Friday, July 23, 2010

Odds and Ends Thursday 61

My friends Jen and Tommy flew in from New Zealand tonight. They were supposed to fly in from Los Angeles 36 hours earlier, but apparently some mechanical failure on the plane was a big enough issue Air New Zealand had to cancel the weekly direct flight from LA to Faleolo. In any case, I took the bus to the airport this afternoon, which got me there approximately 4 hours before their flight got in. This was by design, and I brought along a book and my iPod and a notepad to handwrite tonight’s post. Here are some other odds and ends from the week:
  • This week has been trying. Every so often it’s as though this country gangs up on me. The boat didn’t show on Saturday, my school skipped the Monday morning assembly, I lost my phone over the weekend and Digicel’s system happened to be down until Tuesday. The spare phone I bought when my parents visited last year has wandered off, and Lucky Foodtown keeps selling out of the cheapest cat food. It’s been death by pinpricks.
  • My iPod battery is amazing. I’ve had the thing for years, and I admit I’ve been a littlecareless with overcharging it and not using the entire battery before overcharging it again. Nonetheless it continues to be a beast. I’ve been listening to hour upon hour of podcasts lately, and the iPod continues to grin and bear it.
  • A couple months back I considered writing all my text messages in haiku. Thoughts?
  • I always like it when pop songs are written in 3/4 tempo. Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be” is playing throughout the airport right now. It’s definitely in 3/4 time.
  • Also incidentally, Samoa loves Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be”. It never fails to make me feel like I’m attending a middle school dance in the mid-90s. “Play some ‘Tootsie Roll’! Play some House of Pain!”
  • Maengi asked if she could borrow a DVD on Tuesday night. I always get a little nervous when I lend movies to the Indian missionaries because I’m afraid the movie will have too much of an American nuance (e.g. The Royal Tenenbaums, Milk, The Sandlot) or it will be too violent (e.g. Lethal Weapon movies, Platoon) or too sexual in nature (e.g. Vicky Cristina Barcelona). I gave her “Big”. She liked it okay. Maybe I’ll give her “The English Patient” next time?
  • The latest album on the Samoan pop charts is a group that does Samoan covers of Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock’s “Picture”, Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl”, and Little Anthony and the Imperials’ “Tears on my Pillow”. It’s an eclectic mix.
  • My assessment procedures were audited by the Samoan Ministry of Education last Friday. The auditing process took all of 2 minutes.
  • I’ve moved from feeding the cat 3 times a day to feeding her only twice a day. Though she’s clearly not happy about this change, I’ve found her to be far more affectionate. Try and explain that one.
  • In our taxi on the way to dinner tonight, the driver told me in Samoan, “Mormon missionaries speak the best Samoan; except for they don’t know any of the swear words.”
That’s all I got for this week. I hope you’re well. Pictures below.


I rarely write posts by hand.


Jen and Tommy. Psychedelic.

3 comments:

Mom said...

I'm happy to read that Jennifer and Tommy actually made it. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the posting the picture of Jen and Tommy. I'm so glad they finally got there. YAY! Have a great time.

Lauren said...

Haiku texts? Do it!!