Monthly Archive: July 2006

31
Jul
2006

ITS LONG DAYS SPENT AND GONE BEFORE YOU KNOW IT

For one week things were slow, even with dinner out, dinner in, a night at the movies and a family birthday party. Today, suddenly, time coughed, the ignition key of autumn turned and the ticking days of the calendar are already filling up. Work hummed and buzzed and scooted me forward so suddenly it’s a wonder I didn’t get whiplash when I suddenly realized it was already after 5 and the light was mellowing beyond the window. I am ready for fall. I expect the mice and apple cider any day. I am ready for the flies to quit tickling...

30
Jul
2006

15 MINUTES

I was approached recently and asked for an interview for a recently launched expat website that posts the experiences of people who have moved and are living abroad. “If you are considering an international move yourself, let ExpatInterviews.com show you examples of real people who have done it successfully. Learn how they did it, how they managed to survive the difficulties of moving to another country, and how they are happily living their life’s dream. You too can make such dreams possible; this site will be one of the first steps in the right direction.” Read the interview *** I...

28
Jul
2006

ORANGE YOU GLAD IT’S NOT ANOTHER APPLE?

Don’t you wish you were having dinner at my place tonight? LE MENU CHEZ LIZARDEK Herb-encrusted Pan-fried Chicken Fillets Oven-baked New Potatoes with Olive Oil, Thyme and Black Olives Aromatic & Colorful Couscous Salad with Red/Orange Peppers and Ruccola and THIS for dessert: Fruit Pizza! Chilled fresh berries and fruit on top of a layer of cream-cheese frosting on top of a giant chocolate-and-butterscotch-chip cookie! Say it with me: MMMMMMMMMMMMM! The Biggest Birthday Wishes to the Best Lizardmom in the WHOLE WORLD!

27
Jul
2006

POETRY THURSDAY

My family is at the beach for the 3rd day in a row. Me, I’m not at the beach, because I’m the burn-and-peel type, plus have you been at the beach? If you don’t go into the water, it’s all just …hot and cancerous. What I love best about these heatmaze summer days is the evenings, when the sun cuts us some slack and lights up the front of the dusk-clouds with rose and gold. When the air kisses us with a cool promise of evening breezes and the screens on the windows sway in and out so gently. When...

26
Jul
2006

WILL THE REAL LIZARDEK PLEASE STAND UP?

Apropos of contemplations about my self-image and my mirror image and the evil twin that only appears in photographs, I wonder how many other people out there are addicted to avatar-makers? Am I the only one? I think they’re great fun, and an absorbing time-suck. Only I realize that all the little lizardek’s I have created, with the exception of only a few, adhere to a standard ideal of beauty that includes high cheekbones, heart-shaped faces, round and doll-like eyes, and skinnyness. They’re little mini-me’s without the freckles and barky hair and untidy eyebrows. It’s like being a virtual Barbie...

25
Jul
2006

BEAUTY CAPTURES YOUR ATTENTION, PERSONALITY CAPTURES YOUR HEART

I sat across from you at the table this evening and all I could think was, you are so beautiful. How can you not see it? How can you be so sure that you’re unattractive? Someone’s got a lot to answer for, that raised you believing a lie. Now I’m not speaking just to you, I’m talking to myself and to the spaces inbetween, where the fine-webbed cracks appear on the inside of the surfaces. Do we all only see our flaws? Are we raised on denial, comparison and self-blindness? What do you see in the looking glass? Who? The...

24
Jul
2006

WE DO NOT REMEMBER DAYS, WE REMEMBER MOMENTS

Every trip leaves tracks in the mind, memories that slowly fray around the edges. I was surprised that the people of Scotland were, on the whole, so short. I was amused that every time I heard a mother call or reprimand a child, his name was inevitably Alastair or Conor. I was more apprehensive about riding in vehicles on the “wrong” side of the road than I thought I would be; using my own neck muscles and mindpower to keep the buses from tipping off the edges of cliffs and from whamming into oncoming traffic that was on the wrong...

23
Jul
2006

BORTA BRA MEN HEMMA BÄST*

After a bus (1 hour), a ferry (45 minutes), a frantic dash around Oban for the last promised souvenirs and lunch (1 hour), a train ride (3 hours), a bus (15 minutes to the other station across town), another train ride (40 minutes) and a night in a hotel that has seen better days, we resumed the trip home this morning with an airplane flight (1 hour, 40 minutes) and a car ride (3 hours). After we landed and began driving through the sunny Swedish countryside, I found myself thinking, over and over, how great it felt to be coming...

21
Jul
2006

MARVELOUS MULL

No one has said “Top of the mornin’ to ye” but Karin’s been called a wee lassie at least twice. We’re in Tobermory and tomorrow is our last day in Scotland. We took the bus from Inverness on Tuesday all the way to the west coast and the lovely little seaside town of Oban, where I have officially left my heart. Hot and sunshiney, with the glare off the water rolling in swirly psychedelics, we dumped our suitcases at the hostel and got immediately on a boat. Out to the seal colony we went, and saw seals, which, if you...

17
Jul
2006

INVERNESS IDYLL

The purple of the heather on the moors as we passed through the Highland mountains was breathtaking. It wasn’t a soft, muted lavender at all; on the contrary, the purples of Scotland are royal and insistent. The heather, the thistles, the big pom-poms of clover, foxglove and the invasive purple marshflowers I’ve seen everywhere near water. The hills are all rolly here, green and purple and plump. I could be quite content, happy to listen all day long to the Scots talk around me in their plummy rolly accents (just like their hills). I have no idea if the mountains...

July 2006
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