Karin's Adventures

I had seen the typical US workplace environment in TV-shows and movies. *Office Space* comes to mind, with rows of little, dead, grey cubicles where frustrated workers go about their dreadful jobs. When I first entered my cube at Indiana Tech, it looked just like that: grey and dead.

I decided to bring some life to my cube and bought a small philodendron. As soon as the plant's branches grew long enough I strung them up along the ceiling panels above my desk. By now the area over my head looks a bit like a jungle, and it's not done growing yet.

We add a little bit of something to our Christmas lighting every year. This time we bought a pair of penguines and a string of blue lights. Snow was falling almost all day long today, which was the perfect weather to decorate our house.

We use only LED lights, so the energy consumption is negligible. The penguines added 4 Watts for a total of 16 Watts of Christmas decoration.

Drinking tap water is not a good idea. Even though you won't croak immediately - as the chemicals from tap water accumulate in your body, you might have all kinds of health issues. We already filter our drinking water, with filters in the refrigerator and on the bathroom faucet.

Today Tom installed a reverse osmosis 4-stage filtering system under the kitchen sink. Now our drinking water is better than most bottled water you can buy in stores.

Tom's family is a lot bigger than mine, with six mothers (two of them grand-mothers and one great-grand-mother) living in and around Fort Wayne. Becky has the biggest house, so she hosted the family's Mother's Day brunch again.

We enjoyed delicious food, exchanged presents and flowers - and planned our next family get-together for Father's Day. My contribution to the buffet was homemade German bread and Bavarian cheese spread.  

We've had heavy rain, snowfall and winter storms these past few days. Our back yard looks more like a pond and on my way home today I had to take a detour.

Anthony Boulevard was closed right before the bridge over the Maumee river because of dangerously high water levels. People living on Edgewater Road needed volunteers to help with sand-bagging.

A few more roads along the St.Joseph and St.Mary's rivers were also closed for the same reason. Good thing I know my way around town by now. I had no problem coming up with an alternative route home.

....that I went to have my teeth checked and cleaned for the first time in over two years. I was prepared for the worst, but got away with *only* 150 minutes of scaling and root planing. Two old fillings will have to be replaced in May this year, which is going to be nothing compared to today's marathon session at the periodontist's office.

When my new dentist first examined the full x-rays she had taken, and probed into the deep pockets in my gums, she told me horror stories about bone loss and root decay as the inevitable consequences of my *severe* periodontal disease. Well, this was the first time she saw my teeth - so it's understandable that she was shocked.

The specialist, she had me see, found that it wasn't all that bad - at least my condition is stable (I knew that) and with good oral hygiene after today's procedure, I should be OK for quite a few years.

The two dental offices, I have seen in the USA so far, look very similar to the ones I'm used to from Germany. With one main significant difference: there is no cuspidor. My periodontist explained that OSHA had outlawed those in 1985 because they pose a high infection risk. Makes me wonder, how I survived all those years in Germany.

The other big difference is insurance. Coming from the government controlled public health care system in Germany to the *fend for yourself* system in the USA was an interesting experience. The attention you receive here from health care providers is excellent, but you also pay quite well for it - even with insurance.

Immigrants from Turkey brought one very delicious addition to Germany's fast food menu: Döner

A toasted pita bread, sliced open to form a pocket, then filled with shredded lettuce, turkey or veal scraped off a big vertical rotating skewer, tomato slices, onion rings and a spicy yoghurt sauce. I must admit, I really missed that.

Turkish food hasn't made it to the Midwest yet, but Greek food is available. Now, you can't tell the Greeks (or the Turkish) that you think their food is similar, but you can still enjoy a gyros sandwich as a substitute for Döner.

The bread is thinner, so it can't be cut, but has to be rolled around the contents. And for some reason they skipped the lettuce. The *King Gyros* restaurant, where I got my gyros sandwich for lunch today, is operated by Hispanics, like a lot of food places in Fort Wayne.

Life is good!  

On some weekends, when we don't have time for big adventures, it's always fun to take on a smaller project at home. Like decorate a wall in the basement with Tom's extensive collection of coasters. Or work in the garden, watch our tomatoes grow.

I enjoy having a spacious home with lots of room for my creative ideas. I like to build and make stuff, instead of just buying and then consuming things.

Following the tradition here Tom and I got ourselves some small extra jobs: Tom works part time as a security technician. And I work a few extra hours from home as a virtual call-center agent, handling inbound product order calls for various companies.

Extra cash, extra security, extra options - but less spare time. Seems like you can never have it all your way. I think I might enjoy the call-center from home more than my daily commute, and if/when that happens, I'll switch priorities. So far I'm just testing the waters.