Monthly Archive: April 2009

28
Apr
2009

IT DOESN’T MEAN I KNOW YOU’LL NEVER GO, ONLY THAT I WISH YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO

I’m missing people today. I’m missing places and the way we used to be. I’m missing old songs and old friends and old clothes. The beauty of spring is always pierced with sorrow: I so fiercely love and cherish every second of its too-ephemeral newness. I miss my family and my mom and god, my dad. Damn it, dad. I shouldn’t be missing you; you should STILL BE HERE. People move in and out of our lives, they flower and sprout in our hearts where the uprooting will hurt the most, and often we let them wither and fade away...

27
Apr
2009

SO HELP ME COD, IT’S THE TROUT!

At book group the other night, we got on the subject of jokes and how they spread. Some of the joke trends that I remember most fondly from my own childhood are not a part of the Swedish culture at all, and introducing them to my children, especially to Martin who has the same sense of humor as I do and loves puns, has been fun for me. Elephant jokes and Why did the chicken cross the road jokes and the cannibal jokes we made up a few weeks ago: all very entertaining to the both of us. I get...

26
Apr
2009

OUCH

I had it in my to-do list to write a post tonight, but my shoulders hurt and my wrists hurt, and I suspect it’s partly from too much computer as it is, so I’ll just wave in passing and hope for better things tomorrow.

24
Apr
2009

SENIOR HIGH

OMG! I bet you thought I was never going to get my diploma! Where the hell was I? Aaaah, yes, moving from Belgium to Germany! Back when we moved to Germany, there were US military bases everywhere, all over the freaking country. Berlin still had its wall, after all. There were so many other DoDDS (Department of Defense Dependents Schools) that our sports teams didn’t even have to play against any German schools, ever. My dad was stationed at Ramstein AFB, but we lived in Landstuhl which was where the military hospital and Army post were, and we went to...

20
Apr
2009

WE INTERRUPT THE PARADE OF HORROR FOR A LITTLE ADORATION

Dear Spring in Sweden, Whatever you’re on, I want some. You’re lit up like a house on fire. Oh wait, that’s just the forsythia. I don’t think we’ve ever, EVER, had this many sunny days in a row and every morning when I wake up and look out the window to see what the weather is like, my heart skips a beat and I rise, amazed, feeling light as air, that the sun is up, the sky is blue, the birds are singing and it’s going to be ANOTHER beautiful day. Yesterday, I went out and laid on the trampoline...

18
Apr
2009

JUNIOR HIGH

The summer before my 7th grade year, we moved overseas to Belgium. I didn’t even know where Belgium was on a map beforehand. My dad was stationed at a tiny little Air Force base named Kleine Brogel (strangely, I can’t find a translation for Brogel online…any of my Dutch LJ friends able to help?). We didn’t live in base housing, instead my parents chose to rent a house on the outskirts of a little farm village called Overpelt which was a few miles away, but we spent nearly a month of the summer before we found the house living in...

16
Apr
2009

NEARLY SEPARATED AT BIRTH?

I know the picture of Melissa Then is black-and-white which wasn’t the best choice for comparison, perhaps, but it was actually the best one I could find, and the one where you can really see the resemblance. She was 9 years old when she first starred in Little House on the Prairie and I was 9 years old in the picture below. She was born the same year as I was, only 3 months before me. We had the same color hair, freckles, brown eyes, and big front teeth: Melissa Then Lizardek Then

14
Apr
2009

UPPER ELEMENTARY

Aaah, the middle school years. These were the years where my memories started to stick and become smoother, with fewer gaps in between. There is a lot that is still a blur, however. I only remember the family across the street, for example, and none of the other kids in my classes or neighborhood. I tried long hair, and though you don’t see it in these pictures, I had glasses, though I hated them and took them off at every opportunity, and at one point had to wear a patch to help correct my amblyopia. My mom would draw eyes...

13
Apr
2009

LOWER ELEMENTARY

It’s taken me longer than I thought to start these posts. I’ve been waffling over whether to break them up or put them all together and I think that I shall break them up. Not because I want to draw out the suspense or drive you crazy but because there are things I want to say about the persons I once was at different stages and it’s a harder process than simply shooting out a couple of flippant descriptive paragraphs would be. Thanks to my mom and sister and brother-in-law for facilitating the madness! This is me in kindergarten. My...

12
Apr
2009

EGGING YOU ON

The sun has been shining for an unprecedented number of days in a row. Yesterday the sky was solid blue all day long and today there are little white fluff-clouds floating around. The trampoline is up and the pots have been planted with multi-colored pansies. Spring is here and we want to wish YOU a very Happy Easter!