All of My Savings Are Belonging to RoK

So...one of my really good friends is getting married this summer...probably. Most likely. Almost certainly. No, definitely. Definitely getting married. Let me explain.

At first MJ said she was probably getting married. But seeing as she got engaged suddenly over Christmas, I wasn't sure how serious she was, or if she was just considering it. Then she said was almost certainly getting married, and the wedding would be this summer, and could I make it all the way to Korea to be her bridesmaid? But she also left things vague enough for me to think that there was about a 30% chance she wasn't getting married, and if she were to tie the knot, maybe it would be next year. And then it became definitely getting married, and definitely this summer, or maybe September. And now it is most definitely late May. I have bought my plane ticket, so whether she gets married or not, I'm going overseas for the first time.

JLR and MJ and I had planned to go to Korea together next summer, the summer of 2013. We'd been planning it since last year. MJ's from Korea, so she already speaks the language, which JLR and I find pretty handy. So we had begun saving for the trip, but at the pace of someone saving to take a trip in a year and a half.

And then came the big announcement. My end of the phone call was a mixture of happy, excited language hiding the "Holy frijole, that is sudden, I'm not sure I'm prepared to go to Korea and if you get married will you come back to the States because it would make me very sad if you never come back, and I bet you won't come back because that's typical of how things go with me" anxiety I was feeling. And after I fretted about MJ going to Korea to get married and never coming back, I came back around to fretting about money. Y'all, I do not have the however much saved. Sure, I have savings, but it's my emergency fund, my "what if my car breaks down in a big way or I get fired" savings. But I just can't say "no." So I'm going to Korea this summer. I have purchased the plane ticket, I have requested the time off from work, I have begun freaking out about how I need to lose the 5 pounds I've put on in the past year so I will look half-way decent in my bridesmaid dress, if I really am going to be a bridesmaid, because that's still not clear to me, given MJ's tendency to be skimpy with details. And I have begun freaking out about my lack of The Necessary Language Skills.

I asked MJ if I would have to give a speech. Most weddings I've been to, the bridesmaids don't give speeches, but all I know about Korean weddings is the one wedding I saw in a Korean tv show, wherein the bridesmaids gave speeches. So I was feeling a bit anxious about this possibility of giving speaking Korean in front of a live, native-speaking audience. Not just saying, "Hello, pardon me, could you tell me how to get to...?" in Korean, which I can do, but a whole speech, which people would need to understand. So I asked MJ about the speech issue.

MJ: Well, we don't really have a bridesmaid tradition in Korea.

Me: [breathing sigh of relief]

MJ: But don't worry, you'll do fine.

Me: [What?!?] Oh...okay.

I've been studying the Korean language for about five years, but in a very casual way. I learn about 2 or 3 new words a month. Yes, it's that slow. I try to learn more than that, but the words just don't stick with me. Here are things I know how to say:

• How are you? Are you doing well? I am doing well. 어떻게 지내새요? 잘 지내세요? 저는 절 지내세요.
  
• Are you busy? I am busy. 바빠요? 저는 바빠요.
  
• I don't have time / I have time. Will you have some time tomorrow? 시간이 없어요. / 시간이 있어요. 내/ 일은 시간이 있을거예요?
  
• I'm hungry. Let's eat. (but I only know how to say this very casually, to a friend) 배고파. 먹자.
  
• Coffee, please. 커피 주세요.
  
• I don't have coffee. 커피 없어요.
  
• Do you have coffee? 커피 있습니까?
  
• I'm studying Korean. I don't speak Korean well. Do you speak English? 한국어 공부해요. 한국말 잘 못해요.
  
• I don't know. 몰라요.
  
• Yes / No 네 / 아니오.
  
• How is the weather? 날씨가 어때요?
  
• Where is the _______? ______ 어디에요?
  
• I like _______ / I don't like _________. ________를 좋아해요. _______를 좋아 안해요 (or 안 좋아요?).
  
• Why? 왜요?
  
• Why me? (but only to close friends) 내가 왜?
  
• Random vocabulary words: boat, shoes, potato, milk, water, blood, book, pencil, bag, arm
• Words that sound very similar to the same word in English (e.g., cake is pronounced something like kay-eek-uh)
  

It's discouraging how long it took me to type out the above phrases in Korean. *Sigh*.

I guess I'll be studying a bit more now.

Goodbye, little baby tooth. Hello, hillbilly jokes.

I have several of my baby teeth left, and most of them are in fairly good shape, but one loose tooth has been hanging on in the front of my mouth since, well, since it grew in when I was just a wee little thing. Well, it *was* hanging on. As of this afternoon, it is no longer a resident of my mouth and is instead now resting in peace in a green tooth-shaped plastic container in my handbag.

I knocked the tooth loose when I was a young 'un, and it hung on for another 20 years. Twenty years, I kid you not. During my regular checkup a few weeks ago, my dentist noted the baby tooth had held on for about as long as it could, and it was time for it to go. This afternoon, she yanked it out. A co-worker offered to pull it for me, and I could have saved the cost of going to the dentist, but I prefer the kind of tooth pulling that comes with numbing the surrounding area first.

Now I have a minor gap where the tooth used to hang out. It's really not much of a gap, since the surrounding grown-up teeth had already shoved the baby tooth out of their way, and it has been leaning forward for years, as if trying to keep its options open, willing to stay if things are good but ready to jump ship if relations with neighboring teeth went sour.

Loosing the tooth wasn't too bad, but dang it if I don't feel queasy from the numbing stuff they gave me. Yuck. But that's okay. I'll just eat a whole package of chebe rolls and then I'll feel better. Right?

In other news, JLR and I had this conversation tonight.
Me: I forgot to put salt in the rice when I was making it, so I just put in rice in the rice in my bowl. I mean, I put salt in the rice. Do you want me to put rice in your --salt, SALT, do you want me to put SALT in yours?
JLR: Yes, thanks. Gosh, that was about a 9 on the ol' tension, [RR]. I mean, on the tension scale [if you're familiar with The Burbs, you'll realize she misspoke].
And then we each said something else wrong, I don't remember what, but we are doing really well tonight. Really extra special well. Oh my word, you'd think we've been drinking. It's not really funny in the re-telling, but believe you me, it's, well, actually, it's not really funny in the moment, either. It's actually quite annoying. It's funny later, though, when JLR starts wondering if our carbon monoxide detector is broken. I guess that's not really funny either. I just took half a benadryl 'cause JLR says my face is looking a little puffy, and she's thinks it's the peanut butter.

Good night, y'all!

Nice Try, But No, Thanks

I'm not giving you my cell phone number, Google. If I lose my password, you can send it to my backup email address, and if you won't do that, I'll just wash my hands of my blog. Seriously. You're not getting my mobile number, so stop asking.

Sheesh.

Incidents and Other Stuff

Work lately has been, I don't know, sort of...totally and completely out of control. It's always busy, mind you, but lately it's as though I'm behind and will never catch up. It's completely frustrating, but at least at the mandatory office holiday party (such fun! required merriment!), we'll be having sushi so that there's something I can eat, too. We're going to make the sushi ourselves, and several of the people participating have never made their own sushi before. They'll be looking to me for guidance, and since my sushi often turns out rather squishy looking and uneven, I'm afraid they'll be disappointed in my ability to lead them to new heights of sushi fantastic-ness. Should be interesting.

The other day, this happened:
1. Forgot to post the agenda for a board meeting with the required amount of notice, had to cancel the meeting, and had to tell everyone the meeting was cancelled because I forgot a very important task.
2. Locked my keys in the car. Wasn't too bad, since I'd left my windows rolled down, but it was a case of "Of course this happened, because that's how this day is going."
3. Paper cut.
4. Lots of other stuff I can't remember now, but it was more of items 1 and 2.

Blah.

Last week, we held an exploratory meeting about creating an historical society, and I think this is actually going to happen! At the meeting, I used the word "hankering," and the mayor made sure to make fun of me for saying it. In a nice way, but also making it clear he still remembered the time I'd used the word "hooligans" in a public meeting. Yikes, that reminds me, I need to get cracking on those articles of incorporation.

On Friday, I was supposed to go to a subcommittee meeting with a bunch of other planners from other cities in the area to work on programs for an event we have coming up, but my boss threw something at me at the last minute, and I had to skip the meeting, even though I'd said I'd be there. This is the second time this has happened. I'm so embarrassed, y'all. I think I might have to resign from the subcommittee. Either that, or get the courage the next time this happens to tell my boss that I can't do the last minute thing he needs me to do in the next couple of hours because I've already committed to being elsewhere. *Sigh.* I really need to do the latter, but I'm afraid it will be the former.

In more positive news, I'm doing my laundry today, so I'm finally whittling down the scary, scary pile of dirty clothes in my closet. And if all goes well, I may even vacuum. Hurray for a clean house!

Yesterday, JLR and I went to the grocery store, and one of the employees who saw us looking for a bottle of makoli said, "Ladies, we'll be having a tasting tomorrow if you want to come back." He said "ladies" in a way that sounded very much like "Hi, dear little old ladies." Good to know I'm already approaching the age when I'm considered past usefulness but worthy of politeness.

I sure wish there were something interesting going on that I could tell you about. Um... (thinking....thinking...thinking...) no. There's nothing. Oh, wait, my grandmother is still in the rehabilitation facility recovering from her hip surgery, but she is doing much, much better. And...there's nothing else. Maybe next time.

To-Do Lists, So Far This Week

Sunday’s to-do list

1. Work -- DONE
2. Go to grocery store -- DONE
3. Eat enough cayenne-dusted almonds to make my lips burn and my stomach hurt -- DONE
4. Follow item (3) with eating spicy ginger candy -- DONE
5. Work some more -- DONE
6. For dinner, eat homemade pizza with chili pepper olive oil spread on the crust, followed by pepper paste sauce with wasabi and cheese made with peppers -- DONE
7. Re-consider my food options for the day, considering I have a medical condition that calls for avoiding irritating my esophagus as much as possible --DONE
   

Monday’s to-do list

1. Work – DONE
2. Go home on lunch break to check to see if expensive, allergy-friendly candy had been delivered, put in ‘fridge -- DONE
3. Attend first historical society meeting in city where I work—DONE!

Today’s to-do list

1. Don’t get sick from flu shot--PENDING
   

What I Learned This Week

If you keep your cardigan in your purse, by the time you arrive at your meeting in the evening, it will be wrinkled and smell funny.

So I won't be doing that anymore.

Incident Report, 8.26.2011

1. Snark Control

Things have been a bit, um,…at work lately. I can’t think of the word. But basically, there have been lots of things dumped on me that are not my job. And I don’t mean that in a “that’s beneath me, therefore I will say it is not my job” way. I mean “not by job” because it’s already someone else’s job. Either it’s an existing task that already is someone else’s job, or it’s a new task that clearly falls within the purview of someone else. For example, the meeting we were invited to attend that has to do with pollution from stormwater runoff. One might think that the person to attend the meeting should be someone from the department responsible for overseeing our stormwater program, but one would be wrong, apparently. That department can’t be bothered with attending meetings. Or, you know, doing any actual work. So it falls to me. And that makes me snarky. I just sent a snarky email to three of my co-workers that probably shouldn’t have been sent until after I stepped away for a while and took some deep breaths. I'm sure there will be repurcussions.

2. Dropped my banana on the floor this morning.

3. And then knocked the dish towel to the floor.

4. Yesterday, I was very happy to have removed the stain from my one my favorite shirts and wore said newly-cleaned shirt to work. Before the day was half over, spilled something on the shirt. I’m not sure what it was.

5. May have alienated a co-worker by telling her she was being kind of selfish with the way she parks her overly-large truck.

*Sigh.*

***UPDATE*****

This afternoon, I wasn't able to go to a meeting I wanted to attend because I hadn't had a chance to put out some signs I was required to post for work. And I couldn't put out the signs earlier because, well, it just worked out that way (it's been one of those days), bother, and when my co-worker and I went out to post the sign, on a vacant lot across from the house where we posted the sign was a dead horse. Yes, that's right. A dead horse.

It's been one of those days.