Category: general

26
Mar
2011

WHERE IT WENT AND WHERE IT GOES

Oh my goodness, where did the week go? It went into single-parenting, crazy busy work-ness, losing Karin in the dark trying to find the place she was practicing in Lund. It went to a planning meeting, pizza 3x in a row, a family birthday party (Anders’ niece), phone calls, sunshine and a yard full of pheasants and jackdaws eating the birdseed. It went to working from home as much as possible, paying bills, translation work, AWC web work, work work work. It went to grocery shopping and an emergency room visit for Karin who busted up 2 fingers at soccer...

20
Mar
2011

SLUGBEGONE

Yesterday, I’d had enough of my own sluggyness. So I cleaned the bathroom. THOROUGHLY. Everything out, and scrubbed top to bottom. I felt much better when I was done. It was another day of downtime though, as Anders and the kids didn’t get home until 10 pm. So, after the major bathroom blitz I sat down and watched the pilot episode of The 4400 TV show box set that Anders brought home for me from Shanghai last August and which I hadn’t gotten around to. After only a couple of episodes I’m hooked and a little bummed that it only...

17
Mar
2011

CHASING RAINBOWS

Rain streaks the windows and the streetlights spangle through the speckled pattern of droplines. I keep thinking I hear someone’s voice from the other room but it’s only the rain’s soliloquy. A pattering poetry of water and glass and the light shining through them. Someone at work asked me what’s happened to my usual sunny self. She said, “Where’s my Liz?” and I couldn’t look at her for a moment. I was afraid I’d cry. This whole week has been emotional: the sorrow wells up for the people displaced on the other side of the world, their stories spinning out...

16
Mar
2011

SOUNDS OF SILENCE, STRESS & SUNSHINE

Man, it is quiet in this house. There’s a hole of silence where Karin’s voice usually is, and another hole that Martin’s laughter usually fills in. There’s no sound at bedtime of good night, or I love you or I’ll see you in the morning and no hugs to hold me through the night. BUT! It’s okay, because if there’s one week I look forward to all year, it’s this one: the one where downtime fills my evenings and I can be selfish all I want: happy that I don’t have to cook for anyone else or pick up after...

14
Mar
2011

RETURN TO SLUGVILLE

The rain is turning everything dark, grey, beige and green with mold. I’m finding and trying all the various ways of doing nothing that I can while my family is out of town. Motivation? At an all time low. Personal productivity? Lower, if possible. Who am I, when I’m not being organized? When I’m not being creative, responsible, busy? I see my face in the mirror but it’s not recognizable. I’m caught up in the unfathomable horror of tsunami videos out of Japan. When that overwhelms, I play Pumpkin Xplode on my iPad until equilibrium returns. I’m reading a book,...

10
Mar
2011

IN WHICH FOOD FIGURES PROMINENTLY. ALSO, PIE.

Start of a family-free week-and-a-half and a husband-less 2-and-a-half-weeks. Don’t know whether to be sad or glad right now, but am mostly too busy to think about it. I worked from home this afternoon so I could be here to say goodbye when Anders and the kids left…it’s their annual ski trip up north with Anders’ best friend Mats and his son Viktor, and the addition this year of Mats’ brother Mikael and his wife Lene, both of whom are also very good friends of ours. Anders’ mom called this evening just to check in and seemed not to know...

06
Mar
2011

YOU LIKE PIE? I LIKE PIE*

Getting through the week at work is really helped by 2 excellent weekend days full of sunshine, blue skies, sleeping in, a fun AWC event with good food and lots of laughter, and the new iPad I bought with some of my bonus money definitely helped, too! Not something I needed, but nice to have a fun toy to play with, and I’m looking forward to being able to read magazines on it, especially. The issue of Martha Stewart Living that was specially designed for the iPad was amazing. I wasn’t out as much in the sun as I would...

02
Mar
2011

DON’T THE HOURS GROW SHORTER AS THE DAYS GO BY

There it goes, winging by, that crazy thief Time. He steals days from my pocket, flits by unseen, and suddenly I look up and realize I’ve been robbed again. I think he swings from the trees like a monkey, arm over arm, howling with a boom that startles me awake. He sifts through the moments that flutter past, snatching them from the air while I stroll on, unalarmed and oblivious, thinking that there’s more where that came from. I’m wrong, though. There isn’t more where that came from. This is the time to treasure. This time, this present, this now....

26
Feb
2011

ATTITUDE IS A LITTLE THING THAT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE*

I am not happy when I am not happy. I am not happy when I can’t concentrate on the positive and shove the things that bother me aside in favor of the good things that surround me. Small prickers under the fingernails of my mood are most definitely torture and I have the urge to yank them out and remove them as quickly as possible. I don’t LIKE being in a bad mood, a grumpy mood, a sad mood. Today, a concentration on good things: sleeping in, smiles, sunshine, swinging down a city street, shopping (sales on books!), sweets in...

25
Feb
2011

BACKSPACE, DELETE

Have tried for 15 minutes now to think of something to write about that didn’t make me sad, mad or tired. Failed. Will try again tomorrow.

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