superbowl sunday away

today was fairly uneventful....guess the superbowl is going on at home today. maybe there will be some commercials worth a laugh or two, maybe the game will have a play worth a laugh or two..i don't know. to be honest, i wouldn' t have even known that the superbowl was going on today if clint hadn't let me in on the secret. he's going to a superbowl party this evening. =) good times...

tonight i had a rather unfortunate run-in with my "germs" - my german friends...the only other people staying on from the last semester in sundsvall. 10 of us gathered downstairs to hang out for a little while, and celebrate the return of rebecca - who left for the weekend for her birthday. sometimes my times with them are so awkward. i could literally feel my skin crawling this evening....my "american-ness" was obviously throwing off the balance of the rooms collective atmosphere...ususally, because they are my friends, they will try to curb their tendencies to speak in german when i'm around, in order to include me. tonight, however, things were a little different. i could tell that my being there was making them uncomfortable...some days it's just like that more than others. it's understandable really....an entire room full of german speaking people, and i alone am the only uni-langual unit. ouch. let's just put it this way..you know it's bad when a joke is made..and you know it's something about your inability to 'understand' the language, but you don't know "exactly" what's been said...and everyone laughs, except for you. really, it just makes me feel like an ignorant bore. i'd rather be bored and alone for the evening than mocked in a different language - given the option to take an out..i took it. =)

this afternoon i discovered something scary hiding under my bed. a monster....no! it's worse!! there was a "european - fitted sheet" under the mattress pad on my bed..which, if you've never seen one..it's completely different from those we have in the US. they are complicated devices, usually made of terry-cloth..like a towel....and if they come from ikea..usually white...on the underside they have several strings which you have to tie together to keep it on the bed. well..when i moved in here i had no idea what it was, and assumed it was just a layer of protection for the mattress..i put the mattress pad on top of it, and covered it with my own fitted sheet (a normal one..ah the joys of elastic) and my regular sheet, and my bedspread.

well, upon hearing jeffery, one of my friends from belgium, recount his cleaning frenzy when he moved in..and the horrible state of filth his bed was in..i decided to more closely inspect mine. "okay, the mattress pad looks fairly clean" i thought "i'm in the clear"..then i gently lifted a corner to reveal (EEK, GASP, AAAHHH) more human hair and bodily fluid( of who knows what kind) than one would care to see in a lifetime-- collected in the most strange fitted sheet that i've ever taken the pleasure to peel and scrape off of a bed. hehe..okay, you caught me, this is a slight exaggeration, but it's more fun for me that way.so..=) i promptly postponed my clothes "laundry time" and "knighted" the day....Bed Clothes laundry day!!

i stripped the entire thing...grabbed the mystery sheet with a plastic bag, and put it in it's proper place....THE GARBAGE!! vacuumed my mattress...and washed the mattress pad, and everything else on my bed which had previously been in any way connected to the bed. luckily the mattress pad had been between me, my sheets, and the "mess" the entire time...but still!!! anyway, tonight i'm going to sleep well, knowing my bed isn't keeping deep dark secrets from me. (it's just not right i tell you!) maybe you should see if your beds' have a deep, dark, (hairy) secret that they are hiding from you!! note:: this does not apply to you if you are the only owner your bed has ever known....you're probably safe..and if not...well, it's your own fault. buyer beware!

today i did laundry, wore my hair curly, hung out with a lot of germans, read hosea, ate fruit salad with my roommates, opened a can of peaches to find out that they were not "preserved" as they should have been....threw rotten peaches out over the balcony (to the horror of my roommates) - who appearnatly would never do such a thing in germany..they suggested i flush them down the toilet...but i think that they compliment the snow rather nicely. they look like the yolks of some very large eggs. maybe i'll sit outside tomorrow and take pictures of the passers-by trying to figure out exactly which enormous bird dropped these monstrosities on the ground below...which came first? the chicken or the egg?

i found out that my sister can't see me living in nashville for the rest of my life. she told me "maybe temporarily" but not for the rest of my life...funny how now that i'm the one entering the real world i look to my younger sister for advice. but what can i say? she knows me. and she witnessed me trying to fit into the nashville scene this summer...with all of the plastic people with perma-grins- people i genuinely adored....but people that i'm not much like. i've always wanted to work in the music industry...and that's where i felt i was being led for the longest time. now..i don' t know which direction God's taking me...but i'm just goig to let Him lead on for a while until He decides it's time to let me know. my dad thinks i would be good on star search..=) maybe i'll try out for that when i get home. hehehe

took a picture of the sky today. i'd like to post it sometime if it's possible. once again it was beautiful...and different. earlier in the day it was really interesting outside, because there was a light fog outside..and the sky was a little gray and dark because of it, but the ground magnified what little light got through...and the snow glowed so brilliantly that you nearly needed to cover your eyes. it was pretty strange, but interesting. hopefully someday you'll see.

people i'm praying for double-time tonight:
ahmad, nadine, my dad, sarah, clint - direction, john

wishing everyone sweet dreams in a *clean bed* tonight
~me