WHAT’S GOIN’ ON

Soft start is apparently over. Came into work this morning to find a whole pile of job requests had come in over the evening, over 20 of them. I managed about 6 quite quickly, and then Elin and I had a meeting to go through the rest and divide them up. There were at least 3 that are waiting for one of my colleagues still on vacation, but we managed to delegate most of the rest to either her or myself, and then I kept an eye on the queue during the day and took several more as they came in. We’ll be 3 tomorrow as Helena is back from vacation, but it’s starting to feel like we’re heading back to crazy normal.

I left early and went to get my hair done at 4 in Malmö. I’m quite pleased with the hair color we’ve been using for a while now. It’s a lovely shade of golden-red chestnut, and looks quite natural on me. I don’t feel like it’s too red or too dark or too anything, and the cut makes me happy too, as it’s short enough to encourage Barky to curl instead of frizz, and long enough that I don’t feel “old”. Hahaha! Hair is such a sensitive area isn’t it? I’ve been taking tablets that help strengthen hair and nails for quite some time, and yet I feel like I’m still losing more hair than I ought to be, when I brush it in the mornings. Ah well, not much else I can do about it, at the moment.

It was a lovely day today, my favorite kind of weather yet again: 72 and sunny. Big white fluffy clouds and blue skies, and a breeze. I went out to water after I got home: the allium is totally done, and most of the roses are blown. I’ve been diligently deadheading all the geraniums and they are rewarding me by blooming over and over with new blossoms coming constantly. The snap peas are pretty much done though. The last of them went into the batch of summer pasta salad that I made the other day.

Yesterday we finally got the news that Karin was accepted into her first choice university program in Copenhagen. It’s a 3-year program: Media Production and Project Management, with obligatory classroom attendance. She’s thrilled and relieved and excited. We’re really happy for her as well, knowing that this is what she really wanted and was ready for, and that she wants to stay in Copenhagen. The university is a building a short 10-minute bike ride of her apartment, which is perfect. And she’ll be able to continue working a few evenings a month at ÅBEN, and have BeachGarden as her summer job next year as well. Hurrah!

Classes start at the end of August, I think, or beginning of September, and we’ll get her schedule in a couple of weeks so we can figure out whether we can or want to go to the US for Christmas. There are so many factors in play that it’s hard to decide and the current political climate is one of them. Both Anders and Theo (who’s been invited) are understandably wary about traveling to the US, and there is a new “visa integrity fee” of $250 coming into force in October that might be the deciding issue. According to the info I could find online, if you are a member of a Visa Waiver Country, which Sweden is, you apparently don’t have to pay it, but everything is VERY unclear. I don’t want to wait too much longer either before getting tickets as I don’t want to pay a fortune when there are 5 of us potentially going.

And then Anders and I have to figure out what and where we want to go for our 30-year wedding anniversary next year. I would like to get to Mont St-Michael and Saint-Malo, but that means going in the spring…latest beginning of June, and I ALSO want to go home as usual to visit mom and Sarah which I’ve been doing in March/April/May, so a lot to deal with by the end of this year!

There’s so much swirling around in my head right now! I’m taking it all one thing at a time, but I sure wish the world would set itself to rights. I know that it’s WE that do that (US that does it? having a grammar cramp here), though, and sometimes I despair of it ever happening, since so many people in power seem hellbent on skewing it as far as possible in the wrong direction.

Mood: busy
Music: Porcelain Moon—Walking on a Dream