La Entropista

Hypochondriacal freakouts, as pleasurable as they might be, never seem to last long, and the last one passed in about two days (although to my credit it did seem to get worse as the days progressed, and then overnight, disappeared almost completely). So, none of you on the Left Coast are going to have to see me spotty or striped or in any other variation from the norm. 

 Yay! Girlfriends! Pretty much the norm. (from Maya’s flickr)

This turn of events left me with no excuse but to socialize. Outside my home. With other people. So yesterday I went to lunch with Rowain, who is typically very reserved in a formal Singaporean kind of way, but turned out to be hungry for female companionship, and almost immediately launched into some pretty personal talk. Lots in common, with us both involved with Germans with confusing exes, trying to negotiate this culture and the isolation that comes along with language barriers and lack of a social network outside of our Mann’s friends (not such an issue for me as I know I will return tout suite, but she’s here for the long haul). I was really touched by this attempt to connect and feel really sorry that I can be so terrible about my tendency to withdraw from the world for no particular reason.

We will be moving back to
California next week, and while I am looking forward to seeing friends (and the sun) again when I return, I am absolutely losing my shit over what must transpire when I get back. First, find housing. Then, little technicalities like getting a job (not career, mind you, a job like in how about some yard duty for money, and can I wash your car, too?), renewing my driver’s license, fighting with 24 Hour Fitness, and meeting the ex-wife. Oh, honeys, I am sooo looking forward to this moment in the falling-in-love-with-an-older-man saga. After all I have heard- and not just from disgruntled husband but from former mutual friends who have come clean with their real opinions about this person- I am so anxious that I am likely to have some sort of meltdown involving a little bit of barfing when it actually happens.

Will this blog turn into a ”can you believe what the ex-wife is trying to do this time?” blog? Not likely. While that might be entertaining in a melodramatic voyeuristic sort of way, I won’t succumb to that urge. No, not at all. Or maybe. What it may very well turn into is a “now what am I supposed to do with these two very small moving things he calls his sons and how do I prevent myself from becoming the evil-daddy’s girlfriend” blog. Sort of a mommy blog as viewed from the other side of the wormhole type thing. Ack. I don’t know how to do children. Yes, I babysat when I was a teen, but since then my interaction with kids has been limited to using my authority as a science teacher to announce that they should be careful not to jump too high- they may fly off the earth because it does spin awfully fast and gravity is just not that strong higher up there.

Someone once told me that my blog used to be good, even almost as good as dooce, and I had to agree. I used to be funnier when my life was in a bit of turmoil. This spate of happy months has rendered me quite a boring blogger indeed (I’m secure in my belief that yes, posting pictures of what I’m watching on TV is remarkably clever). If you are at all curious, I would encourage you to go through the archives of my first few months of blogging when I was a cold and hungry and sleep deprived grad student getting dumped all the time. It was hilarious! And heartwarming! And packed with life lessons! (And self-indulgent and just a bit masturbatory, but isn’t that what blogging is for anyway?)

So, we all get older, and life gets more complicated, and that’s what being an adult is all about. So there. Of course, I will attempt to hold my shit together and project a stoic maturity and strength of character so as not to be outwardly traumatized by forthcoming events, but on the inside my tummy will be doing flip-flops and I’m guessing that some of that neurotic angst-ridden craziness that is bound to be stewing in my little brains will seep into the writing here, lucky for you all.

P.S. There is an overabundance of alcohol here so if we decide to have a drink-our-cupboards-bare evening before we leave I’ll keep you posted.

About a week ago I started taking sulfa drugs in combination with other stuff to take care of some issues with my ladyparts which I won’t go into as that which I just wrote is already too far into the realm of Too Much Information. So, a few days ago I noticed that I had a little red spot on my side. It itched a little. No big deal. Last night I went to a housewarming party in Haidhausen (in which I made only one desperate call to the sweet potato to please come now, and hid in the bathroom just once) and there were so many people there I had to peel of layers and I was still sweating up a storm. I got very itchy where the perspiration made my camisole cling to my back, but I just chalked it up to scabies or lice or my hair just being very thick and heavy against my neck.

When I got home I peeled off my clothes to shower and noticed that my entire torso was covered in giant red welts all over. Hives! Everywhere! And irresistably itchy! I slept through the night, but must have been busy between REM cycles because I woke up covered in what looks like a slight sunburn, with scratchmarks and welts and broken blood vessels and other things in places that make me look like I didn’t charge enough for the weekly bondage session. I’m a complete mess, and I didn’t even get to enjoy any of it.

This morning I went to Web MD, where I self-diagnose all my Munchausenistic problems, and found that it’s going to take 7-14 days after I stopped my sulfa regimine for the allergic reaction to go away. Meanwhile, God, I’m beautiful!

Today is not the only day on which I celebrate your utter hotness.

(for soooo long?)

Click here. I think the poster’s a bit cheese, but the trailer looks good. What do you think?

While I have already bathed, it is already almost two and I haven’t been out of the house yet. Big surprise.

Earlier in the week, after we returned to Munich, we stopped at the Schwabinger Wassermann, a popular local pub, for breakfast. They had their tables set up outside and it was a lovely day, and on their Mittagsmenu there was Spargel:

See that? That would be a gigantor crispy potato pancake topped with white asparagus, hollandaise, and gratineed parmesean. I couldn’t transcribe the sound I made when I tasted it that would do it justice. By god, it was the best breakfast ever.

And? Mmm. The hollandaise. To the American, asparagus with hollandaise seems like a throwback to mid-century steakhouse cookery, but here it is classic spring staple. Despite my fear of the hollandaise, and butter sauces in general (from all that reading, for ten years I was afraid: but what if it breaks? the horror!) I decided to give it a try.

Here, the starting point.

Also, a little drinkie-drinkie to ease the emullsion-induced anxiety. That’s right, bitch. A six-pack of the hard stuff.

I have no whisk and no double boiler, so I improvised with a salad bowl in a soup pot and a three pronged fork from Ikea.

First, the egg yolks, lemon juice, water, s&p, and careful not to turn it into scrambled eggs.

Then, off the heat to incorporate the butter. That’s right. Half a pound.

Google Earth view of the processes: almost done, just chopping herbs (parsley and dill) waiting for the sauce to seperate (it could have been thicker), and making sure the asparagus is properly done.

The finished product: Salzkartoffeln, Spargel mit Hollandaise, und Schwarzwalder schinken. The ham keeps the plate from looking like blancmange and adds a nice smokey saltiness trumped only by the likes of spam.

Looks a bit obscene, doesn’t it? But, mmm, lecker.

The Liebling to the Boss: So, when should I book my return tickets?

The Boss: Don’t bother booking your tickets. I have ideas….

[cue evil endless idea music here]

On the first night, we has dinner at Borchardt. Where you can get tomato consommé. “That’s a soup, a clear soup, you know.” Thank you very much.

See all that green? That would be our absinthe digestivi.

Which were very necessary, as licking figure-ground maps at the Bauhaus Archiv can be very exhausting, and probably not very sanitary.

It is good to reflect on a good scrambled egg breakfast. And how the paint on the wall matches my side-bar. Maya in Voss.  

We also went to the Komische Oper to see the Peking Opera perform Mei Lanfang. I understood most of the libretto (in German) but for some reason couldn’t understand any of the singing in Chinese. Go figure. Nevertheless, a highlight, and glad to be able to share it with a friend.

See our (very similar) sets here and here.

I was told that this set has too many photos, but is there such a thing with this topic? The truth is that I only uploaded a small percentage of the photos I actually took.

If this makes you levitate out of your seat, then take a look at this. You can do a one-year post-grad here, in english. Holy Shiznit.  Here is this year’s topic. And an excerpt:

The programme “UN Urbanism” deals with the transformation of cities in so-called crisis regions. Even after the end of the East-West conflict, disputes and the “petite guerre” still characterise world events. Today, organisations such as the UN, but also NGOs and a wide network of privately financed humanitarian aid organisations are confronted by very specific kinds of conflicts and crisis management scenarios. || Particularly where cities are rebuilt, the restoration of the urban infrastructure, the creation of democratic institutions and community building go hand in hand. In this process, international aid organisations create urban structures that, while at first temporary, exercise a considerable influence over the further development of these places. The globally acting organisations thereby initiate transformations in diverse areas of the world that follow the same pattern. || The programme “UN Urbanism”, using Mostar, Bosnia- Herzegovina and Kabul, Afghanistan as examples, will examine the phenomena of this process of urbanisation and devote itself to, among others, the following questions: What role do international parties have to play in the reconstruction of “post-war cities”? What planning ideas and models and normative concepts of cities, civil society and public life do they bring with them? What kind of spatial models do these global interventions adopt, and what form do they take in their individual, local manifestations? How can urban planning with the participation of international parties help limit existing divisions and differences? || The Kolleg sees the search for design solutions within the framework of the UN Urbanisation as much a part of the solution strategy as the development of lasting urban processes after the departure of UN troops. In practice, prototypical concepts will be developed for selected sites.

And for next year:

EU Urbanism || “Back to Europe” is a formula with symbolic significance: For cities in Eastern Europe, Europeisation is a cultural code that, at the same time, represents a process of normalisation. Those countries that promoted this change most successfully are now classified as “ordinary European countries”. || Nevertheless, Europeisation is much less a return to Europe than a reorientation within a new geography: The EU expansion was, for the new members, followed by alignment to a complex institutional, legal and economic policy. || The “EU Urbanism” programme will engage with the consequences particular to this process of alignment and pursue, among others, the following questions: How does the EU integration process influence cities and urban culture? In what way do the traditional structures and ideas of the “European city” relate to the current urban transformation processes? Can we identify new models for the European city in, for example, Sofia or Krakow?

Just makes you all wet and sticky, doesn’t it?

Sometimes I really miss this place...

On Chowhound's California Message Board: 

Posted by Nathan P. on April 26, 2006 at 23:24:52

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