The fall frenzy has started…each week has more things scheduled than the one before and I’m not even in choir this year.
On Friday I went with two colleagues and another friend to the sing-along showing of Hair at Spegeln in downtown Malmö. It’s the second sing-along I’ve been to there, and it was just as fun, though a different feeling since it is such a different movie. I love Hair…it’s one of my all-time favorite musicals. I grew up listening to the soundtrack from the play because my dad loved musicals, too. I knew every word to every song before I was in high school. I remember looking up all the “naughty” words from one of the songs with one of my friends when I was 16 or so. Unfortunately, my two favorite songs from the play are not in the film version, but while watching, I kept hoping I was mis-remembering and that they’d soon show up so I could sing them, too. Alas, no. One of the colleagues that went with us is a Swedish woman who said she ALSO grew up listening to the soundtrack and she also knew all the songs by heart. So peculiar! I didn’t realize it was such a globally well-known musical, but apparently I was wrong. She’s younger than me by quite a lot, and she was much more familiar with the film music, but she ALSO knew my missing favorites by heart 🙂
There’s a weird dichotomy watching Hair. The feeling of the film and the music is so joyful and yet the film ends on such an awful, shocking, tragic note. You don’t exactly come out of it bouncing, if you know what I mean. I’m going again, this time to see Grease, this coming Friday, with Karin and my two best friends. Should be even MORE fun!
This week is almost full of stuff: WW on Monday, AWC meeting on Tuesday, Book group on Thursday (I’m almost finished, re-reading A Prayer for Owen Meany, which I read long enough ago to have forgotten most of), and the sing-along on Friday. Plus we have dinner at my sister-in-law’s on Saturday. Full week, indeed!
Karin left for Stockholm this morning…she’s going up to work at a security tradeshow that starts tomorrow. She’s helping the events team with the booth building and demo setup and comes home sometime on Tuesday. It’s her first tradeshow. I told her to take comfortable shoes! But she said they have to wear steel-toe boots during the build; hers were ordered through work a few weeks ago.
I have spent part of this weekend relaxing; have had some weird problem with my right hip the past two weeks…really hurting and no discernable reason why. It’s been much better the past two days, so I’m not sure whether to call for an appointment with the naprapat or not. Will see how the next couple of days go. It hurts still, to sleep on my side…have been wondering if our mattress is too soft. I haven’t done anything strenuous that would have pulled a muscle, so it’s weird. It doesn’t feel like nerve pain; it’s more in the muscle and possible the joint. UGH. Aging sucks.
We’ve been working with Martin to get his financial situation straightened out and a handle on exactly what his budget, expenses and income are. We’ve gotten everything figured out to make sure he can pay off this current term but are still concerned about how he will manage to pay for next term. It would be great if he can at least finish out the year. We are helping him with scholarship searches to find suitable scholarships to apply for, and he has some possibility for more student loans through the US government, but I hate for him to take more loans out there, when he already will owe a great deal of money to the Swedish government. He loves the school and really wants to stay if it’s at all possible, but we knew it was going to be difficult to do all 4 years there. Maybe he’ll have to go down to part-time, or finish his liberal arts classes at a community college or come back to Sweden and finish school here, somewhere. It’s a lot depending on what scholarships he can get…and he has to do the work to apply for them, too. It’s a shame that all this financial stress gets added on top of regular school stress. 🙁
My best friends and I were discussing a few weeks ago the possibility of taking a short trip somewhere together, for fun, next year, during the February school break. We’ve been sending text messages to each other all week with suggestions for places: Amsterdam, Budapest, Bucharest, etc. Then Debbie said, hey! What about Marrakesh? And sent the info for a non-expensive charter trip that she found online. Well, okay, why not Marrakesh? It’s not too hot in February, and it was definitely affordable, so we booked it yesterday. Under 4000 kronor each for Sunday through Thursday, including flight, hotel, breakfast, luggage and a camel ride! Karin, of course, is wildly envious and has now extracted a promise from me to go somewhere “cool” with her next. 😀
I’ve been to Morocco before, actually, back when I was 15 or so. My family was in southern Spain for a long vacation when we lived in Europe and we spent one day in Tangier. We did ride a camel, and donkeys, and went to the bazaar. I remember we had to get cholera shots before we went and they were really painful. It was the first time I’d had a shot with a gun, instead of a needle. I’m sure it will be much different going there now, as an adult. I’ve already been reading up on website with info on things to know before traveling to Marrakesh. I’m not looking forward to some things already (haggling, tea, crowds) but I’m sure we’ll have a fun time, no matter what, and it definitely gives me a much-needed thing to look forward to in February!
We turned our giant sunflower that bloomed in the front garden into roasted sunflower seeds today. Side note: did you know what sunflower seeds are actually fruit, not seeds? We had cut off the sunflower head several weeks ago and it’s been drying in the laundry room ever since. Yesterday, Anders and I pulled all the seeds out of the flower head (at least 1000 of them!) and then soaked them in salted water for 8 hours. This morning he roasted them in the oven and they came out great! I’ll be having them in salads and he and Karin will snack until they’re gone…assuming there are any left when she gets home from Stockholm!