renate.nu

WHY IS THE WORLD SO MEAN TO ME.

No, I’m not really going to whine. Not really.

Only, the thing is. When we got our preliminary tax return papers, we found out that we’re in for a whopping return this year, which is a nice change of pace, because usually I get money back, but Tor owes. So imagine our glee when not only do we both get money back, the amount is a LOT more than we’d dared hope for.

So we’re eagerly counting the days to June 24th. Well, sort of. We were looking forward to it, anyway. So we splurged and got a new home theater system, completely with Blu-Ray, which is awesome awesome awesome, and the new sound is OH SO GOOD and makes me jump all the time because it’s just so CRISP and CLEAR and WHOA DID YOU JUST MAKE A SQUEAKY NOISE?? NO, IT WAS THE MOVIE, BUT IT SOUNDED SO REAL.

Sorry about that. I really love good picture and sound when I watch movies. It warranted a bit of caps.

So yes, tax return money. We’ve already spent some of it before actually having it, sort of – I had the money in my bank account, because I’d just gotten my vacation pay, which was also insane and awesome all at once, so at least we didn’t have to use the credit card.

But then the 24th rolls around. I get home from work, there’s a letter for me. Tor tells me to not open it, throw it away, it’s not good news in there, I hate this stupid letter.

I open it. It tells me that I won’t be getting my tax return money until October. SO SORRY, SINCERELY, TAX DEPARTMENT.

Well, shit.

But here’s where I turn it into something positive:

• We have quite a bit of money right now anyway, because of vacation pay. And, because my boss is away on holiday and I fill her position while she’s away, I’ll get 5 weeks worth of HER salary level instead of my own.
• There are no huge bills coming up.
• We’ll have lots of money in October, a time where we usually have just a normal amount. We might be able to afford a long weekend in Krakow or Berlin or someplace like that!
• The state has to pay us the interest on the money, and their interest rates are better than the ones we’d get in our own bank.

So really? Unless they suddenly decide that we’re not getting any money after all (God forbid), this is a GOOD THING.

See? Not whining! GOOD THING.

The other exam that I was even more worried about?

ANOTHER A.

Also, thanks so much for all the comments on my previous awesome-post. :)

Because you know what? That first exam that I was so worried about?

I got an A.

:D :D :D :D :D

Or, well, I don’t have my vacation time until August, because I’m super nice and let everyone else take their pick before me. Also, I have to be present at work when my boss is not so that I can be the boss, but at least I’m compensated by getting the same level salary she does. Whoo!

Anyway, it feels like vacation time because when I come home from work now, I can do whatever I want. I don’t have to read anything unless I want to. There are no papers to write. Of course, I’ve written two long blog posts over at my Norwegian blog, one of which is about studying, and I have another one started about why the world needs historians/humanists in general. But there are no deadlines, and no one to pick on my choice of words and my at times ridiculously long sentences. HAH.

And also? It’s SUMMER. I’ve been out several times in short sleeves in the last couple of weeks. And I have popsicles in the freezer. It’s awesome. It’s summer.

Also also? We might go to Hawaii next fall. ALSO AWESOME.

I have today (and tomorrow, and Wednesday…) off to study for my next exam (history of technology), and after 2 hours of intense reading about, among other things, the etymology of words connected to the factory, I decided to take a break and go for a walk.

I chose a route I’ve previously walked with Tor – up a long (actually, three times as long as I remembered it), semi-steep hill to a derelict farm that Tor scared me with by saying that inbreds probably live there (we just saw an X-Files episode that featured inbreds on a derelict farm), then into the woods.

Now, as I was entering the woods, some of my childhood knowledge of the woods came to mind. It’s spring, and in spring, the moose have their young. The moose is normally almost as afraid of you as you are of it when you meet, but when they have their calves with them? Furious, ferocious mommy moose. So I hesitated a bit, but after examining the ground for tracks (found some hoof tracks, decided they were from shod horses) and poop (didn’t see any), I cautiously walked on, reminding myself to listen closely to any crunching branches, and to watch for trees that looked newly nibbled.

I closed in on the forest track, when — SOMETHING MOVES! BRANCHES CRUNCHING, BRANCHES CRUNCHING!!!! — an old lady and her dog came around the bend.

She actually stopped to ask me if I was startled. I told her of my fear for the moose, and she agreed that yes, there might indeed be moose in the forest this time of year. Then we smiled, I patted her dog on the head, and we both went our separate, merry ways.

Also, I’m pretty sure some little animal thing followed me through the forest, only to stop whenever I stopped to look and listen for it. All I could see were bumblebees. Apparently the local bumblebees have been genetically altered to make crunching noises when they move.

Also? I’m a wuss, and you need to watch this:

I had my first exam of the semester today, in the lovely subject of work and everyday life 1800-2000. The assignment was to examine the relationships of power that shaped the work and everyday life of the servant girls, as compared to another group of workers. I chose the industry workers as my group for comparison, and wrote 8 pages in the space of 4 hours. Now. I’d say that probably 70% of my essay is pretty darn good, whereas the remaining 30% are, well, a little confusing perhaps. I lost my train of thought in the middle of writing a paragraph, so it turned out a little…weird. I think I got my point across, but it might boggle the mind of whoever is to censor it.

And now, now I’m constantly second-guessing myself and the choices I made. Was choosing the industry workers going too broad, should I have focused on one specific branch of industry workers? Was I clear enough in how I limited the assignment in time? Are all of my facts correct? Did I understand “relationships of power” the way it was meant to?

I spoke to a girl who sat the same exam right after I handed in my paper, and she said that she was pretty happy about the assignment as “we’ve read quite a few exam papers on this topic”, and I was all “what? what!? THERE ARE EXAMPLE PAPERS WE COULD READ?”

Only you know, I said that in my head.

I’m pretty sure that if there were indeed such example papers readily available for us to peruse, then our professor would surely have notified us, because he wants us all to do well.

And speaking of doing well on written exams: I am going to, eventually, post a bit of a rant about how I feel about written school exams versus the possibility of home exams. I will, however, post this on my Norwegian blog. If there by any strange twist of internet fate should be anyone non-Norwegian interested in reading said rant, I will try to translate it once it’s done, and post it here, so let me know. The reason I’m posting it in Norwegian to begin with is simply that it’s easier for me to express my opinions on this specific topic in Norwegian, because I can at least somewhat assume that my readers there know the Norwegian education system. Also, I plan on quoting from a few Norwegian websites, and I really hate translating quotes – there’s always the danger that the quote will lose its essence when translated.

I’m downloading files off Megaupload, and because I don’t have a premium account, I have to wait 45 seconds to get to download the file. And every time it tells me this, I’m all “45 seconds!?! I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS.”

Now that I no longer have a wonky homemade theme, I figured posting from my phone might work. Not sure how much I’ll use it, as I type so much faster on the laptop, but you never know – it might come in handy!

At least it lets me blog without drawing me to the laptop , away from studying – I always find something else on the computer to waste time on rather than going back to my books.

Also? I love touchscreen phones.

Because I know you’re all just dying to hear about it!

Well. So far, it’s been pretty good. My teeth haven’t hurt much at all, but I’ve gotten a blister sore thing on the inside of my cheek that hurts a LOT. So even though my teeth feel fine, I am more or less unable to chew. Which of course mean that I don’t eat very much these days. Strangely though, I’m hardly ever hungry. I’ve had a few smoothies, chocolate milk, pudding, porridge and soup (not all in one day, obv), and I’m fine. I’ve even lost some weight, whooo! Not a whole lot yet, but I’ve only had the braces for a week, so I’m happy so far.

To help with the pain, one of my coworkers gave me this gel that she bought in the UK, that numbs the area you rub it on. I’d already tried the Norwegian version of it, bought over the counter at the pharmacy, and it didn’t make much of a difference. But the UK one? Holy shit. I applied it to the sore on the inside of my cheek, plus on a blister on the other side. The blister is kinda close to the edge of my lip, and of course the gel managed to rub off a bit. The sore is quite far to the back of my mouth, and the gel I applied there rubbed off a bit on my tongue.

The result? I felt like I’d been to the dentist and had them apply local anaesthetic. It really DID make the areas numb. Kinda uncomfortably so. Since some of it had gotten on my lip, in the corner of my mouth, it also made me worry that I’d be drooling without knowing about it. It did help with the pain though, and enabled me to speak during the job interviews we held, so that’s good.

So there you go. 300+ words about my teeth.

…

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a nerd/geek. I’m a little confused as to when to use which classification – I do believe nerds are supposed to be smarter than the general population, and I won’t flatter myself by putting me in that category, really. So – geek it is, then.

Anyway. I am. I enjoy fantasy, science fiction and comic books more than most (without ‘most’ having been fact checked here, obviously) people my age. I dress up for Harry Potter movie premieres. I laugh at pop culture references to science fiction and fantasy. I once knew how to speak Elvish. Two kinds of it. I’d rather stay home and play video games than go out drinking on any given day.

And now this:

Yep. I got braces. Voluntarily, even.

I first got braces when I was about 12, then got them off when I was 14. Since then, my teeth have slowly been sliding back to where they were before I got the braces. The sliding accelerated even more when my dentist removed the one I had on the back of my lower teeth. Now? They’re right back where they started, which leaves me with a 1 cm gap between my upper and lower front teeth. I was worried that they’d slide forward even more, eventually making me look like one of those horsefaced British women.

So I asked my dentist to please refer me to an orthodontist. It took a while to get an appointment, because most of them only want to take on kids, but a new one just came to the city, and she took me right on. For a price. And what a price it is. For the whole shebang I have to pay about one month’s gross salary, which is quite a bit to spend on your teeth. But at least it’s all spread out over 2 years.

And now there’s no looking back. I have 2 years of funny feeling teeth to look forward to, but in the end it WILL be worth it.