Same procedure as last year?

 

SAME PROCEDURE AS EVERY YEAR

Most Austrians are familiar with the exchange, “Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?”  “Same procedure as every year, James.”  It comes from a beloved British one-act play entitled “Dinner for One,” that is broadcast on Austrian television every New Year’s Eve at about 11:30 pm.  This is when the countdown to the New Year really begins, as the clock is superimposed over the story of Miss Sophie’s 90^th birthday party.  When the play ends, there is just enough time to grab the champagne and glasses, put on your coat and go outside to wait for the stroke of midnight, the fireworks, the champagne corks flying, the first sip of bubbly in the New Year, and the Blue Danube Waltz on the radio.

At least, that’s been the procedure in past years.  2021 is different.

Last year I was in Duluth, Minnesota to celebrate New Year’s Eve on the shores of Lake Superior, a combination 60^th birthday and Christmas gift for my boyfriend. I think we probably watched “Dinner for One” on a laptop, and we chilled Austrian champagne (from the liquor store in Grand Marais!) in the snow on the balcony of our hotel. The first disappointment of 2020 was that the only fireworks appeared briefly on the Wisconsin side of the harbor (I was expecting them to be fired over the Duluth Lift Bridge, Fourth of July style). How minor an inconvenience that seems now in light of all that’s happened the past few months.

December 31, 2019 - Grand Marais, MN

All the familiar procedures have been upended. Education has been moved online, with all of the challenges that brings to learners, teachers, and parents.  Graduation requirements have been waived.  Grocery shopping has become an odyssey of hand sanitizing stations, masks, and keeping one’s distance, even if it means circling around the store until the indecisive person blocking the dairy aisle has moved.  Vacations have been cancelled, as well as all other social engagements.  No spring break in Cremona, no Literature and Wine in Stift Göttweig, no garden party in Vienna, no trip to the US, no Lake Superior, no Christmas in Iowa. There was a brief moment this summer when it seemed like things might go back to “normal.” Restaurants set up outdoor options.  Theaters offered distanced seating and contact tracing.  But as soon as the weather grew cold and activities moved indoors, it’s been one lockdown after another.  Being cautiously optimistic, we expect the latest to be lifted January 25.

Procedures, however, are irreversibly changed.  Now it’s normal to be tested if you want to visit your family for a special event.  Family reunions take place on Zoom.  Everyone is eyed with suspicion – where have they been and who have they been with and should they really spend time in my house?  That goes for family members and friends as well as the chimney sweep or furnace repairman.  Will we ever go back to teaching in person?  Will teenagers ever learn to keep their distance and sanitize their stations several times a day?  Will I ever stop holding my breath for 30 seconds after a jogger runs past me?  When will I get to see my parents in person again? And why aren’t other people around the world asking themselves these same questions, instead of putting themselves and everyone else at risk by denying the danger of simply breathing in the wrong place at the wrong time?

I miss being able to laugh with friends, without worrying about how many droplets we’re spraying into the air.  I miss being able to hug people who are in need of a hug (or when I need one).  I miss sharing a meal without wondering whether it’ll land me in the hospital. I really miss live music. But I am adaptable. It might not be “the same procedure as last year” but if shifting procedures is what it takes to get back to some semblance of normalcy, then I’ll do my very best!

Happy New Year, y'all.

 

Big Rocks (aka New Year's Resolutions) - Part II

A month in the Enns Valley is just what I needed to gain some perspective.  2009 was a whirlwind of searching out job opportunities and trying to find a way to stay in Austria.  When that didn't work out, I spent the last few months of the year playing catch-up at LSU, teaching four (count 'em FOUR) courses and generally working nine to five.  All my writing projects and plans for getting back to Austria went on hold.

But I've had time in the last few days of 2009 to reconsider my goals.  Here are my "big rocks"

1) Follow-up on job opps in Austria (and search out new opps if current ones fall through)
2) Write something every day
3) Spend less frivolous time on the Internet
4) Be more focused
5) Live a healthier lifestyle

With those resolutions having been set in pixels, I assume that at the stroke of midnight I will become a serene and productive dervish (I'll be the one wearing pistachio!).

For a fascinating article on female dervishes, click the picture!

Happy New Year 2009!

No, I haven’t been suffering from some perpetual holiday hangover! The past month has just been extraordinarily busy and I’ve found it difficult to write anything (journal, novel, grocery list!) But it’s a New Year and I am determined to get back on track.

What’s been keeping me occupied all this time you might ask. One weekend I went to Graz to see my favorite Austrian blues musician, Sir Oliver Mally. I had had the date planned for weeks and he had the nerve to cancel! But the weekend was good because I got to hang out with my friend Inge, see some former students, go to the Christmas market, and buy some gifts that I couldn’t obtain in the Enns Valley. We also had our first Writing Club meeting, much to the dismay of our waitress who tried to kick us out of my favorite restaurant in Graz. We stayed another hour just out of spite.

Friends have invited me to do some wonderful things in the past few weeks. Irene and I went to Salzburg with friends to see a performance of the Wizard of Oz. Low budget, but very imaginative! I was invited by students in the 8A to see an improvisational show (like Whose Line is it Anyway?) in Graz, and surprisingly I understood about 85%. Gitti invited me on a day trip to Bad Gleichenberg, a charming town with a multi-million dollar spa in the middle of it. Her friends and family were very welcoming. We ate lunch in Slovenia!

Gitti, Ria and Herr Dr. Hofrat

There have been lots of Christmas activities: a couple of school related Christmas parties, a Christmas concert by Quadro Nuevo in an unheated church, a Christmas tour through a salt mine in Altaussee. Christmas time in Austria is very romantic, and somehow the true meaning of Christmas isn’t lost in the commercialism.

Hackbrett Carols at the Salt Lake, Altaussee

(Sigi Lemmerer)

Christmas Eve at the Mörsbachwirt

I spent Christmas Eve with Irene. We went sledding, then to Christmas mass in the cloister church around the corner. Irene made a pot roast for dinner, then we shared presents and watched an adaptation of Adalbert Stifter’s Bergkristall on DVD. The next day Kurt and Annemarie whisked me away to Lienz to celebrate with her family. We ate Schlipfkrapfen (like pierogies only better) and went sledding, played our dice game and generally relaxed. We celebrated St. Stephen’s Day (Dec. 26) with Annemarie’s brother’s family. Erich made a special meatloaf for St. Stephen’s Day, filled with frankfurters, boiled eggs and pickles. Then we went hiking in Kals am Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria. That evening we met Annemarie’s cousins for drinks in town.

Kurt, Annemarie, Antonia, Andreas, Erich (Doesn't this picture look like something out of the LL Bean Catalog?!)

After a couple of days in Vienna, shopping and taking in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at the Burgtheater, I returned to the Enns Valley for New Year’s Eve. My friend Elfi rents a vacation house in Donnersbachwald with her friends from college and their families. We had a fabulous dinner, then watched Dinner for One and saw fireworks from the balcony at midnight. We then did lead (actually tin) casting, where you melt tin over a flame, then pour the molten metal into cold water where it forms an unusual figure. By identifying the shape, Austrians predict the tenor of the coming year. Mine looks just like a viking ship, and ships mean "lust for life." Then my new friends tried to teach me a new card game, but it involved trumps which I can never seem to master, so I excused myself at 2:00 am. The next morning Elfi and I went sledding (1 hour to walk up the mountain, 6 minutes to sled down!) – taking the traditional Austrian greeting for New Year’s (guatn Rutsch! or "Good slide!") a little too seriously!

Wishing you all the best for 2009

in life, love and health!

P.S. Thanks to Winsor for the card and poem, Stephen for the letter, and DoD, Jean, Aunt Ralph, and Robin for the Christmas gifts. The rest of you all need to make a resolution to WRITE TO JOEY in the New Year. If you need my address, email me!