grief does strange things - a fragment

you feel so many things when someone close to you dies. and one of the most unexpected things you feel is anger and impatience.

while i sat on the plane, wondering what i was heading towards, i felt so angry that others felt ownership of what was MY father dying. and it only increased, completely inappropriately, at moments when i least expected it. STOP saying you're sorry. STOP saying you'll miss him. it wasn't your FUCKING father who died. leave me alone with this, it's MINE. GET AWAY FROM ME!! and stop thinking it's about you.

but that faded.

but now a favorite aunt has also died. and i just read her obituary and it MADE ME SO ANGRY and i can't really explain why. but it's at least partially because a few paragraphs cannot encompass a life of 89 years. she was SO MUCH MORE than the vapid, emptiness listed in her obituary. GIVE HER CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE! she was this amazing, centering presence at the heart of our big family and the sentimental way in which that was expressed does not even remotely do justice to her.

WHO WRITES THESE THINGS?

at least with my dad's obituary, i knew who wrote it because it was me.


----

i'm clearing out my drafts folder...i wrote this 6/3.2015 and never published it. i'm not sure why, perhaps i felt too angry at the time. but today, 24/3.2016 it seems like time to publish this, even if it is but a fragment...

fragments from my draft folder

* * *

drunk j. crew is my new favorite tumblr.

* * *

guess what i'll be doing doing this summer...filming this.

* * *

whatever you think of him, this speech is filled with logic. and yes, i teared up watching it. whatever you believe. get out there and vote. and please think of all of our children when you do so.

* * *

and speaking of the ignorance rampant in the world, the bbc is discussing it here. and i have to admit it makes me fearful of the world we're leaving to sabin. (3/3.2016)

* * *

we are in the age of the fetish of everything. (26/4.2015)

* * *

a friend recently shared a link to  this blog piece, written by a dane on how weird he realized danes were once he had spent some time out there in the world. she thanked me for hanging in there anyway, which was pretty sweet. (28/9.2014)

* * *

my bloggy friend jessica of scrumdillydilly, who i've been reading since, well, forever, recently wrote a great post about the insecurities brought on by the internet. (17/7.2014)

* * *

an interesting piece in information on the constitution of the modern family in denmark, where 45% live in a non-traditional family - with traditional being original mother and father and children living together under one roof.(23/3.2014)

* * *

mel's beautiful words on instagram....This is the book that started the flood. In 2010, my teacher asked me to write in a journal - I only know the year because of the dates in these pages. The wife of a writer, we had lots of blank books lying around - gifts from friends and family - and after many failed attempts of my own over the years, I was skeptical. She urged me to try - pen and paper, by hand. The first weeks worth of pages are here, on 20 lb printer paper - temporary, disposable. Another teacher said - it doesn't matter what you write - it's space just for you. That unlocked something and after five days I pulled this empty book off the shelf and the words started leaking out of my pen. This is the book that showed me that the stories I told myself weren't always true, that the wild thoughts up in my head are not representative of reality. That the approval I'd been seeking was really my own (those words exactly came out on the page). That no feelings are unacceptable and allowing them space to say their piece helps them move on through. That the most important relationship of my life is the one I have with my own self, and that that relationship reflects on every other. This is the book that cracked the dam.

---------
i'm doing a bit of spring cleaning in my blog drafts folder. nearly 20 items had accumulated there. mostly fragments. some links. passing thoughts, awaiting deeper analysis. they had begun to weigh me down, and yet i didn't want to lose them either, so i decided to go through them, combine them and get them out of the way. hopefully to make room for new, fresh, livelier thoughts and words. 

thoughts from sunday night

we had a lovely spring day today. it was still and tho' not that warm, warm enough to eat outdoors for the first time this season. our grill table needs revamping, so husband put together a new top for it, sans the beloved grill boxes (they're quite rusted through and were never the right depth anyway), so really now it's just a table. and we have another grill anyway, so it was all good.

it's the first day of daylight savings time. and here in these northern climes, and being more of a night person than a morning one, i have to say that i loved the extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day. of course, i'm now awake at nearly midnight, with no sleep in sight, so i will undoubtedly be cursing that leap forward tomorrow morning when the alarm rings.

typical for husband, he had no trouble going to bed around 10, tho' it was only 9 in his head. he's infuriatingly able to fall asleep almost instantly no matter what. he claims it's some residual military thing, where he never knew how much sleep he'd get when he was on an exercise, so he learned to go to sleep very quickly. if there is ever a murder in this house, it will be because of this uncanny, unnatural ability of his (either that or that no one ever puts the scissors back where they belong).

the nettles are at the tender, brilliant green, fresh stage, where they are absolutely perfect for a pesto. just a quick dunk in boiling water to take away the sting, then whizzing them up with a few nuts (today it was almonds, but i've been known to use walnuts or pistachios if i have them), a couple of garlic cloves, salt, pepper, parmesan and plenty of olive oil. spring bliss, i say. this time of year, i could (and pretty much do) eat it on everything. i got the smoked shrimp from the fish guy on friday. they were perfect with the pesto, tho' i usually make aïoli to go with them.  we also fired up the grill and did some kabobs that i bought yesterday at the big grocery store down in germany (we made a run to stock up on gin and proper groceries).

the kebabs didn't last long, nor did the batch of potatoes, leeks and butter i threw into a tinfoil packet onto the grill. the best bits are the ones that stick to the foil and are a little bit burned. bliss, i tell you. and it was still and beautiful outside, birds singing and no bugs out yet to speak of. it honestly couldn't have been better.

i took a couple of our outdoor cats to the vet on friday to be fixed. i used to call them the wild bunch because their mother hid them from the fox all summer and we never managed to tame them. but in recent months, i've become friends with two of them and since they're rather chubby cats, i dubbed them ben & jerry after the ice cream. well, the trauma of being a cage for the first time, taken on a 20 minute car ride for the first time and being indoors for the first time at the vet's office (oh the horror) was too much for poor benny and he bit my finger as i tried to hold him for the vet. she was immediately concerned and advised me to see my own doctor right away, saying a cat bite could easily get infected. so, i took her advice (i think i've always respected veterinary advice more than medical doctor's advice, as i have also been known to take doses of horse painkillers in the past (a little bute never hurt anyone)). i felt a little sheepish at the doctor, because it is just a tiny little puncture wound and didn't look like much at that time. but it did hurt like crazy, and she was concerned about my tendon (the wound is between my first and second knuckle on my middle finger), so she prescribed antibiotics and gave me a tetanus shot and sent me on my way.

and as the evening progressed, my finger and then my hand swelled more and more. combined with the tetanus shot on my upper arm, sleep was nearly impossible, as i kept waking myself up bumping my arm or my hand as i turned in my sleep. eventually, i had to get up and try to get some sleep in the big comfy armchair, rather than lying down. when i woke up in the morning, my hand was alarmingly swollen and very sore, but i just kept taking the antibiotics and some pain relievers and finally, late last evening, it started to show signs of improvement. it's better today, but still very sore and stiff and a bit swollen. i can type and hold a pen now, so that's good. at the moment, my left hand is suffering more fatigue from abnormal use than there is pain my right. but am i ever glad i went to the doctor. i'd have had to spend saturday at the emergency room instead of in germany stocking up on gin. and that would not have been fun. so, if a cat bites you, take it seriously. tho' some part of me is still secretly hoping that i'll turn into catwoman from this.

but now it's very late, especially in light of the time change, so i shall leave you with this photo of solskin's little sweetheart, all nestled down in my hand sleeping. is there anything more precious than a chubby little baby bunny?

exposing scams and wondering about random things

pretty photo i took at esbjerg harbor yesterday - more like this to come as soon as the internet arrives

the internet has promised to arrive at our house today at the most precise time of between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. - it's 1:19 p.m. as i write this, still via my highly unstable mobile connection - made even more unstable by it being a cloudy day, and there's no sign of those jokers skilled technicians. but since a blog post is bubbling in my head and standing in the way of me getting anything of substance done, here are a few things i'm pondering as i wait for the real internet to come:

~ i'm not keen on energy-saving lightbulbs. there, i said it. i miss the soft light of the old-fashioned kind. i know they're not good for us and for the environment, but can't someone please make an energy-saving lightbulb that lasts as long as it claims it will and also gives off some kind of soft, glowy light? i replaced the lightbulb in the lamp by the bed yesterday and it already burned out this morning. that's not cool and was by no means the 6 bazillion hours that phillips promised on the package.

~ are TED talks just the new sermons for the secular? don't get me wrong, i love TED in many ways, but i'm getting an evangelical vibe from them of late.

* * *

i have for you a sordid tale of a collection scam that's apparently made its way to denmark. i wrote previously about an insidious scam that student loan debt collectors had going in the US. this one is much more small scale and probably much more lucrative for its perpetrators, as i guess it probably works most of the time. we had a magazine subscription to a garden magazine. we stopped the subscription and had a final bill to pay of about 245 DKK ($40). this bill ended up on my desk, where other papers piled up on top of it and i'll admit i forgot all about it. for a couple of months.

one day, last month, i was going through the stack of papers on my desk and found it. looked at the due date (a couple of months previously) and thought, "shit, i'd better pay that!" so tho' it was a thursday evening, i opened up the netbank and immediately paid it.  

lo and behold, five days later, i receive a collections notice from a company called advis on the subscription, now adding an additional 480DKK ($83) to the amount of the bill i had already paid, for their "collection costs." on a bill that was paid. so i wrote to them at the generic email address that was provided and asked them to please check their records, as the bill was already paid the previous week. five days is ample time for a payment to be registered.

they responded that it had already gone to collections (suspicious timing in my view) and so i needed to pay the extra 480 to avoid court. really? i find that to be utter bullshit, so i have continued to dispute the claim. 

i find the timing very suspicious as well as the amount - double the amount of the original bill, and on an item, like a subscription, where i imagine that there are many people who forget to pay the bill on time. it's a small bill, you lay it on your desk, thinking that the next time you sign into the netbank for something a bit more significant, you'll also pay that one. and then, like me, the paper disappears down a pile and you forget. 

i imagine the collections trick - sending it out as soon as you realize the customer has actually paid (what was admittedly an overdue bill) - works pretty well. people feel guilty that they forgot about it and they just pay the additional amount. the original non-payment of the bill wasn't due to a lack of funds, more due to the general insignificance of the amount and feeling it wasn't worth the whole getting out the code thingie to sign into the netbank just for that. i imagine that doubling the original amount as "collection fees" also represents an amount that people will swallow. and it probably works most of the time.

but i find it to be utter bullshit. there was ample time in this electronic age, for the payment i made to have been registered in their system. i believe the system is designed to kick out these collection letters to try to get more money out of people, to prey on their guilt. are things really that bad in the publishing industry that they have to resort to this? it strikes me as one of those "businesses" that arise in a time of crisis. and honestly, i think it's crap. so i'm continuing to fight it. the next step in my fight is to send them a link to this post. after that, i'm going to a DR program called kontant, that exposes consumer fraud. i can't be the only one who has had this little scam played on me.

monday musings

i could tell a tale of a greedy and righteous troglodyte (is there anything worse?), but i don't want my monday ruined in that way. suffice it to say that i need to find another way to deal with this person. fantasies of gunning it when i see him crossing the street are becoming slightly too vivid in my mind at this point, so i'd best not spend much time behind the wheel today.

~ * ~

as you can see from my new banner, we had a good weekend at our riding club horse show.

~ * ~

isn't it sad that a person who never gives others room to do what they have promised, but stands over them and checks up on them incessantly will never find out if they can be trusted to do what they say they will? and ironic that they say they'll stop doing that as soon as people prove they will do as they promised. and pathetic that they can't see the logic.

but i promised not to dwell on the troglodyte anymore today. 

~ * ~

they promise rain all week. so a typical danish autumn is upon us. it makes my thoughts turn to candles and baskets of yarn. i've even lined up a knitting teacher, so this year, i'm going to get serious about actually using some of that yarn. tho' molly did just just singe off some of her whiskers jumping up on the shelf by my desk, so candles can be dangerous.

~ * ~

on friday at school, sabin and her friend (who are in the sixth grade) were on their way to class and some tough little fourth graders, in what is a rather confusingly-explained incident, threw a chair at them. they were apparently bitter over some altercations last year when they were in fifth and third grade respectively, tho' that part of the story is also a bit unclear. the chair hit sabin's hand and it has become steadily more swollen and sore over the weekend and we're going to have the doctor have a look at it today. i did say she had to explain to the doctor herself that she was beaten up by a fourth grader.

i asked her how she responded and she said that they went and let a teacher know it had happened. so in essence, they told on the little shits. some part of me wishes she'd thrown the chair back at them or at least grabbed them by the scruff of their necks and roughed them up a bit. but on the other hand, i'm also charmed by her utter faith in the authority figures at her school. we'll see what happens next.

~ * ~

i wonder if my parents ever received a communication with my sixth grade teacher that was signed, "hugs," mrs. b. looking back at the battle-axe of a soul-scarring sixth grade teacher i had, i'm thinking not.

i do remember that my dad once stamped one of my papers with a little "horse shit" stamp we had in the drawer at home and asked my second grade teacher whether she shouldn't be slightly more encouraging than that to small children. she practically died of mortification while my dad laughed. i thought it was pretty funny too. probably not entirely fair of dad what with him being on the schoolboard and all. poor mrs. luze.

~ * ~

i sent my absentee ballot today. and yes, i voted for the good guys.

~ * ~

i just reread the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society by mary ann shaffer and annie barrows. i gave it only 3 stars on goodreads the first time around and i actually wonder why. i was utterly delighted by it this time and feel a bit sad to be finished with it. i'm already missing those friends within the covers of the book. i do think you need to a read a book at the right time. i could vaguely remember reading it before, but i obviously didn't absorb it in the same way (that often happens, i think it's a product of the speed at which i read) as i did this time. i'll have to go in and update that rating.

here are a few gems:

"men are more interesting in books than they are in real life."

"reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books."

"i think you learn more if you're laughing at the same time."

~ * ~

and on that note, i'll wish you all a happy monday.

friday confession or just another random list

i haven't done a friday confession in ages, so i thought i'd revive that idea and get some things off my chest (despite being a disciple of appleism, not a catholic).

i confess...

...that i was gleeful this week when a little drama worked out against the dramatist. kinda proving that drama isn't all it's cracked up to be. i also confess that it was all i could do not to openly do a little happy dance when the drama queen was put in her place. i actually walked away for awhile, not to be seen looking a little too satisfied.

...i have little time for such dramas anymore and easily become impatient with them.

...that i swear a lot while i'm driving.

...i really, really am not fond of the "let's see how far the car can drive after the gas light comes on" game. (sadly, this seems to be husband's favorite game.)

...i might smother him in his sleep for that.

...i got a lot less done this week than i hoped i would.

...i'm pretty surprised that mira seems to be proving to be a good mama to her 5 baby bunnies. bunny instincts are pretty strong.

...when i was in school and they had that "no running in the halls" rule, i thought that was for the others, but not really for me. so sometimes i ran in the halls. but only if i thought no one was looking.

...i don't talk to my parents often enough.

...that a couple of days this week have really gone by slowly. in a good way.

...i need to do the blog makeover i've been pondering now for a couple of weeks.

...that i don't miss the corporate world. not one little bit.

...i do, however, miss traveling. and planes. and airports.

...i think denmark's new fat tax is pretty lame. i can appreciate needing to do something about public health when you have a state-financed health care system, but shouldn't unhealthy fat products - like potato chips and pork rinds - be what's taxed, rather than basic baking ingredients like butter and cream? they say there was broad political backing for the tax (which is so complicated to calculate that companies have had to hire whole new fleets of accountants), but it seems they neglected to ask whether there was public backing (which i just accidentally spelled baking in a freudian slip) for it. i never heard even a whisper of debate about it.

...i'm happy that it's friday.

happy weekend, one and all.

reading and writing and reading and linking

i'm reading jussi adler-olsen's latest crime novel, journal 64, featuring detective carl mørck of department Q, which reinvestigates old unsolved cases. the series has already won a number of nordic literature prizes. and it is well-written for crime lit. i'd actually listened to the first three novels as audio, so this is the first one i've actually read. it's interesting how the voices as i heard them on the iPod, resonate through my head as i'm reading. apparently zentropa has bought the film rights to the novels, so they'll be making their way to the big screen at some point.

journal 64 is a good book, as it weaves historical fact with contemporary events into a very convincing, if chilling, fiction. nazi-like parties which want to keep denmark danish strike a bit close to home these days with the political rhetoric that's in the air.

but i didn't set out to write a book review here and it's too early for that anyway, as i'm only about halfway through. actually, one of the most interesting things about the book is the lexicon of swear words that adler-olsen has either revived or simply made up (fandenbukme, edderrolme, saftsuseme, edderbroderme - a few examples for those who read danish). i keep texting them to husband and he tells me whether they're something he'd heard before or whether they're made up. adler-olsen takes danish swearing to an entirely new level, for which there really aren't equivalents in english. it will be interesting to see how these words are translated when the novels come out in english in may (no less than penguin will release them). it's funny that it wasn't something i noticed in listening to the novels, but i've definitely noticed it in reading this one.

maybe because the book is called journal 64, which is actually a reference to a medical journal, i got to thinking about handwriting (you know, journaling). and suddenly, i've been noticing handwriting. and thinking about how it's often quite cultural. for example, you can instantly tell the handwriting of someone from the philippines. i remember twenty-odd years ago, i so admired the neat, pretty handwriting of my friend natz, and i can recognize the lines and strokes in the writing of my filipino friends today - it must have something to do with the way writing is taught in schools. there is simply a distinctive style that is filipino handwriting. the same with russian handwriting, even if russians are writing in english, you can tell they're russian. there's just a special russianness to their handwriting. i'm certain it's true of others as well, but we don't see that much handwriting these days, do we?

i noticed it again today when my latest jacabunny arrived...kit's handwriting on the package is so recognizable as upper midwest handwriting. it could have been written by any number of people from my hometown. in my own handwriting, i can see echoes of both my dad and my maternal aunt. so perhaps it's also in the actual construction of one's hands how your handwriting manifests. that might also explain the distinctive filipino and russian handwriting styles.

ok, and now back to the scandinavian crime novels...i also recently read karin wahlberg's pigen med majblomsterne. wahlberg is a doctor in lund, sweden, and apparently started writing to work out the stress of her real job. the novel was heinous. badly plotted, badly translated (from swedish to danish) and ultimately rather uninteresting. tho' i am a firm believer in writing to ease one's psychological issues, sometimes people should simply be stopped from publishing. i was happy that the book was only 69 kroner. it's one of those books where i wondered why i was doggedly determined to finish it. when will i ever learn to put down a book that's not good. somehow tho', once i've started, i feel compelled to plod through to the end, no matter how bad it is.  i also wondered how she got it published and strangely, it's not her first. i guess in the aftermath of the success of the stieg larsson books, scandinavian publishers are looking for the next Big Thing.

* * *

if you're interested in reading more about scandinavian crime novels, this blog is great.

if you want bobbaloos, stalk check here.

as for handwriting theories, i've got no links, tho' i'm sure they exist.

random list of happy things

happy right now...

~ about bright colors of paint in sabin's room.

~ that in my dreams, i can confidently use parts from one polaroid to repair another.

~ that in my dreams i apparently have a  polaroid.

~ that the t.v. is off and the only sounds i can hear are the cat purring and myself typing.

~ that i have a big stack of fabric i just cut to begin a new quilt (#3 this year) tomorrow. this one's in red.

~ that my sister's friends are way weirder than my friends (case in point: one of them, who is not jewish, is holding a bar mitzvah party for her husband, who is also not jewish. isn't that just weird? and possibly objectionable or at the very least culturally obtuse.).

~ new moo cards are on their way.

~ that i did all of the items on my list today except for one (and no, there were not only two items on the list).

~ that matilde (our horse) is gleefully covered in mud and loving it.

~ there was a bit of sunshine today.

~ i went running this afternoon and am amazed how much energy it gave me.

~ and i didn't die of a heart of attack by the side of the road (you know i usually run only when chased).

~ sunset well after 5 p.m.

~ bloggy lists to clear my head.

hope your day was full of small happinesses.

in the same boat

there are these moments, not moments of perfect clarity exactly, because those are something else, but moments where you suddenly, out of nowhere are able to take in, just for a second, The Enormity of Things. i had one the other day when we took a load of books and things to the house. i had unpacked them onto a shelf so we could take the boxes back home to load again and it suddenly hit me, in all of its fullness, exactly how much work we had to do on the house before it would be as we want it. luckily, it only lasted a second, because otherwise i would have just gone mad from the enormity of it.

i had a similar flash of The Enormity of Things today on the train, when i looked up and saw a strange, goofy, awkward man looking at me. you know how you can feel someone looking at you sometimes? and i tweeted something uncharitable about how i had forgotten about weirdos on the public transport. and then i was suddenly hit by the feeling of how everyone is really just trying to get on with their life in their own way. and our paths cross or they don't, but we're all just living along, inside of ourselves, trying to make our way. and the enormity of all of us going along, living, was just THERE for a second. and then it passed. thankfully most of the time our minds protect us from that knowledge of The Enormity of Things. i think if it didn't, we'd just be paralyzed, unable to move. just sitting here frozen, but in the same boat.

i wonder what it is about right now that's making me susceptible to these gateways of my mind...

the new new world order

i've had a monster headache for several hours today that's only just fading now. whether it's that or rereading the no. 1 ladies detective agency series (i'm almost to the end of morality for beautiful girls, which is #3), i'm finding myself subject to deep musings (mma ramotswe will do that to you)....

...like what does it mean when a major UK newspaper (the evening standard) is owned by a russian oligarch?

...and what are the implications that china owns all of the US debt?

...and spain is producing upwards of 40% of their electricity (depending on the day) using wind power?

maybe all this just means i've had the BBC on in the background while i made pizza dough for dinner later this evening. but i also think that these are signs of a new new world order. with the US floundering, new empires are emerging. ones wherein russian oil gazillionaires can control a piece of western media (wasn't there a james bond movie about that?) and where china is quietly assuming a position of world domination. and where spain, a place one doesn't always liken to the most forward-thinking, developed place on the planet, is actively working on getting themselves less dependent on foreign oil.

these are definitely things to ponder, whether you're in the aura of a headache or not...

randomness to clear my head

i'm reading the stern review and trying to digest it. i don't think i can read all 900 pages of it, but even just reading the abstract is taxing enough. in case you don't know what the stern review is, the quick version is that it's a tome on the economics of climate change commissioned by the UK gov't back in 2005 (delivered in 2006) and parts of it are already coming true today (like the bits about the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen). and speaking of taxing, a lot of environmental taxes are suggested in the report. did you know that the UK actually has an Office of Climate Change? i didn't know that, but i think that's pretty cool. in any case, i needed a break, so i thought i'd have a coffee and a blog to clear my head a bit.

* * *

first a random picture of sabin's red converse all stars in the sunset light last evening.

they. totally. make. me. smile.

* * *

and now, a few random things to help clear my head:

: : i have collected 404 word verification words in a pages document (pages is the apple answer to word, by the way). that doesn't take into account all those that are saved in the notes on my iPhone and scibbled on various scraps of paper other places in this house. i'd better get to work on those for balderdash, tho' i've been doing them one at a time of late, so there are a few new ones over there. what disturbs me a little bit is that more and more often they are REAL words these days. i hope they haven't tweaked the algorithm again.

: : i'm making my bullets using two colons, because tara does it that way and i think that's totally cool.

: : yesterday i discovered the coolest online 'zine i've seen yet. it's called discounderworld and you really can read it online and it doesn't even hurt (usually, i have the urge to print online mags), but stacey has really gotten it right. however, if it still hurts you, you can download it FOR FREE in pdf. i have thus far resisted, but that's mostly to save my paper for my monthly blog printings and also because it's so readable onscreen. that's good design, my friends!

: : i have a blog friend named joyce (who i know as ilovejim on flickr) who has a blog called pattern and perspective wherein she chronicles all her fab vintage design finds. i met her on flickr because we are both fans of heather moore's fabulous skinny laminx line. anyway, she meets justjules via my blog and learns that jules lives only 1.5 miles hours (i thought it was miles, but it was hours) away from her (still a good story anyway). how about that for six degrees of separation?

: : i recently stumbled across a blog called turning*turning. i think it's another one i've found through flickr, because mal* was making those cool little fabric hexagons during her commute. she's an art therapist and i will be doing a guest post regarding my beloved studio and what it has meant to me from an art therapeutic standpoint on her blog later today. so do go check it out. and stay awhile to read her stuff--it's good.

: : using my trusty site meter (which was always kinda mysterious to me before and i really only looked at those pretty dots on the map), i found out that the groovy folks at okaygreat picked up moo's thing about my studio and posted about it too. but then, i stayed and looked around and found out that it's a way cool blog/tumblr/design website kinda place, so now it's a regular visit. 

: : i was recently accused of not understanding the struggle that people are going through of late in these times of GEC, especially in the US. and it's true, i probably don't understand fully, especially in light of the results of a facebook quiz i just took which tells me that i have an 88% perfect life. (sigh. and you KNOW how accurate those facebook quizzes are.) but just because i'm not going through it myself, and i'm maybe a little too focused on taking my crocheted stones to the beach, doesn't mean that i can't have sympathy and even empathy for those who are. because i do care. and i hope that everybody will be ok and get through it intact. and not have to sell all their stuff and their soul and their firstborn children on eBay. because that wouldn't be good. i mean think about it, the whole market flooded with a bunch of over-achieving first-borns. not good.

and on that note, i'd better get back to the stern review...catch ya later, lovelies.