Subject: euromullet
Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 23:25
I'm living in Berlin right now. There's a haircut here called the "Vokuhila" which means "Vorner Kurz Hinten Lang" which is "Front Short Back Long" which is basically a mullet. More specifically a Euromullet. It's very popular with hard-ass unemployed soccer fans who drink nasty Schultheiss beer in the subway - pretty much the German equivalent of the North American mullet-wearer.
There's also a hair salon up in Prenzlauer Berg called "Vokuhila" but my guess is they're being ironic. (Doesn't happen often...)
There is a strong mullet culture here in Germany. I'd be curious to know whether the mullet hairstyle is originally American or European, whether it migrated across the Atlantic, or if it evolved independently on both sides. There's a sociology Ph.D. in that somewhere.
I suppose I'll have to risk getting my ass kicked on the U-Bahn and send you a few pictures.
Regards,
Scott
To: Annette [in Bowling Green, OH]
Subject: Re: I'm here
Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 10:22
Hi,
Your day sounds lovely. How did you ever make it through dinner? Hopefully you showed at least a tiny amount of enthusiasm for the fine selection of national-chain retailers all conveniently located on one broad avenue running through the middle of town, rather like a mid-western Champs Elysées.
Is there in fact a bowling green in Bowling Green? Please ask. I don't think Americans are much use at lawn bowling, certainly not as good as we are.
After the usual procrastinating start I managed a good chunk of work last night, and am trying to finish in a day or two. There is pressure from Vancouver, but even more so, pressure from within - I'm getting sick of the thing.
Okay, I should really get some work done. Skating this afternoon, then the picture thing is apparently off so I'll be able to work again tonight, then hill-running with C Thursday morning, und so weiter. D called this morning, apologizing for not giving us Berlinale tickets, and said he'd drop some in the mailbox for the weekend. God knows for what, but I suppose it's a free trip to the movies so I shouldn't complain.
Have fun at the interview. You're special! You're the center of attention today. It's your special day!
Love you too,
Scott
To: Annette [in Washington D.C.]
Subject: so, an update
Date: Thursday, February 17, 2000 22:28
Annette,
Right. A proper message, such as has not been written for 24 hours. I'm halfway through downloading the latest cut of the software I'm documenting, seems like a good time to write a message.
First off, the day's important development - Vita now enjoys hanging out in the office. Yesterday I turned around and found her sitting on one of my sweaters, up on the table thing with the blue boxes. I was so impressed! She finally figured out that it's okay to hang out with us while we're working. So today I moved the blanket in and lo, up she hopped. She still howls at me to come play in the living room at least four times a day, but now I don't feel quite so guilty when I'm working. She's been very sweet in your absence, a model cat, really.
In other news, I had a nice workout this morning. It's not the quickest way to do things, but pleasant. Out of the house at about twenty past nine (was supposed to be nine but Vita needed a cuddle at the last second) and over to C's on the bike, then I rode alongside as she ran over to the hill (much better idea). We ran it four times, a bit longer than before, about a two minute effort each time. I felt great (though the legs were a bit tired from a tough skating workout the night before) but C said she was getting wobbly by the end. Then we went back and had tea to warm my frozen hands, and I rode home, making it back by one.
I was dopey for a bit in the afternoon but then cleaned up the apartment and settled down to work, punctuated by frequent and anxious checking of the stock price through the late afternoon. Weird weather today. Cold (just below freezing) this morning, sunny in the afternoon, rain with light snow when I rode to the meeting at six-thirty, clearing skies and warmer when I came home at eight.
Tonight's meeting was an odd interruption. It turns out - I'm never too clear on things - that the team/club is trying to join OSC Berlin as some kind of semi-independent sub-verein. OSC (Olympische Sport Club) runs the big complex in Schöneberg with the pool and velodrome and everything else. So if we get in (as we're supposed to) then we'll have access to the training facilities. It's all a bit mysterious. I asked A what the point was, other than the training facilities, and he said "administrative support". I was about to ask what the hell one needed "administrative support" for, but then I remembered where I am. No news on sponsorship just yet.
Our hockey player friend was at the meeting, we chatted a bit. Gosh, he is just about the nicest person I have ever met. It brings tears to your eyes, he is so nice. I mentioned that we'd like to see a Capitals game sometime and he said to give him a call. They're playing a five-game home stand until next weekend (the 27th) so we should do that when you return. I think we would probably get the tickets cheap or free through him, though that wasn't really what I was asking. I also said I'd be very curious to see an Eisbären game in Hohenschönhausen but he agreed that it might be safer just to go see the movie (Heimspiel) - it's pretty rough and nasty up there.
It's been weird here without you, though not lonely like it was the first time you went away, back in October. Many more distractions, human and otherwise. Tuesday night I couldn't get to sleep. I caffeinated myself in order to work on the document but by one I was sick of it, but of course was wide awake until almost four. So I lay in bed reading. The next morning I was up early to work before going to meet Stan Persky and was consequently exhausted after skating. I did nothing last night after coming home, just ate and lay on the couch watching TV. I didn't even do the dishes! Bad me. But of course when I'm tired like that it often happens that after vegetating for a few hours my energy returns just in time to keep me awake when I want to go to bed. I think I fell asleep by one, so it wasn't too bad, but still irritating. Tonight, I think I'll pound another cup of tea and try to work until two or three, then sleep a bit later tomorrow. I want to finish the damn thing, now that I have the latest and hopefully final version of the business module running here.
Okay, the download is long past, time I got to work. Hope you had a pleasant flight. Give me a call if you feel up to it. Cheaper to use their phone and pay. Say hello to everyone for me.
Love,
Scott
To: parents and in-laws
Subject: quick update
Date: Friday, February 18, 2000 02:22
It's late, two in the morning, but I'm pounding away working on the document that has to be finished by tomorrow. Deadline pressure. I work better at night - too many distractions during the day. Training, puttering about, errands, etc.
I just talked to Annette. She's in DC, staying with friends for a couple of days before heading down to Charlotte. She figures the Bowling Green interview went pretty well, which we don't know if we're exactly happy about. There are good points (decent money, cheap place to live, within range of CBC) and bad points (Ohio, Ohio, Ohio). She'd be very depressed if it was the only offer, as it would be a deadly boring place to live but you can't exactly turn down a job. I figure it will come down to a vote: Annette will opt to do what's best for her career; I'll opt to stay here because it's a better place to live; and Vita will cast the deciding vote in favour of not having to go on another plane ever again. So it's settled. We shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, of course, and there might still be reasonable options for staying here another year at least and for not having to move back to the godforsaken mid-west.
In other news, we tried to sell some stock but I set the order price too high. Today was the big news day. I put in an order at $70 but it only hit $66 before closing at $60. (Predictably, it hit the high while I was out at a meeting and grabbing some dinner.) I was greedy - if I'd gone for $65 I would have unloaded. Obviously the stock didn't take off quite as wildly as I'd hoped, but I think it's going to post another good gain tomorrow so we should be able to unload. We'll see what happens. I should be happy, in any case - this is way, way more than I expected six months ago.
Another busy few days ahead of me. Work, work, work until this is done, save for an easy skating workout tomorrow evening. Then the race on Saturday morning (the ice marathon) and a team photo shoot after and then I expect a long afternoon nap. I think there's a brunch lined up with skating friends for Sunday and D promised us tickets to something at the huge international film festival going on right now and C and I are definitely getting up to something and as soon as Annette returns we'll probably go to a hockey game since I'm now pals with one of the guys on the team. Oh and coffee with Stan Persky made for a very interesting afternoon - we'll get together again once Annette has recovered, since he's curious to hear more details about the dissertation project.
As you can see, I'm in no hurry to leave Berlin. Nor am I in a hurry to get back to work...
Regards,
Scott
PS Vita is extremely well. In case anyone asks.
To: parents and in-laws
Subject: I won a trophy!
Date: Saturday, February 19, 2000 13:02
Well, that was a busy morning. Up at 6:30, race a marathon, speak a lot of German at the season-end breakfast, then home by 12:30. Now I'm ready for a nap.
I was second in the race, a pretty good result. I'll save the details for another day, except to say that I had a good strategy - sit behind the strong guy and wait for everyone else to die first, then die myself once I was a lap ahead of third place. My back and legs were pretty damn sore by the end. It was fun though. And I have an ugly, ugly trophy as a souvenir of my time here. (Oh yeah, the time was 1:18, not too far off my inline time from Berlin last year; the winner was 1:15.)
Picture attached of me warming up. I really need to do something about those calves, don't I?
Regards,
Scott
To: in-laws
Subject: Vita says "thank you"
Date: Saturday, February 19, 2000 22:10
The cat toys arrived today. [Vita's favourite toy, a wire "cat dancer" - we lost the old one moving here and couldn't find a replacement in Germany.] Vita was thrilled. She immediately swatted the heck out of the thing, then came and sat beside me on the couch purring to show her gratitude. So of course I've attached two more cat pictures, demonstrating Vita's stair-descending technique. First you think about it, then you sort of hang on for dear life and wiggle down from step to step. It's hilarious to watch.
I've recovered from my exertions this morning. After coming home I changed into pajamas, ate everything in site, then slept for the entire afternoon. I was exhausted. Thankfully there were a few phone calls to wake me up by five. I staggered out at seven for a Milchkaffee and then returned home for my "healthy" bachelor meal - frozen spinach pizza washed down with a big Beck's - in front of the TV. It's going to be a quiet night. I suppose I should clean up the kitchen and pick up my workout gear before going to bed.
Annette is in transit, on her way to Charlotte. You're right, it's hard to know what to wish for. She finds the prospect of moving to Bowling Green intensely depressing, as do I. (If Dalhousie now offered her a job based on an equity decision, she'd take it in a second, to hell with principle.) I've begun describing Ohio as "Bayern ohne Bergen" [Bavaria without mountains] which really seems to horrify the local Prussians, as it's meant to. I have no desire to leave this place. We have a great life here - tons to do, and time to do it.
Part of the reason I was so exhausted this afternoon, apart from getting up at 6:30 AM and skating as hard as I could for 42 km, is that the last two days were hectic and tense. On Friday I finished up most of the software manual I'd been working on these past few weeks - only some touching-up left to do, I hope - and of course we sold some stock. I should never be a day trader. It's too stressful and I'm not very good at it. I wasn't very happy with my decisions - waiting for it to go back up was a mistake. My greed cost me at least $5,000. But I suppose I shouldn't complain, these things are all relative and the sale was pure profit. We have enough to make all debts go away, do a little travelling and buy me a nice new racing bike in a few weeks. And there's still a ton left for future investments. But still, it was frustrating to know that I cost myself some money. Damn.
Another social day ahead of me tomorrow. Brunch with the skating friends, the gang I'm going to Mallorca with. I'm having an easier time speaking German these days, was chattering away earlier today, and will likely chatter some more tomorrow. Then I'll probably hook up with C and hit the big Tiergarten Flohmarkt for the afternoon, and then later Sunday night I'm off to the film festival, D from downstairs having offered me a ticket (he works for the Berlinale every year).
I figure there's more I can say but I can't remember right now so I'm just going to write a few more messages, clean up and go to bed early.
Regards,
Scott
To: Annette [in Charlotte, NC]
Subject: hi
Date: Saturday, February 19, 2000 23:02
Poopie-kins,
Hi there. You'll probably get this after dinner, unless you're too tired and you wait to check in the morning, before church. When in Rome...
The cat toys arrived from your parents. Vita was very begeistert. I sent your parents a thank-you, with pictures of Vita descending the stairs, which they should find amusing. Earlier today she tossed up some cat grass and, for the first time ever, something that looked like a small hairball. No surprise there, she's been shedding a ton lately. I brushed her the other day and couldn't believe how much came off. Anyway, I wasn't sure so I called the one person who really, really knows what hairballs look like - P! She wished you well.
Ch. [our landlord] called, apologized for not getting back to us about the lock. She forgot, then remembered, then worried that we'd spent the week in a hotel. I said that if it was that serious, we probably would have called again. We had a nice chat, she asked how you were doing and so forth. My German seems to be working pretty well today, I was talking to all kinds of people after the race this morning and we had some good laughs on the phone.
My back isn't too sore after the race. The first few hours were not pleasant, but now it's mostly my legs. Fuck that was hard. It's not really that tough aerobically, but it really saps the strength in the leg muscles. I'm pretty pleased with how well it went. I'm feeling quite lean and fit these days, which augurs well for the coming season. And yes I realize I didn't need to send you those pictures today but what the hell, if you've got them on your laptop you can show them to people in Charlotte and explain why your husband is raising objections! Or you check it on the flight home so that you'll remember what I look, after yet another long absence.
It's eleven, I should wrap this up and do some cleaning - dishes and workout gear everywhere, I was too exhausted to cope with it earlier today - and go to bed. I am tired.
You return Tuesday afternoon sometime, right? Let me know when, I'll probably come straight from yoga and collect you. Or should I skip yoga so that we can do a session together later in the week? Es ist mir egal. Okay, that's all. Enjoy Dixie.
Love,
Scott
To: Annette [in Charlotte, NC]
Subject: Re: sigh
Date: Sunday, February 20, 2000 21:06
Quick reply. I only have a few minutes before I have to dash off to a movie. D gave me a ticket to, of all things, Any Given Sunday, a mainstream Hollywood movie about American football. Whatever.
Why do I get the sense that you are going to be very, very depressed when you return? Charlotte sounds like precisely the sort of soul-destroying suburban shithole that I'd cut off three out of four limbs to avoid. We'll deal with this when you get home, I guess. Fuck. Whereas Bowling Green sounds like precisely the sort of soul-destroying semi-rural mid-western shithole that I'd cut off three out of four limbs to avoid. Fuck again.
Had a fun, training-free day today. Did brunch with the skating crowd (several stories there, which I'll save for later) then called C and wandered through the Tiergarten Flohmarkt. Went for Apfelstrudel at S-Cafe in Friedenau then picked up an old city bike for her from some family friends she's been in touch with, which of course necessitated a long visit with tea. They had guinea pigs. Then grocery shopping at 7:30 on a Sunday night for the sheer pleasure of the convenience of it - no more Samstagnachmittagseinkaufsangst! And home and in a few minutes out the door.
Sounds like the sort of fun one couldn't have in Charlotte... There were English-speakers everywhere. We started talking with an American couple on the S-Bahn, she was here for four months to work on a special report as a journalist, and was going on about how could she quit her job and stay, it was so cool here. We agreed, of course.
Not that I'm putting any pressure on you to blow off tomorrow's interview or anything. Just kidding, except that sometimes it's hard to help myself. Sorry. I didn't mean to do this, but none of this is exactly a secret. We both feel the same way.
Okay, definitely gotta run. The U7/U8/U5 awaits - it's the Internationale on Karl-Marx-Straße.
Vita says hi. She went bonkers when I came in.
Love,
Scott
To: Annette [in Charlotte, NC]
Subject: Re: sigh
Date: Sunday, February 20, 2000 21:36
Annette,
Okay, so I'm not going out to a movie... confusion. Yesterday D called me and said he'd get me a ticket to something late, at eleven. So I picked up a ticket in the mailbox this morning and saw 20:00 and for some reason read it as 22:00 and didn't get back until eight. Luckily I noticed this in time and didn't show up on Karl-Marx-Straße just as it was letting out. I suppose I should go down and thank D and apologize. Just as well, I wasn't necessarily into a football movie. I wonder if Videodrom is still open. No, it's closed on Sunday, isn't it? Fuck. Oh whatever.
So, back to the message. Sorry I expressed displeasure at the thought of living in the American Utopia. I know it puts pressure on you. But we feel the same way. It occurred to me a few days ago that every time we've moved, I've been pleased by the prospect. I've been happy to go to a new place, and if not always happy to leave the old, at least I could look forward to an interesting alternative. Not this time. A town without sidewalks is no town for me. [Annette described Charlotte as "nothing but big four-lane roads with no sidewalks" and Wal-Marts.]
So, in the end, yes, for a finite period of time I'd be prepared to move somewhere distinctly sub-optimal for the sake of your career - that's the risk I took by not having one of my own - but it would not be easy. I'm sorry, I know this is not the time or the place to have this discussion, but I can't help it.
And the rest of my day? Well, brunch was fun. We talked a lot, both German and English (S was there, and seems to enjoy the practice; also it turns out that A, who seems very shy about the state of her English, is practically fluent - she spent three years working at the Smithsonian in DC!). We are trying to establish a relationship with a shop. The guy who hosted the brunch I'd seen at the Teeladen but never talked to before (the dreadlock snowboarder type). He works at DEFA out in Babelsberg and is digitizing thousands of audio clips from old films. Everything from weird machine noises to streetcars to Marlene Dietrich. They're going to dump these all into a database and make the accessible from the web (well, eventually, somehow). It's pretty cool. He says that some of these recordings are so old that playing them essentially destroys them, so you have one chance to capture the information. Seems like a cool project.
And that was that, until a little after one, and then I met C out Zoo and bounced around in precisely the order I described earlier. I bought one small, cool thing at the Flohmarkt.
On to logistics. I'll see you at the airport at the appointed time unless I hear otherwise. I'll probably skip yoga in the morning, or do a beginner class Monday instead. I'm not making any decisions about my schedule until tomorrow morning - that's my reward for finishing most of the document and finishing the race. I gave myself a day "in town" with no particular place to be, no particular thing to do. It was very pleasant.
[Later]
I'm annoyed about missing the movie - suddenly I'm in the mood - but I'm also very tired so perhaps it's just as well. Videodrom is closed - I went for a cold walk around the block to confirm this - and there's nothing on TV so I might as well smoke a joint and go to bed.
Have fun at dinner, and good luck with the interview tomorrow, if I don't somehow communicate with you beforehand. Chin up, the hell-trip is almost over. Too bad about not having the chance to run - you must be going nuts by now.
Love,
Scott
To: Annette [still in Charlotte, NC]
Subject: Re: found beef [cat food - Vita will only eat Fancy Feast Sliced Beef]
Date: Monday, February 21, 2000 10:28
Annette,
It's so sad that I won't be able to send you emails anymore - you probably won't even get this one unless you check early in the morning.
Again, I'll assume arrival 15:25 Tuesday unless I hear otherwise. If you read this and you have time, grab a copy of Harpers in the airport or unterwegs. There's an article about how fat Americans are. Just the sort of thing you need to read when contemplating the prospect of life in Ohio or North Carolina. (Was everyone fatter there?)
The sun is out, though it's cold and there was a light dusting of snow last night. Vita is very pesky again, galloping around in the living room. I had to take a shower this morning to wash the dried cat spit out of my ear - many, many nose-in-ear pokes to get me out of bed. She's cute.
I looked out the window and noticed tiny green buds on the tree in the Hof. A sign of impending spring!
D called. Turns out the ticket business was a complete comedy of errors, partly his fault in fact. There was a ticket for 23:00 in the mailbox as well, but it was stuck in the newspaper and I never saw it. After much mutual apologizing (actually he sounded more annoyed than contrite, but he is a bit odd) he's giving me a ticket to something Brazilian at 17:30 this afternoon, which is fine since I don't have skating anymore.
So I'm going to figure out what I have to do today and then do it. I'm finishing the last changes to the document for a few hours, washing the linens as is now traditional during your absences (when is the last time you actually saw sheets hanging on the line?) and doing a few other small chores in anticipation of your arrival tomorrow.
I'll be glad when you're home, though under the circumstances probably not as glad as you will be to be home!
Love,
Scott
