Yearly Archive: 2013

27
Oct
2013

NOTHING SPECIAL

A whole day to myself and I didn’t do anything special…unless you count being completely selfish and not doing anything special. The clocks went back last night, but my brain’s influence over my body was negligent…I still woke up early and then couldn’t get back to sleep. It’s disconcerting for someone who defines the essence of weekend as the chance to sleep in. And here it is a quarter to nine and my eyelids are trying to clang closed: end of the day! Go to bed! SLEEP. Stupid eyelids. Stupid brain. It’s Daylight Savings Lag. One hour turns you into...

24
Oct
2013

ALL DISTRACTIONS WELCOME

I’m all aggravated this week, my shoulders up around my ears and shooting pain down the muscles of my neck. Work is making me crazy or rather certain someones with no real way to resolve the issue. Thankfully tomorrow is Friday and while I’m not exactly GLAD that my family is going away for 3 days without me, I can’t deny the idea of 2 days of absolute peace-and-quiet slugville are quite appealing at the moment. QUITE. Have fun, y’all! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out! I read a sad book and it made me cry....

19
Oct
2013

WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF INTERNET

The amount of high-speed bandwidth we pay for each month gets used up by around the 15th these days. It’s due to 4 people being online pretty much all their waking hours. One child with a mobile glued to her hand, texting and skyping and instagramming and whatever else she’s doing. Two children listening to Spotify online, searching for music, watching YouTube videos. One husband watching television replays, news, and me…on the computer, checking Facebook, etc. We all check email. We all surf the web. We all rent movies on the Apple TV. It eats up our reservoir and leaves...

12
Oct
2013

AUTUMNAL

Darn it, I swear I’m going to write more, be present, and then time gets away from me and I realize I AM being present, just not here. All year long, people here in southern Sweden have been exclaiming in wonder about the weather. The sunshine, the blue skies, the perfect temperatures. It was a perfect spring, a fantastic summer and now a stunningly gorgeous fall. The leaves on the trees outshine the sun in a revolving spectrum of all the best colors nature’s got on offer. It’s hard to keep your eyes on the road when you’re driving, as...

29
Sep
2013

WHAT WE DID

When the weekend comes, what I want is not to have things to do, or errands to run or cleaning to get done. I want to RELAX, not think about work, sleep in, read books, watch West Wing and be a vegetable. Sometimes I don’t care if the sun is shining or it’s nice outside…I just want to be a slug in every possible way. Most weekends I get to do at least some of that. I almost always get to sleep in. I almost always get to read and watch some West Wing. But there are always things that...

25
Sep
2013

COLLECTIVISM

Yesterday, as we sat at the kitchen table eating dinner, we counted NINE magpies hopping about in the street in front of our house. That’s surely enough for a tiding. Or even a charm, which is one of the alternative collective nouns for magpies according to a couple of different websites I checked. A charm of magpies seems more fitting to me, since I think they are such charming birds. They’re so flashy and curious and bold. And big! Striking black and white with a brilliant flash of peacock blue that shines out when they spread their wings. They seemed...

22
Sep
2013

GOOD STUFF

To say I read a lot is a bit of an understatement, but I don’t read as much as I could. There are always things to do, and sometimes, too, I find I can’t seem to sit still for long periods, so I read in bursts. I read when I go to bed, for half an hour, or an hour, or sometimes more, depending on how good the book is. But I’m always in the middle of a book. Half my head is always in a book, and even when I don’t actually have the book open in front of...

17
Sep
2013

APROPOS OF NOTHING

Usually when I write a journal post, I write it first and THEN title it, but tonight, because I have nothing to say, I started with that. Things Martin and I have looked up as direct result of watching The West Wing, usually WHILE watching The West Wing: 1. When Israel was created 2. What boondoggle means 3. Who was the first and who was the last President to have facial hair (Lincoln/Taft) 4. Whether Hans is really a Swedish last name 5. Where, exactly, the White House is, in Washington D.C. 6. What’s across the street from the White...

13
Sep
2013

END OF A LONG WEEK

Tonight feels like a harbinger, of sorts. It’s not the first time that Karin has been away overnight, but Martin is out, too. He doesn’t go out often or socialize nearly as much as his sister, mostly because the majority of his friends live much farther away. She can bike to the next village or get one of us to drive her over since we’re in that town nearly every day for something: groceries, gas, soccer practice pick-up and drop-off, etc. But tonight they’re both gone, and while it’s not the first time that Karin has been away overnight or...

10
Sep
2013

WILLING MYSELF

It seems to take a gargantuan effort to get here and then when I do, meh. I am lame, admittedly. I have been blogging/journaling online/writing here since August of 2003. Dude! that is TEN YEARS!! I used to write 1-2 times a DAY in the beginning and once a day for years and years. Big, long, looping posts full of wishes and dreams and memories and happenings and what not. Now? I seem to have trouble conjuring up a simple paragraph describing my day, much less anything of actual importance. I know that bloggers and writers go through sterile periods...

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