Throwing myself into walls

I'd like to start this post with a shout-out to a few ladies I used to work with. You down with OGC? Yeah you know me! I miss my pals. I haven't been posting much lately for no particular reason. I had an interview with a very prestigious law firm last week and every other minute or so I stare at my phone and try to will it to ring. I guess I feel like I'm in limbo. I think I've got a shot but what the hell takes so long. My German class is going really well. I am done with the first month on Friday and i've already payed up for next month. My understanding of the grammar is really coming along but I need to memroize the vocab. German has different three different genders and four different cases. For exampe "the apple" in german could be, der Apfel, den Apfel, or dem Apfel. There's a lot to memorize. I've met some cool kids from class and we play squash evey Tuesday. I like Squash. Squash and racquetball are unique sports in that you are forced to throw yourself into a wall at full force. I am happy to announce that I beat the reigning champion Claudio from Italy and currently hold the squash title, although this is currently being disputed. Shannon and I traveled to a town south of Salzburg last weekend for some skiing with some work friends of her's that were in town for the weekend. Not fun. Salzburg looks good and the ski resort was nice but it was a stupid turn-around trip and we spent more time on the train than on the slope. The Apls are gorgeous though. The Rockies are amazing but the Alps are surreal. They look like an artistic representation of what beautiful mountains would look like. Shannon and I are moving into out new apartment next week, just before Mother and Butch arrive. The weather is getting warm here and I'm looking forward to sitting at picnic tables drinking liter-sized beers. Tschuss.

I never liked that stupid salamander

So Shannon and I had the option of shipping one of our cars over here. We chose to ship my Grand Cherokee because it was newer than her Civic. We sold her Civic and now the Jeep is on a boat on its way here. I was tasked with finding insurance for the car. No problem I thought. Well, I contacted Geico which has offices over here and they, very politely, told me that they could not insure me because I have 13 points on my license, 3 tickets in the last 5 years. Is that bad? I don't think so. I haven't been in an accident since I was 18. I wrote them back and asked them if they could put Shannon on the policy and get insured that way. She said that they couldn't insure her as long as I was on the policy. I have been judged. The real irony is that the Geico office I contacted is in Germany and they don't even have speed limits, so what the hell do they care that I was caught going 88 in a 75 last summer. Which brings me to this tangent. I liked the caveman Geico commercials. They were nuanced, but I have never liked that stupid Salamander. Why does he have a british accent? Geico be damned! I will curse their name across this continent and the next! Hear me Salamander species! I will smear you across any wall on which I find you!

Update

I'm on my second week of German class. It's fun. I'm in class with people from all over the world: Italy, Brazil, Korea, Australia, England, Serbia, Bosnia. One of the strangest people in the class is from Kansas. She goes to some University called Nazerene or something. It's a christian college obviously. She was telling me about how they have strict rules at her college. Not only can they not drink, smoke, or have a member of the opposite sex in their dorm rooms, but they can't dance. Fuck that. Even though I usually try to avoid dancing, I would have violent tendencies towards someone who told me I couldn't.

Shannon just arrived at the cafe. This means that I must now turn over the computer--okay, her computer--so that we can search for dinnerware online. You see we can't choose anything until we look at every single plate that exists. After which I will no longer like dishes.

American-Specific Anxiety

I grow less and less confident as the days go by that I will get either of the jobs I interviewed for. This has been causing me some stress which is personified by extreme mopiness and random acts of violence on Colfax, my cat. Nothing serious, I just throw him when he tries to sit on my face, he never seems to learn. Anyways, today, however, I had lunch with an Italian guy and an English lady from my german class who made me feel better about my predicament. The lady said I was being too American. The Italian guy agreed and said that he had been floating from job to job for years. I told them about how I was basically living off my "wife" and that it made me feel sort of worthless. But they explained that I'm looking at this from entirely the wrong angle. I am able to go to german class for three hours a day and take long lunches and naps in the afternoon. I am living the life. Apparently this situation is no problem for most European's to enjoy, but I can't help it. I feel unproductive. I haven't always been this way, but since law school I see myself at least partly as something with money-making potential. If you had a milk producing Holstein you wouldn't feed it and not milk it would you? Bad analogy--somehow I have emasculated myself. I shall overcome my own anxieties. It doesn't help, though, that every day I come home and Shannon asks me if I had heard anything from the jobs. When I say "no" she pauses looks a way grits her teeth for a second and says "oh," and then she smiles sweetly and says, "that's okay, it doesn't matter." Right.