Efficient Weekend

Despite the fact that I am not going to be physically leaving town for something like 48 hours, I am ready.

Twenty-four hours ago, I was still in a state of panic.

Since returning from Rotterdam, it’s been a busy week. Wednesday afternoon I discovered somebody I needed to talk to was in town—thus saving me a phone call. We made plans to meet both on Thursday and Friday in order to take care of business. Our meeting Thursday was good, but Friday’s was postponed until lunch time here in Weimar on Saturday.

Combine my Saturday meeting with the fact that I was behind on doing laundry and other household cleaning tasks, and I was in a mental state of panic: I had four must-do loads of laundry, a kitchen to clean, a living room to clean, my bedroom to clean, and because of social engagements, I need to be done packing by 5 o’clock today. Some how it’s all been accomplished: I even have time for a bonus fifth load of laundry (washing my quilt), and to clean-up my blog’s template, along with changing the background color.

Tonight I have two vegetarian friends coming over: we’re having an authentic curry for dinner; making brownies and chocolate chip cookies, and, if time permits, watching a movie—that’s the time limit for Sunday.

Monday is off-limits because after work, I’m going to a “Pilot-nacht” party. After several months of delays, we’re going to get together and watch pilot episodes from several different television series. It should be a fun evening, but since I won’t be home before 11, packing my suitcase that night is not an option.

The next morning I’m going to head into the office in order to finish doing whatever tasks I need to do before heading to Germany’s worst city for a dismal night—dinner in some second rate expensive restaurant, an encounter with some drug addicts, and a cold wind blowing down the streets. I can predict right now that I will go to bed at 8 or 9pm not because I am tired but because that’s the most exciting thing to do in Frankfurt, save for going to the airport and leaving town.

I fully realize that not everybody shares my opinion of Frankfurt—and perhaps one day I ought to give it more of a chance, but really, I adore Leipzig and Dresden, and despite the fact that Berlin is an overly spread-out city, it has pockets of charm that I like to visit.

Meanwhile, I have a large backlog of things I want to just mention—and although I will not be writing about my encounter with vintage gay porn in Portland (I’ve been saving that one for quite awhile; you’ll have to wait until I get back to Weimar in the new year), I hope you’ll enjoy some of these other things!

Christmas Greetings: One of my siblings forwarded to me the RailEurope Holiday Greetings. I really don’t know what to say about it other than the fact that it made me laugh.

Kiva Loans: I’ve decided to invest up to $150 in small businesses through Kiva; $25 at a time. My second loan was in Parviz Pirimov’s taxi located in Azerbaijan. In the photo he’s driving an old beat-up Lada, and presuming Azerbaijan is like Armenia, taxis are a necessary service. It should be a winner, even though he’s going to take 12 months to pay back $475. My loan to Aventina Amélia Biza already has a report made by a local “Kiva Fellow”—who states that:

Her most popular product with the locals is the beer she offers, and she sells beer by the bottle as well as by the glass. Prices range from 25 Meticais for a bottle of wine to 9 for a can of coke, and she charges 5 meticias per person, per game for the pool table.

At current exchange rates, that’s 21 US Cents for a game of pool.

Naked Conveniences: How come I’m never in the store when hot guys go shopping naked?

That said, my weirdest convenience store experience came when I was delivering the New York Times. One morning I pulled into the 7-11 located at Mississippi and Colorado in Denver, walked in and did my usual routine: drop off the new newspapers, pick up the old, and get the clerk to sign for the newspapers. I remember him saying something, and I said something back like, “that’s interesting,” before leaving the shop and making my next delivery.

I was at the second stop after that, when it suddenly occurred to me what the clerk at the 7-11 had said to me, “I was just robbed.”