Back in Sweden after an entire 4 weeks in the US, which wasn’t going fast at first, but sped up amazingly by the fourth week, and now I can’t believe it’s already over and I’m home. Karin arrived home from Italy as well, on Friday, and I flew in early Saturday morning, so we are all home together again…aside from the fact that Martin moved out a week ago, to an apartment in Malmö, and Karin has already disappeared off with friends somewhere in Malmö or Lund, who knows. 😀
I had a GREAT time, and it was so worth it, and I so hope that I will be allowed to do it again. Having a week of vacation, during which I could get over jetlag and just hang out with my mom and sister (and my sister’s family when they were available) and then being able to work remotely from my mom’s for 2 weeks, which meant less stress workwise for both me and my team, was fabulous. I worked last week in our American HQ, which is located about an hour north of Boston.
Mom and Sarah and I roadtripped up to Boston from Charlotte and we had a blast doing it. It’s roughly a 14 hour drive, not including stops. We left about 1:30 pm on Friday and made it as far as Culpeper, Virginia by 11:30 pm. Sarah’s husband Tom was our travel arranger…we called him on the road, told him where we were and approximately how much longer we planned on driving, and he found and booked a hotel for us for the night. It took us a little longer than planned because we stopped at a couple of antique malls on the way 😀
The next day we got up early and took off again, but we detoured in Falls Church, Virginia, to go to the Fountain of Faith in the National Memorial Park, which is a HUMONGOUS cemetery and park. The Fountain of Faith was interesting because it contains 36 sculptures by Carl Milles, a Swedish sculptor (there is an additional statue of his elsewhere in the cemetery). Anders and I visited the Carl Milles House and Sculpture Park in Stockholm on our very first visit to Sweden, before we even had moved here. It didn’t have water in it, but that didn’t detract much from the grace and eerie beauty of the figures. It was a cold sunny day and there weren’t a lot of people about.
Afterwards, still in Falls Church, we visited another public sculpture called Man Slopping Pigs, which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s sitting on a random street corner: a farmer feeding 4 pigs. Considering that it cost $25,000 to make, you’d think it would be a little better placed, but it was seriously random. 😀 We ate lunch at an excellent seafood diner on the road, where I had creamy crab soup and mom and Sarah gorged on crab cakes (I got a bite from each of them). We made another stop in a little town with the very stupid name of North East (almost as stupid as my mom’s previous town address in Michigan which as North Street) at yet another antique place. I take my lifting of the US economy when I’m in the country very seriously, haha!
I drove a great deal of the way, while it was light, and it was so fun to just be talking with my mom and sister and enjoying their company. It’s funny, I always used to think my sister and I were very different people, but it has turned out that we share a lot in common. We have similar interests in many ways, and tastes, and definitely share the same sense of humor.
We made it to the hotel in Massachusetts JUST before midnight, after having driven through a whopping SEVEN states. It was Easter weekend, which meant that almost nothing apart from grocery stores and restaurants were open on Sunday but we found things to do, including an excellent brunch at a breakfast diner, looking at public art, and then Sarah and I left mom at the hotel to nap and we drove an hour north to the beach in Gloucester and hunted for sea glass and shells for an hour in the chilly gorgeous sunshine. We found a fantastic ice cream place too!
The week at work went by so fast, but it was so worth it. I had excellent meetings with all the members of the Marcom design team, got to know people, meet new people, and say hello to colleagues I haven’t seen much of in person in years. It’s been close to 10 years since I stopped traveling yearly to the US office, and I really really hope to be able to start up that tradition again. Mom and Sarah went antiquing and shopping during the days and we went out to eat each evening. SO FUN.
My flight home was super easy and smooth, as I had a direct flight, and I caught the train immediately from the airport. I had 2 very heavy bags with me, plus 2 heavy carry-ons, so I was very happy when Anders met me at the platform to help me with them, especially considering that I hadn’t seen him for a month!! Home to Flyinge and hugs from the kids and Karin’s girlfriend, and unpacked and handed out presents and showed off purchases, before collapsing for a 3-hour nap.
After I got up again, we left to go to Malmö to see Martin’s new place, which is small, but lovely. The only drawback is that it is up FOUR flights of stairs, no elevator. He’d already unpacked the majority of his stuff and everything fit really well. Anders hung his kitchen lamp for him and several paintings, and then we decamped to have dinner at…where else: Yukai. 🙂 We left both kids in Malmö and Anders and I spent a very mysig evening, watching TV until my yawning threatened to take my head off and I went to bed, where I slept VERY well. Yay for sleeping in your own bed!
Today was sunny and beautiful, but I spent most of it catching up on things, getting all my AIC obligations dealt with, grocery shopping, doing a million loads of laundry and some housecleaning. Now I’m going to go watch TV for an hour before bed…have to bright and shiny for work again in the office tomorrow!
I sure wish my family lived closer, though.
Mood: happy
Music: Emma Gryner—So Easy
Welcome home!
It’s good to be here!