Dear FRIEND
Don’t forget to vote! The procedure for receiving an absentee ballot for the General election is basically the same as receiving one for the primary election. In some instances you may be able to use a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (FWAB) to vote for federal offices (President/Vice President, Senator, and Representative). The FWAB may be used only for general elections and is a backup for voters who expect to be able to use the regular absentee ballot from their state or territory but who did not receive that ballot in time to vote and return it. The FWAB must be received by the local election official (addresses in the Voter Assistance Guide) no later than the deadline for receipt of regular absentee ballots under state law…
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Dear MR M,
We’ve been contacted by STV news about you guessed it – the election. They are wondering whether any of our American students are holding an election night party/gathering to watch the proceedings? They’d be looking to pop in and film on Monday – probably late at night / early hours of Tuesday morning – and talk to some of you about your hopes/fears on the result. It shouldn’t take too long and will probably be a good giggle.
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Delete, delete, delete.
*sigh*
It doesn’t seem possible, but even this far away, we’re experiencing what can only be called Election Fatigue. Especially after watching this surreal little video, we’re weary, and a little weirded out. We’ll continue quietly setting aside the reminders to vote (Yes, thank you everyone, we already have) and requests from reporters (!) and look forward to it being a month from now, when we’ll all be het up and worried about something else. Like the weather.
My goodness, what a sudden little cold snap. Over the weekend there were multiple hailstorms, and then suddenly, we were back to gloriously clear blue. And the temperature dropped. And rose to barely 3°C/38°F during the daytime, and dropped into the minuses at night. At the risk of worrying our parents further (Hola, mi familia. Está todo bien. No, really.), we will say it is really cold in our heat-free little flat! However, since heat rises, and our bedroom lofts are near the ceiling, we’re at least sleeping warmly. The worst is the dry air and the …vermin! Certain… elements are confused and think since the house is so cold that the place is deserted. We now have an influx of arachnids…and one inchworm so far. (We’re going to blame the inchworm on the veggie box from the CSA.) We’re trying to escort out and not murder, but if T. finds anything in the vicinity of the bed, she fears its wee life might just be forfeit. She is leaving notes around the house to this effect, just in case they can read.
If we get a plague of rats next, we’re leaving.
Happy (belated) Diwali, by the way. Last night’s fireworks happened when we didn’t have a camera on hand, but we enjoyed the glorious neighborhood in-a-parking-lot show. We enjoyed the noise and the potential for getting burned a whole lot less, and quickly chose another street by which to return home. We love the fireworks, but wow are people in this city fearless!
Health Professional Heather of Not A Real Blog. has indicated that we could maybe get out of our house every once in awhile and become real friends with her, instead of the imaginary, online kind. Um. Yes. We’ve been commenting on each other’s blogs for the last, oh, year? And have seen each other in person, once. (And we didn’t know her and the Icelandic looking guy with her, and didn’t realize they were Americans and not Thor and Frieda. Not that it would have made any difference; we were still so new to the whole, “Okay, get on the bus and go to a castle with people,” thing that we were huddled in the back, looking nervous. [Okay, so maybe that was only T.]) We realize it’s kind of a problem, the Imaginary Friend thing. There are at least eight people in Glasgow with whom we chat via blog, and we’ve met now… four of them? Should we possibly get out more? (Right. We’re Hobbits. Hobbits, by nature, do not “get out.”) Heather is offering the bribe of candy corn. Perhaps we should counter with chocolate beet cake…After all, we’re doing a lot of baking now that we’re heating the house with the oven!! Speaking of, time to bake some sweet potatoes! Whee!
We were also offered the “bribe” of dinner and met two of the newest Americans-to-Glasgow, the Hennessey’s, who have come from Southern Cal by way of Seattle to work on the 2014 Commonwealth Games, which are kind of a big deal in Glasgow. We enjoyed a meal at The 78 while they “picked our brains” for details on housing, laundry, shopping and the best gyms in the area. (Mr. H. is finding practice venues for the athletes, while Mrs. H. is a gym aficionado.) It’s always fun to meet people who are just starting. They’re so optimistic! (And not grumpy like we are…)
This week, D. has experienced teaching — namely a seminar called Arts & Media Informatics. Being aware that most of the students signed up for the seminar because it was meant to be an “easy A,” he was challenged to make it both entertaining and informative, in a way that would interest the students in possibly pursuing an interest in information technology. (He was also informed that all of the professors hate this course, which is why it was palmed off on a PhD student. Of course.)
D. has since… realized that teaching is a lot of telling people what you’re going to tell them, telling them what you have to tell, and then telling them what you’ve just told them.
There’s still no guarantee that they will have gotten a thing out of what you said at all.
Our final bit of news at this hour is that B1, the Neighbors from Hades, have texted to inform us that they are having a Halloween party this Friday, with “people and music” and we are “welcome to pop over.”
…
Something tells us it’s time to visit a hotel.
It’ll be warmer there, anyway.
– D & T
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Some health professional I am.. bribing people with candy corn! Although technically I am in fact a Mental Health professional, so I could argue that candy corn does wonders for your mental health!
So Halloween does promise to be a “cold day in hell?” Yes, time for a hotel. Good luck.
I commend you for trying to escort the spiders out rather than squash them – any insect that makes its way into my flat gets squashed. Usually by Adrian (I’m a bit squeamish).
My husband is totally amused by the “Mr. H”. He actually has a different last name than me (just like you two, I think), but it’s probably best if his name isn’t used anyway.
Anyway, it’s nice payback for our names on the outside of our apartment only including HIS last name. I went to the apartment managers and asked them to modify it (I felt so non-existent!) but they said, no, my last name was too long. Oh well.
And I didn’t realize how special we were for actually meeting you!
Our house plays host to a lot of “wee beasties” , the colder it gets, the more they venture in. Well we do live in an area which was a forest, so spiders we expect, but slugs…. I thought they liked the cold!