Remember when I said I'd have free time soon?

Haaaa, that was funny.  See, the thing is, there's this certification exam for folks in my profession, and I had registered to take it in November and then promptly forgot all about it.  Well, that's not exactly true.  What I forgot was that I needed to submit a request to postpone the exam date until May.  At the end of October, just three days after the deadline to postpone, I remembered that I had forgotten to postpone it and that I therefore would have to take the exam in a few weeks.  In 24 days, to be exact. ("Don't panic! Don't panic!")

I'd heard that you're supposed to study for 80 to 100 hours before taking the exam.  It's only offered twice a year, and it costs $500, so blowing off studying, failing the exam, and then re-taking it in a month or so was not an option.  Those three days of vacation I'd planned to take at the end of October, when I was going to sit around the house and read books all day?  Not vacation.  Studying.  But at least I was reading, right?  Right?

Yuck.

But the good news is, I passed the exam.  After spending every weekend doing nothing but studying while JLR did all the chores and ran all the errands, and with a lot of prayer from friends, I passed.  Hurray!!!

So *now* I'm hoping to have free time soon. 

In other news, having passed a certification exam does not mean that people take my opinion more seriously, in my professional life or personal life.  It seems to be as meaningless to the people around me as it was before.  But on the plus side, JLR and I had lunch with our friend JK yesterday, and JK made us some toffee for Christmas.
Last night's plans:
(1)  Watch The Man from Nowhere/아저씨 -- check!
(2)  Eat lots of toffee -- check!

Thanksgiving was good.  Stayed at home with JLR, ate cereal and pizza, watched a marathon of a tv show we liked, and walked for a few miles in the beautiful fall weather.  No stressful family. Very low key, very nice. 

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving holiday!

I think I may have some free time soon.

There's something stuck in my keyboard.  It was obstructing my use of the "f" key.  I used one of those air cans on the keyboard tonight, but at some point the pressure from the can shot out the little straw thingy that makes the whole thing work, and now there's no way to use the air can.  Can't find the straw thingy.  The whatever-it-was under the "f" key is now firmly wedged beneath the "g" key.  Bother.

In other news, my life has gone on much the same as usual, except that this week I've thrown caution to the wind and eaten more than I should (actually, scratch that, that part is not an exception to the usual), and the pants are getting a wee bit snug.  But, oh, my, the peanut butter sure has tasted good, especially when paired with chocolate ice cream (I love peanut butter week!).  It's a good thing the only ice cream JLR and I can both eat comes in a small container. It's also a good thing we're on a rotation diet and can't eat peanut butter very often.

Why are there so many "g"s in the English language?

Anyhow, free time coming soon!  I have a few days off from work next week, and it's affecting my work this week.  I keep thinking every day is the day before vacation.  Unfortunately, I have oh-so-much work due before I leave.  Oh, well!  Working all weekend it is, then...but working all weekend with snacks, coffee, and fall weather.  So it could be worse.

Also, can I just protest the cool weather scheduled to be here over the next few days, when I could be wearing skirts and cute tights to work? But it's the weekend, so that's not happening.  I do not wear skirts on the weekend if I can help it.

And that's all I can think of to say.  Good night, everyone!

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Now go out and talk like a pirate t' everyone ye meet!

Just don't engage in any real piracy, okay?

To Seoul and Back Again

Hello!  I'm finally posting something about my friend's wedding in Seoul.  It was a bit of the uncanny valley, I must say, but not too bad.  To get an idea of what Korean weddings are like, at least for me and several ex-pats who have blogged about them, I'm linking to a blog post from someone who's been to several weddings in Korea. 

Our friend's wedding was not entirely like the ones described in Jason's post: no smoke machines, no laser lights, none of the stage show-like features I've seen described on other blogs.  But it was odd there being a catwalk-type "aisle" to walk down as a bridesmaid (I say "catwalk-type" because it wasn't raised as high as a catwalk, but it was definitely a shiny, raised surface). It was odd there being an MC in addition to someone who officiated.  It was odd that they cut a cake in the middle of the ceremony, and this cake was not served, not during the ceremony or at the reception.  It was odd that there was no rehearsal so the bride and groom (and the foreign bridesmaids) would know what to do during the ceremony.  And it was odd that people wandered in and out of the back of the hall and talked freely--and not quietly--while the ceremony was going on.  It was just odd.  I was a little bit taken aback.  But I was so happy for my friend, and she looked beautiful, like a fairytale princess. 

Despite there being some aspects of Seoul I didn't understand, I enjoyed the trip very much. 

Here are the things I didn't understand.

(1)  I don't understand why it was so hard to find drip coffee. 
(2)  I don't understand why the Starbucks we visited in Myeongdong serves neither drip coffee nor green tea.
(3)  I don't understand why it was so difficult for me to find a place that sells cute stationery and office supplies, given that the cutest pens, paper, pencils, etc., that I've ever seen come from Korea and Japan. And I know they're available because M.J. has brought them to me from her trips back home over the summers.  So where were they keeping the office supplies while I was there?!?  Where? 
(4)  I don't understand why we couldn't find a camera battery for sale anywhere we went...except at the airport as we were on the way to board our plane home.

And the trip to Seoul reinforced something I don't understand about where I live.

After spending seven days without having to drive, and it being every bit as wonderful as I thought it would be, I don't understand why we don't have better public transportation in my region, even if we can't build something as wonderful as Seoul's bus and subway system.  Surely we can do better than what we have.  We can do better, but there are enough ignorant, selfish, or foolish people out here (some of whom are a combination of all three of these traits) to block our moving forward with better transit.

Here are some of the things I especially enjoyed, in no particular order.

• spending time with M.J.
• easy access to various kinds of rice cakes (not like the kinds we typically eat here)
• the easy-to-use subway system (as you may have inferred from the above comments on transit)
• being able to walk around so much
• walking on wide sidewalks when next to newer, wide, busy streets and on the shared streets in the historic areas we visited
• shopping at locally-owned stores
• having a hotel room with a kitchen, complete with full-size fridge and freezer, stove, microwave, and rice cooker
• not being at work (of course)
• lots of coffee shops (even if I couldn't get drip coffee easily)
• seeing in person the Cheonggyecheon project I had read about and admired

I did not enjoy having easy access to ddeokbokki, japchae, and my other favorite Korean dishes yet not being able to eat them due allergies...but I did enjoy seeing all the food stalls and drinking spots, just like in my favorite K-dramas (see also this article)!


And now, because I'm sure you were waiting for this, here are some pictures from the trip.

Between Pages, a coffee shop:

Another coffee shop:

Picture of a coffee shop from the coffee shop I was visiting:

A coffee shop and bakery we passed but did not visit (couldn't bear getting closer to the fantastic-smelling off-limits bakery products that lured us into the building housing the shop): 

Bread is Ready, Coffee is Done.  Doesn't it have the best name?  They sell something called an "All Day Set." I don't know what that is, but it sounds like something I would want from a coffee shop and bakery.



You expected something other than pictures of coffee shops?  All right, fine.  Here.


A street scene.

Here is in from Google Streetview.

A wonderful chocolate shop with a super nice saleswoman and a tasty, tasty, tasty chocolate drink that we shouldn't have had (which was followed by Benadryl).

Chateau Chocolate Castle Museum

Interior of a restaurant where we heard Rhinestone Cowboy playing in the background, giving me an amusing taste of home.

A lovely, lovely wide sidewalk next to a busy street.

And finally, a street scene from the Insadong neighborhood.

Our camera battery died soon after we arrived (don't ask why we didn't get a replacement; it's a boring, somewhat bitter story), so we had to be satisfied with pictures from our cell phones--and so will you, I'm sorry to say. 

Surprise! Your deadline isn't when you thought it was.

Yesterday, I had a phone call from an agency from which we received a grant last year.  Our contact there wanted to let us know we had only three weeks to finish spending the funding provided in our grant.  Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha.  Funny. I thought our deadline was the end of December.  I am now going to cram four months of programming and publications/educational material into three weeks.  No problem.  I can do this, right?

In other news, my plants are still alive.  Well, most of them are.  The fennel has looked better.

How are your plants doing this summer?

Sorry, I can't talk right now.

I'm watching the Olympics.

Yes, I already know who won the events that interest me; I heard it on the news earlier.  But now that it's the evening, I'm busy watching what I've already heard about. 

In other news, my supervisor got poison ivy two or three days ago, and this morning his car broke down on the way in to work.  So he's having a bad week. My week has been sublime in comparison, and I have no incidents to report...except this.  Why does our finance director insist on talking to me in staff meetings as though I'm the head of our department?  She kept saying things related to the budget, either information she still needed our department to submit for next year's budget or how much money we have in our tree reforestation fund, and I wanted to tell her (but didn't have the nerve), "The head of the department is sitting two seats down from me. Why don't you turn your conversation in his direction?" 

Have a happy Friday, y'all! 

The Olympics and Women's Sports

It's Olympics time, as you already know. I would like to take this moment to complain--as I do every four years--about the women's gymnastics floor routines.  Why are women required to prance around the floor like wanna-be ballerinas, and men are not?  Why can't women simply get out there and do (amazing) tumbling passes? 

Also, I really, really hope Ye Shiwen has not been doping.  It would mean great things for women's sports if she pulled off those awesome swims without medical/chemical assistance.

And finally, kudos and congratulations to all the Olympic athletes, who inspire me and remind me that I could find at least a little time to exercise regularly.

What's New with Me

Has this ever happened to you?  You're at a dinner event or banquet, and as the wait staff serve the entrees, they serve everyone at your table except you, serve the entire rest of the room, and then come back to serve you at the end.  No?  Oh. 

It's happened to me, and more than once.

Over time, JLR and I have begun to feel we're suffering from a mild case of invisibility.  We don't have a full blown case so that no one can see us, but we have it just bad enough that people don't see us unless we speak to them or in some other way draw attention to ourselves. 

People cut in line in front of us regularly, and they'll walk right in front of us as we go down a grocery store aisle, and then they'll stop and stand there, perusing the merchandise.  Eventually, our "excuse me" will cause them to turn around and, surprised, notice that we're standing there.  Combine our near invisibility with the fact that we look like a lot of other people (so much so that we've begun to think we might be trapped in an Anna to the Infinite Power situation), and I'm left wondering--why has no one recruited us to be spies?  Sure, we'd be terrible spies, but the Spy Recruiting People don't know that, do they?  Aren't they trained to notice people who aren't noticeable?  Drop us into any location involving white people, and we are completely unremarkable.

But all that's just something I was thinking about earlier.  What I really wanted to tell you is that Psy's new song Gangnam Style is stuck in my head.  May it also be stuck in yours.

P.S., it's hot outside.  And I got an "all clear" from the dermatologist after my full body mole checkup, and I had peanut butter and banana after dinner, so it was a good day.

Lunch with People I Like

JLR and I were both off from work yesterday, off course, since we have government jobs, and yesterday was an official government holiday.  And we took today off as well.  I've been debating whether or not to take tomorrow off, too.  I have a lot of work to get done, but I have a lot going on at home, too (see earlier post about house water issues).

Yesterday, JLR and I drove out to have lunch with Deals and her husband, her baby boy (now six months old! Happy Half Birthday, Little Dude!), and her brother.  We haven't seen Deals in a long time, so even though we had to eat lunch at the grocery store (thanks, food allergies), it was great.  We got caught up on what's been going on with Deals, the drama at her office, and people she and JLR both know but that JLR hasn't seen since law school.  And there was snuggling with a little baby who is powerless to flee from my clutches, which was nice.  Small children = boring unless they're saying something to embarrass their parents or using grown-up sounding phrases, which sound funny coming from little ones. (Example from my past:  Me: L, what is your favorite kind of cheese?  L: (with a pensive expression on her face) Um...I would have to say...Muenster.)  But babies of a snuggly size and prone to making little gurgly noises = fantastic.  Thanks for sharing the snuggles, Deals.

Today, we had lunch with our brother and our sort-of sister-in-law.  "Sort of" because she and my brother aren't married, but they've been dating for years, so it feels like she's my sister-in-law.  Her icky boss is out of town this week, and JLR and I have the day off from work, so it seemed like a good time for a daytime get-together.  We thought it was going to be just the ladies, but then this morning our brother texted us, "Lunch at noon, right?"  Um...sure, man.  Come on along.  Now we can't talk about you.  Ha ha ha, I kid.  Actually, I joke about him butting in, but really we were happy to see him.  We don't see him often, since all three of us have busy work schedules, and because JLR and I don't like to leave the house more than we absolutely have to.

So despite the household issues, the past two days have been good!  And the landlords called the water removal people, and we are now having giant, very noisy fans running in our house, which will be running for 3 or 4 days.  But that's okay.  We'll feed Wally upstairs so he doesn't have to come down to deal with it, and we'll just finish watching season one of 뱀파이어 검사 (Vampire Prosecutor; silly name, good show, despite the fact that it involves vampires) on the laptop upstairs.  No problem.

I don't think I'm going to work tomorrow.

Incident Report, Home Edition

Last weekend, our townhouse flooded, sort of.  I say "sort of" because we weren't home at the time and don't know how much water actually came into our home.  It couldn't have been much of a flood, because the floor is only damaged about half-way through our dining room.  A water line at our next door neighbor's home burst, and it flowed downhill and flooded the home on the other side. On our side, we don't think it flooded except a little bit in the laundry room in the bathroom, but it certainly did mess up the floors all along the wall we share with the neighbor.

And how long do you think it took our landlords to call someone to come over to assess the damage?  Go on, guess. 

That was a trick question.  They haven't done it yet!  They haven't done anything to assess the water damage yet.  Oh, sure, they've been over to the house and looked at the floors and generally agreed that the floors were ruined where the water had been.  But they haven't, say, pulled up one of the boards and peeked to see if mildew had begun to form.  They haven't sent over a professional of any sort--you name it, flooring professional, plumbing professional, water removal specialist, general handyman--no one who would know about repairing these kinds of situations.  We have only our landlords' assessment to guide our actions, and by "assessment," of course, I refer to their staring at the floors and lamenting how much it cost them to install.

On the plus side, the lack of action on the part of our landlords, coupled with the growing hint of a mildew-y aroma, has indeed guided our actions in that it has motivated us to start going through our belongings as if we were making an assessment of our own, the kind you do when you're moving and look at everything in your house and say, "I'm not sure this is worth the effort of packing and moving it."  The amount of stuff we've thrown out or put in a to-give-away pile makes it look as though we really are moving.  Which is good, because given the situation, we probably will need to move soon.  I'm not going to live in a mildew-infested home (again).

And in other news, our hot water heater went out on Wednesday night. The landlords called the plumber, and it was repaired this morning.  Glad they were so on top of that particular water-related issue.

Incident Report, Seoul Version

1.  M.J. spilled coffee on her white pants. Of course she did.  Whenever she wears those pants and we're going to get coffee (and we are always going to get coffee), she spills coffee on herself.
2.  I bought a bag of brown rice while in Korea (hotel had a full kitchen, baby!) but didn't finish eating it while I was there.  Declared it on my customs form, thus was flagged by customs agent and had to go to the inspections room.  Customs guy at inspections room, noting that the rice was commercially packaged, released me and the rice immediately, but still.  I was flagged by a customs agent, y'all.
3.  Ate an allergy-unsafe meal on the flight back, and then my stomach made me throw it up in the bathroom a little while later.  Yuck.  Trust me, it wasn't me that made the toilet a little on the icky side.
4.  May have offended MJ's mom when I couldn't remember the polite Korean phrasing for turning down an offer to visit someone's home due to lack of time.

Incident Report, 4-26-2012

(1)  While walking into work today, spilled coffee down the front of my pants...the pants I washed last night.
(2)  Yesterday, splashed turmeric-laden sauce on my shirt during lunch.
(3)  Got a virus on my computer while looking for pictures of birds for a newsletter article.
(4)  Because the IT person had to completely re-do (I don't know the technical term) my computer (see (3), above), our mapping software's connection to the server (where my files are stored) needs to be restablished, and I don't know how to do it.  Result:  this conversation in the afternoon:

Mayor:  RR, I need to see a floodmap.
Me:  A floodmap of the city?  Or would you like a map for a specific property?
Mayor:  (please to have the option of a property-specific map) For a specific property would be great.
Me:  (with a confident tone in my voice)  No problem! Give me just a few minutes.

Me, several minutes later: Um...I can't get to my files.  Would you take instead a copy of our zoning map with a close-up of the property?

Awkward.

Next month, I'm going to Florida for a conference.  Some people would be excited about a trip to a purportedly lovely coastal location, paid for by someone else, and during which one gets to learn more about and discuss a topic dear to one's heart.  But I am not one of them.  If the conference were to be held here in town, I would be thrilled, but a conference involving travel makes me feel tired a month before I get there.

Why am I dreading going so much?  I'm glad you asked.

You probably already know from previous blog posts that I have many food allergies. When I'm traveling, I don't know the restaurants or the grocery stores, so I don't know where I'll be able to eat.  I have to bring enough food with me to sustain me for the entire time I'm away, because I rarely know for sure in advance if I will have access to a safe local food source.  Trying to travel light is not an option.  And because I can't pack much food likely to spoil, I always end up eating a lot of peanut butter, rice cakes, and larabars.  And as much as I love those things--and I really do love them--after a few days, I'm desperate for some vegetables.

For this conference, I'll be gone 5 1/2 days.  Five and a half days!  That's a lot of peanut butter.

If restaurants were generally more inclined to know what's in their food, and if they had a goal of making good, quality food over profits, this would be easier.  If food manufacturers didn't fill their products with garbage that we shouldn't be eating, this would be easier.  But because we want cheap food and we don't care how we get, I have to pack like I'm going on the Oregon Trail every time I travel.

***Stepping down from soap box***

In more pleasant news, I'm almost over my cold, and my sweet potato plant is growing so well.  It's looking quite pretty.  And the plant I've had in my office for two weeks now isn't dead yet.  It isn't even looking as though death is in its near future. I'm not sure how long this will last, but so far, so good.

Also, I don't fully understand the new blogger dashboard/tools/settings.  Have I reached the age where technology passes me by because I can't be bother to keep up with the new things?  Eh, who cares?

And finally, I think I went to work with a small stain on my shirt today.  I'm hoping no one noticed.

Incident report, week of April 8, 2012

Just a couple of incidents to report lately:

1.  Went to pick up co-worker from her house, finally realized how dirty my car is on the inside, embarrassed about the crumbs and leaves, etc.

2.  Found small stain on my shirt at work the other day, didn't know if I had acquired it at work but couldn't be sure it wasn't there when I left my house that morning.

3.  Caught a cold my sister got from a co-worker, and it kept me home from work for almost 3 days and made me cranky and sorry for myself.

4.  Tried to do some bird watching at home so I could get more practice for a project at work.  I also listened to bird songs, but quickly put headphones on when I realized Wally thought there was a bird outside and ran to the back window (by where I was sitting) to see if he could see it.  I felt so guilty. 

Lately, not much has been going on with me, which is about normal.  Just work, work, work.  I'd had a goal of getting my work life in order by early April so I could have time for a personal life, and so far that has not happened, but I'm making progress.  I've been setting aside time every night (except when I have night meetings or have to work on reports until 1 in the morning) for cleaning and practicing Korean, and I'm happy to be making progress on both fronts.  Hurray for a clean(ish) house!  Hurray for fifty vocabulary words learned!

In other news, I'm trying a garden again this year.  Right now, I'm focusing on keeping alive the plants that came back from last year: garlic (which I can't eat), cannas, and rosemary. I'm also growing pretty green leaves from a sweet potato that sprouted in the kitchen over the winter.  So far, none of the sweet potatoes I planted last year have come back, but that's okay. 

One of my co-workers recently planted a significant-sized patio garden at her apartment, and since gardening optimism is contagious, I'm considering adding to my garden.  I'm not sure what to grow, though, because it seems as though everything I try growing something, I wind up allergic to it.  Garlic, tomatoes, potatoes--all used to be in my garden (garlic still is), all now on my allergies list.  So I'm nervous about planting anything else.  I'm thinking of trying more herbs.  I don't use Rosemary much, so if I wind up allergic to it, no great loss, right?  And in the fall, I’m going to try some more vegetables.  Oh, yes, I am, and don’t tell me anything about my past failures in the garden.  I’m well aware of them.  But despite past failures, a person can still be a gardening optimist, can’t she?

And in case my optimism doesn’t pay off…

(Making a mental note to check with Deals about what time of year her fig tree produces fruit so I can mooch).

(Making a mental note to check with friend from grad school about what time of year his pecan tree produces pecans so I can mooch).

Dinners and Dresses

Last night was the annual board appreciation dinner at work. I appreciate the board, but I wish there were another way I could show them appreciation than going to a dinner. It's the lab partner or bus situation from school all over again--gosh, I hope I have someone to sit by. Not that plenty of my co-workers would mind sitting by me, but I don't have any close friends at the office, so I'm always wondering if they're glad I'm sitting by them or if they're really just being nice.

At least this time my co-worker went to pick up some sushi for from my favorite place so that I didn't have to bring my own dinner, as I've had to do in the past. Wasn't that kind of her? And this time, I didn't bring a pity-party dessert, 'cause I'm on a strict must-fit-bridesmaid's-dress calorie limit. Instead, I had a post-prandial cup of decaf coffee. I love coffee, so I hope this kept me from missing dessert too much. Well...that and the larabar I ate for dessert. I *almost* managed not to have the pity dessert. So close.

Speaking of bridesmaid's dresses, I'm having a difficult time finding something that will work for MJ's wedding. And at this point, we're not even sure I'll be in the wedding, since bridesmaids are not standard fixtures in Korean weddings, and they (M.J., her fiance, her mom, and the wedding planner) are still trying to figure out how to work me in. I offered to stand at the side of the room wearing a sign that says "bridesmaid," but MJ didn't seem keen on that idea. Anyhow, the problem with finding a suitable bridemaid dress is that my shoulders need to be covered, but it needs to not make me look like I'm 55. Believe it or not, there aren't too sleeved bridesmaid dresses out there these days. Even finding a cocktail dress that isn't overly-beaded, sleeveless or strapless, inappropriate for a wedding, or just plain ugly has been difficult. It doesn't help that the stores seem to be between seasons at the moment. All the right dresses are no longer available in my size, and the new dresses haven't come in to replace them yet.

So tomorrow it's back out to the mall for more searching. Wish me luck!

Democrats and Republicans, Please Remove Me from Your Mailing Lists

In the last presidential election cycle, I gave money to the Republican candidate. I wasn’t particularly fond of his political views, but I liked him better than the other options. Because I didn’t know how to give money to the candidate directly, I donated through the Republican Party. I don’t know why I was surprised to wind up on the Republican Party’s mailing list, but surprised I was.

I’m not a Republican (although I once voted in a Republican primary), and that is the only time I have ever donated to the Grand Old Party. Yet for four years now, the GOP has wasted its money sending me surveys asking for money, letters about the alarming state of America asking for money, and just plain requests for money. They ask me if I’ve abandoned the cause, if I’ve just given up, and so forth. And the answer is no, I haven’t given up on what I believe in, but the GOP hasn’t managed to figure out yet that its values don’t overlap much with mine. They haven’t realized it despite my saying so quite plainly on at least one of the surveys I dutifully filled out and sent back to them—I wrote “I DO NOT SUPPORT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY,” yet I still keep getting phone calls and letters from them. It’s as though I’ve broken up with them, and they just can’t believe it’s real because they never listened to me in the first place and have no clue what I think or want. The last time I filled out one of their surveys, I even purposely chose all the answers I thought would get me labeled a crazy Commie leftie by the folks on the right. We’ll see it if works and the letters, surveys, and occasional phone calls will stop (fingers crossed!).

Although I’m not a Republican, I’m not a Democrat, either. But I am a member of an environmentalist group, and I’ve signed a few environmentally-focused petitions that required my mailing address. A month or so ago, I received a letter from the Democrats asking me to help (sign a petition maybe? I don’t know, I shredded the letter without opening it) with recall elections in Wisconsin. And then today in the mail I had a letter from Planned Parenthood about something political. I would really like to know who sold me out.

Both major political parties—yes, both of you!—you’re on my bad list.

The Wrinkles and why I don't wear one of my favorite pairs of pants

I have this pair of pants (or trouser pants, if you're my sister's former classmate) that I love but that spend a lot more time being worn by a hanger than by me. The pants are a cute cut and fit, are flattering, and make me feel confident in having a neat, professional (yet stylish) appearance when I wear them. But there's an obstacle between me and The Wearing. It's The Ironing. Or to be more accurate since I rarely use my iron, The Steaming, due to The Wrinkles.

Every time I wash these pants, they become so wrinkled, it would take me 15 or 20 minutes with the steamer if I were to take the time to get all the wrinkles out. Even removing enough wrinkles to make the pants passable to wear to work takes about 10 minutes. So I wash the pants and then let them hang in the closet for a month. Once I've gone through the trouble of getting The Wrinkles out, I don't want to wash the pants, because that will make the wrinkles come back. So they end up being worn more times than they should without being laundered. It's an ongoing problem.

I know, I know, #firstworldproblems.

So why I am talking about this on my blog? Because I don't have much of interest going on, and this pants thing has been on my mind.

What about you, oh Internets? Anything in your closet that you can't part with but that you won't wear?

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.