American klutz

I had one of those days when it felt like, just to walk down the street and appear normal, you need to have internalized a cultural knowledge that only those who were born in this part of the world can possess. Amidst the towering waifish rhinestone-and-fur adorned women, I felt conspicuous and awkward in my sensible wool coat, flat-heeled boots, and outfit featuring every layer I own, which I trotted out to battle the bone-searing cold. A klutzy American roly-poly. 

It appears that when the temperature dips below zero I lose a significant amount of brain function. Conjugating verbs today: impossible. Purchasing dental floss: not easy. Eating dinner: untidy. Opening marshrutka doors: multiple attempts. While recording banjo for this new love song for a bureaucrat I got tangled up in the three cables I have in the most surprising, spectacular way. You should have seen it. 

This Love Song is for all you lonely hearts who have been victims of a bureaucracy. It's also for those of us who know the power of being a lowly bureaucrat, and taking that power out on someone from outside the system: blame it on the rules. I've been on both sides, I admit, though I will be enjoying Crimean bureaucracy some more for the coming months. Bring it on.

(I'll probably stop making this disclaimer once I stop trying to get my MOTU to work and get comfortable with my one-internal-mic aesthetic, but the recording situation here in my room is poor poor poor. And the barking dogs give no respect.)

Internet's been down the last few days, but Susan and I are still going to try and get a Debutante Hour podcast out for everyone's favorite holiday, when we honor the most mercurial of the cherubs with our recollections of first kisses and greatest embarrassments and so on. 

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On a more serious note, I have had a fascinating few days learning about the Crimean Tatar situation and am going to write more about it possibly even tonight if the internet holds. This morning, the Turkic and Tatar languages department office was abuzz with the story of the desecration of a Tatar cemetery in a Crimean village. Really sad. Here's the Kyiv Post article. If you read Russian, there's a ton more. Milara-odzha (who is a real firecracker, incidentally) pointed out that someone's trying to provoke the Tatars into retaliation but their religion (Islam) doesn't allow for a violent response. I thought that was such a refreshing perspective, given how often Islam seems to get confused with extremism these days.