Ms. Smartarse > Recent Status Updates

“Huh. Got you a girl back home?”
“My family has certain expectations of me.” I spoke only the truth—father expected me to fail spectacularly at whatever I turned my hand to—but I saw no need to elaborate.

Awesooooomeeeee!

Gabriel frowned. “[The maid's] manner with you is too familiar. I’ve half a mind to dismiss her.”
“Ida is the Genghis Khan of lady’s maids,” Pandora conceded, “but she’s very good at reminding me about things I tend to forget, and finding things I’ve lost. (...) Also, she told me I was a donkey-headed halfwit if I didn’t marry you.”
“We’ll keep her,” he said decisively.

"You anticipate marital ennui, which, forgive me, is a pinnacle of arrogance unmatched by anyone except myself when I was your age."

... and that's why Sebastian is still my favorite rake in all HR, even after 30 years of (faithful) marriage to Evie. :)

I was expecting at most a cute story, but things are downright exiting! :-o

Making secret rendezous plans:
"Good. Are there times when you're home alone? Out from your parents and that pledge-bow-wow of your Mothers? That guy, that throws tables around, during people's birthday?"

The next time I give people cryptic answers, they should try asking me about criminal chicken. It'll either even the balance, or make me laugh. A win win situation, eh?

So... carrying a live chicken in a flowery bag is nothing to wonder about in Berlin. But a frumpy housewife in a bar... well that's an emergency. :P

"Why do sheep need a station? Are they catching trains? Where are they going? Why do they have to go there?"
"I imagine they find themselves herded onto trains from time to time, but a sheep station is a ranch."

I really like the subtle difference between the book and TV series... but there's enough boring parts that make me put it down for days on end. Let's see if I manage to finish it today.

So... just out of curiosity: has anyone ever blamed their government for falling behind on their reading challenge? Because I feel like I should. Would make a change from the usual "stressful work situation" I've been moping about this past half a year.

Coded phone calls during the communism:

"I have two cakes for sale, get it, right? One with cream, get it? Silvery, long-haired, get it? Another one with chocolate, black, curly-haired. They're like brand new, without moths, nor are their sleeves frayed and they're very warm. Get it, right?"

More and more depressing, but still addictive.

At a puppet show:
"Children, who leaves for warmer countries in the autumn?"
"Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu..."

#justcommunistthings

From the prologue: "Particularly refined people from the West would sometimes as me in a tone of complicity: 'Just between us, was life in the communism that hard?' "

7 chapters in, I wouldn't be surprised to find out, that the author had started to cry as a reply.

Alternating between hilarity, horror and sadness. I never realuzed how much 1984 sucked... for some people.

"I think that’s…good.” What I actually said was “guh.” I’d been trying for something more enthusiastic, but “admirable” stuck in my craw and came out as a guh.
’Cause, yeah. Guh was how I really felt.

*cue loud sniffles and pitiful whinig about not wanting to go to work*

"You know you aren't sssupposed to eat that. Or drink that. Why don't you jussst empty the sssalt ssshaker down your throat?"
"It's not as filling!" Which, admittedly, was not the most helpful comment, but honest to God.

'What do you want?'
'I don't care,' he said. 'A tall pumpkin spice latte with caramel drizzle and no foam.'

To be fair: IDK is much shorter to type out in a text message. I need to remember this, for future use.

Oooh... things are starting to get more intriguing, now that the books and TV series diverge.

Awesome foreigners come in their 40s, clean and in coma... at least they do so, when enterprising Tatar grandmas ask God for them in communist Russia.

Almost 100 pages in, and I'm still not sure wether the main character is unlikable, pityful, or just plain delusional.

Some people have their homework eaten by trusty pets, others however, discover babies among the leaves of mysterious houseplants. What a workd we live in! :-o