Amanda Takes Off...

Today's travel sucked. AirTran turned my two hour layover into a seven hour layover and then blamed New York for it. However, I got a free one-way ticket to use (when I can afford to waste an extra day traveling, I suppose).

Even better, I managed to read seventy pages in my Aesop's Fables book in Korean.

Yes, you read that right: I read seventy pages in Korean in a day. That's more than 18,000 jaso.

That is so awesome, I deserve a trophy for it.

On Tuesday I introduced my math students to angles—complementary, supplementary, vertical angles, and so on. When I got to complementary, AC/DC joked, "Hmm, complementary angles, does that mean they're free?"

Yesterday, there was a sudden hissing noise in my room. I looked around and he said, very deadpan, "It's poison gas."

That kid cracks me up.

Tuesday I told Good Man to call and schedule another driving session. He called and suddenly when Korean-style. "Yeahyeah... yeahyeah... yeaaaahyeah." I was smiling, hearing him turn a Korean phone mannerism into English.

When he finally hung up he said, "I have such a phone phobia! I hate speaking in English on the phone!"

"I know, that's why I made you do it," I said.

This session was apparently not as scary as his first session. He had very few freak-out complaints this time.

Good Man and I chatted with his mother very briefly tonight. I'm going to my grandmother's funeral but Good Man is staying home. "Mother!" I said, "Please call [Good Man] while I am gone! He has never lived alone and he will be alone for five days, so he will be very lonely."

"Of course, of course," she replied.

"And if he dies, I will not know, so please call him daily."

"Of course, of co—" Mother started laughing harder, "Oh, Amanda! Of course, of course."

Maybe Good Man made a mistake in marrying a foreigner. His mother isn't obligated to treat me like she would a Korean daughter-in-law.

Today my grandmother (stepdad's mom) died.

My paternal grandmother is in the hospital from a stoke that happened about two weeks ago.

My parents' dog got hit by a car and killed in the past week.

And my brother's going to Afghanistan in a month.

If bad shit comes in threes, why is this coming in a torrential downpour?

The only decent news I have is that I finished the third Pippi book (삐삐는 어른이 되기 싫어) in Korean last night.

Today was about getting stuck. Getting stuck in traffic, getting an IKEA piece stuck inside another IKEA piece (which then caused a chopstick, a crochet hook and a knitting needle to get stuck), getting a ring stuck on my finger...

That last thing meant I ended up at the fire station at 6:45 in the morning, getting my finger buttered up by a cute firefighter. It meant I left with my second-most-expensive piece of jewelry, my college ring, off of my finger via a cut through the band.

The rest of the weekend, however, was better!

Last night Good Man and I went out to a Vietnamese place for a one-year anniversary dinner. When we got there they said the wait would be 45-50 minutes. So we decided to go around the corner to the pastry shop to wait and start dinner backwards. Not 15 minutes later, just as we were finishing our dessert and coffee, we got a table.

I decided to wear the Korean hair pin (비녀) that traditionally indicated a woman was married. Of course, this is America and not Korea, so nobody else really knew what I was doing, but I did. I also wore the red shoes and red knit coat I wore to our legal ceremony, and I sported the penny I had in my shoe on a chain.

I rocked the binyeo with jeans. Heh.

비녀

My husband, meanwhile, needs a haircut.

Good Man

My brother happens to be in the state this weekend, and since he's shipping out to Afghanistan at the end of April, we made sure to meet for dinner.

Oh, Brother

Good Man and Johnny

Same Noses

I wore a binyeo again today, this time with the $280 price-tagged, found for $40 at Marshall's jacket. It's a cute jacket, but not $280 cute.