jalléCafe

What I learned from my duvet

As my alarm sounded this morning, blaring Allison Road from the Gin Blossoms, I could not believe I was already waking up under my summer duvet in my own bed at home. 

First, I couldn't believe I was already waking up at all.  I arrived midday yesterday from Chicago fully jet lagged and could have slept another week.

Plus it seemed like just a blink ago that I awoke in this bed thinking it would be 14 hotel nights before I found myself here again.  Yet, I am here again!

Life goes so fast.

I try to write down the stuff that occurs to me first thing in the morning.

Seems like the Gin Blossoms sum it all up really.  Their lead writer Robin Wilson once said he tries to create a lyrical vision that "joy and grief go hand-in-hand in life."

That was sure the beauty of it I felt as I stretched under my duvet.

Spinning the context

Context can play such a wonderful role to inspire warm memories.

Chicago is a place like that for me.

Last weekend, it took me back nearly a decade, personally and professionally, as I met-up with one of my closest friends who lives in the USA.  We've shared business meetings, laughs, Rush St bar induced headaches, and friendship here. Still do.

This weekend, it's Mom who brings my childhood memories to the Windy City to accompany our shopping bags.

Tonight, as I stepped out of a crowded Chicago restaurant stuffed with pizza, washed down with a margarita, there was Sandra.  Sandra from the Professional Women's Group of Zurich.  I had to blink a minute. She said this week's boat ride that I missed was great.

My mind spun.  Discussing a boat ride on Lake Zurich?  Here on a hot steamy night in Chicago? Mom with a shopping bag standing beside me?

Wow.  Chicago vertigo with no second margarita or jet lag in sight!

The one time I try to stay between the lines

I've not been one to stay between the expected lines in life.  Didn't become a teacher.  Didn't marry my high school boyfriend.  Didn't stay close to home or even very close to my home country (other than closely connected to my family there). Didn't work every year once I started (took a year off when I was 40')!

I didn't even mean to do all those things.  They just happened one day at a time while I was figuring out who I am as a person and trying to find kindred spirits along the way.

Yet there is one time I will stay between the lines.  Times like these:

On Friday it was 90 degrees F or more here (i.e. 34 degrees C).  If you stood in the sun for one minute, sweat poured down your skin.  You couldn't wear few enough clothes.

Notice how everyone here is standing within the shadow lines at the tram stop.  There wasn't any room for me between the lines; so, I stopped about 10 seconds to take this photo.  Then I squeezed in beside the woman in the white top.

I'm having one of my best ever summers. Not just from hot sunny weather, but also enjoying being outside normal business lines again as my studio is teaching me about creativity - and has shown me a few kindred spirits in the process.

I stood there thankful for the thin shadow line as I waited to go meet one of those kindred souls, thinking how good it can be to learn when to stay in the lines and when to cross a few.

I hate dativ

No, I didn't mean "dating." I meant dativ.  (Although it has occurred to me once or twice also with the other "d" word that I'd be just as happy at home, reading a nice book - in English.)

Dativ is a grammar case in German.  I took 16 "intensive" (translate, private) German lessons last week.  English doesn't use dativ. And you can't dutzen anyone in English either.  Plus "neck ties" in English are for men.  In German, they are feminine (the word "die" therefore used for "the," instead of "der" - also "the" in the masculine form - or "das" which is neutral. I guess in the politically-correct American world we might have changed all "the's" to neutral by now, which would sure be easier!)

I always work in English; so, why do I torture myself in my non-existent entrepreneurial free time with these details I have trouble memorizing?

Dativ finally really matters now because I've progressed to the level of not just wanting to get my idea across in German, but to do it well. Now even I can tell the difference when I don't. It's like the difference between snow-plowing and paralleling your ski's to get down the hill.  The latter is graceful and cuts along smoothly, the former not.  

Plus, I'm building character.

When I was a child, I struggled equally with what I considered boring math facts (i.e. 2+2=4).  I was actually good at math, but had no patience for the little pesky details. What's a calculator for anyway? To help me, Grandpa started carrying flashcards in his pocket.  When he said "hi," he tended to follow it with "What's 7 x 8?"  (Only in a family of teachers!) I admit, it worked.

There aren't any flashcards for dativ, though I do have them for the "the's."  And as for the other big D-word that ends in -ing.  Sometimes I'd still rather be home reading a book, even in German. :)

My favorite 90-minute break

I've learned that 90 minutes is about the optimal time for a truly good break from work.  This is a lesson taught to me by the World Cup.  Wednesday at 4 p.m., I left the studio to watch the USA play Algeria. 

In this outdoor pub, you could watch the two matches being played in parallel.  The people facing me are watching England play Slovenia on another TV.  The England match was shown in English.  The USA match was shown in French because Algeria is a former French colony where the native languages are Arabic and French.  

Different groups cheered at different times when different teams scored goals. (Ours in the nail-biting last three minutes!).  

We did have one thing in common for sure - enjoying a great British (or maybe Irish) beer.   

By 6 p.m., I was back in the office finishing up a few things for the day.

Oh yes, and in case you are not keeping score: the USA won that one!