Boris the Spider

Imagine that it's quite late at night. You are laying in bed, lights out, doing some last things on your computer before finally shutting it off for the night. Then, out of the corner of your eye, you see a spot on your headboard (well, technically backrest since you sleep on a pull out sofa bed) move in a most curious manner. You turn to see it properly, and, lo and behold, there is a spider mere centimeters away from where your head is.

What do you do? Freaking out won't do any good- you'd just end up with six quite agitated people rushing down to see why you're screaming bloody murder. Can't squish it with a shoe- the sofa is white and that'd would bring only an ugly spider-entrails blob and a heap of disappointed complaints. Can't take it outside this time of night- the host parents wouldn't be too pleased with an open door at that hour. You keep a somewhat cool mind and look around the for options. Don't wander too far or let your eyes leave Shelob's spawn for too long. Don't want the thing running away, maybe into your sheets, only to reappear once you're finally asleep, if you can manage to sleep in your bed after such an encounter. Your eyes rest on a plastic box that, until a few days ago, held some Q-tips. Bingo! You place the box over Aragog's little friend and watch as he crawls into it, no need for a piece of paper to help him out. Congratulations! You now have a new house pet. And since you love rock, you know that the Who wrote a song about a similar occurrence, except with a rather more violent ending. But, since you are a kind soul, you just incarcerate Boris and show him off to the kids the next day. And you hope and pray Boris didn't have a girlfriend.

P.S. Sorry for all my nerdy references to really large spiders from fictional works. Boris isn't even big. He's rather average, if you ask me. And he's about as entertaining as a pet fuzzy. Except with fangs and legs.

It's been a long, cold, lonely winter...

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun!!!
It's finally starting to thaw out here. Spring won't be as warm as I'm used to, but hey, at least the snow's gone. Normally I can wear shorts on my birthday, which is a little more than a week away, but that won't happen this year. But I might not have to wear a coat. And that's almost as good. It was relatively warm today and the sky was clearer than it's been for months. I know, 6°C or 43° F doesn't seem very toasty at all, but the sun made up for it. It's as though the sun got sick in the fall, took bed rest for all of winter, and appeared today in all it's glory. I even sat outside in pants and a t-shirt- not even a jacket!!! I haven't done that since... September?
Which brings me to what I was doing outside. I can now cross something off my bucket list. I have officially read all seven Harry Potters in German, as of this evening. Oh yeah. I feel awesome. And just as when I read them in English, I still want more. And what does one read after the marvelous Harry Potter? It's a shame that library cards cost here. Wait, I rarely would be able to go anyways because of my working hours and because they're only open until 14:00 on Saturdays. Dumb. Anywho... It felt great to read all day today. It was like the good old days, before Facebook, before I even had an email address, when I could read for hours so long as I put the book down for dinner and did my chores. I remember, when the last couple HP books first came out, my family would buy a copy to share and race to see who would finish first. I don't think I ever didn't win.
So my boss/host-parents/whatever-they-should-be-called said we could all go out for dinner or go somewhere for my birthday. That presents somewhat of a conundrum for me. I recently found out there's a KFC on the other side of town, and some good-ole fried chicken always does the soul good. But, I can also fry my own chicken, and KFC is rather, well, American. So... what about some Schnitzel? Except that gets expensive, especially when there are seven mouths to feed... Or I could have a party. Problem is, my friends kinda sorta live all over the country/continent/world. Oh dear. Ideas? Suggestions?
And, yesterday Dana drew me a picture of a desert oasis with a camel holding a heart that says "ich hab' dich lieb" (i love you). Day made! I think I finally won her over :)
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Everybody's working for the weekend

This past weekend was yet another Vocalis Wochenende. And although I don't particularly like some of the songs we're singing or singing second soprano, it somehow didn't bother me this weekend like last month. I actually enjoyed myself a lot this weekend. We had considerably more free time, and I actually got to hang out with people my age!!!
Friday night, some of us decided to head over to McDonalds. My absolute favorite "restaurant" of all time... but I never really get out, so I went anyways. Still can't bring myself to try a burger, even though Micky D's is purportedly better over here. I ordered a Cookie McFlurry. They were promoting especially American varieties, and the cashier decided to complain to me about how these awful American names are so hard to pronounce and don't make any sense... "Appleh krumbleh...?" I love Germans. :)
Saturday I got to go to the temple! I wasn't planning on it originally, especially since I stayed up much too late conversing with the ladies with whom I shared I room. But I managed to wake up just early enough to go. It had a wonderful impact on my day! And then...
We rehearsed. Yep. We had sectionals with the director. Here comes the worst part of the weekend: we had to sing a line of this one song by ourselves, in front of the whole section. Naja, doesn't sound that bad, but singing in front of people somehow makes me forget how to breathe, which is rather unfortunate since singing requires a lot of breath. And so I breathed in the middle of the phrase and the director said it was a catastrophe. Gee, thanks. I can sing just fine when not alone. Guess I'll never have a successful solo career. Didn't want one anyways.
I played some games with my friends that evening. The best part was when nobody told me how to play Skip-Bo (or maybe I just wasn't listening properly when they explained auf Deutsch) and they expected me to be the second one to play. "Your turn, Shelby!" "What am I supposed to DO?!?" And then someone decided to tell me in English how to play. You could say things were lost in translation or something.
Sunday was also rather good. I had dish duty with some Swiss people. Swiss German... is interesting! It would be really cool to learn it. By the way, drying dishes and putting them away goes a lot faster if you make a game out of it.
All in all, I was loath to leave Sunday afternoon. Like I said (wrote? typed?), I don't really get out much, and I only see these people once a month. I get tired of hanging out with people less than half my age day in and day out. Oh Monday. I may not have a real job or go to class, but I still don't like Mondays. And it was such a nice weekend, aside from my catastrophic breathing problem.

Everyone's trying to get it right, get it right.

Much Better Than a- Owner of a Broken Heart

Please forgive the poor grammar of the title. I didn't write the song.
I love how I am listening to my bitter music on Spotify and then BANG they play an add about how "love is in the air!" and I should listen to their love playlist and crap. Guys, do you not realize that I am most definitely not in love on this Singles Awareness Day?
I'm just grateful that, due to my current circumstances, namely working 12:30-18:30 and living on the outskirts of town, I didn't have to see a single happy couple. For once, I'm grateful that my only outing was to pick up Dana from Kindergarten. And at least I don't have a broken heart. Or ridiculous and totally groundless hopes of somebody popping up out of nowhere. I'm grateful I'm not in high school. Really people. Get a freaking life. High school romance... ha. Valentines Day in middle school is even more laughable. And I'm glad I don't have to see people really in love back at BYU. See, there are pros to everything!
I am "celebrating" my seven months in Germany. That's in quotes because I'm not too thrilled about that. Why, you ask? Don't you just love Germany? Exactly. I do. And I have only five months left. But since I decided to make Deutschland my valentine, I can still eat a lot of chocolate from Germany... right? ha...ha... Well, Sunday during Skype-time, my sisters and I kinda all decided to be each other's valentines. It's an on-going joke... because none of us three ever have real valentines, and at this rate, we won't until the youngest, who's ten, has graduated high school...
Just wondering, why do we have to have a day to celebrate couples? Can we have a day when we celebrate the lonely and those still searching?

P.S. I finally got my mission papers last night. And now I get to start filling them in!

I want it all, and I want it now!

This is a collection of shirts I want, but will most likely never purchase because I'm a tightwad. Twenty bucks for a t-shirt? Uhh... anybody wanna buy me a birthday present?... Didn't think so.

The Tree of Gondor

There and Back Again

Friday, I'm in Love!

 Jedi Academy

South'ners Only

 If you love Star Wars

Plus many, many more awesome things that I find when I waste time on the internet... Dangit, Etsy...

It's been fourteen days since I don't know when.

Since my last two posts have been more, wellllll, thoughts than action, I should probably give y'all the run-down on my life.
Honestly, the Einzelheiten aren't anything spectacular. Just day-to-day playing with the Kinder. So maybe some snapshots...?

I started an old-school photo album. A little Hinweis: Don't wait until you have 124 pictures to print to develop them. I went to a little instant-photo printing kiosk thing (probably not the most cost-efficient idea ever, but involved the least bit of talking to people, which would've necessitated the use of words I don't know yet) in the store. It took for-ev-er to print. No joke. I was there a minimum of twenty minutes. Probably more like a half hour. I bought a sketch book (the cost of that made up for the excessive amount of Euros I gave out for the actual photos) from a craft store and decorated it with some Germany-colored ribbons. This is going to be the coolest photo album ever.

An external view

This is how you tell if you have too much time on your hands. Not only am I actually making a legit photo album, but I took the time to look up Fraktur script and then copy it from a font preview. It took probably as long as it did to print the dang photos. I'm rather proud of it.

So far, I've gotten July-September done. At least I have something (relatively) productive to do now.

I went on a walk in the woods by our home last Sunday.

What happened to this tree? It looks like it decided to grow an external heart... or really REALLY failed at making a branch and instead made some tumor-thing...

I watched Star Wars V with Darion. I'm always glad to introduce someone to the Saga, but I'm afraid I've started an obsession. It's pretty bad. He can't go a day without singing, humming, or playing the Imperial March on either saxophone or piano; talks about it all the time, asks questions incessantly, has pictures from all the movies on his phone even though he's only seen two episodes... if he had been exposed earlier, he would be as bad as my brother was. 

I tried a new food called Dürüm. Remember the Döner? It's basically that, but in a wrap. It's delicious, and more filling than even Thanksgiving Dinner, not to mention much less effort. Google it. I never thought I'd like Turkish wraps... but I do... a lot...

This weekend's Fasching/Karneval. On the way home from church, we spotted some people all dressed up in costume. Just out of curiosity, does anybody else, specifically over the age of thirty, not know what Pac-man is? We saw a Pac-man costume, and somebody asked, in all seriousness, what that was. That's a pretty big rock you've been living under... 

And I'll finally get my mission papers Wednesday! Then I can finally get started with the whole business!

Well, that's it and then some...

Now that I'm all on my own

Soundtrack style. Sometimes I do break from my loose policy of listening to music made before my appearance on this planet.
Just So You Know.
(this dumb blog thing refuses to allow me to embed videos... sorry, looks like you'll have to actually open another tab)

This evening, I found out that one of my dearest friends is engaged, as of yesterday. She was my first friend at my new high school when we moved in the middle of 9th grade. Both she and her roomate, who is also a good friend, got engaged in the past couple weeks. Our trio's down to one... I don't mean to sound too bitter. Congrats, my dear friends! They begged me to move in with them this year, but I chose to move to Germany. They were both single when I left them in June. I can't help but wonder if I would've gotten a boyfriend somehow, just like them. Then I remember that I'm me, and I probably wouldn't have anyways and then felt quite depressed through the whole school year. I most likely would've avoided the living room and just been a hermit in my room. Wait a sec, I'm a hermit in my basement anyways... hmmm.

Sometimes it would be nice to have someone to think about when I listen to all those fantastically cheesy 80's  ballads I love so much.