Tagged: beinglizardek

A new visitor to my blog made a comment today, mentioning the “hammer of the sleep gods” and wow, did that phrase ever strike me, and resonate all evening until I had a moment to sit down and write about it. Living in Sweden or, I imagine, anywhere this far north, brings with it an increasing and desperate awareness of light. What the sun is doing or not doing, whether it is shining, was shining, will shine, becomes much more important to every day life than one would like to admit to. In the springtime, the anticipation of the growing...

After a busy week like this past week, what I most looked forward to was sleeping in, and when my betraying body stirred regardless, early in the morning and then refused to return to slumber, it was a major inner grumbling that commenced. Strangely, despite staying up past 3 a.m. (late dinner party with the Wonders who didn’t leave until after 1, then a compulsion to tidy up the house so that I wouldn’t have to face it in the morning, then the self-idiocy in climbing into bed and picking up the book I was 60 or so pages from...

For the past I-don’t-know-how-long, I have left the office every day with a sharp pain in my right shoulder/neck, caused, most likely, by my habit of sitting with my left leg tucked under me. Despite the fact that I use a Mousetrapper at work to keep my hands in front of me, this is still throwing me lopsidedly to the left just enough to cause strain on my right side. It isn’t helped by the fact that I invariably sit at the computer a lot while at home as well (frequently with the same leg tucked). In general, I lean...

Visiting Anthropologie for the first time while in the States in April, this chicken timer was what I couldn’t leave the store without. It has “Instruction Manual” printed on the bottom with 2 illustrated steps which show those clueless about kitchen timers how to turn it past the time you want and back again to start it. The only thing that could make it any better would be if it clucked when it went off. Or if it laid an egg! That would be cool. My mom had been in the store during the day while I was working, and...

Read a printed paper newspaper Look up the definition of a word in a printed, bound dictionary Write letters on paper, put them in envelopes and mail them in a postbox Get up in the middle of the night because a child is crying Think about old boyfriends Look up phone numbers in a printed, bound telephone directory Sing in the shower Print out photos Write checks Have regrets Vacuum up cat hair Ask for directions Sunbathe Watch movies Wash my children or shampoo their hair Play board or card games that require other people or physical accessories Worry about...

I’m a bit bored. Maybe it takes longer to unwind than I suspected. I’ve done (pretty much) nothing but lounge around and read like a fiend for 2 whole days but yet this feeling of weird detachment persists. The sun has been shining, with the exception of one downpour day, nonstop for 6 weeks. Have you any idea how unprecedented that is in this part of Sweden? Everyone seems to be gobsmacked with summer delirium, gulping great swallows of the perfect air, knowing it won’t last, feeling like it’s a dream, determined to get every ounce of joy out of...

There might have been an invitation to something that was sidestepped. There might have been the idea of getting things done somewhere in the back of your mind. There is, for certain, a list, more likely plural, lying somewhere with patience or, perhaps, resignation. But there is something more, something which overwhelms and smothers all other considerations: 3 free days. No obligations No plans No one else’s needs No commitments …and no desire to do anything but revel in the peace and quiet and the unassailable joy of doing nothing but what you feel like doing, in each moment as...

A Saturday with absolutely no plans* has resulted in the following: sleeping in until 9:30 and then dozing for another half hour finishing a book and beginning another 6 loads of clean, sweet-smelling folded laundry, including a million towels and the bedding from every bed in the house 3 clean, sweet-smelling, freshly-made beds 6.5 bags of outgrown children’s clothing a logic problem conquered on the second try Chinese take-away for dinner a quick run to the store for milk a half-vacuumed house myskväll with shrimp crackers, fortune cookies and a new movie to watch (Enchanted) a journal post!…of sorts *for...