Malaise in Three Languages

Meters swum today: 1600 (a mighty mile)
Playing on the iPod: The Immersion Foray, "The Icarus Theory" (who are these guys? I love them!)

I went home early yesterday. I can't tell you how often that happens but it is spelled N E V E R. I have been known to stupidly come to work with a fever and only go home when it becomes obvious, based on the dancing stapler and swirling computer monitor, that I'm not in my right mind (I start hallucinating at 101 degrees).

Yesterday, though, I had a headache, my shoulders were sore, my neck felt like it needed "cricking" and I was just kind of generally miserable. I had a flu shot Wednesday and I was blaming that, but there was some other stuff going on. It was more of an emotional state, almost, than a physical one, and it's kind of hard to explain but let me sum up: "Law firm this. Law firm that. Blah blah blah. Who the f*ck cares. Sue 'em all and let God sort 'em out."

Not exactly the world's greatest attitude, right? When I feel that way I hide in my office and just try to work through it. Between that and the headache and so on, though, I couldn't concentrate, so I finally did leave. Went home, curled up on the sofa, applied cat topically, felt sorry for myself. I felt picked on. Like somebody was nagging me, though no one was. Kind of like, "Okay, the world economy is tanking, we're running out of oil, my bankrupt government just dumped 700 billion it doesn't have on an economic bailout that's not working, I'm surrounded by people who are going to vote for McCain not because they want four more years of this crap or think he'd do anything to get us out of it but mainly because they can't admit, even to themselves, that they won't vote for a black man, which means my people, though I love them all, are blithering morons, and bigots besides, and not worth the affection I waste on them." Joan picked up comfort food (burg, fries, small caramel sundae) and we ate and I felt better. Maybe my caramel sauce quotient was just low.

Anyway, I went to bed early, woke up early this morning and today I feel fine. Went back to the pool, even, swam a mighty mile, and ran right into the woman who was arguing with my teammate about whether Obama would do what world leaders want because he is weak.

It was kind of awkward. I sang at her, if you'll recall. "Um, hi," I said. "Were you the one singing the other morning?" she asked. "Um, yes," I said. "You sing very well," she said. "Um, thanks," I said. (Still waiting for her to mention Obama.) She asked me how many years I'd been studying German. In German. I said, "Nein, nie sprechen sie Deutsch." Which means, "I don't speak German."

She laughed. She thought I was kidding. I had to explain, no, really, I just speak a few phrases of it, I learned the song syllabically. I don't think she believed me. She never mentioned Obama. It was kind of spooky though. I really don't speak German but I understood her perfectly. Something like that happened last Sunday, too, when Kellum, who's studying Danish, said something (in Danish) that meant something or other (I forget what) and I laughed and said, "Oh, wow, it's the same in Icelandic." For the record, I don't speak Icelandic either. I have parents and grandparents, though, who speak both German and Icelandic and I'm wondering if I maybe absorbed some of the language in utero. Or heard 'em spoken when I was very young. Well, anyway, it was a bit spooky.

Diese Anwaltskanzlei. Diese Anwaltskanzlei. Blah blah blah.