Author: lizardek

17
Sep
2014

BEEN DOWN SO FAR ALL I SEE IS UP

Yeah, so the whole weekend sucked. I can’t think of any other time I’ve been in that much consistent, awful pain, since…mmmm. Childbirth? The toothache that led up to the root canal? Toss-up. Anyway, I went to the doctor on Monday and I have “frozen shoulder” and he gave me a cortisone shot on the spot and aaaaahhhh… sweet, sweet relief. It’s not 100% gone and I can feel it threatening to come back after only 2 full days of working so have to talk to my boss and get SOMETHING, anything, figured out about what in my work situation...

14
Sep
2014

OUCHIES

I was going to post this week, more than once, but have been prevented by massive flare-up of the inflammation in my arm & shoulder I’ve been dealing with now for what feels like years. Pinched nerve two years ago started the whole thing and it has never really gone away completely, coming back with painful regularity. This time it started hurting last week and by Thursday was so painful I left work after lunch. My arm was totally useless, no strength in it and stabbing pain constant; worse when I tried to move my arm either in front of...

05
Sep
2014

ME TIME

We’ve had a week of those clear pale blue late summer days with scarce clouds, no breeze and the kind of warm temperatures that feel so good on your back and shoulders without making you break a sweat. Hot-air balloon weather. Apple cider weather. The leaves haven’t started turning yet, much less falling, so there are no piles to shuff through. The neighbor cat curls up on the sunny asphalt in the middle of our street where, thankfully, few cars come. It’s a lovely, long, alone evening for me: Anders still in Italy and both the kids away at overnight...

02
Sep
2014

FIRST WORLD PROBLEM OF THE WEEK

I can’t figure out if I should go to Boston and work the week BEFORE Thanksgiving week or the week AFTER with the assumption that I will be at my sister’s with my mom FOR Thanksgiving week itself. The trip is already approved by my boss with the week of vacation attached, and my family has grudgingly, though not without a far amount of grumbling on the part of the children, accepted my absence for Thanksgiving, which means moving our own annual Turkey Day celebration up by 1 or 2 weekends or down by 1 (which causes it to land...

31
Aug
2014

SUMMER’S END, AUTUMN’S START

Weekends just go too fast where there are only 2 days to them. I can’t believe it’s already September. You know what that means, don’t you? Only 115 days left until Christmas! We already had a neighborhood child here yesterday, selling jultidningar. I don’t know if this is only a Swedish thing, or if it’s common across Europe, but every fall we get a couple of kids at the door who are going around with “Christmas catalogs” and selling the items in them. They get a small percentage of the money they take in. The catalogs are usually full of...

28
Aug
2014

FIFTEEN-TWO AND A PAIR IS WAIT, WHAT?

I don’t know why we don’t play more card games here, or board games. We have tons of games, and several decks of cards, but for some reason electronic versions seem to win out on a daily basis. I grew up playing games with the whole family, and constant cards games with my siblings or solitaire when I couldn’t get any of them to participate. I used to know over a dozen different kinds of Solitaire; nowadays I only play the two simplest versions, probably because they’re the speediest, which gives instant satisfaction and keeps you playing. My mom’s family...

27
Aug
2014

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION

We had several people boggle at us when we made the announcement that we had chosen Toronto for our BIG birthday trip. Even the border patrol goggled at my sister on her way into the Canada, when she answered the question about whether she was entering the country for business or leisure. “What the heck are you going to do in Toronto for a week?” he sputtered. Granted it wasn’t our first choice, but it turned out to be a good one. We had a fantastic time, and I’ve got the photos to prove it!

24
Aug
2014

NEVER ENOUGH

All weekend I’ve been planning to edit and post photos from our trip to Toronto (almost wrote “trip to vacation”) but the weekend has been so busy that suddenly it’s nearly bedtime on Sunday evening and the farthest I’ve managed to get is opening Photoshop. Jet lag seems to be pretty much gone…just the dregs of it left, but that could be regular afternoon fatigue. I can’t believe I have to work 5-day weeks from now until eternity. We had all these short weeks in spring; it was crazy! Like 6 in a row or something and now? Nothing until...

20
Aug
2014

GOTCHA

Turning 50 is weird. I don’t FEEL like I’m fifty. I feel more like 35. 37, maybe. Max. Maybe younger, some days. On Monday, my boss sent me an email informing me that she had scheduled me for 1 hour today to train our newest team member, who started last week. “Can you please go over guidelines, logo, brand, templates, etc.?” she asked. I replied in the affirmative, no problem, since this kind of training is part of what I do. But jetlag the last couple of days has been kicking my butt, so I was really tired at lunchtime...

18
Aug
2014

BACK TO REALITY

I didn’t think it was going fast while it was going but suddenly, here we are at the tail end of summer and the good times are OVER. We spent the entire weekend traveling home and arrived here at 8 pm last night. I actually slept well almost all night and worked all day without turning into a zombie, though I could feel the jetlag creeping up my eyelids by about 3 pm. The kids start school tomorrow and it’s rained for 2 days straight, both signs that autumn has definitely begun. Camilla, my awesome friend, and our housesitter extraordinaire,...

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