Monthly Archive: August 2006

31
Aug
2006

ALONE AGAIN, NATURALLY

A few years ago, at my previous job, I was forced by circumstances to move from an office of my own into an open landscape cubicle environment under very crowded conditions. I hated it. I hated it so much it colored everything about my day, my week, my life. It made me grumpy and sad. After about 7 months in hell, our company closed down and we were all thrown on the job market where I, happily, was extremely fortunate in finding not one but TWO jobs that were perfect and ended up having to make a choice. The only...

30
Aug
2006

PEDAL TO THE METAL

Oh, so busy, so busy!! What a lot of good things this week, which helped to overwhelm the few bad things that popped up here and there like evil moles before I whacked them down with my loud laugh and BIG ATTITUDE. What else can you ask out of a week than sushi, a massage, a decision definitely made, a good book that keeps me from falling asleep when I ought to, a busy and interesting (albeit crazy) work week, dinner with someone who is becoming the best kind of good friend, phone calls from my sister and my brother,...

27
Aug
2006

PAGING STUART SMALLEY

When did I stop thinking that what I had to say was worthy of writing down? Somewhere along the line I veered off into feeling that if what I was writing about wasn’t scinctillating, profound or humorous, it wasn’t worth posting. This makes it harder and harder to want to post anything, to write ANYTHING, for fear it isn’t good enough. For who? For me or for my audience? The idea that writing about the mundanities of my day, the things that happen to me, the funny things my kids say, all those little things—isn’t good enough or exciting enough...

26
Aug
2006

GIANT STEPS INSTEAD OF BABY ONES

I think I’m ready now. I’m saying yes to things again. Edited to add: Talk about baby steps! A tiny little frog no bigger than my thumb just hopped past the doorway of the computer room where I sat working. Anders has returned him to the wild now. 😀

25
Aug
2006

I’M GLAD I’VE GOT A NAME, BECAUSE I’M USING IT FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH*

What does your name say about you? Do you think it reflects who you are or who you’ve become? Are you able to get past the popular associations that load it down? When we were choosing names for our children, besides wanting them to be names we liked and felt comfortable with, we also had the requirement that they work both in America and in Sweden. Thus, no names starting with J since in Swedish J is pronounced with a Y sound. I dwelt lovingly over lists of names in baby name books, but the MEANINGS didn’t weigh that much...

24
Aug
2006

POETRY THURSDAY

I love cool weather. Cool weather with sunshine. Warm enough to be outside, but cool enough to warrant a sweater. Leaves dropping to lie in scuffilicious piles. Clouds meandering like sky sheep, grazing over the blue. Flags snapping lazily in the barest of breezes. Heavy laden fruit trees. Haybales glowing in the sunshine. The delicious anticipation of the autumn leaves turning to flame. CYCLE by Elizabeth Slaughter-Ek There is good in every thing, When the wind begins to sing, The pumpkin grows and your breath shows The scent of cider in your nose. There is good in every time. The...

22
Aug
2006

GRUMPY McGRUMPBUCKET RIDES AGAIN!

Thank you for all the outraged-on-our-behalf comments on yesterday’s post. I will be scheduling a meeting with the teachers as soon as I can. That makes 2 meetings to schedule with 2 different teachers, because Martin’s class is starting English this year, and guess who is already convinced he will be bored because he “already knows everything.” HA! Wish I could say the same. There is another girl in his class who has an English-speaking mother and I can’t believe that their teacher will just blithely assume that it’s okay for the 2 of them to sit through the completely-from-the-beginning...

21
Aug
2006

WHEN ‘FLOORED’ IS SIMPLY INADEQUATE AS AN ADJECTIVE

This morning at Karin’s first day of first grade, we parents stood in a line along the back wall, while our excited children found their randomly placed names on the school desks throughout the room and sat down. Each child had a pencil and eraser with their names written on them and a small blue plastic box filled with shiny new crayons. The boxes had a piece of masking tape stripped across the cover and each child immediately grabbed their pencil and plotted their name in large capital letters across the box. The teacher introduced herself and her 2 assistants...

20
Aug
2006

THERE ARE WORSE THINGS I COULD DO

The kids have been watching Grease lately. They watched it once before about a year ago and liked it, but had apparently forgotten about it until they were reminded by an ad for the musical which is coming this fall to Malmö. It’s fun to watch and hear all the music again, but some of the scenes make me a bit uncomfortable to sit watching with my 7 and 8.5-year-olds, in light of the fact that the subject is sex, albeit obliquely referred to most of the time. Because really, how AM I going to explain what Kenickie is talking...

17
Aug
2006

POETRY THURSDAY

I played clarinet for 3 months when I was in the 5th grade. My big hit was Mary Had a Little Lamb. I remember the smell of the clarinet case and the way you had to suck the reeds to get them moist before you played. I don’t remember now why I didn’t continue with my lessons, but that 3 months was the only formal training I ever had in playing a musical instrument…apart from my voice. I suspect my mother would have loved to have given us the chance to take piano lessons, but being in a military family...

August 2006
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