Where have I been? I am not entirely sure. The days seem to have blurred. Yesterday turned out to be a strange day of good things intermixed with bad things and my brain sort of collapsed in on itself, and strangely, not one person actually noticed a difference, and I am not taking that as a good sign.
I met my new neighbors yesterday, which was good (except that I didn't realize our old neighbor had finally sold his house and MOVED OUT, all with me sitting right here in an office in the front of the house and you'd think I'd notice a little thing like a MOVING VAN carting off an entire house's contents, but no, I did not. Yeah, theives could have taken the entire thing and I might as well have wandered over there with an offer of cookies, as much good as I was for the whole Neighborhood Watch thing.) So I introduced myself to my new neighbor, who said she was from Egypt, which was cool and I can honestly say I've never met anyone from Egypt. She was friendly and sweet and so happy that someone had introduced themselves... she said where they used to live, not a soul was ever friendly or introduced themselves. Her husband wasn't there, and about the time we were talking about her being from Egypt, she said he was from Prussia. I'm almost positive she said "Prussia" and not Russian (and where the hell is that? Does it exist now? I thought it was a word for an old area of Europe / Mediterranean / Iraq, Iran area). He teaches at LSU, and they sound very interesting and friendly and I am happy with that. We have a small block here on our section of the street and everyone looks out for everyone (well, you know, except if theives want to back a moving van up to the door, and then apparently, I am in a coma), and I love the ethnic diversity here - there are some really cool people in this neighborhood, despite it being both southern and suburban-ish.
Posted by toni at July 17, 2004 12:33 AMPrussia was a kingdom until World War I, then became a German state until World War II at which point it ceased to exist. Russia seems a likelier guess as to the husband's country of origin.
Posted by: Lucy Huntzinger at July 17, 2004 10:01 PMThanks Lucy. That was what I very dimly remembered. I would have automatically assumed Russian, too, except I saw him at a distance and he looked more Middle-Eastern in coloring, which probably influenced my confusion.
Posted by: toni at July 18, 2004 12:01 AMWait, his Middle-Eastern looks made you think he was the epitome of Aryan manhood? The Prussians occupied what is now Northwestern Poland and large swathes of Northeastern Germany. They took over bits and pieces of the rest of Germany, too. Then they traded some bits for a more unified state. Then they lost their existence as a political entity.
Yes, I am a geography and history geek, thanks for asking!
Posted by: Lucy Huntzinger at July 19, 2004 01:36 PM