When I was 13, I met someone who would be one of my best friends for the rest of my life. I mean best friends in the Anne and Diana sense. Becky and I spent three years tying our hearts around each other. All of my best friends, and there are only 4 of them, and 2 of them have slid into the ether of busy lives, were made in 3-year bursts of intensity. The first 2 were caused by my father’s Air Force move schedule, the 3rd by the vagaries of college life, and the last by the expat...
Cracked me up last night: My daughter replying “Aye aye captain” and firing off a salute when I asked her to carry the popcorn bowl back to the kitchen. The kids were up at 6:30 this morning, laughing, talking, slamming doors. I called “Martin!” but they didn’t hear me over the sounds of their own voices. “Martin!” No response. Drag myself out of bed, stumble to the door, glare blearily at them. They’ve got that deer in the headlights look, you can almost hear them thinking oops. I growl, “Be quiet! It’s still really early!” and collapse back into bed....
When I left work today, the moon surprised me. It looked so…otherworldly. The sky was a uniform shade of medium blue, and the moon looked see-through, all its darker parts the exact same blue as the sky behind it. It looked like a white potato print on the sky. Or a perfectly round cirrus cloud with blue bits showing through. Flat and two dimensional, did someone really scuff the dust up there? Coming down the hill from Lund, the sun behind me lit up the fields in a glowing quilt of beige, brown, sage, green. The nails in the winter...
Because I was sick most of the week, I didn’t go to choir and we had no other plans and I’ve been home EVERY SINGLE WEEKNIGHT and guess what? We don’t have any plans for the weekend either! Hmmm….very strange. Very, very strange. But nice, in a confusing sort of non-social way. I can’t remember the last time I was home every single weeknight in a week. Actually, I shouldn’t say we don’t have plans for the weekend, but the plans we do have involve going as a family to the mall and perhaps to see Brother Bear. They don’t...
Just sick enough to be lame-o, but not sick enough to be pathetic, if you know what I mean. It’s been a down day, low-volume, muffled, tucked in. I’ve read through nearly the entire trilogy of Pamela Dean’s Secret Country books. Had chicken soup and dragonfruit Festis. No gargling with whisky though, sorry John. Not even the kids coming home and ringing the front doorbell endlessly really broke through my headcold fog. There’s a large triangular patch of snow in the far corner of our backyard that is hanging stubbornly on. The horses and ponies were out today, wandering somewhat...
Still bleah. Home again. Getting a really good gravelly voice, as a prelude to losing it.
Verian posted a horrid (but good) story today that involved amusement park rides and blood, and it reminded me of this story I wrote way back in 1985. 🙂
The sun was well up this morning, and shining directly into every crevice, sparkling and gleaming on the Kävlinge river and highlighting the mossy curves of trees. It worked hard yesterday melting the remaining snow, and all that is left are a few holdout patches clinging to ditches and shady spots. I think it will finish the job today, as the skies are a uniform bright blue. We’ve had more than our fair share of lovely winter days lately. 🙂 Still feeling under the weather, however, but made it to work today. Not sure I’ll stay the whole day, but...
Left work with a scratchy throat and a flattened feeling yesterday, which developed over the course of the evening into full-blown sore throat and head cold. 🙁 Thank God for Tylenol cold medicine imported from the heavenly land of superior over-the-counter-cold-remedies. I stayed home today so as not to infect the rest of the office, even though it’s probably too late as they say you’re most contagious before you show symptoms. It’s a gorgeous day today and the sun is doing aerobics on the remaining snow that is left in our yard (Feel the burn!). I slept until 12:30, held...
Today marked my 4-year anniversary of working for Ericsson. It’s been a (mostly) fun ride of ups and downs, creative challenges and some boring stretches. Seems my job is always either feast or famine: too much or not enough. I do better with the too much side of things. At lunch today, after Johan admired the salt & pepper shakers the restaurant had, Bodil suggested he steal them by stuffing them down his pants, and I said, “Is that a pepper shaker in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?” I didn’t know he could turn that...