Jane just called.

I just answered the phone only to hear a lovely English accent asking me about our Buzzsaw connection for a new project.

I worked very hard to listen to what she was saying about fixing our user login issues (with the most beautiful pronunciation) when all I wanted to do was proclaim the following thought, "Oh my God, I am sitting at my desk at work and answering calls from London!? Where the '#%$ß' am I and how the '#%$ß' did I get here?!... This is so freaking awesome!'

I used to have these moments at least every other day, but they have tapered off as of late. I would write more on this but, it’s my turn to go make 4:00 tea and coffee for the office.

Showers

With elbow room.

Hugs

I sure took those for granted.

Large Kitchen Sinks

Where pans can actually fit under the faucet and be rinsed without splashing water everywhere.

Schwarzwald

I met with Bernward and friends two weekends ago for a little winter hike. I knew I was getting a bit in over my head. It might have been the 4 trains and 1 bus that I had to take together that clued me in, or maybe it was walking up the side of a snowy mountain with a speedy little rope tow running along side me. Most likely it was the walking poles that my fellow hikers had that made it terribly obvious that this was not a day in which I could expect to do anything the easy way.




Except when I was able to slide down the side of the hill on my butt because of my fabulously slippery snow pants. I will admit that was pretty easy, and probably my favorite part! You can even see my trail if you look closely at the picture to the right.















The best part was when they said that we were going to hike to the top of the third highest peek in ... drum roll please... The Black Forest. Well it wasn't Mount Hood but hiking in three feet of snow did kick my butt. The scenery was was absolutely worth it, I just didn't realize it until I saw the photos that Damion took.
















This is where we ate lunch, not to mention the coolest picture ever!

Many have asked why its called the Black Forest or Schwarzwald and this is my answer, derived completely from my overly observant landscape oriented brain: Its a bit funny for us North Westerners to understand, but when most of the country side is made up of deciduous forest, hills covered in coniferous (evergreen) trees are a strikingly dark. They almost look black when compared to the chartreuse spring leaves on the deciduous trees seen at lower elevations.

Well when you put it that way...

I joined a phone conference today with some consultants in Chicago. My coworker proceeded to introduce me.

"Jaime is joining us now, she is a real native American."

The horrified look on my face quickly registered with my coworker as I interrupted and explained that,

"No no, not really, I am just from Portland".

On the other end of the line I could sense a momentary horror that similar to my own but also quickly followed by a healthy dose of American style laughter.

The first in a collection of notable moments in language confusion. Look for "Language Confusion" in the "labels" box and you will see the compiled list as it grows.