Yearly Archive: 2005

21
Dec
2005

LIGHT THE CORNERS OF MY MIND

I didn’t feel like writing anything yesterday, and then we were gone all evening, and by the time I got home I was too tired and sad to make the effort. Yesterday was the 9-year anniversary of my dad’s death. I felt like I should have done something more to mark the day, to remember him, but usually it just makes me mad because he didn’t NEED to die. He could have done so much to stop the downward slide. Around midnight as we were getting into bed, I said, “I should have called my mom,” and Anders told me...

19
Dec
2005

WHAT A BRIGHT TIME, IT’S THE RIGHT TIME

Much as I love my little village, I suspect I’m a city girl at heart. I still miss Chicago with an ache every time I really think about it. It’s not very often that I get into town these days, and even less often when I get in with a decent amount of time to just walk around taking in the sights, taking in the pulse, and shopping. I had an agenda of sorts today, but I had plenty of time to deal with it, and walked around the center of Malmö people-watching and absorbing the city atmosphere, in a...

18
Dec
2005

COUNTDOWN

New computer to play with, and MAN, is it fast! Flat screen, and the very sleekest of cool scanner/photo printers as well. Anders spent most of the day hooking everything up after removing the old computer which is now the kid’s…and the kid’s old one is soon to be put on the block to see if we can sell it, along with a printer and a flat-bed scanner. I took the kids to the mall this afternoon, and holy christmasmadness, were there a lot of people out shopping! We managed, despite the crowds, to find the “Christmas” outfits we were...

17
Dec
2005

PART OF THE MIRACLES YOU SEE EVERY HOUR

The winter sun shines so brightly you almost think you need sunglasses when you head out the door, camera in hand, 3 small child satellites revolving around you with crazy orbits. Head into the sun, keep your eyes open. You might think it’s all dead and brown, but you’d be wrong. Tiny pine cones, bright red berries, curlique teasel, fluff-headed winter grasses, a coat of ground frost, the sun in your eyes. The children run before you, laughing in the sunshine. They stop and wait and wonder why you’re taking pictures of that dead plant, those trees against the sky,...

15
Dec
2005

GOING POSTAL

Rant the First: The Swedish Post Service seems to be intent on making it as hard as possible for anyone in Sweden to use their services, whether to send or to receive mail. Several years ago they began closing all of their offices, during rough economic times, and citing “cost-saving measures.” The big office we had in the nearest town closed completely and so did the little window office we had in our tiny village general store. Arrangements were instead made with the grocery store there, and with our little store for their personnel to take on the postal service...

13
Dec
2005

MANY TIMES, MANY WAYS

Why can’t I think of anything to write about other than the half-finished tasks, all of which seem to be Christmas-related, that I can’t seem to settle to? Anders is gone to Italy for 3 days on a business trip and I’m restless without him. Tomorrow is book group and if Karin doesn’t turn the cough she was threatening me with tonight into a full-fledged cold I’ll have to take them with me. I didn’t get the book re-read either, because Sherlock keeps hanging on for just a few more chapters, a few more pages. It’s taken me FOREVER to...

12
Dec
2005

TOO BIG FOR OUR BRITCHES

When you put more food on your plate than you can possibly eat, we say that your eyes were bigger than your stomach. When you take on a task that is too much for you, we say that you have bitten off more than you can chew. What do we say when we find out that the perfect Christmas tree is THREE FEET TOO TALL for our living room ceiling?

11
Dec
2005

ROCKING AROUND

The surface of the desk is strewn, STREWN I TELL YOU, with the detritus of Christmas: cards, postcards, envelopes, pens, lists, address books, newsletters, photo pages, school photos, a stapler. There is a small stack, slowly growing, of sealed and addressed cards. There are no less than 3 address books. Underneath it all somewhere are the final shopping lists of gifts yet to be bought: a niece, a nephew, my husband, my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, my own. The mailing date for cards overseas is the 16th, I’ve been told, and I still have a package to mail after those final gifts are...

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