"he's starting to recycle"

hey y'all! check out my blog! i'm getting comments! nothing a poor sniffly girl likes more than comments. the subject line's a text message between my mom and allie- mom's big example of how marty is changing, and she'll soon have him trained as well as the dog. we'll see. so glad to hear allie makes mom uncomfortable, too. it's not just neurotic worried little old me. most people's parents are pretty uncomfortable with "stuff like that" i guess. but probably other people's parents aren't such good resources. i mean, i recomend mom to friends with birth control problems. i guess it's just generational baby steps. again, look at my grandparents. i think grandma had "the talk" with mom by showing her the bra section of the sears catologe.
onto christmas markets: chicago actually does call theirs the "christkindlemarket" with that english propensity for vowels. it's all the little booths with the red and white striped tents, in "daleyplatz" downtown- all around the piccasso sculpture, in the shadow of the mies van der rohe buildings. the shops are exactly the same- cutwork lace, straw ornaments, the little wooden smoking people- it's crazy. there are a couple of places to buy beer and soft pretzels or potatoes in various forms (i've never understood the american view german=bavarian) but there is a glüwein stand, just what one needs in frigid windy chicago. i never seem to be able to finish mine before it gets cold. and there's few things nastier than cold glüwein. they have the liebkuchen hearts of course. almost bought one for ruth, who lives in nürnberg. but it seemed the joke wasn't worth lugging it so far, worrying about it breaking. we were gonna have our "company christmas party" (ie, charles and i going out) after work today, but i'm unfortunately to sick to move. there's certanly practically a culture of stories involving getting drunk at the holiday party at work. i thought this was a stupid amerian thing. funny the things that are universal.
meike lives in a tiny town outside of mainz. she won't be able to meet me in the morning when my plane comes in, so i'll take the train to the mainz bahnhof and meet her there in the afternoon. where else but in europe can you say, "coming out of the train stations there are 5 streets, take the 2nd from the right..." bit different than chicago's grid system. if i had more time, and now, if i wasn't so sick, was thinking of taking a daytrip up to köln to meet jamie. if for no other reason than to beg her for a copy of high july (have i mentioned they have to print more and my copy won't come till after the new year?) but my time with meike and michi will be so short as it is. i would be able to take daytrips from ruth's after i've recovered and when she's working, but that's much to far to be a daytrip. but perhaps some other time. i try to be a frequent traveler to europe. we're already making plans to watch christmas movies, i hope it works out. i love watching wärend du schlafst in german, and i hear michi has national lampoon's xmas vacation, too. i'm taking mine. how lovely, to be curled up under a fluffy decke with my friends watching christmas movies in german.