201: I'm a stranger here myself

I was going to write a celebratory post about how this is number 201. As you and I, and anyone else who has passed kindergarten knows, the number of posts listed on the right side of this here screen don't add up to 201. But that's the number of posts and drafts I've saved. That amounts to about 40-odd posts I've never published. Some of them are quite personal, and will never be published: it's so I don't spill everyone's secrets--or my own--to the wide world. Some things are just posts I was working on and never got around to publishing. Here's one of them:

I'm a stranger here myself

I'm pretty sure I'm going to end my days as the crazy lady in the big old house with lots of cats, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. One of these days I will be labelled an eccentric. I'm starting to be known for a few peculiar personal habits which, while not particularly shocking, tend to be a bit unusual or unique. For instance, I can't really sleep in (I interrupt this post to point out the absolutely brilliant sunrise over the snowy rooftops, which all you lazybones are missing out on). I just can't sleep in the morning, and eventually I get bored and just get up. Most people find this strange. Boyfriends and housemates cope.


(Crazy cat lady action figure)

sad panda : The Definition (from urbandictionary.com )
1. sad panda - An unhappy, disappointed person. The phrase can be traced back to an episode of the cartoon South Park, in which the "Sexual Harassment Panda" teaches the children what is and isn't sexual harassment.

For extra sadness, the "a" in sad is drawn out.

I'm a saaaad panda, because my favorite band just broke up.

The fact that I am inept at slang I blame on living abroad. I just don't know any of the words the cool kids use, though I am slowly learning:

- awkward turtle
- lame sauce
- TMI turkey
- sad panda (apparently a South Park reference, but I wouldn't know)

Lame Sauce: The Definition (from urbandictionary.com )
1. Lame Sauce - Adj. Unpopular, unfavorable ( American Mall Kid Talk )

Yo! Halo 2 was delayed again homes! That is LAME SAUCE!

2. lame sauce - Something or someone that is extremely stupid, lame, or not fun.

Ethan is lame sauce because he doesn't like paintball.

3. Lame Sauce - Lame sauce is lame sauce.

Losing a bet to your co-worker that "lame sauce" is an actual phrase, is totally LAME SAUCE!

4. Lame sauce - Noun. Someone that has mastered the art of boredom and lazziness [sic]

Person1: yo nikko what chu doin?
Nikko: nottin
Person1:lets go blaze it and then play ball
nikko: nah man ima go home and sleep
Person1: Nigga ur lame sauce

5. Lame Sauce - Lame Sauce is something thta is more then lame, yet less then anything else

"That nice was lame sauce"

Some people also detect a slight foreign accent in my english, which is funny, as I am, I guess, as American as you can get without being Midwestern, and occasionally demonstrate this in an obvious and embarrassing fashin while abroad. My english is a mix of super-proper academic speech (exacerbate, ameliorate, protracted, etc.), four-year-old slang (apparently 'sick' is no longer the proper synonym for 'cool'), and (improper) expletives. Apparently having a 'fuck-off desk' is not the proper use of this word either. My writing (on essays) is decent, but apparently confusing, as the last paper I turned in had about fifteen versions of "write more clearly" "I don't understand your writing/sentence/point" and "what does this mean???" on it.

A friend of mine is German and has lived here for three or four years, speaks flawless English, and when we have a conversation in English she has to supply me with words. When we speak German, she's the one who forgets the German words and I have to remind her.

Sometimes I feel like a social oddity, or at least an exchange student. I haven't watched TV since 2004. I've watched perhaps 10 episodes of South Park, about two of Seinfeld, five (tops) of King of the Hill, Family Guy, and Simpsons. I've never seen a reality show of any kind except something on Discovery about training Navy SEALs a long time ago. I've never seen Lost, Gray's Anatomy, Scrubs, or anything else that's come out in the last four years or so. I simply have no idea what these things are about, and apparently lack the attention span to find out. So hanging out with me requires some measure of patience with my ineptitude with pop culture, and me not understanding about half the normal references. La vie inconnu...

And here I got distracted, I was talking about eccentricity, and not in references to planetary orbits (die, Kepler, die). I enjoy being just a little bit different from average, and apparently have friends so I'm not that strange. You should consider me a challenge, or at least a discovery. I may not be the coolest person you've ever met, but that doesn't concern me much: at least I'm interesting. And I'm not boring, apparently, as I say odd things frequently enough that I can be counted on to provide reliable entertainment.



As I was working on finding "supporting" material, I became fascinated by the awkward turtle and other hand gestures.