Gah. Time goes by too quickly. I think about writing all the time, but then I sit down to do something simple and my arm shoots pain and I give up and don’t stay here long enough to write anything. I suspect this is what aging is going to be about for me: falling apart, pain and doctor appointments. And who wants to read about that? NOT ME.
Anyway, we bought our tickets to the US for the summer, or for at least 3 very expensive weeks of it. For Karin’s and my round-trip tickets and Martin’s 1-way ticket, it cost more than it cost all 4 of us to fly round-trip last year. I finally caved and bought even though I thought it was highway robbery because they just kept going up and I was starting to panic. We couldn’t even fly into Detroit, which is only an hour from my mom’s because it was DOUBLE the price. So we ended up with tickets to Toronto, which means my mom has to drive 3.5 hours to come get us, turn around and drive 3.5 more to take us home and then do the same damn thing again when Karin and I leave. URGH. But I am compensating by letting her have my firstborn for a month, so that’s fair, right? 😀
Martin received a scholarship for approximately 1/3 of the summer program cost, so he’s officially doing that from July 9-29. The kids and I fly to the US (without Anders, BOO!) on June 30 so we have a little more than a week to get things taken care of before he starts. Karin and I leave again on July 24. Martin will be at my mom’s until the International Student move-in date of August 20, which kicks off 2 weeks of orientations and actual classes start for him on September 5. We are also hoping that our good friends Kathey and Russell will be able to come see us while we are in Michigan! Yay!
Can you believe it? I cannot.
We have been working through a list of to-do items for him which include things like letting the Swedish government know he is moving abroad, booking doctor and dentist appointments for him, and investigating whether or not the Swedish health insurance will cover him during his college tenure… No. No, it will not. AUGH. I was SO hoping the Socialist healthcare system would step up, but no. And since I have been away from the US for so long, I have NO clue how healthcare works there anymore, so cue another minor panic. Then we found out that his school offers insurance (don’t ask me if the price is competitive, I have no idea), so we have signed up for that, and they told us it was actually automatic for international students and already included in the price of tuition, etc., so that was at least not terrible news. But he still needed coverage for the month of July, so we have dealt with that now. Whew!
I also got my FBARs done and filed, which I was really considering not bothering with, because what are you doing for me these days, America? NOTHING, that’s what.
The results of my MRI came and neither me, nor Anders, nor his pharmacist sister nor his (retired) nurse mother understood a word of what it said. I puzzled out that I don’t have scoliosis, but that was about it. And I already KNEW that. I had to wait for the orthopedic doctor’s referral again before I could get more treatments from the insurance company with the naprapath and that finally came TODAY, so I have an appointment tomorrow, hurray! My arm doesn’t hurt as much, but it still hurts and it still goes numb and tingly whenever I sit, lean forward, sleep on my side or stomach or bend over from the waist. Fun!
We are really really hoping to be able to go down to Germany and spend Midsummer week with my brother, which will be Martin’s last chance to see them for who knows how long, but we are waiting to find out if Anders’ has a class to teach that week or not. He found out today that they have set the deadline for the customer to decide by Friday, so keep your fingers crossed that it doesn’t happen so we can go. I will be very bummed out if we can’t.
Martin and I binge-watched season 2 of Sense8 over the weekend and now I am feeling remorse. Binge-watching gives you instant gratification, but it means things are over so FAST…you don’t have that long, lovely process of anticipation and agony that is so tortuous and satisfying at the same time. We ARE getting that with The Handmaid’s Tale, though, which is really really good and really, really hard to watch, considering how close it all feels right now. I love Elizabeth Moss, but the guy playing Nick is just all wrong to me. He makes me miss Aidan Quinn. And we are waiting for the very last season of Orphan Black which starts June 10. And it won’t be done before we are in the States, and then I will have lost my show-watching buddy. Wah!
There are too many things coming up to keep track of: two graduation parties, a 50-year party for one of Anders’ old Scout friends, several doctor and dentist appointments, another 50-year lunch thing for an old colleague/boss from Ericsson, AWC lunches and meetings and events, choir practice and concerts, and what not. Whew!
And now I have that simple thing to do that I sat down at the computer for, before I started writing this, so toodle-oo!