Wednesday Weirdday

Ever just wake up really early and decide to get up? That was me this morning, at 5:50. After sleeping in until sometime between 10 and 12 (or later) for days and days, it was over. Equilibrium: re-established through some strange method.

So I discovered a new online comic that has broken every concept of gender I had, which is sad because I thought I was pretty gender-neutral and enjoying of adrogyny. Turns out, androgyny is an awesome Garbage song, but there are places my brain still doesn't want to go. Also, you don't care.

The boys (well, Piff and Philipp) are off skiing until tomorrow, so the house is quiet (Basti, as always, is Not Home). . . and I did nothing of interest yesterday, so I didn't post. I will make up for it with a special story of Cultural Differences from a week ago!
So it was December 23, and we were heading home from the Sound Check (explanations in that blog, too lazy to link) and we stopped by Anja's to drop her off and pick up DVDs. I went in to grab the DVDs and hit the button to call the tiny elevator (we are talking half a meter square, maximum of 4 people according to the sign, so you know 4 people can only fit in it if they are very good buddies). Elevator appears, and there is a person in it. I stand back to let him out, assuming he wants to get out (my brain refusing to allow the chance of having to ride this thing with a stranger). He just kinda looked like me like I was an idiot, and I realized he wanted to keep going down. I gave him an awkward nod and stepped in, only to realize he was also smoking and that there was no way to gracefully turn and take the stairs. The door closed and I stared at an undefined point on the wall, as I always do when in such potentially awkward situations. The guy was old, and while not creepy, hardly nice and grandfatherly, and I was startled to hear him say "Good evening, beautiful young woman." My brain, carefully trained by years of bad-touching skits and Family Life videos, immediately thought "Oh my God, he wants to rape me. How can I escape?" I managed to get out a "Guten Abend" and began praying that the elevator would go much faster. To my dismay, the man continued talking, and confused me by launching into a lecture about how one should always greet people or something- I simply stood there and nodded politely and hoped he would not compliment me again, and thanked my lucky stars that the elevator came to the bottom floor. I mumbled some sort of Auf Wiedersehen and hurried out, leaving the strange smoking man to whatever he was going to do. Seriously, who smokes in elevators? So rude!

Anyway, I took advantage of being up early (and also tried to avoid the house being all empty because that is no fun) and went off to Augsburg for Shopping today: I declare H&M a total success: they were having the kind of sale where there is more for-sale merch in the store than normal-priced, and I got 2 pairs of pants, a coat (my old one is having zipper issues), 2 long-sleeved tees for wearing under t-shirts and a wallet for about €75! This is good shopping, my friend. I have also decided that I need to drive myself insane, and that I should do this by knitting socks. Yes, socks. 3 mm needles, 5 of them all at once, and tiny yarn, and let's add a funky pattern to make things interesting! I bought fancy German sock yarn today and teensy needles and I came home and settled on the couch to begin the torture. My host mom, who can probably win some kind of speed-knitting competition, watched me for a bit and said "what are you doing?" Me: Uh, knitting? Her: Like that? Isn't that awfully slow? Me: Is there another way to knit? And then I kept going the American way and it was a miserable failure, so I stopped and pulled things apart and she showed me this sleek German method- once I get my fingers to go where they are supposed to, this will be awesome. Seriously, why is the sleek German method a big secret? Why is America knitting like the French? It makes no sense! Of course, the needles are still tiny, and now I am trying to learn to knit all over again, so this pair of socks is still going to take FOREVER. I am such a masochist.

I bought OK Go's Oh No last night because I am kind of behind on buying music! I have been wanting this album since July (it came out in September) and it is exactly the kind of music Lexi loves- fast and loud and snarky and good for shaking your groove thing to. Half of the time I feel like I am in an iPod commercial, and the other half of the time I try to avoid strange stares on the bus. So if you like music that is great, OK Go's Oh No is a great choice! You can also get their first eponymous CD because it is also rad and I have been rocking out to it on a regular basis since "You're So Damn Hot" was on Queer Eye. (Come on, it's not like you've never looked up a song from a makeover show montage on the internet and discovered your new favorite band.)