Had a positive experience at TMU today. With Peter. Not the Peter I have talked about before. That Peter is the boss of TMU. There’s another Peter and he is the resident psychologist or therapist or something like that. You say harmonica, I say harmonika.

I started the day in the computer room. I had headphones on and listened to youtubes. Meanwhile Peter was talking to one of the other students. I couldn’t help hearing parts of their conversation. They were talking about music. Rock. I know R.E.M. came up. And live music. So that was cool, I thought. Peter the therapist is into rock. Nice.

Coincidentally I had brought the R.E.M. book that I am currently reading. You remember that reading is on the schedule at TMU. So I brought that and went hard to work with it. I sat down in the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water. Then Peter came in and asked if I had time to talk. As you’ll remember they have to get to know us all to figure out what to do with us, so we have to individual conversations with all of them. And I guess they don’t schedule those things, they just pick us out every now and then and ask us if we’re available.

So we go into his office. I was wearing my Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie tour shirt. The first thing he does is point at me and say “that’s a great album”. The Danish word for album can mean a couple of other things too so I just stood there for a few seconds while my brain connected the dots. “Ah yes, my shirt. It is. Great album”. It is, you know? Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Amazing double CD, buy it, buy it now. Anyway. Before we start the official conversation we talk a little about music. I tell him that I’m mostly into 90s rock like The Pumpkins, Radiohead, R.E.M.. And it turns out that we have pretty much the same taste in music. Isn’t that something? Not all therapists are stuffy old people from Vienna, I guess.

The conversation itself went fine. I was nervous, but not too bad. We talk about my phobia and how I’m doing and my medication and all that stuff. We also talk about how I’d like to move out on my own soon and he says that it would be an obvious thing that they could help me with. So that sounds good.

When the official conversation is over I go back to the kitchen. And Peter follows. And we talk. About music. About how the Pumpkins are reuniting. What the lineup will be. About Billy’s solo record. About how Peter has seen Radiohead and R.E.M. live. He says he has a pumpkins show from Tivoli on cassette. I say that if it’s the one from ’97 then it’s totally awesome. I have a copy on my computer, he’d like a burnt copy of it. If it is the one.

Isn’t that just great? It was a really good talk actually. It was nice to be able to talk to someone about music like that. I can’t remember that ever happening before in real life. And Peter is a really nice guy. I already had a good feeling about him before today. He seemed friendly and approachable. Plus I like his voice. Hehe. It’s sort of hoarse. Not deep gravelly cigar hoarse. But like… yeah like he’s been at a rock concert and has been shouting his lungs off. Heh. It’s been like that for the 2+ weeks I’ve known him so I don’t think it’ll wear off. I hope not.

So anyway. Good stuff. It always makes me happy when I have a succesful conversation like that. Because it’s still very hard for me.

Tomorrow is valentine’s day. I hope you’ll feel love. I have the day off so I will love that.

Finally, here is a short video of Mads poking over the door: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnCP7OLTvMA. I just uploaded it half an hour ago, it might not be live on youtube yet. If it says that the video is unavailable then try it again in an hour or two. Or don’t. It’s a free world, baby.

Much to my disappointment we had no snow last night. Oh, weathermen, why do you always forsake me? I am forsaken. I have been forsook. You forsooked me good.

Other than that I have had a nice day. TMU was closed so instead I spent a lot of time with the animals. That is always time spent well. Well spent.

When I got there Magnethe was standing, not IN a bucket, but on a bucket.

Both the buckets were turned upside down so…

One for each. Whenever they hear someone coming in they always get curious and either look through the hole in the wall or get up on a bucket like that. Or just jump up on the gate. It’s always fun to see a goat’s head poking up like that.

A woman and some kids came in. The woman came up to the gate and said “oh and there’s a man in there too”. The kids couldn’t see over the gate so a girl asked “is it a goat man or a real man?”. Hehe. The woman said “no no, it’s a real man”. I didn’t have the heart to correct her. I am, of course, a goat man.

Bodil came by too.

There she is, holding her funy funny dog Lulu. While Mads looks on. Even a dog that small makes the goats a little uneasy. When I say “gate” I mean that door thing there. Where Bodil’s head is poking up.

Per and Pernille were there too. We all talked for a while. Nice. We talked about how Mads object to me being in there with them. Per said “haven’t you ever seen Mads when he spots Lasse coming? He screams and screams for Lasse to come over to him”. Hehe. I am glad they have noticed that. It’s perhaps my favouritest thing of all. When Mads sees me and keeps baahing his insistant, girlish baaah. It makes me feel very wanted and appreciated.

Yes, I love my Mads.

Vanilje was brought up in the conversation too. She should be coming back soon. They also said that they think Magnethe isn’t pregnant after all. That surprised me. Just the other day I was thinking how big she was getting. But I guess it’s just the good life at the playground that is showing. This could actually be really bad news though. If she isn’t pregnant then she’s going to be sent to Kurt’s place to be with a buck. I would hate it if she had to be gone for as long as Vanilje. It’s been something like 2½ months now. Geez. Maybe if the buck is all “hotted up” from being around Vanilje it will take less time if Magnethe comes. I don’t know. But even if she was only gone a short time it would still suck. She’s my sweet girl. When we’re inside she’ll often stand in the corner, in a sort of defensive position because she knows that if she comes over to me then Mads will chase her away. Today Mads was up on a bucket and I took the chance to sit down with Magnethe and really cuddle and stroke and scratch her. It was very sweet. Mads is still my favourite goat, but Magnethe is not far behind. Let’s cross our fingers that she’s pregnant. I really thought so. She’s so big. And she’s been sort of defensive about her stomach too sometimes. When I’d touch her there she’d push me away. I thought it was a sign that she had something in there. But then the guys at the playground have a lot more experience with goats and pregnancies, so if they say she isn’t then they’re probably right. Hmm. Maybe if I buy a buck they can send her home to me for bucking. Or breeding. Or whatever.

Bodil asked for copies of a couple of my pictures. The ones of Yvonne and the muscovy ducks. Did I mention that the ducks are gone? Yes. There are no more ducks at the playground. And Yvonne is gone too of course. I guess that’s why Bodil would like to have those pictures. She seems to be insisting that she’s going to pay for copies. Hah. As if. She has been a really good influence in my life, she can have all the pictures she wants for free.

Speaking of lambs, here are some pictures of them.

Look there’s Mini scrunched up again.

And there’s another one of the lambs being brave and stepping away from mamma to go check out my bags that I had put down closeby.

Despite the lack of new snow it has still been morbidly cold. My fingers threaten to fall off when I go out there and take pictures. The new mamma who hasn’t been at the playground before was pretty nervous again. When they’re inside then she’s okay. But it’s like she has to get used to the outside too. It took a while before she’d come close to me again. I had to sit down. And not to be vulgar or anything but I damn near froze my beehind off. It was worth it though. To have her come up to me. And to be able to pick up the lambs without any fussing.

It is sweet to hold these little creatures in your arms. They could almost get lost in my embrace. I’d be a great lamb smuggler. I’d just bunch up a couple under my shirt and walk nonchalantly through the airport with my precious cargo intact.

Now I just have to figure out how to get Mads and Magnethe through customs.

PS. I found a new treat for the goats. Cauliflower. Laura said that Gabby like cauliflowers. And we just happened to have some. So I figured I’d try it out. And it seemed like Mads and Magnethe really liked them.