Lizardek

03
Nov
2013

THE GRIEVING PROCESS

Martin and I are almost done with The West Wing. We have only 4 more episodes left and we just watched Matt Santos win the Presidential election and Leo McGarry die. I confess to having had tears in my eyes. Martin did, too. I never saw most of the episodes from season 7 that we are watching now, but I remember feeling sad then when I heard the news that John Spencer, the actor that played Leo, had actually passed away, unlike the actress that played Dolores Landingham, who only died in character. We were sad about her, too. I...

02
Nov
2013

SOCCER MOM

I am sitting in the second story bleachers in the gymnasium in Södra Sandby having my knees bumped by every soccer-playing prepubescent boy in the village AND their parents as they walk back and forth in front of me. Karin is participating in Sandby Cup, along with some of her other teammates, despite the fact that it’s a boys tournament. I don’t know if they just didn’t have enough players or what, since these are only 13-minute 5-man indoor games but she asked me twice if I would come watch and since I feel guilty about the amount of her...

01
Nov
2013

A MONTH OF BLOGGING?

Doubtful. Judging by the way real life keeps grabbing my arm and dragging me down the street, chances are slim that I’ll actually be able to REMEMBER to write every day much less actually do it. But you never know. I’ve always considered myself a bit of an outsider, in many ways, despite belonging to this group or that group or this organization or what not. The reason why wasn’t because I wasn’t one of the cool kids, though I wasn’t…but more has to do with the fact that I had friends in ALL the groups. In junior high maybe...

28
Oct
2013

BLUSTERY

The 10-minute drive home from work was exciting to say the least since we are in the middle of a class-3 storm and it was already in full gale-force mode as I left the building. All day the rain beat down and the clouds powered along and the sun came out at intervals for as if for half-hearted reassurance. There have been a few “tornado-level” storms in the nearly 17 years I’ve lived here. One ripped the corrugated plastic roof off the porch of our old house. One knocked down a zillion trees on the hill up to Dalby, and...

27
Oct
2013

NOTHING SPECIAL

A whole day to myself and I didn’t do anything special…unless you count being completely selfish and not doing anything special. The clocks went back last night, but my brain’s influence over my body was negligent…I still woke up early and then couldn’t get back to sleep. It’s disconcerting for someone who defines the essence of weekend as the chance to sleep in. And here it is a quarter to nine and my eyelids are trying to clang closed: end of the day! Go to bed! SLEEP. Stupid eyelids. Stupid brain. It’s Daylight Savings Lag. One hour turns you into...

24
Oct
2013

ALL DISTRACTIONS WELCOME

I’m all aggravated this week, my shoulders up around my ears and shooting pain down the muscles of my neck. Work is making me crazy or rather certain someones with no real way to resolve the issue. Thankfully tomorrow is Friday and while I’m not exactly GLAD that my family is going away for 3 days without me, I can’t deny the idea of 2 days of absolute peace-and-quiet slugville are quite appealing at the moment. QUITE. Have fun, y’all! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out! I read a sad book and it made me cry....

19
Oct
2013

WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF INTERNET

The amount of high-speed bandwidth we pay for each month gets used up by around the 15th these days. It’s due to 4 people being online pretty much all their waking hours. One child with a mobile glued to her hand, texting and skyping and instagramming and whatever else she’s doing. Two children listening to Spotify online, searching for music, watching YouTube videos. One husband watching television replays, news, and me…on the computer, checking Facebook, etc. We all check email. We all surf the web. We all rent movies on the Apple TV. It eats up our reservoir and leaves...

12
Oct
2013

AUTUMNAL

Darn it, I swear I’m going to write more, be present, and then time gets away from me and I realize I AM being present, just not here. All year long, people here in southern Sweden have been exclaiming in wonder about the weather. The sunshine, the blue skies, the perfect temperatures. It was a perfect spring, a fantastic summer and now a stunningly gorgeous fall. The leaves on the trees outshine the sun in a revolving spectrum of all the best colors nature’s got on offer. It’s hard to keep your eyes on the road when you’re driving, as...

29
Sep
2013

WHAT WE DID

When the weekend comes, what I want is not to have things to do, or errands to run or cleaning to get done. I want to RELAX, not think about work, sleep in, read books, watch West Wing and be a vegetable. Sometimes I don’t care if the sun is shining or it’s nice outside…I just want to be a slug in every possible way. Most weekends I get to do at least some of that. I almost always get to sleep in. I almost always get to read and watch some West Wing. But there are always things that...

25
Sep
2013

COLLECTIVISM

Yesterday, as we sat at the kitchen table eating dinner, we counted NINE magpies hopping about in the street in front of our house. That’s surely enough for a tiding. Or even a charm, which is one of the alternative collective nouns for magpies according to a couple of different websites I checked. A charm of magpies seems more fitting to me, since I think they are such charming birds. They’re so flashy and curious and bold. And big! Striking black and white with a brilliant flash of peacock blue that shines out when they spread their wings. They seemed...

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