Date: Friday, February 4, 2000 17:15 Subject: wet end to a weird week Suddenly it's dark and wet and raining and eww, after a beautiful day yesterday and a promising morning. We're having odd, warm weather. The prediction for Sunday is 14 and sunny! This is not normal for Berlin in February. Not that I'm complaining, although I am complaining about having to go skating in the rain tonight. Man muß immer tranieren... What have we done, this strange week? First off, Monday was the end of the IPO lockout, which means that we are free to sell our shares. The broker has the paperwork and we're ready to pull the trigger. But I'm going to wait for a few weeks. The price is down a bit in reaction to all the employee shares hitting the market and there are expectations that good things might happen mid-month. So we'll sit tight and see if it takes off again. So otherwise it's the usual, work, train, socialize. We were out Wednesday night with student friends, last night with skating friends. Watching Germans organize a club is really quite an education. (I'm part of a new speedskating team. We're just now rustling up sponsorship and getting clothing and planning trips to various races. I might be doing a few roadtrips this summer.) Now that we're not so broke we started yoga (strenuous and trendy "power-yoga" of course) on Tuesday morning. This is painful, but it's a good sort of painful. I think it's really going to help me. It provides three things I need for skating - balance, flexibility and strength. The job is going well - they paid me - though I'm still struggling to find the self-discipline necessary for working at home. This is the first time since our student days in Chicago that Annette and I have both attempted to work at home, and it's taken some adjustment. Yesterday disappeared in a fog of back pain (I overdid things a bit the day before, running hills in the morning then skating hard in the evening) and recrimination over what housework to do and when, but we sorted it out and came to a few agreements over how best to manage our time. We both feel like we've been spinning our wheels a little. One task a day - clean-up or shopping or errands - and leave the rest of the time for work, pleasure and training. One must negotiate. Sometimes it's not easy spending 22 hours a day in each other's company, though I generally prefer more time together over less. And it helps that we're over our little bout of mutual slovenliness. Now we have to re-stock the kitchen and do some laundry and all will be right in the world. Vita is doing well. She ended the hunger strike when Annette brought back a load of Fancy Feast Boeuf Tranché and this of course means that she's getting her pills regularly and is therefore in capital fettle. Which also means that once again we're being pounced on in the morning. What's up for the weekend? Not too much. Brunch tomorrow with friends up in Prenzlauer Berg - more lesbians, I swear to god, we don't know any straight women here - and we'd better do some shopping and long rides and runs on Sunday and probably a little work too. Oh yeah, Annette's heard nothing yet from Dalhousie. No news is not good news in these situations - they've probably made their decision but normally they don't tell the losers until they've completed negotiations with the winner. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Time will tell. Right, the skates beckon... Regards, Scott Date: Monday, February 7, 2000 23:45 Subject: 14 DEGREES AND SUNNY!!!! It's a good thing I didn't manage to write this letter Sunday night, as I was in such a joyous state that I probably would have come across as insufferably happy, and made enemies. Tonight I am somewhat less ebullient, though likely still insufferable. Today it rained in the morning and was not quite so warm, but yesterday was absolutely glorious. Fourteen degrees and sunny - I am dead serious. It was magnificent. We are all feeling this sudden surge of springy energy. I was in such a good mood I had to pull myself down from the ceiling. The cat is absolutely full of beans. Annette is almost too cheerful to care about Dalhousie. I'm training hard and feeling good about myself. I have energy again. I was out riding for almost three hours on Sunday and loved every minute of it. It was one of those perfect afternoons when you never want to get off the bike. I've dropped a few pounds and seem to be stronger in the legs after a winter's skating. Consequently I'm strutting about the house a great deal. I'm strutting far too much, according to Annette. As she rightly says, not only is it difficult to buy me a gift because I've already bought myself everything I could possibly want, but it's difficult to pay me a compliment because I've already complimented myself in every conceivable way. I'm also happy about the sudden expansion of our social network. On Sunday's ride I had to stop three times to chat with friends in the Grunewald (there is one particular stretch of road where all the skaters train). This pleases me a great deal. One of the problems I had here in '95 was that I met no-one other than Annette's academic friends. My German wasn't very good and the cycling world was not particularly open. Skating is much better, as is my German. I'm not the least bit shy about speaking now, and was in such a pleasant mood yesterday that I babbled away for much of the afternoon. I rode for a while with a French guy who is living and working here. (A food wholesaler - why did I not think to ask for his card?) We tried speaking French but I was hopeless - once you start learning a third language, the second is buried underneath - and stuck to German. Actually we spoke a mixture, because I was often able to throw in a French word when I couldn't think of the German. Even here, I realize, Annette and I stick to our old Sunday pattern: I don't leave for my afternoon ride until she returns from her run. I love having the place to myself on Sunday mornings, and she, I imagine, is not displeased by the prospect of being left alone for a few hours. The expanded social network means, of course, a hectic social life. We were out for brunch on Saturday with a Berlin Program friend and a couple of her Fulbright alum pals, in town for the weekend. (Two huge Americans, looked like brothers, live together in Munich and both work for Yahoo's German operation. They tried half-jokingly to offer me a job but I was not tempted. Not in the least.) On Sunday, after our respective workouts, we went for dinner at Milagro. We hadn't really celebrated Annette's birthday, our return to financial solvency and our impending windfall, so we said what the hell, it's time for a decent meal. (A few years ago a friend sent us a postcard showing a stretch of Bergmannstrasse, with Milagro in the middle. Why here it is. I stuck the postcard to my monitor at work and for at least a year I looked at it every day and said I have to figure out a way to get from here to there. And here I am.) Then on the way through the big gate, returning home, we were intercepted by our neighbour Detlef the painter and found ourselves invited in for a glass of wine. We left the doors open so that Vita could join us, which she eventually did, though nervously; Detlef admires her excellent stripes and lovely green eyes and has offered his services as a cat sitter. Sometime soon I will put together a simple web site for him in exchange for a piece of art. The social calendar is full for the rest of the week. Tonight we had the option of dinner with the skating crowd, again, but we backed out when we realized how busy we will be. Tuesday Annette has her seminar, after which one normally passes the remainder of the evening in a café. Wednesday we are having dinner with Annette's (former) advisor from Chicago. We found their apartment and they owe us many dinners in the coming six months. Thursday... we must be doing something, I'm just not sure what. Friday night we are having a party here. We'll do a pot-luck dinner to encourage people to show up early, before the big gate is locked and we have to run back and forth letting the guests in and out all night long. What else? The cat is terribly energetic all of a sudden. She roars around the apartment then howls pitifully if you're working at the computer, compelling you to get up and go into the other room and play with her for a while. While this is greatly annoying, I am very pleased to see her returning to health. She seems much happier now than before Christmas. She purrs loudly and often. Perhaps I owe part of my good mood to the sudden onset of financial solvency. I've been paid, the accounts are more or less in the black and we will soon be selling some stock. Suddenly we don't have to worry about every little expense. We're not living any more extravagantly than we did before, we're simply suffering less stress because of it. If we want a second cup of tea or coffee, we order it, three or four marks be damned. We don't really have any major expenditures planned, other than a phone system upgrade to ISDN and a few small things around the house. Oh and of course I'm going to buy myself a new road bike next month, but that's been planned since before the IPO. It's my treat, my undeserved reward, my ill-gotten gain. And I'm really, really going to enjoy shopping for it. I've already started. That's all for now. I should get back to work, even though it's midnight. We are night owls again. It's going to be a busy week, as they now always seem to be. Various errands - the dishwasher needs to be de-kalked - and chores - the cupboard is once again bare - and work and training - yoga again tomorrow, ice Wednesday and Friday - and socializing. So I'd better shut up now. Regards, Scott Date: Tuesday, February 8, 2000 13:54 Subject: in poor taste So we're coming back from yoga earlier today, tired and sweaty and hungry, with a couple of frozen pizzas for lunch. And I say "Right, straight into the oven, then straight into the shower.... hey, isn't that backwards from how they normally do it around here?" That's probably not the worst thing I've said on the subject. Back in DC I knew a German student with horrific body odour (there's a peculiar non-bathing subculture here) on whom I conferred the nickname "Auschpitz". Your tasteless, witty thoughts for the day. Scott