Category: general

17
Nov
2009

YOU CAN’T HAVE A LIGHT WITHOUT A DARK TO STICK IT IN*

Walking through an early winter evening, with the shine of the streetlights on the wet pavement, there’s a strange sense of peace that envelops you just as surely as the scarf you have wrapped around your head. It wasn’t cold enough to wear mittens; I let my hands dangle inside my big warm sleeves. The scarf was more for surety, a precaution against cold in the throat. It wasn’t even cold enough for dragon breath, but it was dark as the inside of a dragon’s cave and damp like it too. Looking up, I could see stars, not stalactites. No...

14
Nov
2009

ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH

A general feeling of not just well-being but a physical spine-tingling glee. So many good things, good news, good vibes going on this week that my hair might as well be standing on end with excitement and The Happy. Mr. Bluebird’s on my shoulder, it’s the truth, it’s actual, everything is satisfactual! Yesterday was one good thing after another: getting up smiling because even though it was hard to get out of bed, it was Friday, having a good and productive day at work, then a lovely dinner with the Wonders: ALL of us this time because Debbie’s husband Ola...

12
Nov
2009

THERE’S A POINT IN THERE SOMEWHERE

I’m starting to get excited about the holidays now. Especially since I just got the news that my mom is coming! YAY! She’s coming AFTER Christmas, but that’s okay because she’s staying for nearly a month. Woot! And hopefully, my brother and Simone will be able to come up for at least a few of the days between Christmas & New Year’s, too. Hope, hope! Question for parents: how late do your kids stay up? (did I ask this before? or am I just having déjà vu?) If they stay up until 10 on a school night, what age were...

08
Nov
2009

ALL OVER THE MAP WITHOUT A PADDLE

Gah. I feel subject-less, blocked, empty of title and content and meaning. I can’t make up another meme, can I? Well, I suppose I could, but credibility, wherefore art thou? What I really want: another day to sleep in, a 3-day weekend, maybe some vacation. A dark den for hibernation. Everyone at work is talking about what days they will be taking off during the holidays but I just grimace: none. My colleague is going on his honeymoon over Christmas and New Year’s and I am working. If my mom decides to come, and if she does, if my brother...

06
Nov
2009

TRIPLETS

3 moods I was in today: manic, happy, aggravated 3 feelings I experienced today: bloating, amusement, affection 3 things I’m looking forward to this weekend: sleeping in, seeing Katrina, bookstore visit 3 things I need to accomplish this weekend: laundry, shopping for Father’s Day, finishing the bookgroup book 3 things I keep wasting time on: Sword of Fargoal, Facebook, reading blogs 3 things that have made me happy lately: county-wide recycling pick-up program, a minus on the scale, that my friend’s husband may get to go home from the hospital this weekend for a few hours 3 people I’m thinking...

03
Nov
2009

BY CHANCE, MET; BY CHOICE, FRIENDS

What if we had never met? What would your life be like? Some of you might argue that, in fact, we never HAVE met, and some of you have only met me once or twice in person, but maybe the meeting of the minds that passes for frequent contact here is enough. Maybe it counts! For all the friends I’ve never met, and the ones I’ve only met a couple of times and all the ones that used to live nearby and whom I never now see, it must count for something, right? What if you’d never come to that...

02
Nov
2009

YOU’RE NEVER GONNA KEEP ME DOWN

There’s my motivation! I found it! It was lurking…in my brain. Always the last place you look, eh? Things I did at work today: Watered the plants, confimed procedures with a colleague on the phone, reviewed a flash card, ate breakfast, laid out 5 case studies, uploaded an updated datasheet and sent out a call for translation for localized versions, reviewed 5 presentations, made a new ad look better, sent out 4 ads to publications, ate a super salad for lunch, found a logo for someone, had a discussion about how best to do the next cheat sheet poster, farted...

01
Nov
2009

EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE

If I went back and read through entries from former years written about this same time, I suspect that a theme of split restlessness and lethargy would be revealed. It’s hard to understand how I can feel both so itchy to do something that I can’t identify and sluggish and slow at the very same time. The weather is reflected my mood today: grim and gray and cantankerous, blowing this way and that. The AWC Halloween party was a smash success, a record-busting bash. There were 213 people attending, the most we’ve ever had at any AWC event in our...

30
Oct
2009

DOWN & UP

Is anyone else boggled by the fact that tomorrow is the last day of October? Already it feels as dark in the early evenings as if it were January, and we are still 2 months away from the equinox. What an down and up day this was…what down and up WEEK, for that matter. At the beginning of it, one of my colleagues, another American who is also a friend, sent out an email to all the Americans in our department, asking if we would be interested in helping to organize a Thanksgiving dinner for our entire department. There are...

28
Oct
2009

WHEN BLACK CATS PROWL & PUMPKINS GLEAM

I had an unexpected phone call at work this morning from a radio personality that had gotten my name from one of our neighbors who works for a broadcasting company in Malmö. The man who called me works for Sverige’s Radio and had been told that I was a “Halloween expert”. Haa! I guess being an American in Sweden qualifies me as a Halloween expert, if anyone is! He asked me several questions about Halloween: when it was, what you were supposed to do, did you have to dress up, what were the rules for trick-or-treating, etc. I answered him...

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