A Walk Across America

I can't get enough of this video.  

Homesickness has been rearing it's ugly head at me lately, 

and I just love how American this is.

I finished my internship at the canine hydrotherapy place on Thursday, 

and one of the clients asked me what I missed about the USA...

Salsa, warm weather and sunshine, driving with the windows down, driving for that matter, talking loudly, going to the pool, stores being open later than 5:30 pm, the American sense of humor, the mall, the way our houses look, loud sometimes obnoxious people who are full of character, wearing shorts, summer bonfires, lemonade stands, the way the skyline looks at night,  football and baseball season, corn fields and corn on the cob, bible thumping, gym shoes and baseball caps as an acceptable outfit choice, twangy accents, running into people I know everywhere I go, lightening bugs, good produce (the only thing england can grow well is strawberries), hugs instead of handshakes, everything being much bigger, clean streets, and patriotism... to name a few

I've never felt homesickness so strongly before, and I have done a lot of traveling.  There are two reasons for this, firstly, although a year ago we planned on being in the process of moving back to the US right now, the recession is making my husband very wary of what our prospects would be like back home - and the fact that we are here indefinitely makes me feel nervous.  Secondly, I've never thrown myself into life in England.  To be honest, I never wanted to live here, but it was easier for me to move here than him to move to America.  I guess I resent the fact that we're still here, but I need to make the most of this opportunity while I can.  So eff off homesickness...

How do you fight off this disease?  

And what would you miss if you moved to a far away land?

Carpe Diem, Friends.

ps. Thank you for the well wishes on the job front.  Unfortunately I was a blubbering mess at the interview.  I don't think I got it. :(

Eurovision 2010 Highlights

Every now and then something happens in England that just screams, "Dorothy you're NOT in Kansas anymore."

Last night was the annual Eurovision Song Contest, which for my American readers, is a song contest between the European countries.  Basically American Idol for Europe.  What is thought of as "cool" in this contest would pretty much be defined as strange / Euro trash by Americans.

I wanted to share some of my personal highlights from the contest with you...

Spain - Curly haired man resembling Richard Simmons singing what I think is a love song, with lots of clowns dancing around him.

Belgium - Very cute boy with a guitar, singing about hanging out with his guitar, in bad English lyrics.

Serbia - Blonde guy with a bowl cut, looked like more of a Queen than Elton John, wearing a sequined blue suit jacket with tails and singing "I'm SO naughty.  We kiss three times here!"

Belarus - Women in long sequined dresses glittering like the sun suddenly sprout MASSIVE butterfly wings while singing, "And we're like butterflies flying to the sun"  Talk about a literal translation.

Ireland - Busty red head singing Irish words of wisdom.  So cliche.

Greece - Very tan man wearing all white and glowing like a resurrected Jesus...  If only JC sang Greek dance songs.

Britain - Typical posh and reserved Brits.  Even the back up dancers were wearing ties.

Georgia - Bare chested men in sailor outfits with guido facial hair dance around nice looking girl.

Turkey - Is it rap?  rock?  techno?  I don't know.  But I did enjoy when a robotic girl cut her robot arm off with a power saw.  Though I'm still wondering... why?

Iceland - Fat woman in a moo moo singing dance number and not dancing very well.

France - Black version of Ricky Martin.  Lots of "Allez Allez Allez"  And you thought no one was inclined to hurry in France...

Russia - Sad emo boy band... Favorite lyric - "What are you doing man?" "Looking at her photos.  What should I do with them?"  "Through them into the fire."  The fire, really? Gosh get over her already you little emo russians.

Armenia - Jasmin singing about an APRICOT STONE (wtf?) while Aladdin intimately dances with a water jug around her.

And finally we have the winners.... Germany!!!

My favorite lyric was "I even bought new underwear - light blue.  And I wore it just the other day."  I thought it was strange that she was wearing her partner's underwear, but then it finally dawned on me.... she bought lingerie for herself.  Duh!

The Ugliest Blog in the Blogosphere

I have nothing to blog about other than the unpacking of boxes, and trying to make this ugly house with it's unflushing toilet, asian lamps, and shitty kitchen a home - which is rather boring.  So I decided to attempt to make my blog pretty.  It's really not fair at all to bore you, my dear readers, with such a dull and ugly looking blog, especially when I probably bore you already with musings of my extremely uneventful life.

But anyways, can someone tell me how the hell to make my blog pretty?  Every time I try to change it the pictures get all screwed up and it looks even more fugly than it already does.

I'm feeling a bit like Bruce Springsteen when he wrote Dancing in the Dark. 

"I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face and I ain't gettin no where."

If only I could get SOME where.  Like Courtney Cox - she got somewhere.  But, no, I'd be the DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) who came to the concert with Courtney and had to listen to her pretty self replay the events over and over again about how awesome it was to be pulled up on stage and dance awkwardly with THE BOSS.  Meanwhile, I'd be waving my arms next to her, like the one with the bad bangs, trying to look cool but then realizing that my arm fat would be forever jiggling in a SPRINGSTEEN VIDEO.

I'm not sure why I'd feel more Courtney Cox-ish if my blog looked pretty, but rest assured, I would.  

Valentine's Day Baking Shenanigans

Yesterday for Valentine's Day Nick and I spent the day baking.  We got a lot accomplished.  Look at this spread....

Nothing makes your house smell better than fresh bread.  This is just a basic whole wheat loaf.  The recipe came with our bread machine.

Next I baked brownies for the woman who watched Heidi for us this weekend.  She was a lifesaver.  Our dogsitter pulled out right as I was leaving to drop Heidi off at her house, Nick sent out an emergency email to his entire work and she pulled through.  I even made them homemade.  I've always used a box before but I have no idea why.  These were super easy.  I followed the recipe exactly, and you can find it here.  If I made them again I'd probably mix some chocolate chips into the batter.  Yum.  I hope she liked them.

Finally, I was going to make Nick his favorite dessert, cheesecake, as a valentine's day surprise.  But he decided I couldn't make it as good as him.  So he made it himself.  He's a cheesecake purist, but I needed a little something extra on it, so I added raspberry jam.  I'd post the recipe, but I don't know it.  Maybe if we all ask nicely....?

Please don't judge me for the number of baked goods on this post.  It WAS valentine's day, and the brownies were for someone else (OK I may have sneaked one... or two).  We had so much fun!  We licked the batter and danced like a couple of soiled tweens at a high school mixer.  We didn't do much mushy bull crap, but Heidi and I dedicated this song to Nick when it came on the radio... We'll never let money get in the way.

Where We Live

It rains every day here.  Cold, grey, nasty rain.  Not a big thunderstorm of rain coming down in massive droplets on a sweltering hot day in the middle of summer, like in a music video for some awesome Meatloaf power ballad.  Just gross rain.  Drizzling, chilly rain.  Whenever I don't like the weather, I try to think to myself, at least you don't live in Chicago anymore.  Because the weather really sucks in Chicago, as in it is so freaking cold it sucks the life out of you.  Then you go into hibernation and get SAD.  The weather in England doesn't suck that much.  It's just extremely mediocre.

Then I wonder to myself, why do you put up with mediocre?  We don't have to live here.  We could move to Australia... There are a lot of reasons why we don't live in Australia.  But none of them are very good... See?

Reasons Why We Don't Live in Australia

1.  Nick has a job in England

2.  Neither of us are from Australia

3. Our families wouldn't be happy with us

4.  We'd like our kids to know their extended family

(Note: We don't have kids, except our dog-ter, Heidi)

Reasons Why We Should Move to Australia

1. The sun shines more often there

2.  If you live in Australia you're probably happier

3.  Everyone is really nice in Australia

4.  Australia is a good compromise for a mixture of British and American culture

5.  We both really like Australia

6.  My freckles would reappear 

(I kinda miss them.  They go away when the sun doesn't shine)

7.  I would have more motivation to have a bikini body

8.  We'd live close to a beach

9.  It's probably easier for us to get a visa to move to Australia than it would be for us to get a visa for Nick to move to America 

10.  The best dance parties of my life occured in Australia

Exhibit A:

I think that's all my reasons for now.  Though I'm sure there are many more.  Until then, I guess I'm stuck in England.  And..  
"That's the way it's gonna be lil darlin'"





ps.  Sorry if my videos bore you.
pss. At least watch the 2nd video.  That song needs to be in your life I think.
psss.  Where do you live?  And why do you live there instead of somewhere else more awesome?  Or is it the most awesome place to be living?