sew buttons

sew buttons

FINALLY i have my very own sewing machine! sewing machines are generally really expensive and i have found some inthe price range of less than 200 euros, which didnt really sell gregory. so as i was browsing through a large beauty store (kinda like cvs only without the pharmacy) i found sewing machines on sale for 69.99! so i told gregory and he said i could buy it!! ohhhh yesss. so i walked there in the rain today and hauled that heavy bitch back to my house and set it all up. its beautiful. i thought it would be super ghetto since its considerably less money than the ones i've seen even in the grocery store! but its not at all. it has 26 stitch functions including zig zags, 3 button hole functions, blind hem etc etc. it came with all its little goodies like extra bobbins, seam ripper, screw driver, extra needles, zipper foot, button foot and even a cover for it! oh the possibilites!!

i've had a shirt laying around that i got from a thrift store and i havent worn it since it was considerably too big. i began to hand sew it but i have the patience of a fruit fly and just couldnt do it. but i finally altered that bad-larry today and now i can wear it without feeling like a pregnant woman. i am so so so excited. this is my first very own. i've always used mom's circa 1970's. the old gal was a bit rickety and liked to gradually loosen her tension on ya but she did the trick. i want to make a summer dress for myself. if anyone feels a sudden urge to buy me something, you could buy me sewing patterns. maybe for a chocolate exchange (hint hint, you know who you are) here are some that i really like:butterick b4513 newlook 6377 simplicity

gregory and i are also looking into a new house. keep your fingers crossed. 2 bedrooms, a small garden and garden house and it looks like it has a dishwasher too! how sweet would that be?????????

Belgium package delivery system...Has NO system

Since WEDNESDAY, nearly a week now, I've been trying to receive my package that came from America. They delivered it here to the apartment on Wednesday but since our landlady is such a douche-bag, our bell doesn't work. (however, convinently, her daughter's bell work) so I never received it because how was I to know anyone was here with a broken bell? I have Gregory call because he can communicate with these people better than I can. He calls THE VERY NEXT DAY to have it delivered to his grandmother's house since he goes there every afternoon and there's always someone home. This is not the first time we've had one of my packages shipped to her house. Well to make a long story short it never got there, Gregory has called multiple times everyday, either people have no idea where the package is, or they're reassuring us it'll be shipped out that afternoon, or the very next morning. Last I heard it was found in the "return to sender" corner, but then was going to be shipped out yesterday afternoon. It never made it yesterday afternoon because it went from gent (on Wednesday) to Brussels for days, back to gent yesterday because someone looked at the address on the package rather than being involved in what's going on and looking to see if there's a second address to send it to, bell still didn't work yesterday so we STILL didn't get it and then it went back to Brussels only to be lost yet again. So the lady we talked to said she didn't know what to do anymore. If she doesn't know what to do then who does???????? I am so pissed off at these people. I BETTER get it soon or they're going to start hearing a very angry American person on the phone and I don't think they want that.
oh an ps taxi post-I refuse to pay the 9.90 you're charging me. Maybe if you could do your job effectively then I would pay your fee but after the hassle you're putting us through, there's no way I'm paying that anymore!

Goed Nieuws

OK. I have some pretty good news. This coming Tuesday I have a demonstration of my language skills for a prospective employer. Its within a real estate company. I would be answering phones n giving information about the questioned real estate. I MUST speak Dutch.

I'm pretty scared since I don't speak it much and when I do its only with Gregory. So everyone please cross your fingers, light a candle, pray, do a dance, do whatever it is you do to send luck to someone because I NEED it.

Appendix I

As many of you know by now, last week, to the day, I had my appendix removed. My experience with European surgery wasn't too bad. The only thing I didn't enjoy, besides surgery of course, is the interns, for one. While in the emergency room they needed to take blood and insert an iv. Ok, no problem I can handle that. What I didn't know was that they were going attach the tourniquet for an hour BEFORE even having anything ready or attempting to draw blood. So as I'm laying there with my arm slowly decaying, an intern that clearly had not been practicing on her oranges came up and took another hour assessing her next move like a champion chess player. Now I've begun to sweat and am nearly in tears. I've told the others my arm hurts and they just nod. In my head I'm screaming "HELLO! Patient is in PAIN because of YOU loosen the damn thing" but they didn't until what felt like years later, after the intern poked me WRONG. My arm was entirely purple and I thought for sure I was losing much more than appendix that day. All that and I didn't even get a needle in me. So then I had to endure it again a few moments afterwards, only this time tourniqueting my hand, which still doesn't feel good as its necrotising, but at least it was just a hand rather than my whole arm. The other unpleasant thing was when they wheeled me into the operating room. Once in the room they made me lay on the metal slab they call a table. Now ordinarily that wouldn't matter because I would expect to be knocked out before I even saw the operating table but no, I layed there shivering because its about as cold as an arctic tundra in there. So then this brutal woman comes over, rips off my socks and underwear on a side note: . Those were a good pair of underwear! All those rumors "clean underwear for the hospital" total crap. I had been sick the entire day so I never got a chance to shower, so before heading to the hospital I at least changed my underwear, putting on a comfortable, yet nice pair that I wouldn't mind everyone seeing and they never gave them back!!!! Next time I'm wearing a pair I'm thinking of throwing away, anyway.

she also popped open all the buttons on my johnny, roughly forced my hands at my side where she wanted them; my feet aswell and then left. So all this fussing and hurrying and being forceful, one would think they were ready to go. NO! I layed there like that for about a HALF HOUR. I know, there was a clock there. I mean Christ, I would have rather of layed in the more comfortable emergency room bed with my socks and underwear and blanket than the metal, cold table with nothing but the flimsy johnny covering my privates for a half hour.

after all that I made it out alive. In some serious pain, but alive. The nurses on the floor were pretty nice and helpful, so that's good.

I also should be getting my bandages off either today or tomorrow. Hurrah.