24
March
2007
March
2007
Also…1
… the site’s entering its second year. Who woulda thunk?
24
March
2007
March
2007
Ghosts0
Neurology calls to ask nicely if I could see one of their patients for an evaluation. Since the person asking is my fave nurse, I agree to see him immediately and after I’m warned that he’s a bit of a drinker, the conversation is over .
Patient comes in, ticked off that he has to do one more test instead of being left alone, but since he needs the paper from me, he’s just showing, not saying his discomfort. I look at his ID card, notice that he’s from my hometown and that his family name is identical with that of my hopeless crush from high school . I ask if he has a son named Mircea. He tells me yes. I tell him I know his son well from way back. The ice is broken in no time.
The dad shows mild cognitive deterioration due to the booze, which I asses. His papers get written while I chat with him about past times, and he sums up the best way he can the ten years in his son’s life since I’ve last met him. He’s married and has two daughters . He left the country to work while his wife’s still here with the kids. He might have cheated on her with someone I know. He cut his long hair.
Dad says he wants to visit me this summer with his son, when he’ll be back in Ro. I remain gracefully neutral to the offer, knowing oh-so-well that his pride and joy is water under the bridge now and I know all I need to know about the time since I saw him.
I send dad on his way and go to bathe in the spring sun reflecting on the hospital walls.
22
March
2007
March
2007
Apparently, spammers read The Handmaiden’s Tale4
A beer goes to the first person that can tell me the connection.
21
March
2007
March
2007
Things I’ve gotten myself into while being away3
*Grey’s anatomy - that show is pure heroine, lemme tell you. Great stories, good actors, lots of medical action for the aficionados, incredibly good looking white-coated personnel for the rest - what more could you ask? It’s also the only show that brings tears and hysterical laugh fits on my face during the same episode - in every episode
*Damien Rice - one sad Irish guy singing his heart out with a guitar, a cello and Lisa Hannigan’s incredible backing vocals on his side - the result gets you into a pleasant disposition with some gloomy undertones in no time.
*The world’s coolest weblog EVER. I mean the girl lives in McMurdo Station - it’s actually her forth time there. In Antarctica. And she’s been at the South Pole (the sphere in the pics marks its exact place) where she did what she did in that swimming suit. At -44 C. Plus she can write well. Top that.
*House MD - another medical drama (yeah I know. I bring work home. So what?) but this time it speaks not to the heart, like Grey’s, but to the mind. The show could be described as “CSI meets ER” but it wouldn’t do it justice, because it’s so much better than those. No, really, it is.
*Chinese-style cooking - I’ve got a wok, the spices, yummy veggies and a knife and I’m not afraid to use them. Victory is mine.
14
March
2007
March
2007
Lotsa meat and candles, explained12
Having a cold and the consequent trouble falling asleep can do wonders for you. While you wait for your consciousness to finally let go of the whole “Ohmigod Ada, your throat hurts! And you’re snotty! Blow your nose! Turn on your other side! Drink some water! Do something! You cannot go to sleep while you’re this uncomfortable! ” you get to think about stuff. Deep, meaningful, slightly crazy stuff. Like, for example, why do Romanians use the curses they use, and why are they powerful enough to get you beaten senseless if addressed to any guy over 1,60m.
First of all, there are the standard “go to the devil”, “may the devil take you” and “give yourself to the devil’. Vestiges from the glorious Orthodox past of the nation, when the serf that would say them to his serf buddy would probably have been looking first if there’s a good escape route from the buddy’s anger, just in case, they’re now less then mild, used by shy translators instead of those oh-so-offensive fuckyous stubbly men drop on the TV every five seconds before getting out their missile throwers and blowing the extras to pieces.
Staying in the archaic mystic zone, Romanians use in cursing an incredible amount of liturgic objects, saints and religious holidays that they connect randomly either with the cursed’s mom, the mom’s dead relatives or a sexual activity performed with said mom and relatives. Therefore, one can only wonder how Dali would have reacted at the surrealistic idea of, say, a chubby dead grandpa’s Easter being raped .
The sexual activities that appear in the cursings are rather unimaginative, showing clearly that oral/ anal activities are taboo for normal people and are done only by (*whispering, while carefully looking around* ) people with tainted reputations. The predilect target is the cursed’s mom, our main national curse sending the cursed ASAP for a jolly incestual party with his/her genitor.
Last but not least, as in almost every other respectable southern European nation with rampant machoism , the implied homosexuality of the cursed is also a very frequent insulting material. In a strange twist of words, the curser is usually the one who’s doing … ahem .. stuff to the cursed, or is inviting the cursed to check his family jewels, oblivious to the fact that he’s simultaneously placing himself in the gay camp too.
So there you have it, folks - cursing in Romania. How do your people curse?