doctor heal thyself

Ivo and I have discovered that we're jaded. It's sad but true. When Dani went in for surgery for her wrist, it was astonishing to me. The very idea that someone would have a definable, identifiable problem that would be operated upon and solved was astonishing to me. However, there it was, she was repaired. All better. No problem. Done.
Today Remo had an operation on his shoulder. He injured it on y boat a few years ago. He was stoned and wanted Ivo to take an action shot of him jumping on the wet deck of a ferry. He slipped and injured himself and then headed off to Amsterdam to medicate himself and thought nothing of it. Turns out the injury was worse than he understood, and that this was the result of a genetic weirdy thing that affects his back and shoulders just like his dad and grand-dad.
So today he had surgery. They operated on his shoulder and now it should be alright. He's requested the dvd of the surgery. The little med-student wants to see how it went down. We know this, because he told us when we went to visit him. Before visiting him, we had to give a bit of care to Dani, who was a wreck. I get it. It's like the parents at the kindergarten. Her baby is the center of her universe and she can't understand why the medical staff treats him like one patent in a sea of patients. I get it. This is her baby and a big surgery and she is upset.
Meanwhile, I looked at Ivo's face and he was fine. His baby brother had surgery and he was fine. He admitted that after waiting so often for his lover to come out of surgery had made him a bit relaxed about loved ones going under the knife. When he's awaited my being to be deposited in post-op it was after an operation that may or may not have good results in a line of surgeries and treatments that may or may not help an illness that may or may not get better. Like me, the idea of awaiting a loved one's surgical recovery which entails fixing a fixable problem is a bit of a wonder, more than a stress. This big strong healthy man was being treated helped and healed. What a miracle.
Poor moms.
Remo is healing well and I think that the biggest of his problems will be boredom and whatever morbid fascination he has.

guilt and sloth and all that my catholic upbringing expects of me

I'm a bit miffed. I am going to have to wait to start French. My course was meant to begin on Monday but was canceled due to lack of interest. I'll have to wait about two weeks now.
My big fear: Sloth. I'm afraid that not working a bajillion hours a week is going to make me soft and lazy. My plan: I'm a-gonna go to the library and bone-up on human rights whatnots and be extra prepared for my next adventure beginning this summer.
Meanwhile, I have to find something piddly to do after the holidays, before the next job and while learning french to make money. Damn these hard economic times. Guess I'll fluff up my resume, put on my smiley face and be sell able with my English skills (which fail a little more each day) and get some meaningless job that will develop the thirst in me that will egg me on to drink big from the cup of slightly-less-meaningless work.

Meanwhile I feel guilty starting part-time at the school. I suppose it's less inconvenient than if I'd stopped working at the end of my contract last week. I figure that working at the school part-time will be a good way to ween me off the myself off the little ones before I am done there. It's gonna be hard. During summer vacation I realized that it had been too long since someone played with my dangling necklace as I bent to help with a shoe or nap mat. This past week I got a big twinge, too. One of the kids (who has recently begun speaking to me exclusively in English - and HOW?!) said "Jessy mine hands are cold" stretching them out. I went to take them in my hands to feel and she said "No! Come here" and placed them on my cheeks to feel. The girl next to her quickly put her hands on my face and asked if hers were colder. Then, each of the girls who had been playing together put their hands on my face to ask who's were colder.
Then on Friday, it was one of our more rambunctious kids had his first visit to my sports class. Not only was he able to follow the rules, play with others and come up with his own games he fell on on me with a big ol' hug and said that sports are "the most fun ever!"

So, I won't be missing working in a germ-factory while taking an immunosuppresant. I won't miss being paid for 40 hours of work when, in fact, I'm putting more time and effort. I won't be missing being too tired for a social life. I will miss the kids and my colleagues, though.

Autumn

One can tell from the changing leaves on the balcony and rooftop Cannabis in Zürich, that Fall is approaching. That's right, they are a regular sight in Zürich on many buildings.
A less than usual vision is what I encountered in my neighbor's dining room this afternoon. I popped on down, all neighborly to borrow a couple of eggs to make birthday brownies and there they were, doing what I suppose is done with these popular plants when it's harvest time. Strange that I felt so uneasy, when they are so normal, right?

It doesn't smell like autumn though. Well, here in my house it just smells like brownies and pot.

Mark Twain once said "When the world ends, I want to be in Mississippi, because it'd be 20 years before anybody realized."
I find it strange, as a man who'd visited Switzerland, that he would choose Mississippi, instead of this good ol' monument to the passe.
The teens who follow footballer styles all look like snapshots of old high school boyfriends of my older cousins. I imagine that someone is just dieing to call them "Baffo". Perhaps even "Baffo Mondo".
I get all sad when I listen to the NPR movies podcast. I sigh deepl knowing that, unless it is a special about the Cannes film festival, I will not be able to see any of the movies which they are discussing for another 6 moths to a year!
Perhaps the most clear example, though, is "Crocs". I was listening to the NPR pop-culture podcast and had to laugh. They were discussing the financial repercussions of the dieing of this fad. The death of the Crocs fad. They discussed it as if it was already up there with slap bracelets and jellies. Meanwhile Crocs have just hit it big here in Switzerland. It is only 6 months, or so, since they are everywhere. When I say everywhere, I mean shoe shops that are far too good for them, specialty shops that sell only Crocs and Crocs accessories (those weird things that you stick in the holes) and, since this August, in the cloak room of my Kindergarten.
Being a Swiss Kindergarten, outside shoes are not allowed inside. If you are like me, you are wondering if Crocs would work better as outside shoes or "Finken" (or house shoes, which in our school range from out-right slippers to high-heel clikkety-clakkety shoes for a few). The answer is: BOTH! Over the past few weeks, more and more children have been bringing Crocs. This means that many mothers had bought new school shoes and finken for their children and were then pressured to buy yet another pair, so that that child could have Crocs.
As of this week more than %75 of our kids have at least one set of Crocs for indoor or outdoor use. Most of those children have two parirs for both uses.

I realize that as I write this, I have a hair cut that I would never wear in the US in this decade. I'm not necessarily a hypocrite, though. Try as I might, every hairdresser gives me and every third other woman, this layered 80's style. Plus, when in Rome.......

*shivers as 75,000 people chant "Yes We Can"

*"He had a childhood like any other" Is that so? I don't remember living in Indonesia.

*I already saw most of this pre-film I've already seen on "Obama Revealed" on CNN International. Most of this I've already read in "Dreams of My Father".

*all ready a bit of tears and his only just said "I accept your nomination".

*dude, the whole 'they want you to pull you up by your bootstraps even if you don't have any boots' line was killer

*fantastic soundbites are just rolling in

*whenever he says "you" he's looking right at me! He means me! He's calling me a patriot! He thinks that this election is about me!

*I dislike it when he whistles his s's

*I like when his voice gets all trembly.

*COUNTRY?!?!?!?! panderer

overheard in my classroom or Is George Bush smarter than a Kindergartener?

Simeon: Jessy, look at my funny picture!!
Jessy: I like it! Are these good guys or bad guys?
Simeon: These are all just like-to-shoot-files.with bows-guys!
Jessy:How do you know?
Simeon: Cuz I'm the decider guy!!

no lie
by the way, Simeon thinks that "files" means "arrows" in English.

And the loser is ...

I was listening to my Bugle podcast and John Oliver said how strange it was to watch the Olympics in America. Ivo found this to be true as well, but that was because of all of the advertisements. For John Oliver, the strangeness is because all of the medals the Americans win. This week, I found it crazy uncomfortable to watch the interviews with the Swiss atheletes who have lost. It's so depressing. They're on the verge of tears and trying their best to speak High German in the emotionally-charged environment (let's face it, most Swiss atheletes are Romand).