TWENTY OR THIRTY POUNDS!

(That’s 10-15 kilos.)

I have nothing more to say about this, because… just… lol.

No shit, Sherlock?!

Let me explain: Over the past decade or so, Halloween has gradually become a bigger and bigger hit in Norway. We’re not yet up to the point of most houses decorating with scary stuff and carving pumpkin lanterns, but we’ve come a long way since the first time someone came trick or treating at my door, with no costume whatsoever. However, Norway is not a catholic country, and the religious background of Halloween seems to have disappeared in its journey across the Atlantic. Children in Norway, a non-catholic country, not understanding the background of a holiday we adopted mainly for its concept of free candy, is not surprising.

A lot of people object to Norway adopting Halloween in the first place, since it’s a holiday that didn’t originate in Norway, but I say poo on them. Christmas didn’t freakin’ originate in Norway, either. Big deal. Personally, I don’t mind Norway adopting Halloween, but I wish people would take the time to educate their children of at least the most basic story behind its origin. I briefly considered opening the door for all the trick or treaters tonight and say to them, in my best American accent, that they can have candy if they can tell me the origin behind this “proud, American holiday.” If Americans can’t tell that I’m not American, I guarantee you Norwegians can’t either.

I did find it funny, however, that one person commented on the online article that she thought Norway should adopt a nice holiday instead, like Thanksgiving.

Mmmhm. Thanksgiving has a much more international origin than Halloween.

My sister has a dog named Vesla.

Recently, my sister also got a cat.

Her name is Korse.

Korse was found outside in the winter, freezing and so hurt by the cold that she couldn’t move her back legs. She was taken in by a shelter and nursed back to health in a foster home. After a few days, apparently her eartips just fell off. Frost damage had been too severe. Korse is a happy and healthy cat now, though.

Look at this diva.

It was sad how it happened, but personally – I think it makes her look very adorable.

However, there are a few words and expressions I constantly fumble over. I don’t know what it is about them, but they always seem to come out wrong, despite the fact that I know how to properly pronounce them!

Bow/bow. Take a bow. Wrap it with a bow on top. Shoot a bow. Bow down. It all comes out as the “bow” in “bow down.”

Turret/Tourette. A defensive turret. She has Tourettes. You’d be surprised at how much the word “turret” is used by an online gamer. Yet I keep pronouncing it “tourette.”

Loan/borrow. You loaned me a book. I borrowed this book. But if anyone were to eavesdrop on me, they’d hear me ask to loan a book.

Therefore, I’ve come to the immediate conclusion that the above words need to be removed from the English language. Like, right now. Before I further embarrass myself. Thank you!

Love,
Tiny Korean.

The second act: Obama
Obama has been awarded this year’s Nobel’s Peace Prize. You know, I’m a left-wing bleedin’ democrat liberal. I would have voted Obama with all the gusto of “YES WE CAN” had I been permitted to vote in an American election. And I think giving him the Peace Prize is a big bag of bogus! Talk about buying into the hype?! He’s a good man; I believe he can do good for the USA – but the Peace Prize? Let me say I love the guy, and give a sound rolling of my eyes. That is all.

The third act: Zombieland
Before I left, Chris and I spent some time in Pittsburgh, getting Korean for lunch and catching Zombieland at Loew’s Theater. And oh boy. Oh boy. OH BOY! It is THE greatest zombie movie since Shaun of the Dead. If you have not seen it, go see it. No, seriously. Everything about that movie is perfect, from the casting (Woody Harrelson is unbelievably awesome – and I didn’t know Woody Harrelson could BE awesome!), to the story (narrated beautifully by the main character – who is not Woody Harrelson, by the way), to the hilarity (including the BEST DAMN CAMEO OF ALL TIMES – which of course, I won’t spoil). Even if you don’t like Zombie movies you should go see this movie. And if you do like movies like this (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz immediately come to mind as similar movies), you will react the same way I did: I officially want to have sex with Zombieland.

I made cube steaks with Pioneer Woman’s onion blue-cheese sauce and homemade mashed potatoes for dinner today. :) Huge success! At least with me, but Chris doesn’t like onions.

However, upon closer inspection, you’ll find that Mr. Jackman was actually yelling at an unknown theatergoer who did not turn off his cellphone when the ringing disrupted the performance. Even Mr. Jackman’s co-star, Daniel Craig (better known as Bond… James Bond) eventually chimed in, agreeing with his co-star’s insistence the phone be silenced. Personally, I applaud Mr. Jackman for his hissyfit. Here’s a newsflash for you:

IF YOUR PHONE RINGS DURING A THEATER PLAY YOU ARE A DOUCHEBAG!

Sure, honest mistakes happen. But last I was at Broadway, there was a nice voice pre-play requesting us to find our seats and reminding everyone to turn off our cellphones off. Ringing cellphones are annoying enough in a movie theater, but in a live performance they’re disturbing the performers as well as the audience! It’s one of the rudest things I can think of. Last fall, when I went to see Equus on Broadway, someone’s cell phone had the audacity to ring FOUR times during the play. Three times before the intermission, once after. Same cellphone, too. I was ready to rip someone’s head off.

So yes – I not only support, I applaud and cheer for Mr. Jackman’s “hissyfit” as it were, and hope he’ll do it again, should a similar situation arise (though let’s hope not).

My plane will be departing Pittsburgh next Thursday, in the early evening hours, and I’ll be landing in Norway by Friday afternoon. I am unbelievably psyched to be going home. I have not been home since last Christmas, and it’s been far too long! However, I won’t lie; although it’s only three months, it’s going to be pretty shitty to not be able to see Chris and our little furballs until January.

I mean, honestly.

Who’d want to leave this behind?

in other news, Paco (Chris’s chinchilla) seems to have irritated his eye somehow. It’s swollen shut. Not even a month back, the same thing happened to his other eye, so luckily Chris still had the antibiotic eyedrops on hand, but there clearly is a reason this is happening; we just don’t know why. Since the last infection, he’s been on a new bedding, new food, different source of water (from dish to bottle) and we’ve moved apartments. I’m sure he’ll be fine, but we do need to figure out the reason it’s happening in the first place. :/

• I nearly flunked out of college this spring. I failed all my classes, due to a delicious mix of burnout and a re-emerging depression, and was placed on Academic Probation.
• I got meds.
• I quit FFXI, because it’s just too time consuming. I picked up WoW, since it’s like the easiest easymode of all easymodes, and it’s just what I need.
• Chris and I moved.
• I did Summer Semester I. Two days after that ended, I started Summer II. I worked my damn butt off; I raised a D to a C and two failed grades to As.
• I turned 26.
• I saw Harry Potter in the theaters. Multiple times.
• Chris’s sister got married. I didn’t go to the wedding due to severe social anxiety, something I’m still regretting.
• Four days after Summer II, I started Fall Semester 2009, cleared off of all restrictions and Academic Probation – though my GPA is still teetering dangerously close to the edge.
• I had a tooth pulled, and it came with a ton of painful complications when the dentist left tooth fragments in my gum.
• A professor yelled at me and ridiculed me in class. I cried.
• I moved my photography to this Flickr.
• A week into Fall Semester 2009 I hit the proverbial wall. I was exhausted from this summer still, burned out on mountains of school work, and couldn’t really focus on anything. The desire to lounge about and do absolutely nothing was overwhelming, and just thinking about sitting down with my homework gave me anxiety.
• Another week in, after heavy consideration, I decided to take Fall 2009 off from school. Since Immigration will not let me stay in the country unless I am actually enrolled in and attending classes, this means I will be going home to Norway for the remaining months of this semester. I will be gone from Chris, my home here in the US, and our pets, for just under four months. It will be tough, but I need a break.
• I have not yet left; I am waiting for paperwork and plane tickets to be sorted out, but I expect to be leaving in about a week, week and a half.
• I am starting to relax. I do nothing but sit around, read, play WoW, watch movies and surf the internet, and it is DE-LI-CIOUS!
• I will be back in January, batteries charged and ready to rock.