Amanda Blog and Kiss

I’m tired.

Exhausted.

It’s times like this that I start to throw things out of my way instead of move them to the side.

I cry when I can’t find one slipper.

I eat a slice of bread plain because I can’t be arsed pulling out the peanut butter and spreading it on.

I growl at the dogs instead of play with them.

And I look at the messy apartment and think ppfffffffff.

It’s also times like these that I try to get to sleep and can’t, so we’ll see how that goes tonight.

I just want someone to clean my house, walk my dogs, and make me three square (vegan) meals a day.  Is that too much to ask?  Maybe a foot massage or two wouldn’t hurt as well….

+ + +

Around this time 4 years ago, I was having fun, and enjoying Amsterdam.  A year later, not so much.  But then a spanish person left me a surprise on my doorstep and I considered my “hatred” of that entire country….for like a minute.  I was also tired and had insomnia (go figure!).  Maybe it’s seasonal?

Back when I posted this I didn’t realize that this was one video of a whole series of shows on the road, or Take Away Shows.

Basically La Blogotheque arranges for some of the best current artists to take their music to the streets.  These are all in Paris from what I can see.

What a fantastic idea!

In honor of ten years of being a fan of Phoenix, here is one of their Take Away Shows:

And Sigur Ros:

And Patrick Watson, who I saw open for Cold War kids at the Melkweg back in 2007:

What I wouldn’t give to be walking through Paris one day and come across one of these shows!

To the person who searched for this and got to my blog:

“what if scenarios during my trip to the netherlands?”

What if you get robbed?

What if you get raped?

What if you get robbed and raped?

What if you get robbed and raped by a prositute?

What if you fall in love with a prostitute and have to pay for sex every time you want some intimacy, even after you get married and live happily ever after?

What if a flying goat soars down and steals your backpack with your passport?

What if a junky steals your girlfriend?

What if you fall into a canal and can’t get out?

What if -OH MY GOD- what if those crazy African bees hit Europe while you are here and swarm the city?

Or…something to really worry about…what if you get really high, see some beautiful architecture, ride a bike around one of Europe’s loveliest cities, see some fantastic art and get your photo taken in a giant clog?

Now wouldn’t that be something?

Not that I’m a massive complainer or anything, but there is usually something I can find about a job that annoys me.  No job is perfect, right?

At the work-from-home thing, the issue was that I get lonely with no one to talk to all day.

At Lush, we were pushed to sell-sell-SELL.  I loved the ethics there (and you know I love the products), but sometimes I felt like I was bothering people by having to jump on them within minutes of them entering the store.

With any bar job I’ve had it’s the actual work itself as well as the rude customers.

But at the hotel…

ppffff I’m at a loss.  It’s really hard to dislike a job that feels like you are socializing for 8 hours a day.

A friend just reminded me via facebook status update (the Pony Express of 2009) that everyone should be grateful for even having a job at this time of year in this economic climate.

And I am.  Really, really grateful.

EDIT: Seek and ye shall find!  Less than half an hour later I have just realized what annoys me.  Guests who complain about the hotel room BEFORE THEY’VE EVEN SEEN IT.

Are you kidding me?  This hotel is beautiful and you’re going to complain about your room before you’ve even been given the key?  And then demand a change when the hotel is fully booked?  When you’re only staying one night?

What an asshat.  People confound me.

But tomorrow when this guest leaves, it’s back to working in paradise!

It’s not that I have nothing to say these days- on the contrary, I seem to babble on all day to those around me (one of the perks of working out of the home- people to listen to you!).  It’s just that those fleeting thoughts of what I should share on my blog are too fast to catch and if I don’t write them down I forget them by the time I get home.  Which leads to days without blogging, although I’m still here laughing at the search terms that bring people to this blog (“scat” seems to be popular these days, for instance…..also an alarming mix of phrases including the words “dog” and “whore”).

That trip to Germany now seems like ages and ages ago, and I’m ready for another.  So this weekend fellow blogger Angela and I will be throwing the fellas into the back of a rental car and driving to Cologne to check out the Christmas markets.

But first….a few highlights from Berlin….

Me posing as bear food. And loving it.

Did you know that Germany is home of what appear to be the world’s LARGEST men.  Those sizes run up to 8 XL!  Eight X’s!

Eight x's! That's iiiiiiiinsane!

Also home to the very best VEGAN chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting that I have ever come across!  (Also the only one!)  …which lasted about 3 blocks from the cupcake store in its pretty little package before I smashed it into my face in a frenzy, and promptly overdosed on the subsequent sugar high.

Lekker doesn't even begin to describe....

Also, no trip to Berlin would be complete without visiting The Wall, so here I am in front of the last remaining portion of it, nearly 20 years to the day after the wall came down, and -funnily enough- also nearly 10 years to the day that I came to Berlin with my high school friend Joey in 1999 and took a montage photo of this part of the wall.  It reads “Save Our Planet” and is still as relevant today as it was 10 years ago when I visited, and 20 years ago when the wall came crumbling down.

Save Our Planet. Go on then.....do it.

I won’t bore you with any more photos because all we did was eat amazing vegan food and drink super cheap cocktails and do the tourist thing.  You can pretty much see photos of the Brandenberg Tor anywhere, am I right?

I loved every second of Berlin and would love to live there, one day, somehow.  But not right now, not just yet.  We also stopped in Hamburg.

…..and that’s all there is to say about that really.

But before I go, I will leave you with this little ditty…. Ze Germans drink a soda that is a mix of fanta and coke.

ISN’T THAT INSANE?

Mezzo...or just plain loco?

Those Germans.  What will they think of next?