Tagged: obiterphotos

24
Jun
2018

TOGETHER TIME

How do you live so far away from family? It’s not a question I get that often, because I’ve been here for so long and I’m part of an expat community who have ALL moved far away from home and family. Most of the time, you just don’t think about it. You live your life, you go to work, you clean your house, and make dinner, but you don’t think about the fact that you only see your mom once a year and your brother maybe that, and your sister less than that, and your uncles and cousins and grandmother...

06
Apr
2018

GO BLUE!*

It’s been absolute AGES since I went to a live sporting event. In fact, I think the last one was a Red Wings game during a Christmas visit to the US probably close to 10 years ago. We’ve been to one Malmö Redhawks game here, and that was years ago, too. Even when I lived in the US, I only occasionally went to games in Chicago. A baseball game here and there, the Blackhawks, the Bulls, at least once to see the Bears when they were still at Soldier Field. The last time I seriously watched any football on TV...

25
Dec
2017

HAPPY HAPPY MERRY MERRY

It’s been a very relaxing long holiday weekend here in Flyinge. Unlike most of North America, we’ve had no snow, which is a pity…it’s been the usual southern Swedish mix of rain and grey, but inside candles, advent lights and the Christmas tree area all lit. Martin arrived home on December 19 and time is already flying by. I took two days off so we could get some things done and enjoy his being home before finishing up work before the holidays. It was SO NICE to see him and give him a hug and it’s SO NICE to have...

08
Nov
2017

SWINGING THROUGH STOCKHOLM

Oops! Forgot I had a blog. Heh. We had a really nice trip to Stockholm, though we missed Martin. Karin, unfortunately, was sick with a really bad cold the entire time: fever on the way up, coughing, sore throat, stuffed head, the works. We drugged her up and made her go with us everywhere though 😀 The weather couldn’t have been better. Friday was bright and glorious sunshine with blue skies and chill temperatures. Saturday it was cloudier and felt colder though it actually wasn’t. It only drizzled on us once, but we didn’t care because we were having fun....

22
Sep
2017

WE’RE ALL NUTS HERE

Remember this? At least that one washed off eventually… She’s been talking about it for a long time. I am not sure why she has been so set on getting a tattoo, but she was determined that it be something that had meaning for her and when she finally came up with the idea for 4 acorns and oak leaves (Oak = Ek, get it?) she was convinced it would be perfect. She even asked me if I would design it for her, but I demurred. Not because I didn’t want to design a cool tattoo but because I kinda...

01
Aug
2017

TRIPPING

On summer nights, with the windows open, you can hear the frogs in the pond across the street from my mother’s house chuckling. They laugh all night long. At least it sounds that way from the distance of a driveway and a gravel road. “Heh, heh heh,” they chortle. “Heh, heh heh.” ALL NIGHT LONG. The first time I heard them, I couldn’t figure out what it was or where the noise was coming from. Karin and I were sharing the big bed in the front bedroom and I rolled over and poked her. “Are you giggling under your breath?”...

11
Sep
2016

WHEN IN DOUBT, POST ROSES

I’ve started to write a post twice but was stopped by a sense of futility: faced with blankness, my mind was blank, too. This is my third attempt and I figured it was easier to just start typing and see what happens. Sometimes, words flow better if you open the valve without looking at what you are doing; let them pour from between your fingers, between the keys of the keyboard, gush from the wellspring of a mind that sometimes needs to be tricked into thinking. The sun shone all weekend; the sky a flawless blue. In the early mornings...

13
Aug
2016

WISH YOU WERE HERE

When you live this far apart from your loved ones, time together is never long enough, even when some days together it feels like it. I would like another couple of weeks together just to RELAX, without plans, without parties, without anything but time to sit together, talk more deeply about our lives, get to know my niece and nephews better, give my children more time with their grandma, their uncle, their aunt, their cousins. Time to do all the family things together that we so rarely get to do with each other: play games, go shopping, eat meals, hang...

10
Aug
2016

FILLING THE YEAR

In Sweden, the phrase for having a birthday is “fyller Ă„r” which literally means “filling the year”. In Swedish, you don’t turn 100, you fill it. The word birthday is the same in both languages; födelsedagen. In my family, we have a pile of birthdays in March (Sarah, John, Simone, Bryce) and a pile in the summer, mostly in July with mine lagging in early August (my grandmother, my mom and dad (same day), me, Sammy, Karin) and another group in December (Danely, Martin, Jakob). My sister’s husband Tom, and Anders, are the odd men out, with birthdays in January...

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