Yearly Archive: 2006

27
Oct
2006

ENNUI AND A TWOEE

I’m bored. Well, I’m doing stuff, but I’m not really in the mood. Editing. Surfing the web. Meh. Talked to Anders twice…he was at the airport in DC getting ready to fly to Chicago. Maybe it’s not boredom. Maybe it’s GREEN-EYED-ENVY. Nah. It’s boredom. Bo Red Bore D What do you do when you are bored? I always want to flop around the house and heave great dramatic sighs. But the kids are in bed and they would get up and come to see what I was doing and then Martin would probably roll his eyes at me and go...

26
Oct
2006

PUMPKINING!

Karin has a misplaced faith in my ability to carve pumpkin masterpieces after I did a Bionicle Mask of Light (under duress) for her 2 years ago…this year I narrowly escaped having to figure out how to carve a Darth Vader pumpkin. May the Gourd be with you! With the help of our first ever pumpkin carving kit pattern, Karin instead chose to go with a Flaming Skull, while Martin and I opted for more traditional jack o’lanterns, after I realized that the darn things were nearly 2 INCHES THICK. They have to last until Tuesday so they’re sleeping in...

24
Oct
2006

IT’S LIKE A PING-PONG GAME IN MY BRAIN

Back and forth and back and forth I left work early this afternoon and picked up the kids and took them to a big playplace in Lund that was holding an English-speaking afternoon. Turns out the playplace is owned by an American guy and he was looking for a way to meet other English-speaking people so he planned a 2-hour get-together and put the word out everywhere he could think of. One of my first reactions after hearing this, was well, why haven’t you joined one of the 2 expat organizations that are right here in the area? But of...

23
Oct
2006

AMERICAN DERRING-DO

I think I need a Pandora intervention. I listen to pandora.com in the evenings when I’m on the computer, working on web stuff, or editing or reading blogs or writing journal entries. It’s gotten so that the majority of the songs they play are ones that I give a thumbs up to. Pandora has a feature, however, whereby you can bookmark songs you especially like for future reference and I only bookmark songs I’ve never heard before or that are by artists that are new to me. I suppose the idea is that I should eventually go back and BUY...

22
Oct
2006

EARTH’S CRAMMED WITH HEAVEN

Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves, We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves! —Humbert Wolfe Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. —Albert Camus Yellow, mellow, ripened days, Sheltered in a golden coating; O’er the dreamy, listless haze, White and dainty cloudlets floating; Winking at the blushing trees, And the sombre, furrowed fallow; Smiling at the airy ease, Of the southward flying swallow Sweet and smiling are thy ways, Beauteous, golden Autumn days. —Will Carleton

21
Oct
2006

WROUGHT BY FEVER, SAVED BY SQUASH

Some mornings your mood is grey and drizzly as the cloud-covered vista beyond your bedroom window. It is one of those (thankfully) rare days when you think that if you let go the grip you have on your heart then you’ll start crying for no real reason and you may never stop again. You may stop breathing with the weight of it. You wonder how it feels to smile when everything gets on your nerves and your feet are cold and your self is shriveled and puny and mean. Feel that line between your brows deepen and stick. If you’re...

19
Oct
2006

BLEURGH

Beaten up by the gigantic never-ending everything-is-urgent to-do list this quarter month week day morning at work. Felt like death warmed over, fever-style, after lunch, which made it harder and harder to concentrate. Gave up at 4 and went home after I realized I had my head down on the keyboard and was massaging my temples…for the 4th time. Stopped to pick up milk, bread, apples and the kids. Forgot to buy toilet paper. Oy! Urgent! Tried to nap for an hour but it didn’t work. Ate chicken soup for dinner in a feeble attempt to stave off the inevitable....

17
Oct
2006

GOOD IMBECILE CAN’T BE FAR BEHIND

What do you say when you come into the office and see your colleagues for the first time each day? You say, “Good morning!” am I right? Sometimes you say it in a chirpy, perky voice (if you are not me) and sometimes you say it in a “wannamakesomethingofit” way and sometimes you slur your way through it, and sometimes you just abbreviate it: “Morn” as you walk by, open the door to your room or turn into your cubicle or hang up your jacket and turn your monitor on. In Swedish, “good morning” is God morgon but when it...

15
Oct
2006

LIFE IS UNCERTAIN. EAT DESSERT FIRST.

Sometimes I think time is moving too quickly, other times I realize, like today, that it is ME that is zooming through the days, barely able to slow down enough to turn my head and realize the sun is shining, the sky is that crisp sharp autumn azure that seems unreal. The air is full of bite and breath and yet you don’t need a sweater. We pulled the wooden wagon behind us to the plant nursery in search of pumpkins; alas, there were none. Or rather there were, but they were either too small to work for our-style jack-o-lanterns...

14
Oct
2006

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Newsflash! Manic fireflies swarm Eiffel Tower at night! Sitting outside a café on the corner of the Boulevard de Grenelle at a tiny table with drinks in front of us, as the endless streams of Parisians eddied and swirled past, it made me smile to see how many people in Paris actually DO walk home from work with a baguette clutched tight in one hand as they pull pieces from it to nibble on with the other. It made me smile to see the flower shops open until 9 at night, their wares overflowing from inside the shop to cover...

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