Tagged: thedayjob

13
Aug
2025

FIRST WORLD PROBLEM

I’ve been thinking about how best to use up some of the 3 vacation weeks that turned into sick leave this summer, so that they don’t roll over and cause me problems later (at some point, if you don’t use your vacation days and they keep rolling over for 5 years, you are forced to take them out before the fiscal year is up, which can cause all kinds of panic and problems at work). Years ago, I had this happen, and I had to use up 2 weeks worth of vacation days before the end of March (my company’s...

22
Jul
2025

BACK TO THE GRIND, EXCEPT IT’S NOT A GRIND WHEN YOU LOVE IT

Back at work, back to “real life”, back to routines, and alarm clocks, and going out of the house (nearly) every day. It’s been a soft start so far, though I’m only 2 days in, as there aren’t very many people in the office, I have no meetings, and the amount of work right now is actually extremely low and very manageable. I had caught up on all my outstanding jobs that were waiting for me before Monday, so I was in good shape when I came into the office. There are only 4 people on my team (including me)...

20
Jan
2025

MONDAY MUSINGS

FINALLY got a response from my doctor and a renewal for my prescription of nerve pain medication which I would have run out of tomorrow. Whew. Under the wire. TWO weeks before he responded, and it took 3 messages in the ongoing medical chat, a voicemail requesting the renewal, and another phone call this morning. Geez. I was completely stressed out about this. He at least apologized and said he’d been home sick and there isn’t anyone else covering his patients. Which is ridiculous. I couldn’t exactly berate him because it feels like it’s a bigger problem, but what if...

09
Sep
2024

DOWN AND OUT

We had a fire drill at the office this morning. We’ve been in the new building since 2022, even though it was ready before that. Since we were 100% at home, we didn’t get back into the office for awhile, and then only gradually. I can’t remember that we have actually had a fire drill before since we’ve been back. I know that there have been drills, but not ones where we had to evacuate. We’re on the 7th floor, so it’s a long way down when you can’t take the elevator. It’s longer when you have a bad knee...

03
Jun
2024

LA LA LA

Sometimes I feel out of step with the other members of my team. I don’t know if it’s because of ME, personally, or a cultural difference (they’re all Swedish), or my age, or what. They all agree on some things that I don’t agree with at all, or at least I don’t care about. I’ve talked to my manager(s) about it, and they seem to think that it’s just me, and have reassured me more than once that they are grateful I am different. Ha! Tonight it’s cooled down quite a lot from the humidity and high temps of yesterday,...

02
Apr
2024

APRIL?! APRIL SHOWERS AND APRIL HOURS

Holy rabbits, Batman, how can it be April already? Yesterday was a holiday here in Sweden since it was Easter Monday, which was a shame, because it meant we couldn’t pull April Fool’s pranks on our colleagues in the office. One of the big Swedish newspapers had an excellent joke article on their main page, mentioning that Ven, the island off the coast of southern Sweden, was going to have to lose 500 meters worth of land in order to accommodate NATO warships. I saw some funny ones after the fact today. One worth mentioning was Dulux Paints Instagram post...

02
Mar
2024

IT’S A LOT RIGHT NOW

I just hung up the artwork that John and his kids made for me, for Christmas. It’s two flowers made of sliced up, painted pinecones, mounted on a wooden board. I’ve been debating where to put it, and originally thought of putting it out on the porch, but the walls out there are stucco, so not only does Anders not want to put a nail in them, but there’s no good way to mount anything at all on them. I couldn’t even use a CommandStrip, which is what I’ve now used to hang them on the tile wall in the...

02
Feb
2024

AT LEAST I WON’T SWALLOW YOU WHOLE

Oops, missed writing a blog post on the first of the month or saying “Rabbit Rabbit”. Do you do that? I can’t remember when I first heard about that tradition, but it’s been around for a long time, apparently. It was definitely after I moved to Sweden, though, which is weird, since it’s not something Swedes do. If you click on that link and scroll down to the section titled Other Traditions, it talks about saying “Rabbits Rabbits” to get the smoke from a fire to move away from you. THAT one I’ve done since I can remember, probably all...

03
Sep
2023

THE BUSY STARTS NOW*

Hello September! It’s the start of a new AIC season and the busiest time of both our AIC year and work, so things are a little crazy at the moment. We kicked off the new AIC season with a monthly meeting that wasn’t really a meeting at all: mini-golf at Ribersborg in Malmö. We had a lovely evening for it, sunny and warm, and a decent turn-out of 17 people, which included the manager of the golf venue and kiosk. I can’t remember the last time I actually played mini-golf. I suck at it, but it was fun, and surprisingly,...

27
Jul
2023

SLOW DOWN YOU MOVE TOO FAST

Tomorrow is Friday, the end of my second week back at work and guess what? Still stress-free! I expect it to last until about mid-August when everyone is back and things ramp up and the crazy hits the fan again. Best things about working in July in Sweden (when you’ve already had your vacation): NO traffic on the highway NO cars in the parking lot NO people in the office (mostly) NO STRESS about the amount of work coming in Today, there were 4 of us on the entire floor. Technically, we’re not supposed to even be there, because they...

October 2025
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  

Archives