Author: lizardek

20
May
2018

A NEARLY PERFECT WEEKEND

This weekend delivered all the things that make spring in Sweden unbeatable. Pretty near perfect weather, with high blue skies, warm temps, and cooling, leaf-ruffling breezes scented with lilac. The sun shines until nearly ten, sinking slowly down through a pastel rainbow of lavender, blush and blue. The moon’s a silver sliver; the evening sky speckled with stars. A fat hedgehog trundled past the trellis yesterday evening, while we were watching ice hockey (which we’re doing again tonight, cheering on Sweden in the gold medal game of the World Championships. If they win it will be twice in a row:...

14
May
2018

IF EVERYTHING SEEMS UNDER CONTROL, YOU’RE NOT GOING FAST ENOUGH*

My whole brain, my whole life is being eaten alive by work. We’ve been working at such a speeded-up pace for so long that even if we wanted to, I’m not sure we could decelerate to a more reasonable level. It’s go go go all the time. I’ve worked most of the last weekends including both the ones that were long weekend holidays. It feels more stressful to NOT work than to try and relax over the days off knowing how much work there is and how much more will be waiting for me when I return on the next...

28
Apr
2018

WHAT’S THE BUZZ, TELL ME WHAT’S HAPPENING

Last week at work was awful. Too many things that were frustrating, rage-inducing or just plain annoying happened. I am VERY glad of this long weekend, though I am going to have to check into work emails and possibly do some work regardless because there is just so much of it. We were all freaking out over the amount of short weeks in the next two months (the first of which is this one). You’d think that we’d be THRILLED about having all this time off after the long holiday drought since the beginning of January, but 1) there are...

20
Apr
2018

SIMPLE PLEASURES

Today at work, we were entertained for a while…well, entertained isn’t exactly the right word…mesmerized sporadically by the antics of three huge hares that were loping along on the verge outside our office windows. Our building is bounded on the north side by the loop that circles the parking areas and the building itself, a skinny strip of beech hedge, an even skinner strip of grass and then an extremely busy 4-lane road that is the direct access from the highway that goes past Lund. The hares, which were as big as big small dogs; like, bigger than chihuahuas and...

19
Apr
2018

SUDDENLY SUMMER

Suddenly, it’s summer. Weeks of winter teasing, will she won’t she and now BAM, heat wave! Sha na na na na na—we’re surfing on sunshine. Everything has exploded and with it, my head. I went directly from horrible head cold to allergy attack of the ages. Today I thought I’d have to rip my eyes out. Visine and all the other eye drop bottles only hold it temporarily at bay. Nose sprays, allergy meds, COME ON, give me a break. I went from sick misery to allergy misery and honestly I’m not sure which is worse. But the sky is...

15
Apr
2018

SILVER LINING

Sick again. Been sick for a week with a nasty head cold. On the plus side, since I’ve been home pretty much in bed since Wednesday afternoon, my shoulder/neck doesn’t hurt.

10
Apr
2018

SPROING

Suddenly, you see it. The brown is giving way. The green is rising. It’s so subtle as to be hardly noticeable and yet you notice it. You’ve been waiting for it. It’s hard to tell the difference but the difference is there. It’s in the plumping of the grass. It’s in the filling out of trees. It’s in the way the sun shimmers slant from silver to gold. It’s the gradual warming of the earth, the way the spring begins pushing its way into your consciousness before anything can even be seen and suddenly there they are! Sprouts! Stalks! Leaves!...

06
Apr
2018

GO BLUE!*

It’s been absolute AGES since I went to a live sporting event. In fact, I think the last one was a Red Wings game during a Christmas visit to the US probably close to 10 years ago. We’ve been to one Malmö Redhawks game here, and that was years ago, too. Even when I lived in the US, I only occasionally went to games in Chicago. A baseball game here and there, the Blackhawks, the Bulls, at least once to see the Bears when they were still at Soldier Field. The last time I seriously watched any football on TV...

05
Apr
2018

BEYOND RANDOM

Is there a word for thoughts so random that they defy the category of randomness? I feel like I have butterflies in my head. Not surprising, since my brain is basically full of either work (oh god, work work work) or TwoDots. I can’t do much at home most evenings and forcing myself to sit here for 10 minutes or more is an exercise is zoning out about how it starts hurting worse immediately. Onward to randomnicity! Randomopolis (where I live)! Randomalooza. We had 4.5 days off work for Easter. My daughter had a week off school. We had dinner...

31
Mar
2018

GRADUATING FROM HIGH SCHOOL, SWEDISH-STYLE

High school graduation in Sweden is probably a bigger deal than getting married for most Swedes. Many Swedes, in fact, don’t bother to get married. They live together (sambo), have kids, and sometimes get around to getting married, and sometimes not. No one seems to care that much about it either way. But studenten (which is what high school graduation is called in Swedish), THAT’s a HUGE deal. Swedes typically go to school with the same set of friends for nearly their entire undergraduate time. In our little village school, as in most, kids stay together for grades 1-6, changing...

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