WINTER IS HERE!
When I woke up this morning there was a thin layer of puffy white sparkle dust on everything and it’s been SNOWING all morning…and it’s STICKING! Yay! FINALLY!!!
22
Jan
2007
Author: lizardek
21
Jan
2007
DOWNTIME
I woke up in time, propelled by the urgency of my bladder and the heightened noise from the brightened living room; they were done with breakfast and ready to go. Pulled in for farewells, their heads are reaching to my breasts, just as they did years ago—it’s the bodies which have elongated and stretched them up to these heights. “Goodbye,” I say, “have fun.” We kiss and they are gone, out to the still dark silence of pre-dawn. The car was loaded last night and I turn on the kitchen light again to wave from the window; otherwise they wouldn’t...
19
Jan
2007
RAISIN THE CURRANT STANDARD: A POST WITH A-PEEL
I’m really weird about fresh fruit. I love it, but it has to be perfect. It has to be just right. Take apples, for instance. I can’t eat most apples, they’re too gooshy and the peel comes away from the flesh and feels like a wet sticker, still with the adhesive on, that slightly mushy fruit meat. I only like Royal Gala apples: so crisp and clean and crunchy with a peel that seems like part of the fruit, like a coating of flavor instead of skin. I like d’Anjou pears, the ones that look terrible, bruised and swollen, that...
18
Jan
2007
TRYING TO STOP SLAPPING ASIDE THE CLUESTICKS
Why do I do that? Why do I mentally turn away, begin to tune out, slam up a wall as soon as someone starts talking about it? I can feel myself doing it and I have to force myself to listen, force myself not to roll my eyes, not to mentally cover the conversation with a loudly silent YEAH YEAH YEAH inside my skull? Do I do it because I’m in denial? Because I’m so sure that I already KNOW everything that is coming, everything that is being said? Because I hate being lectured at even though I know everyone...
17
Jan
2007
SENSES WORKING OVERTIME
1. Nasty aftertaste following every meal 2. Blurry eye syndrome 3. Disturbingly frequent need to blow nose 4. Slight, but encroaching, deafness in one ear 5. Unsettling inability to come up with, among other things, sought-after words, titles, names Every day is a dark dive through the winter hours. Seemingly ceaseless rain speckles the window. At work I bubble like a watched pot; people lining up outside the glass front of my office, pacing ’til their turn. One needs an article proofread, another an HTML created, the phone rings and it’s the creation of emergency animated web banners on the...
15
Jan
2007
HERE TODAY GONE TOMORROW
Where did the day go? I swear it was morning just a minute ago and I was yawning my way up and into the bathroom to begin the day. And now, suddenly it’s 9:30 p.m. and dark outside and the kids are in bed and somehow I went through an entire day of workworkwork and a trip to the pharmacy and a dinner out with ex-colleagues (which, someone please, remind me next time, NO. Just…no) and driving all the way home…all apparently on AUTO-PILOT. Sheesh. And I wonder why the years seem to fly be so fast. The days are...
14
Jan
2007
THE WINDS WITH WONDER WHIST
Wolf winds howl and swirl around the house all night. I wake constantly to the susurrus of the trees whipping restlessly to and fro. In the late morning the winds are still high and they howl in the ventilation shafts. Once in a while the house seems to shudder. I lie in bed and watch crows struggle to fly into the wind. Aerial acrobatics are dashing but futile and they grab for a passing branch to rest a moment before daring flight once more. A magpie skiphops across the yard, blown backwards one step for every three forward until he...
12
Jan
2007
AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED?
This morning the winds were high and wild and it was pouring down rain. Buckets. Sometime in the middle of the afternoon the sun came out for a bit. I saw the light from my office window, very briefly. I went into my boss’ office at 5 p.m. and said, “I can’t take it anymore. I quit…for this week.” And she laughed, and I laughed, and then I left. By then it was pitch black and raining again. The winds have picked up. Anders brought home sushi for dinner and I brought home 3 videos to watch this weekend, because...
11
Jan
2007
TEMPUS FUGIT
10 years ago today I arrived in Sweden. Anders had gone ahead of me, arriving on New Year’s Day since he had to start work, and I was still at my parent’s house helping my mom deal with the aftermath of my dad’s death 2 weeks earlier. We went straight from the airport to the hospital to greet the arrival of his sister’s newborn baby, who celebrated his 10th birthday yesterday. 10 years! I didn’t know it would be that long. I have lived abroad for 16 years of my life now. 3 years ago I wrote a post that...
10
Jan
2007