even if that means I have to make it myself!
And did Love behave? Barely. He stayed back, talking to the soldiers about their organization while I went with the friends who came with us to check out the market. And when we got back? He was gone, of course. The possibility of him actually clinging to one of these men, begging them to take him with them wasn't entirely unlikely, so we decided to go look for him. Apparently he did the same for us. And the place was packed. And dummy Love had left his cell phone at home because it had run out of battery and... arrrgh!
But we found him, and he behaved perfectly fine afterwards. Good for him.

Oh, and did I mention I took pictures? I don't have a digital cam, I was taking pictures with my old SLR, so I dunno if they turned out OK. But when I have some extra cash (like, when is that ever going to happen?) I will get it developed and post some of them for you to see.
And did I mention one of the knights was super-hot? Yumm!
But seeing them scrape the sweat of the horses afterwards... not so yumm. Incredibly icky, in fact! Bleurgh!

But, a fun and action-packed day. I'm all grins now, that's how much going to that festival did for me. Whooooo! *does the happy dance*
And in case you can't wait until I get my photos developed, here are some photos from a former festival.

It HAD to be made!

This game. I was soooo waiting on that! Schni-schna-schna*BLAM*aaaiiii
For you americans, you probably don't know this. Thank your lucky stars!
For us europeans? There's no escaping it. It's Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil! As in Schnappi, the little crocodile. First time I heard the song (play the game, it runs in the background) I thought it was pretty cute. Of course, I understood the words, unlike my fellow norwegians, who have sent that bloody song to the top of the charts anyway. Well, why wouldn't I find it cute? It's about a crododile from the Nile who loves to snap, as in biting at stuff. And the little 9-year old singing the song doesn't make it less cute.
But... you will never get it out of your head again! And it's frikkin EVERYWHERE! ARGGGHHHH going insaaaaaaaaaaane I tell you!
So, go shoot some Schnappis in the Schnappi Shooter Game. You know you want to!

This and that.

Whoo hoo! I was re-reading the last analysis I wrote, and I realised something. I had totally forgotten about the 1 1/2 line distance thingy. To make sure everyone have the same standards to messure the length of their paper with, we're supposed to use Times New Roman, size 12 and... that extra line distance. I'm such a ditz!
But it made me do the *happy dance* around the office a couple of times because... Suddenly my paper was one page longer! Yeeehaaaw! I can actually see the end of it now, phew!

Yesterday Love came home from work, holding his hands behind his back. "Which one do you want?" he asked. "The one in the middle, of course," I replied. I don't really know what this means, but mum has been saying it ever since I was a kid, with the intention of getting whatever it was behind my back right away, instead of going on and on with "the left" or "the right".
Anyway, back to Love. He handed me the Gamecube game "Pikmin 2". And before I got started on my cow, he said "Look what my class bought me as a parting gift!"
"Oh... cool," I said, taking my pout and hiding it in my pocket. I did, however, somewhat half-pretend-annoyed tell him off for tricking me afterwards. When you hide something behind your back and tell a person to pick a hand, it sorta implies that that person is in for a surprise or a treat, doesn't it? And it's not hard to amuse me or make me happy. It doesn't take expensive gifts or jewelry, handpicked flowers is enough to make me spin around for joy. OK, the thing with the flowers runs in the family. Mum said she decided to go with dad after he had picked flowers for her. And that after knowing him just a week (they met on vacation). But a drawing would suffice too, or a box of kinder surprise eggs. It's the element of surprise and the signal "I saw this and thought of you, sweets," that gets to me.
Anyway, Love then promised me a real surprise for me only. But I had to finish my analysis first... So now, of course, I'm writing on it intently. Well, not right now, right now I'm writing on this entry. And I have to try to be done by Monday evening also, because I'm sending in my first draft to my professor and he'll have a look at it.
But won't have time to write on it tomorrow.
There's a Medeival festival going on in town! :D I've never been to one of those things, so tomorrow will be my first time. They have knights there, and a market and jesters and... fun, I think? Maybe the Peter Pan man will be there? If he managed to fly all the way to Norway on faerie dust that is. It would be too sad if he ran out somewhere over the Atlantic and crashed. Poor Peter...
But I fear I will have to keep Love on a leash. All week he's been muttering about chainmail and lances and swords and the likes. It might be a problem that I'm a weakling and he's fairly strong... Perhaps I need to go out today and buy a leash that gives electric shocks if it gets pulled at? Or simply a choker leash, like the one mum keeps on their dog (who is too stupid to realise that it's his pulling that makes him choke and gag).
A bit mean, yes. But it could come in handy.

Me singing...

... please, be gentle with me.
I have some crappy recordings of me singing, 'cause I vaguely remember promising someone clips of it some time ago.
M, don't kill me, this was the only sensible instrumental thingy I found.
Clip 1
Clip 2
Clip 3

edit: clips removed

Movie meme

1) Total number of films I own on DVD/video:
Hmm.. Don't have an exact number. Two shelf-meters, you do the math ;). And Love has twice that amount. We're movie maniacs.
2) The last film I bought: "Dogville" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Found them both one sale, yay! :D
3) The last film I watched: I don't remember... I think, "A knight's tale." It was on TV last week, and I don't think I've seen any movie since that.
4) Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):
Ever After
Dogville
LOTR-trilogy
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Amelié
5) Tag 5 people and have them put this in their journal:
M, Cy, Karla, Felinevamp and Espera :)

For-get-me-not... panties?

Take a look at these. WTF?

And here's an explanation on what you can use them for.
Seriously... this is twisted! It's twisted in a chastity belt kind of way. Geez...