Tagged: americanabroad

13
Jun
2010

COUNTING DOWN

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future. I love that line. It’s such a perfect way to think about the fact that the present is so fleeting and time moves so fast and the future is so very, very hard to grasp, because it’s always transformed into the present just as we get it in our hot little hands. The weekend has slipped into the past, now it’s after 10 p.m. on Sunday. It slipped away in a welter of snapshot images from the lenses of my eyes: Karin playing soccer, the swirly clouds, a beautiful sunset after...

20
May
2010

WHERE WE ARE

Spring has been sneaking up on us. We had a beautiful April until the volcano blew and for nearly three weeks we’ve been shivering and turning up our collars and sneaking betrayed looks at the cloud cover. Today: glorious summer! Though I was at work, head bent to my PC, frantically pounding out task after task, trying to keep abreast of the mountain of work that threatens to slide and consume, so I couldn’t really enjoy it properly. Karin called around 3 p.m. asking if she could get the sprinkler out to play with. They put it under the trampoline...

19
Apr
2010

ASHES TO ASHES ALL FALL DOWN!

Sunny day, blowing the clouds away, and all I think when I’m inside is OMG the house is so dusty! EEK. Dust bunnies! Dust mice! Dust ELEPHANTS! A dust lake on every surface. ACK. Dusting is so boring. And so USELESS. All it seems to really do is rearrange the stuff. It never goes away, not really. Don’t think about it too closely, though, or it will really gross you out. I forgot to water the grass seed my husband spread out in the backyard where the pool used to be, again tonight. Oops. I wish he was home. I...

31
Mar
2010

PASS THE CHOCOLATE

I’m a little stressed out about our 4-week vacation this summer to the States and I haven’t even done anything yet but book the flights. You would think that 4 weeks is enough time to fit in everything and everyone, right? But I’m beginning to believe that while it may be possible, it won’t be RESTFUL. I don’t want to come home from my vacation needing another vacation. The list of people we want to see is growing: my mom (of course), my brother and his wife, my sister and her family, my grandmother, my aunt & uncle and cousins...

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...

19
Sep
2009

SEEING THE SIGHTS—END

Monday morning dawned bright and early for Labor Day but neither Mom nor I saw it as we were snoozing a bit late, despite needing to get up and get moving in good time to pack in the sights of our last day of “mini-vacation”. We finally hoisted our duffs out of bed and hit the road. Once again we drove west, this time nearly to the border. Our destination was Stockbridge and the Norman Rockwell Museum. Now I know a lot of people pooh-pooh Rockwell, for various reasons, but the man was incredible. In his lifetime he finished some...

15
Sep
2009

SEEING THE SIGHTS—MIDDLE

Mom got fired early on as navigator, even though she had several chances to redeem herself. She swears up and down that she CAN TOO read a map and follow directions, at least when she’s alone, but yeah, whatever, Mom, hand over the map. In her defense, it WAS damned confusing that we kept having to go what was actually north on a road called south and south on a road called north. Luckily, I had printed out directions and maps in advance to most of the places we were going and we knew that if we just kept backtracking...

14
Sep
2009

SEEING THE SIGHTS—START!

Having a 3-day weekend in the middle of my business trip was an unexpected bonus. I never think about Labor Day being in September anymore since the European Labor Day is May 1st and the only reason the American date ever crosses my radar is when I need an answer from someone in the US office and they’re not laboring because it’s Labor Day. The same thing happens on Memorial Day and St. Patrick’s Day and even, sadly, Thanksgiving. They’re not holidays here, so I don’t think about them as days off. Though I DO, now, think about Ascension Day...

01
Sep
2009

DOING MY BIT FOR ECONOMIC STIMULATION

Hi there! I know, I know, I haven’t written in AGES. I have no excuse. Well, actually I do, but whatever. I flew to America on Saturday morning and I’ve been busy playing and working and shopping and shopping and shopping since. And I’m not done yet. Wheee! And every night we come back to the hotel, mom and I, and pretty much just collapse into bed because it is very late and we are very tired from all the shopping. I have been to the bookstore thrice. *happy dance* Nutshell report: Flight delay, hate customs, saw my suitcase go...

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