frustrations, magic 8-balls, and saying hello to spring

Everyday can’t be “your” day. Yesterday was such a day for me. I lost my eyeglasses for about 20 panicked minutes shortly before 15 people were expected at my apartment. I accidentally dumped a glass of water all over my kitchen table – unknowingly – while my laptop sat on this same table, and soon I discovered that my laptop was SITTING in a puddle of water. My speakers disappeared for a while, and then were off and on for the rest of the day. (Now I think they’re fine.) Then I killed my shift key. While working on my computer at my desk, I accidentally knocked a photo frame off the shelf above it… and the corner landed right on the shift key and suddenly I heard POP and there flew the shift key off the keyboard. I had to perform emergency surgery, not knowing what the heck I was doing, and now I pray that it’s fixed and won’t decide to randomly fall off...

I’ve also learned that perhaps I need to take more cues from the Belarussians. I can imagine myself sitting with a magic 8-ball in my hands….

Question: Am I a stupid American?
Answer: It is decidedly so.

You see, the snow is wonderful. I love the snow. But when the temperature gets above freezing, there is this phenomenon known as “melting.” Then, not only is the snow no longer snow, but slush and water or even sludge, but it’s not pretty, and it is a trap for city dwellers… Because when you are walking along streets at night, with all this slush and water, you find yourself INEVITABLY walking through puddles, nay, veritable LAKES in the middle, er, taking up the entire width, of a given street…. So, why does stepping into these lakes of wet doom make me a stupid American? Well, you see, it’s because I wasn’t taking cues from the Belarussians. They have this “fashion style” (which I know now also comes from experience and wisdom) to wear their boots over or on top of their jeans. Being an American, I’ve never really done this, or never had boots that would be proper to do it with, and of course all my jeans have a boot or wide cut leg, making it difficult (and uncomfortable) to stuff all this extraneous material into your shoe… so generally, I just haven’t done it. I kept wearing my jeans over my boots. But then these past two days, I met the lakes disguised as harmless puddles, and suddenly found myself wading through water over and over again over the course of a 10 minute walk in my neighborhood. Well, it was nasty. My jeans were unhappy, as you can see. So maybe I should stop being so stubborn and start learning some practical tips for dealing with the unexpected perils in a winter wonderland…



p.s. Happy First Day of Spring. Well, at least Belarus celebrates the first day of spring as March 1st. Which makes no sense, since it's earlier than it is celebrated in the States, but Belarus is last to really experience spring-time weather. Maybe they just redefine spring to mean "lots of slush and rain and wind" instead of what I think of as spring, being, "sunny skies and blooming flowers."