Fish

I confess. (And I really do feel ashamed here.)

It started out so innocently: I was going to be super nice, and join a facebook application to help out a good friend. This is not my M.O. My M.O. is to block every single application invitation without giving them a second glance. But this friend was nefarious and used puppy-dog eyes on me, and I couldn't say no. No big deal, though - It was supposed to be easy. I join the app, become her "neighbor" then ignore the whole deal for the rest of my facebook career. Whatever. Piece of cake!

And then ...someone gifted me with a fish. "Aw, neat" I thought "someone was thinking of me and wanted to give me a fish for my new tank because they think I'm actually interested in spending time on this ridiculous program." I didn't want to hurt feelings, so I accepted the gift.

BOOOOM!

The death knell sounded for my facebook morals.

A very curious thing happened: I didn't feed the little fellow, and he died. That's not particularly curious - My reaction, however, was.

I felt awful. I had just murdered a little virtual fish baby through neglect. I kept telling myself that I was not allowed to have emotional attachments for entities that only exist on my computer, but reason and logic did not prevail.

THE FULL CONFESSION: Up until just recently, I have had a tank full of well-fed fish on Fishville. I liked scrubbing the algae off my tank. I liked earning coins. And I liked getting gifts from other suckers like myself. I was having fun playing with a facebook application.

My Enjoyment of this mindless pursuit was at war with my Indignant Soul:

"You're wasting your life on virtual fish!"
"But I'm having fun."
"Get Adam to buy you a REAL fish."
"I don't want a real fish. I'd have to spend money on them and clean their gross fishbowls."
"Well whatever, you need to QUIT."
"But I don't want to quit yet."
"If you're enjoying this application so much, then why are you so careful to make sure no one else on facebook knows about it?"
"...Uh."
"You WILL quit some day. Your conscience won't let you spend the rest of your life checking facebook every day to make sure your stupid, fake fish are happy."

There was no way my whiny Enjoyment voice could win against my Soul, the Essence of Anna, so I compromised and set a Goal. When I reached level 21, I would be able to buy a FLAME ANGELFISH, which was the best-looking fish on Fishville. After I reached this level, bought a bunch of these fish and enjoyed them for a while, I'd quit altogether.

The Goal was reached on, ...er, I forget the date. About 2 weeks ago.

I now speak to you as a recovering Fishville addict.

Hi, my name is Anna and I have been Fishville free for 2 weeks now. Thank you.



I am so glad that's over.

images

While we're on a photo binge, here are some leftovers from our luxurious and wintry visit to CO:

After this snowfall, I felt like I'd slipped into Narnia

Ice skating on a REAL LAKE! My first time. I loved the creepy cracks in the ice and the unsettling noises that they emitted when we skated over them.

Yep. On top of my suitcase.

Glorious.

"Body-Skiing." You launch yourself down a snowy cliff and slide until you crash. Bruises and laughter all around. :)

Introducing: South Korea

A visual presentation of our life in Yong-in, South Korea:












































































And for those of you who want explanations:

1. Outside of our apartment

2. Home sweet home!

3. Angle 2…

4. Angle 3…

5. Mini kitchen – complete with sink of dirty dishes

6. Mini bathroom – converts into shower stall when door is closed! What a bargain! (That’s sarcasm. I miss bathtubs.)

7. Our ironing “board” and little green iron

8. Adam cooking our first meal in the apartment

9. And voila – the first feast

10. A *green tea* doughnut from…. Krispy Kreme!!! Not kidding, it's like we never left the States...

11. A coconut onion ring tower from Outback Steakhouse J (See?)

12. Walking to the bus stop on a snowy morning

13. We pass this UFO in the bus every day

14. We also pass this “Carpe Diem” sign, a perfect reminder to start off every day

15. Looking through the front doors of our school

16. Lumpy bumpy snowy parking lot

17. A beautiful building across the street from school

18. Anna the teacher

19. Adam the teacher

20. Map-drawing in Geography class

21. Flower dissections in Science class

22. Labeling the classroom activity in English class

23. Our Arbor Day tree-planting

24. The tragic fate of our Arbor Day magnolia

25. Adam at a groovy DVD bang “Tomato DVD”

26. Our super secret trip to PARIS (wow!)

27. The absurd and intimidating amount of buttons on some Korean toilets. All I want to do is FLUSH - what the heck else is there??

28. Friendly sidewalk fish

29. Oranges and cappuccinos at "Masil", a friend’s coffee shop

Not Funny

Haha, joke's on me: it just started SNOWING.



I feel....


(refer to last post)

FINALLY!

Spring!





Goodbye thermal leggings and heavy coats and fur-lined boots and sweaters with 3 layers underneath!
Hello tights and skirts and light jackets and sweaters with one layer underneath!

Love Actually, partially...

Adam and I went to the DVD Bang twice recently. (Ahh, the luxurious feeling of indulgence!)

We watched "Public Enemies" which was a factual, interesting movie about the bank robber John Dillinger, with disappointing, one-dimensional characters . Meh.

A week or so before that, we watched "Leon le professionel", which is a fictional movie about a hitman who takes in a 10-12 year old Natalie Portman, and has made me cry all 3 times I've seen it.

After the two movies above, though, I firmly informed Adam that the next movie we watched would have a HAPPY ending. No dead people, no unnecessary use of lethal weapons, no tears. Only butterflies and sunshine. Well, the DVD bang didn't have any My Little Ponies flicks, so we settled for "Love Actually" since Adam hadn't seen it.



Before we started, I told him about the hilarious (if embarrassing) storyline in the movie about two movie body doubles who end up working together on a film and falling in love.

After the movie was over, I was basking in the warm, gooey happy ending (ignoring the storylines that didn't end with kisses and hugs all around), when I shot upright - what happened to the body doubles? I could have sworn they were in this movie, but there was not a single image of either of them. Nada, zilch, zero.

I was understandably confused. Was I thinking of a different British film with multiple storylines about people falling in love? If so, why couldn't I remember anything else about it?

One short google search later (which came up with some very blush-inducing results - YOU try typing in "body double movie falling in love" or any variation, and not worrying that someone's going to see your computer screen and get the wrong idea), turns out I was right. Love Actually is the movie, and yet the Love Actually we saw had edited that story right out of the film. Mom always said she wished those parts weren't in the movie anyways, and apparently some enterprising Koreans felt the same way. :)

Mystery solved.

Hilarity

Recently, we've been laughing a lot. Not just, "oh ha ha, how amusing!" but really gut-busting, painful laugh sessions that leave you curled up on the floor gasping for breath.

Examples:

• Watching "Clash of the Titans" in the theater, then spending a good 20 minutes back home, laughing ourselves to tears over the plot-holes we hadn't noticed while engaged in the movie. It was almost as great a comedy of errors as The Lake House - which holds the record, I think, for a non-comedy flick that made me double up with laughter.
• This website: http://www.safenow.org/ (disclaimer: not all jokes are kid-friendly)
• The priceless moment a couple nights ago when Adam seriously SANG a comment to me (laughter bubbles up, just remembering it) without even really realizing what he was doing. I'm pretty sure I strained something during that laugh-fest.
  

I would be 100% pleased with this cheery turn of events if I didn't have the sneaking suspicion that all this giddiness could be chalked up to our lack of energy and overall exhaustion.

Last night was a definite case of the above - I told Adam I thought he took his shoes off really fast, "like a frisky cat!" This is a classic case of brain-dead humor. After pronouncing this incomprehensible comment (I have no idea where it came from, I swear), I burst out laughing and could barely stop for 5 minutes.

It's fun; it's healthy; but does it mean that I'm losing it?