geography
Things have calmed down quite a bit. My sister exchanged some terse emails with Richard, who dutifully responded as openly and honestly as possible, only to be met with the words: "Welcome to my shitlist." Ah well. He tried.
So I don't think his popularity has skyrocketed in the least. But at least it hasn't disrupted my relationship with my sister too much. I went over there the other night to hang out and we went shopping together and played a board game and I stayed up late raiding her CD and MP3 collection making CDs for my dad.
I'm happy to say that my Christmas shopping is done. And barely $100 spent. Beat that! Luckily, I had very few people to shop for, and they all know how poor I am and urged me not to spend money on them. So $20 a piece is pretty generous, I think. I only felt a trifle guilty when Sandy dragged me to the mall to help her pick out a pair of diamond stud earrings for my mother. She's spending more on my mom than I have on everyone, combined. Hmmm. Ah well. One day...
In other news, work is driving me bonkers. It hardly seems worth the hassle, as I'm working six nights a week, at the most awful times, and barely accumulating 40 hours. I was told I'd be working up to 12 hours a day in the frantic run-up to Christmas. Instead, I'm lucky if I get six. On Sunday I was nearly turned away at the door! And the people... my god... I've lost all patience. Even the unassuming few I didn't mind before how annoy the shit out of me. One night I was suffering from minor cramps, my discomfort multiplied by about a thousand by being on my feet and constantly near loud vibrating machines. I was close to killing a few of them. My trick now is to carry a walkman at all times and act aggrieved. They leave me alone, mostly.
One particularly grating bitch chirped "You're a quiet one aren't you!" at which point Rolando, already delirious with lack of sleep, started laughing insanely, as I spend half the night gabbing to him. I almost responded "I do talk to people I like," but I bit my tongue and nodded solemnly, eyes wide. She looked from me to him and back again and smiled weakly, not bothering to try to talk to us again. It's better that way.
I also found out my Peruvian friend is 45 years old and has three daughters - aged 11, 13, and 16 - back home! Wow. He looks about 12.
Have I said all this before? I feel like I'm repeating myself.
On my day off I went to brunch with my former girl scout leader, Diane. She's fab. We gossiped for two hours! I told her all about Scotland and Richard and she told me about her trip to New Mexico and Gus the llama she met there, and her kids and her all manner of things. She loves the fact that I live abroad, and apparently brags about me as if I was her own. She doesn't have the best grasp of geography - she kept asking if they speak English in Switzerland, and thought that when I talked about my holiday to Slovenia it was region of the UK - but bless her interest. She used to send me loads of care packages with festive decorations for every holiday imaginable. I'm always inspired by her enthusiasm. She may not be the smartest woman, but she's amazing. AND going back to college for a degree in women's studies! Ha! She told me about her recent paper in which she argued for the legalisation of prostitution! You go girl!
Speaking of geography, I'm obsessed with this: http://www.geographyolympics.com/challenge.php I'm afraid it proves just how rubbish I am at geography, but it's still fun to try. And to bring down the already suffering reputation of my beloved homeland. Richard, on the other hand, the biggest geography geek of all time, does his nation proud, upping its score every time he plays. This is a boy who reads foreign newspapers in his free time to learn about random elections in remote areas of the world, and who is able to regale me with the most ridiculous trivia about the sultan of Brunei, for instance. We keep an atlas next to the bed for fun. Oh yeah.
Speaking of bed, I think it's about time for me to crawl to mine. You should know I bravely warded off sleep for you. Don't say I don't give you anything. Behave.
