Yearly Archive: 2004

Autumn nights are spooky. The sugar beet factory is pouring the remains of sweetness into the air. The fog is so low it looks as if the road is steaming. Light slides and stretches and all the streetlamps are coronaed stars. The moon lets it all hang out, its fat white belly glows brightly in a black, black sky. I didn’t hear anything yesterday at work, and left a bit early to run some errands. Then I talked with my sister for nearly an hour about upcoming birthday and Christmas present ideas, because we Slaughters are all about doing that...

Still nothing. The suspense is driving me crazy. And people in the office ask me on the average of every 1.2 milliseconds, “have you heard anything yet?” That snapping sound you hear? It’s me. The other reason I’m close to snapping? Drama. It’s everywhere. It pops up when you least expect it. It floors you and flabbergasts you and leaves you stunned and reeling. How do people have the energy for the drama?! Honestly, it’s all I can do to get up in the morning, go to “work,” layout stuff, make copies, throw things away, chat on the phone with...

It’s windy today. REALLY windy. The wind is OUT to get us. It’s trying to blow trees down and our collars up around our ears. It’s trying to snatch things out of our hands. It’s dancing up a storm. An hour and a half of being grilled, but tenderly, as if they wanted me medium well, so I feel pretty good about interview the third. Have been assured that I should be hearing something before Friday. Don’t know what to do about the other job possibility, but wait. Am thinking that maybe my choice will be made for me? Am...

It’s been pouring rain here, the kind that REALLY gets you wet. You and everything else. Giant skating puddles of wetness on all the roads, constant spray of wetness on your glasses, your umbrella, your windshield. This morning, the sun made a brief appearance and then ducked back inside its cloud cover. Green things are flashing their red and orange undergarments. A huge long hill of sugarbeets glows dully in a field. The landscape is pulling out its winter wardrobe. A field near Flyinge is rolled out in chocolate velour. Some are swathed in tawny corduroy, the remnants of shorn,...

Ain’t Too Proud to Beg The September 30th deadline for the next issue of Mosaic Minds is rapidly approaching and the poetry section is feeling sad and lonely. If you’d like to contribute a poem (or two) for our upcoming issue, please send them to: poetry@mosaicminds.net. The theme is Fears & Phobias, but submissions with any theme are welcome 🙂 Crazy busy week ahead. I hope to see you at the end of it. I hope to have a job offer at the end of it. Possibly two. I just got my raise from Ericsson, which is retroactive to April...

Up early, left at 9:15 for a 6-hour choir practice, dinner and evening at the in-laws, home at 9:15, full circle. I’m bushed wiped out. Cracking Me Up: Sleeping Cat Olympics plus Litterbox Crop Circle I’ve Always Loved These: Hand Shadows Putting a Face on Spam Makes it Hard to Resist (and a LOT Funnier): Request

There might be a bidding war…over ME! 😀 Yesterday, Company T called me back and said that they hadn’t forgotten about me, quite the opposite, but they had been forced by HR regulations to post the new position internally first. However, they were able to limit it to one week, so they should know by next Friday if there are any internal candidates at all, and they didn’t seem to think there would be. Then Company A called and asked if I could come in on Tuesday to meet my “coworkers-to-be,” 4 of them at once 🙂 AND I got...

How am I going to give up these Fridays? How? It doesn’t bear thinking upon. Anders climbed in bed with me some time after midnight, and shortly thereafter I woke up enough to say “snort! grzegle, urk?” and he reassured me that yes, he was home now. Then Karin climbed in bed with us some time much later after that and totally hogged the bed and all the covers, but she petted me on the face this morning and traced tickle lines around my eyes which made up for it. I had to put a fleece AND a windbreaker AND...

I just had a 2nd interview with Company A! She called me this morning and asked if I could come in this afternoon. It went GREAT!!!! I’m apparently the favorite candidate out of 4, and they’ve actually been re-thinking the position in the last 2 days since my first interview to make it more suitable for my profile! They have promised to get back to me with a decision/offer no later than Monday, and probably sooner. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

I’ve been chasing rainbows. Yesterday, there were rainbows over Flyinge, which is not an uncommon occurrence. The sun was setting and the rain was moving away from it, so that all of Flyinge was backlit and bright. Martin and Karin and I, in the car, had a long discussion about rainbows and the chances of following one to the end and what one would find there. Karin, not surprisingly, is fully confident that she could catch up with the end of a rainbow. Martin, more the realist, insists that there is no pot of gold to be found. He, like...