Bionic Teutonic

In the building I work in, there is a strange cleaning arrangment that involves an older woman (who looks like perhaps she is a little mentally handicaped?) and a younger woman who follows her around. It’s very odd. The younger woman never helps out or does anything besides walk behind the older woman as she sweeps the sidewalk or cleans the windows. The younger woman looks bored out of her skull, although maybe I’m just projecting. They also spend what seems like the majority of their time sitting in the lobby reading magazines, so there obviously is not enough work for two people, or even for one apparently. This morning when I got to work, there was an additional young woman following the older one around. Is young woman number 1 hiring a replacement? Is she just lonely and bored and needs a little company? I have no idea, and honestly I don’t even know if the older woman is mentally handicapped but it’s the only way I can explain this strange arrangement. I have questions.

For the past two days, I’ve been smelling weed everywhere I go. At work, in the car, walking to the bus stop, etc. I had to go into the bathroom at work and check to see if I had somehow managed to aquire some marijuana on my clothing (I didn’t) and at lunch yesterday I asked some friends if they could smell it and nobody could. Thing is: I don’t SMOKE pot. I think I’m having an olfactory malfunction. Not that I’m complaining. It smells like some quality shit.

It seems like every year, somebody comes out with a study about happiness as it relates to country of habitation and every year, the Danes seem to come out on top. I’ve always attributed this to a great welfare system that has virtually eliminated homelessness, a healthcare system that provides medicine to anyone who needs it, and a general level of tolerance that has allowed a bunch of anarchists in Christiania to exist for 30 some years (although that may be coming to an end). A study has come out though that pinpoints the source of danish happiness: Low expectations. Ha!

A few friends of mine have been planning a trip to Bali this March, and I’ve been hemming and hawing about going. UNTIL NOW! I’ve bought my ticket and am officially going. Sun and beaches and gamelon, and temples, oh my! I’m stoked. For all the traveling I’ve done in my life, I’ve never been anywhere outside of Europe. Ariel is not going (book tour, etc.), which makes me sad, although the group of people I’m going with is awesome and I’m looking forward to a truly kick-ass adventure.

So I’ve been reading about St. Paul the Hermit (don’t ask) and in every bio I read, it mentions that he became good friends with Anthony the Abbot. I’ve been totally obsessed about this all day. Hermits have friends? Doesn’t that sort of defeat the whole purpose? I wonder what kind of etiquette one needs to follow when one is the friend of a hermit. Can you just swing by for tea, or is that considered rude? Of course, I imagine a Hermit rarely leaves his cave (solitude being harder to come by when one does), so it’s not like you run in to him at parties or the grocery store. How else are you going to stay in touch? Did Paul ever feel the urge to pump Anthony for all the latest village gossip? (So-and-so just got married. So-and-so was fed to the lions last week, etc.). Did they ever just hang out and kick it? Perhaps their friendship was based on taking care of each-others errands while the other was undertaking 40 days of silence and fasting. And how does a hermit maintain their solitude and still feed themselves anyway? Maybe Paul was just putting up with Anthony because he needed somebody to bring food, perhaps an occasional bottle of wine. Maybe every hermit has a friend who they rely on in such as way. Also, when your friend the Hermit starts to smell a little bit, do you tell him? Because really, who else will?

OK,

So, I’ve been working on getting this up and running all day. There are still a few things left to tweek, but I’m close. This is my second attempt at publishing a blog. Let’s hope this time around I stick with it a little longer. I’ve been wanting a place to publish thoughts, comments, etc. for a while and I’ve actually been somewhat keeping a travel journal, which I’ve been enjoying. Publishing it on the web seems like a logical step. So I figure I’ll start with some goals for the site and see where it goes from there.

I intend:

1. To gain honest insight into facets of my life through the act of writing it all down

2. To share with others and build community

3. To use the site as a motivational tool to inspire me to pursue those things which I’m interested in

4. To overcome my perfectionist tendencies while writing. i.e. become more comfortable with having words and thoughts in a public arena that are less than brilliant/ not a masterpiece of literature

5. To use this blog as a tool to keep in better touch with family and friends.

I’m sure there are many other reasons I could go into, but in the spirit of keeping entries managable and undaunting, I’ll leave it at that.