Yearly Archive: 2008

07
Feb
2008

AH, THERE YOU ARE

Do you ever stop and think about the fact that all the people around you, the people on the bus, or the woman riding horseback in the field by the road or the folk that wander purposefully up and down the aisles of the grocery store you’re in, ALL those people are thinking and doing and living their lives just like you? Sometimes it freaks me out a little bit. It used to freak me out a lot when I had this kind of epiphany every once in awhile in Chicago, city of 9 million plus souls. And half the...

06
Feb
2008

THUD

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m NOT all that. Maybe I’ve been fooling myself all along. Once I thought I might set the world on fire somehow, in some small way, but right now I’m just flagging; fatigued. Maybe I need to take a closer look and face the facts: I might be neither as young nor as good as I think I am. Thought I was. Thunk. If I were a leaf I’d be spiraling down through the air toward the long decay on the forest floor. Drained of suppleness but bright in color, my deciduous heart. Anger comes first,...

04
Feb
2008

BITS OF TID

Approximately 40 minutes into The Two Towers and on the screen Frodo and Sam are leading Gollum by a length of Elvish rope loosely tied around his neck, after capturing him on their way to Mordor. Gollum is writhing and squirming and howling “It burns! It burnsss!” and flinging himself melodramatically to the ground, grimacing and crying and gnashing his teeth. Anders, Martin and I all literally sit up and look at first Karin and then each other, and then simultaneously burst into laughter. Our own little melodrama queen gazes on, completely oblivious. *** What a shitty start to another...

02
Feb
2008

WHEN YOU REREAD, YOU DON’T SEE MORE IN THE BOOK THAN YOU DID BEFORE, YOU SEE MORE IN YOURSELF

For someone as perpetually busy as I am, a weekend with no plans is both soothing and disorienting. I’m constantly torn between the need to relax and the urge to fill my time. I need the downtime, my shivering soul protests, but my brain won’t stop buzzing. Everywhere I look there is, of course, something to be done, a project half-finished looking at me reproachfully, dust bunnies prowling under the bed. The bathroom needs scrubbing and I dutifully swab the decks but my heart’s not in it. Laundry goes in, yet another load in the endless cycle. I close my...

01
Feb
2008

FORGIVE THE FISH METAPHOR, BUT THE SUSHI IS TELLING

The sushi was awesome, though the kids were of divided minds. We sat at the tables in the back—they have exactly 10 chairs in a tiny back room (and a counter up front that seats 4). The fish was fresh and the spicy salmon roll rocked my socks. The kids were a bit taken aback by a strange maki piece that was PINK instead of the usual seaweed black. I asked the owner what it was: soybean paper! I didn’t get one, so didn’t taste it this time. Anders said it was nothing to write home about, but it sure...

31
Jan
2008

I AM NOT A BLOGGER, I JUST PLAY ONE ON MEME

Things I am tired of: darkness rain cold hands my daughter’s whining Things that never seem to end: laundry my to-do list at work winter the weight struggle Things I want to eat but don’t have in the house: tempura maki reese’s fast break bars my dad’s chervil soup (I could make it, though) pie Things that made me laugh today: an email from a colleague after I solved a problem for him, that said in huge letters: I LOVE YOU!!!!! my son’s verbose and swenglish explanation of a game in gym class called spookball the outfit my daughter had...

27
Jan
2008

THE WEEK IS WORTH THE WAIT

No matter how often it’s sunny, it’s still like a miracle to me when the sun comes out. To wake and see the blue sky above the tossing branches of the pine trees and the bird cherry across the ditch and the sun, that pyro, striking sparks off everything. After weeks of overcast skies and rainy days and windstorms, a sunny day is awesome. It AWES me. It makes me sit up and take notice. Suddenly everything that has been drab and dark and grey is silver and light and glinting gold. The asphalt is mica-ed with sparkles; even the...

26
Jan
2008

CONFESSION

Okay, I admit it. I miss them. I can’t wait until they get home, even though I’ll enjoy my last day of peace and quiet tomorrow.

26
Jan
2008

GOOD THINGS

Today was full, FULL I tell you! of good things. Though there were a few things missing that would have made it perfect (like a massage and my family returning home, and not missing the phone call from my travelin’ bro), I am pretty pleased with the day. And actually since it’s after midnight, it was YESTERDAY that was full of good things, and today that is also full of good things because of the last point below. Meg posts Friday Love Lists and this is a little bit like that, and also just because there is something so solid...

23
Jan
2008

IN THE DETAILS

It’s never really quiet outside even in the hush of early morning when a whisper-thin coating of diamond dust ice sparkles everywhere. The morning dawning glazed orange and pink showcases the silhouette of a church tower across the fields in the distance. Bobbing daisy chains of geese flung across the sky, heading southwest (wrong direction again). Driving up the hill to Öderslöv, ahead of me is a many-armed monster, freshly killed, being hauled on the back of a huge tractor trailer – drawing near, it resolves into the huge twisted gnarly limbs of a recently downed ancient tree. I’ve been...

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