Jenni's blog

You know those mornings when you wake up scared to death because the alarm was somehow extra loud?
You reach out to turn it off and it's just that extra inch too far and you fall out of bed, on your injured knee. You shake it off just to notice you've slept funny and your neck hurts like hell, then you yawn and hear a loud *Crack!*  in your jaw and while you rush off to work you drop your very expensive phone on the pavement.

Welcome to a saturday of work.

Yesterday we went to this sports-outdoors-camping-diving-shop called "Equipment". I was mildly amused since uri-bags and dried food isn't my thing, but then I glanced over at this one shelf in the back.

 I was in Lonely Planet Heaven.

I tried to argue why we need the complete series at home, but eventually Sami won and we decided we could start buying Lonely Planets according to where we travel. So I left with Lonely Planet Maldives and Finland (just for the hell of it). I've been reading the latter and it's really, really good.

They even have a part called "The national psyche". Of course there's a lot of talk about sisu, roughly translated as "guts", which was anticipated since there isn't a guidebook out there about Thousandlakez that wouldn't bring up this issue.But there are also parts I love here, and parts that better explain finns than I have been able to. Like this:

There's a depressive streak in Finns, more so than in Swedes or Norwegians. Even Finnish summer pop hits can sound like the singer's just backed over their dog or worse, and themes of lost love or melancholy are favoured.

True. If you wanna sing karaoke about anything nice and sunny, you better bring your own tape. It was funny because I recognized myself in some parts after wondering why the author would write about such obvious things. One of my other favourites was this:

While the "silent Finn" stereotype has been exaggerated over the years, it's certainly true that nobody gets nervous if there's a gap in a conversation. Sitting in a sauna for 20 minutes with your best friend, saying nothing, is considered perfectly normal.

Here I thought why would anyone think they'd need to yap on about... oh, right.

Roman Schatz discussed this topic in his book too, although from another point of view:

The secret is simple. The Finnish concept of politeness works differently than in most other countries. In most cultures it's considered polite to communicate. In Finland it's polite to leave people alone. Why bother with a little joke on a monday morning? They're having a rough enough time already, just like you. Why ask your friend how his kids are? If there's something wrong with them, he'll tell you, he's your friend.

There are parts that never struck me before, like how the need to not pussyfoot around issues might be visible in institutions. like the part where strong beers and spirits are sold by the state network, the beautifully named Alko.

They issue the almost 3 months long day (welcome to Nuorgam!) in the summer, but don't mention what Roman Schatz calls The night between Nowember and February in his book "From Finland with love".

Lonely Planet also, to my great joy, brought up the topic of Rally-driving and F1. They only explained the phenomenon, and didn't try to find the reason behind why finns love cars. Schatz refers to why finns are good at, say f1, as a national tendency to be suicidal. We are good at anything that one can do alone and that might kill you.

'Nuff said. I haven't read all of Lonely Planet Finland yet, but I think I'll take a break to check out what they have to say about The Maldives. If you ever get a chance to read either author's books about Thousandlakez you'll probably enjoy yourself. The Schatz book is a funnier but equally true.

Since Vodafone's portable net-thingy sucks (don't buy it, it really does), I have no pictures to upload of the wall that would actually get uploaded no matter how I resixe or pack them. But!

You can find them here. Ch-ch-check it out! Reading the story I still can't quite figure out why actually slapping paint on our wall was so stressing for him. I don't get it. I always trusted it would look awesome (and once again peeps, I was right) and if he'd slapped a litre or so of paint somewhere where it didn't belong then we'd jsut paint the wall again. But probably a different color since we later found out they don't make that shade of grayish white anymore.

And to my and my sister's defence I can only say, we only went to the officer's club (which is situated close by) because the movie we were watching was Evan almighty. 'Nuff said.

Things I Love:

Spring/summer. It's gotten really warm really fast and I'm totally peeing my pants with happiness.

The wall. I think Joni will post some pics of it sooner than I can, and I urge you all who are reading to go check it out. It rocks and I love the pic and the maker to pieces.

Payday being just around the corner

Annika, who has the patience (and looks) of a saint. I'm like Santa on Prozac when I get unleashed and get to go shopping but she is voluntarily with me and is totally zen while I jump around giggling hysterically.

Things I Loathe:

The knee waking me up at nights again. Odd. Might need another cortisone-injection and/or a scalpell, but they'll drag me kicking and screaming to the needle a second time. The tendon goes all the way up to my butt and my leg was numb/sore for 3 days after the last injection.

Cold mornings. Warmth all the time, please.

Things I'm indifferent about:

The thesis. I gave my supervisor the restructured first ~40 pages, and she didn't hate it. She was actually content with it. Because researchers being content usually requires the crusifiction of lesser students I am still treading lightly. I'll write one more analysis, tie it together and send it in by friday and she'll let me know next tuesday if it goes through or if I'll have to wait until next fall. Fingers crossed, I'll let you know. And if she lets it pass then you'll probably see the glow of me because I will be so happy that all the blood in my veins probably turns into glitter.

Sami is going away soon again, to do some marketing for an extended period of time in a country far, far away, and it hit me yesterday that I'll be alone for quite some time, again.

"I'll miss this."

"What? Petting my arm?"

"No, your soft skin, you know?"

"I could peel it and give you whatever comes off if it helps you?"

"I'll miss your scent, too"

"Just stop washing the bedsheets and it'll stick."

"And your butt. I'll miss your butt."

"We could make a mold of it"

"What? Like a butt-mold?"

"Yeah! That way you'll have it here"

"..."

"... um.. well... I guess that'll see me through, then."

I don't know why, but it seems I overcomplicate things, but I'm not all that sure that this is the answer, either. And I'll post some pictures of The Wall as soon as my shitty connection gets around to uploading the things I ask it to.

Joni came back home with us to finally paint that pic on our wall. I'll post some pictures once it's done but so far I really like it. We've been arguing about whether or not he should smooth out the edges. I like it when it looks a little hand-made, but he'd like it more industrial.

I was at work all day so I only got home to see it half done, and I think it's a lot better this way. We haven't disturbed him all day since Sami was off helping his dad painting the boat, but since we've been home Jonis stress-levels have clearly gone up. He almost craps himself every time we take a step in the livingroom since there are bits and pieces of his stencil everywhere. It's a lot of fun to look at him going *gasp* every now and then.

But all kidding aside, I like having people over. Especially family. My sister is coming on saturday and she'll be staying with us overnight too, and then the whole lot will be going home to Turku on sunday.

I can't wait to see the finished painting!

I don't do diets. I don't have the need for diets most of the time and I know I don't have the stamina to keep one up. But I wonder a lot about dieting.

Paleodiet, where you eat like a caveman. Only raw things and eggs and stuff. Completely overlooking the fact that cavemen died at 30-40 years of age.

Waterdiet, where you drink shitloads a lot of water to keep your stomach full so you won't feel hungry.

The flight attendant-diet, where I have no idea what you do but involves lots of asparagus and lemons.

But I've been wondering a lot about one of the longer lived diets, the one where you put yourself in ketoacidosis by not eating any carbs at all. Not one. In the beginning you're not even allowed to eat lettuce and greens because apart from water they apparently contain carbs in some way. I'm not that good on nutrition. You only eat fried/boiled eggs and a lot of meat, chicken and fish. This is supposed to help the body burn fat instead of muscle while you diet.

I've always wondered about 2 particular things with this diet: how can you lose weight by frying everything, and how hard could it be refusing bread and pasta? I could easily do that!

So, with the jaw being what it is, I have had a nicer period for a few weeks where I haven't needed painkillers at all. To keep it that way I have been eating mostly soft and small things. Trying to keep healthy, and trying to remind myself of the only nutritional fact I believe in (a grown human needs to eat 800g - 1,2kg in a day to feel content) I've tried to add fruits and veggies. I've eaten a lot of chicken, which is soft and comes in convenient cubes in salads, minced meat (again small food), fish (soft) and fruits like bananas, grapes, pears (even if I have a hard time gripping this round fruit with my teeth, but it's soft too) and so on. I've been doing fine.

Until.

I saw a little old lady carrying 4 baguettes in front of me, and suddenly my brain froze me, climbed out through my nose, positioned itself right by my ear and shouted "CAAAAAAARBS!". It was very hard not to tackle that arthritic little old lady right then and there. I hadn't even noticed that I had gone a few weeks without eating practically any pasta, rice, potatoes or bread. But let me tell you, even if I didn't try this on purpose: when that carb-craving hits you there's no turning back.

So I went home and had tons and tons of spaghetti (<3 Barilla) and baked. Sami had a piece of cake and I had a cake.

And then there was light.

Things I loathe:

People asking me how the thesis is going. Right now I honestly don't know. I still have no emotional connections with the text and I have no idea whatsoever on what my supervisor's standpoint is. I've become almost as uncomfortable with this question as I have with wedding-questions. It's (almost) up there with "You guys wanna borrow our old decorations and/or buy my old wedding dress and/or leftover glitter from when we made our invitation cards?!". Almost, but not quite.

The joint that cried wolf. I haven't been able to step on it for a week now and I had it ultrasounded today. And it came up that theres nothing wrong with it. I could barely hold still while Doctor-Dad was rolling the ultrasound-stick-thingy over my foot and it came up clean! I got painkillers and I'm not completely convinced. I have noticed that my joints and tendons have a tendency to fake being all good and healthy until they one morning spontaneously combust.

Dad reminding me that even though the ultrasound was clear, Child should not be jumping around in stilettos now, you hear? Damn! I was just gonna wear the satin red ones for the 1st of may lunch!

Me being the only person making a full shift and the evening shift on the last of April. I'm the only student at work and the 1st of may is my party. I don't get to put on my white hat at the ceremony at 18 o'clock on the last of april because I'm at work, I don't get to wear my overalls, don't get to go to any of the parties because they start waaaay before and are in another city. This just sucks incredible amounts of donkeyballs. 

Things I love:

I still kind of like working with the thesis. Were it not for the timeline and general sucking of life, I'd enjoy this really much.

1st of may coming up. I bought balloons and stuff. Fruits and bubbly and things.

A bargain! I bought 2 shirts from Soaked In Luxury that were 70% off! I only paid 29 euros! Combined! And now Sami doesn't have to be soaked in my bank-card-bill :)

I was asked, today, if I get paid to fake empathy.

I told her no, I get paid to do my job, and if I suck at it then I fake empathy.

She laughed, and I faked laughing with her instead of at her.

We went to see The Cage vol. 10 Neoblood yesterday. Ultimate figthing, that is. Fun was had by all.

The fist 4 fights were over in half an hour due to for technical or normal knock-outs. Kinda cool but it became a little hilarious when we looked at a guy in the -65kg series riding the other fighter, strangling him until he gave up. It took a helluva long time and it eventually looked like a scene from a Jim Carrey-movie with the losing guy trying to grab the winning one but not quite reaching him.

But the best part, my favourite, was the screams. People screamed directions and whatever came to their mind at the fighters. The best one:

"Feed him fist!"

And then there were others designed to encourage the fighters and remind them what they were there to do, like:

"hit him in the face!". You know, in case they forgot.

"Get out from under there!". While they had been tackled and the other guy was on top of them punching, strangling or whatever. Just so that they wouldn't get the impression that they would win the fight by being on the ground and getting their face punched in.

"Hit him!".So that they'd remember that it was not cool to be semi/totally unconscious and have their ass handed to them.

And the best part was when the fighters greet each others at the beginning of the fight, by high-fiving each other with the gloves or whateve: "You didn't come here to shake his hand boy, now feed him some fist!"

So I started to ask Sami how much he'd pay me if I wouldn't take a very loud liking to the swedish fighters (yelling go, sweden! is a sure way of getting into a fight here), howl at the Everlast-girl or start yelling "Liverhook! Liverhook!" with all I've got.

I'm now up a pair of Everlast women's shorts.

The only disappointment was the main event of the evening. It was between Jarkko "the nordic sledgehammer" latomäki and Furdjel de Windt of the netherlands. And let me just say, The Nordic Sledgehammer behaved more like The Nordic Anvil. They just cuddled each other for 3x5minutes.

Blah.