monday morning at my desk

i don't know what made me open twitter first thing this morning. it's not something i normally do. i guess it was to complain to pinterest about how they changed their "oops, you've already pinned this" message to the much more boring and impersonal "you've already saved this pin." it's like they experienced people not knowing what "pinned" meant and so they changed it to "saved" to serve the lowest common denominator. come on pinterest, give us more credit than that.  but i digress... i went to twitter and then i foolishly stayed for awhile. and discovered that the feed is full of complaints (ironic that i'm complaining, i know, since i went there to complain myself) and fear and speculation and righteousness. whether it's arrogant white dudes admitting murder on HBO or the apparent disappearance of putin or vanuatu's destruction at the hands of a tropical cyclone (do cyclones have hands?) or the persecution of confused elderly people by the DSB or just jeremy clarkson, it's all negative somehow. and definitely not conducive to starting off my monday morning (which is already a bit grey and dull and generally blustery and march-ish) on the right foot. and making it slightly difficult to see what today's #100happydays post should be.

* * *

words matter. expat? just another term of white privilege? yup.

* * *

would love to see this exhibition of native plains art at the met.

* * *

a danish sexologist thinks porn should be taught in the classroom.
i've been in denmark long enough to agree.
and my child is actually in the target age group.

* * *

check out the putin's missing clock.
i love the internet.

* * *

this may be advice for young writers,
but i think it applies to old ones as well.
and to humans in general.

"Life is most transfixing when you are awake to diversity, not only of ethnicity, ability, gender, belief, and sexuality but also of age and experience."

mondays

things are a bit blurry these days, but i'm hoping for clarity soon. just a few moments of perfect clarity would be most welcome.

* * *

this flickr stream by dagmar franolic totally speaks to me right now.

* * *

murakami is answering questions on a temporary website.
i sure wish i read japanese.
happily he is answering in english to those who ask in english.

do you think it's too late?

...for me to be a naval architect when i grow up?

monday will sometimes bite you in the ass

it's a balmy 8°C (46°F) outside and foggy. the winds from last week's storm (the increasingly aptly-named bodil), have finally subsided and it's so still you can hear water dripping from the trees. in many ways, it's a really beautiful day, despite it being grey. but it's also a monday and sometimes monday just bites you in the ass.

it actually started already when i woke up with a start, far too early, thinking of a group of friends i had 25 years ago in california. they were a shallow lot and hadn't crossed my mind in years. it wasn't a nice way to wake up. so, as i am wont to do, i grabbed the iPad and checked in to see what was happening in the world of facebook. near the top of my feed was a local friend, expressing delight that she could hear her elementary-age children in the other room, getting into their stockings for their advent calendar presents, and exclaiming "shit and fuck" with delight over their gifts. it made her feel like she'd really picked the right presents. yes, these swear words coming from the mouths of kindergarten and second graders, were words of joy and christmas cheer. and their mother was proud.

after all these years, i do realize that our english swear words, while in widespread use in denmark, do not carry the same meaning or impact that they do in english. and i freely use them, even the f-word, myself. however, i never get used to them coming from the mouths of babes. i just really think that's not cool. and it still causes an almost literal jolt of culture shock when i hear (or in this case, read) it.  i commented on the post that where i grew up, if i'd reacted to my christmas gifts with swearing, i'd have had my mouth washed out with soap. one of the others commenting on the post responded that there was nothing about swearing. she didn't even recognize shit and fuck as swear words. i knew then it was going to be that kind of day.

soon after that, my child began texting me, plaguing me to let her get the office package for her macbook air. yes, my child, requesting to put a microsoft product on a mac. she may as well have asked for a ferrari with a ford engine. it made me realize i've utterly failed as a parent. so, determined to end it all, i headed down to the lake. only to find that the tree from which i had planned to hang myself had toppled in the storm. trees around here just give up so easily.

ok, i wasn't really going to kill myself, that was just for dramatic and humorous effect.

soon it was time to go pick up the child from school. she and her friends got in the car and began talking in a sort of pidgin danglish and it was driving me completely mad. i was so not in the mood for it. it was like when someone keeps repeating what you say and you want them to stop and they won't. i had that same panicky feeling that comes from that. like it might never stop and you will probably have to stab someone before it's all over. and then there will be a mess and the explaining to the parents...

but then the phone rang, it was a neighbor, telling me that our horses were out and running around in the fog on the road. so we rushed home. the girls jumped out of the car (thereby ending the danglish madness) and grabbed them and started walking them home. and yes, they were just hanging out on the road. silly horses. then some maniac drove by at high speed and the two they had hold of got away again and the chase was on. and do you think that asshole took a look in her rearview mirror at the chaos she had wrought? no, she did not. but i grabbed a bucket of grain and a couple of leadropes and we got them in. they were all snorty and excited after their adventures.

i kind of just want to crawl in bed and have this day end. but i guess some days are like that. especially mondays.

through the viewfinder

i woke up feeling irritated. irritated that the bell jar was so quickly over and that the ending was so ambiguous. irritated that americans don't realize the rest of the world uses the metric system and they're the weird ones. irritated with styled, perfectly-presented lives that pretend to be all quiet and serene when they're put up online. irritated at those roosters out there, trying to outdo one another. irritated that no matter how much laundry you do, there will always be more. irritated that i still don't really know what i want to be when i grow up. irritated that i'm beginning to suspect that i actually am grown up and this is just a condition of life. irritated at the gorgeous thomas rode's new paleo cookbook (even tho' i'd like to sleep with it under my pillow), because i really doubt they had that much cabbage in the stone age. irritated that kittens become cats so quickly. irritated at how high the ground water level is with all this rain. irritated that i wrenched my back and nearly fell into the well trying to get the perfect shot of some leaves against the blue sky.

maybe i'll just go back to bed.

unfocused monday

oh my, did i lack focus today. even right now, as i'm trying to write this, i'm glancing through pinterest on my laptop as my fingers rest on the keyboard of my big computer. maybe it was a monday thing. maybe it was that my to-do list is of daunting proportions. maybe it was because i didn't shower, but just got dressed and rushed off to my first appointment. it wasn't a kind of you-shouldn't-go-out-in-public-stinky-woman lack of a shower, it was more of a that-would-have-really-cleared-your-mind kind of need for a shower. after my appointment (where i presented a good picture of being on top of things) i was so unfocused, i drove a strange backroads route home, which took me past a dairy where they have a cheese store. i wandered in and bought a huge block of havarti. not planned. then i got back in the car and noticed a nursery and popped in to see if they had any artichokes. they did and i also bought wormwood (tho' i didn't know that's what it was at the time) it's called malurt in danish and has absinthe in its latin name, so i thought "score." i also picked up a chili plant, some lovage, tarragon and sage. also rather unfocused. i stopped by the store to pick up milk and cat litter. i came out with nectarines, crackers, creme fraiche and toilet paper. no milk. no cat litter. unfocused, i tell you. i picked up the child and two of her friends. they ate some nectarines. we went home. we walked in the door and i was reminded of our need for cat litter. so i went to the feed store to buy cat food. i came home with bunny food and chicken food as well. i decided to go to another grocery store, where i would surely remember milk and cat litter, plus it was close to the library, where i needed to pick up a book i ordered. i got there and didn't have my phone with me, where the number of my reservation was, so i had to look at two entire shelves of books for a title that looked like i might have ordered it. it turrned out to be bakhtin's theory of the literary chronotope: reflections, applications and perspectives (apparently this lack of focus thing has been going on longer than i thought). this time, i left the store with milk, sugar, cream, flour, brown sugar, 4 pears, 4 apples and 2 bananas. and again, no cat litter. by this time, i was getting good at forgetting the cat litter (*silver lining*). home again, where i tried to settle in to work. but a restlessness came over me and i couldn't sit still. i went out and planted the herbs and the chili. and gathered a basket of elderflowers to make cordial. that made me feel slightly less restless, but then it was really time to do some work. so i settled in at my desk and then someone came to the door. it involved a lengthy chat and a wander in the yard. as if i needed to wander. and then it was time to make dinner. and husband came home and had a headache, so he had a little lie down. when dinner was ready, i couldn't find anyone, even tho' i called and called. so i ate by myself while i stared at my to-do list with a creeping sense of doom. after dinner, the sun had come out, and husband's headache was better, so we had to take a walk. that helped. at least with the restlessness. but i still only got about 3 hours of work done, when it should have been more like ten. let's hope tomorrow is a little more focused. and that i remember the cat litter.

b is for better

as in, things can only get better....

~ i spent most of the day totally freezing and couldn't get warm.

~ my neck and shoulders are strangely aching.

~ can you say, coming down with something?

~ husband crashed the car pulling out of a parking lot and had to come home in a loaner car from the dealership. (he's fine, as it was a slow-speed thing.)

~ the deductible is 5,100DKK ($942). (that would buy an awful lot of fabric.)

~ i learned that christiane amanpour left CNN and went to ABC (which i realize happened awhile ago, but i've apparently been living under a rock).

~ i learned i've apparently been living under a rock.

~ the person husband crashed into is our neighbor, the pilot, who sells us things like stalls and tractors. that man costs us money every time we see him. he's lucky he's posh and funny. and rather cute for an old guy. (and by that i mean both husband and piloten.)

but on the bright side, moggle the jacabob came today (he's the little one in the bottom of the B above).  and it is march 1. and march has gotta be better than february.

lighter than air

works by danish artist jane balsgaard

not to go all new agey here, because that's really not me, but i do hereby resolve to have a light, bright week, in which i rise above all the trouble and strife and the chaos (at least the chaos that's not of my own creation). lighter than air i tell you. i'm going to be lighter than air.  i can feel it. and i wish the same for you, where ever you find yourself...

a new dawn

i find myself increasingly bewildered by the corporate landscape in which i find myself these days. i remember when i first entered corporate life a decade ago, i was struck by how much more postmodern it was than i expected it to be. virtual teams and dotted reporting lines were far more removed from reality than i had expected. from the warm cocoon of my graduate studies, i thought somehow business was all about reality and the postmodern social and literary theory i had studied would be of no use to me. oh how i little i knew...

but now i have entered a world where things are ever more protracted from reality: forms without purpose, incomprehensible and ever-changing organizational charts, IT systems where apparently no one considered that actual humans might be using them, and a language that is ostensibly english, but at the same time not and don't even get me started about people crying in meetings. i find myself in this web of artificial structures held up by thin air. and i wonder when it will all come crashing down and what that will look like and whether i'll be able to stand clear of the rubble.

but then, i get up in the morning and i look out upon a world where dew glitters in the light of the rising sun and i realize that the webs that matter are there, in the garden, glowing in the morning light, constructed by spiders which had a purpose in doing so. and somehow, i can face the week.

loving monday

i know i've been harping on and on about the rainy, cloudy, cold weather we've been having and even i am tired of it (both the weather and the harping), so i thought that regardless of the weather, i would start the week by remembering that there are lots of things to love, so i give you what i'm loving right here, right now, rain or shine...

unexpected prezzies in the mail.
even better if they're a crocheted stone (all the way from canada)!
thank you delena!! 

more unexpected prezzies in the mail.
a sweet little book of amanda's own photos and a GORGEOUS card!
i wanna make little books like that too - waah!
thank you so much, amanda!!!

the variety of flowers i'm finding in our new garden.
picked this bouquet this weekend.
tho' the wind blew so much the past two days, this will be the last of the lilacs. (cry!)

stitching while watching t.v.
on my black-bean dyed linen.
which has changed color (on its own) to a lovely purpley grey.

more experiments in dyeing.
trying with those lilacs. i love lilacs, but i'll admit i'm not sure this is going to work.
and i love the light in my kitchen window.

i also love the girl effect, facebook (yes, facebook - i'm into it thanks to my AyePhone (which i also love) and the fact that you can choose "pirate" as your language), flickr and blog camp. and i love that my nephews, who currently are in possession of my sabin's iPad, refer to it as "the big phone." oh, and i also love the new blogger template editor (as you can see from my new look). i didn't change my old picture sizes, so if you look at old posts, the pix will bleed over into the RH sidebar. i wanted to remember when i made i the switch, so i left them.

maybe we can all change the world this monday, just by thinking of what we love and not about hating mondays (and that infernal weather).

a colorful week

here's wishing you all a colorful week (in the best possible sense of colorful)...

dreaming of colorful rooms

brightening up my kitchen (i'm thinking stripes)

curtains for sabin's bedroom - featuring the new echino spring fabrics (bought here)

what could be more perfect than colorful fabric featuring cameras?

unless it's also airplanes and nerd glasses?

and a little homemade color - i dyed these in some water i had soaked black beans in for dinner.

letting color set the tone for my week and i hope you do too!

color me yellow monday

kristina did a yellow day last friday on no penny for them and i decided it was a lovely way to start the week.

locations: legoland, legoland, singapore, singapore, home.

monday weirdness

macro of an oak tree that was growing when the pyramids were built

morning came too soon. i was in the middle of a really cool dream in which polly and i were going around this awesome antique fair. what was really strange is that the stands kept moving and so as soon as you turned away from something, it became something else. but it wasn't in an annoying way, it was really cool. and there was this vintage clothing that was to die for and i was just turning to tangobaby to show her an especially cute blouse, when husband's stupid alarm rang. he uses his phone and he intentionally leaves it downstairs so he has to get up to turn it off. it rang for kind of a long time and i lost that great top...dark blue with some beading and a super cute fit. sigh. mondays.

so i thought i'd share a bit of monday weirdness.

: : top 51 places that are blocked or blurred out in google maps. especially strange is that william hurt's home is listed as a college or research lab. not to mention strange that it would be blurred out. i mean, who cares where william hurt lives?

: : that stupid new visa waiver program that the US has for people from countries who don't need visas to  go to the US, but have to get this dumb pre-authorization to travel there. it gives it to you instantly, online, which makes me wonder what the hell it's really about. big brother really is watching, people.

: : cartons of wine. that just sounds wrong, i don't care if the economist says it's right.

: : pride and prejudice and zombies. i'm reading this and i think it's really weird. in a good way, but really weird nonetheless. and it makes me think that perhaps adding zombies to war and peace would make that baggy monster a bit easier to take.

here's hoping your monday is less weird than mine. 

p.s. blogger, whatever that update you did this morning at 9 a.m. my time, just brought on a bunch of spacing issues that i hope you will fix in the near future.

my words are elsewhere at the moment

so this will have to do for a monday...

i survived!

picture just meant to be a calming influence on my psyche

i love lilacs.

they're my favorite flower.

today was the day that i had to conduct an interview at my former place of employment. it's a very austere place. cold. formal. old-fashioned. and i'll admit i was shit scared a bit apprehensive about going back there. it was a place that was downright bad for my health and i was worried that setting foot in there again would set me back months in getting over it and that it might require building a second story on the studio to make it ok again.  but you know what? i was wrong. totally and completely wrong.

and it's partly because of a conversation i had with a friend last friday (HUGE thank you H!). she and i are doing an art show together in october and we got together to talk about that. she actually works at that place now (in a totally different department) and we talked about it. and i told her about my fears and my need to psyche up to go there. she said, "you're afraid of meeting your old self when you go in there. but it's not going to happen. you're a totally different person now." and she was so right. it was like her words just totally clicked into place with me and i haven't been worried about it since. she was right. there was no danger for me there, no matter the cold, marble surfaces. there wasn't anything there that could hurt me anymore.

it helped that the receptionist remembered me and was kind and welcoming. it helped that i saw a bunch of faces i knew and they lit up and greeted me warmly when they saw me (all but one the big introvert boss who stuttered a bit when i greeted him cheerfully--and admittedly it was nice to see him a bit squirmy, so that was also a good thing). it was even ok that the meeting room was one i had been in countless times.

and the interview was great. they were engaged and interested and i learned something and got great information for my story. i can tell that big changes are afoot and that it's a good thing. it's a different place than it was when i left a year and a half ago and i'm a different person too. and both are good. and it's such a relief. they say you can't go back and i can understand that. but sometimes, maybe you should go back, just to prove yourself that it's safe and you're healed.

afterwards, i had lunch with a very good friend and she had plenty of time, so we talked for almost three hours. and that was so great. we gossiped, we theorized (more about that later), we talked about books, we watched a very weird man in a BMW (i'll blog about that later when i can download from my phone camera) and we laughed and had great food and a latte. and now, i'm in the lounge again, waiting to fly on to a new place and new adventures. and that's as it should be. just another manic monday.

just another manic monday

wow, this day got away from me. i worked feverishly on finishing my outline of the articles for the upcoming issue of "my" magazine, after spending a week doing research and reading background materials. i can tell you that i've got a lot of work to do! but it's all exciting, so it's all good. i love digging into environmental issues and learning something new. will share more of all that later.

it's the beginning of easter week and although today-wednesday are work days here, many people are taking days off since the new vacation year begins may 1 and people have to use up the last few of last year's vacation days. so, while i was working away and staring out at the sunshine, husband was cleaning the greenhouse and getting it ready for the season. here's a before picture (i didn't get the after taken yet).

and yesterday, i managed to finish #39 in the year of creativity...a table runner for our dining room table. it's even reversible:

see, maps on the other side. we do love maps around here (another post for another day).

i did manage to sneak in a batch of nigella's brownies. the recipe i used today isn't among those on the link, but there are plenty to keep you busy/inspired. i baked them a titch too long, so they weren't quite as chewy as they should have been, but pretty good nonetheless. especially after a really good burger, the first of the grill season at buresø.

after the happiness of saturday's wedding, sadly, we have a funeral to attend tomorrow, so i'll likely catch you on wednesday. i hope that we will get to go down to møn's klint afterwards, because the funeral is down on møn. walking on the beach and communing with nature and the music of the stones would be a glorious way to pay homage to a wonderful woman, who was one of the first who made me a real, traditional danish meal when i first came to denmark. she will be missed and fondly remembered.

a monday kind of a day

i love this picture. it looks like a creature of some kind. he's got green moss hair on his head and a large eye and some kind of a trunk-like appendage, along with that arm-like branch sticking up. i love the wrinkles under his chin. i don't really know what i'm going to do with him, but he speaks to me somehow. there's some glimmer of something there. it's one of those moments of intuitive inspiration. i don't know what's going to happen with it, but i'm sure that something will. and no, i'm not going off about inspiration again.

* * *

i made sabin and karoline turn the channel to house at 6 p.m., just like i do nearly every weekday. you see, i need my fix of house. he's so deliciously mean. sabin had my laptop in her lap and announced, "i'll just go to you tube and type hannah montana and watch it there." when did the child learn about you tube? i think i've got to keep a better eye on her.

* * *

this morning, we braved THIS traffic (thank goodness i normally fly to my job) to go in and get husband some vaccinations at the only place we knew for sure would have a yellow fever jab available at 9 a.m. on a monday. mom asked me if i had to twitch him or ear him down for the vaccination, like we used to do with the horses, but i don't actually know if that was necessary, because i was running around frantically trying to find an ATM to get some cash to pay for the damn shots because their stupid card machine was broken. and let me tell you, there was no cash machine within a reasonable walking distance in any direction (reminder to self: do not try to find cash in the area of the royal palace, apparently they have no need for cash). finally, it dawned on me that there was an ATM on the 4th floor of my old workplace, right across the street from the doctor and so i asked a good friend who is still on the inside (if that sounds like prison, i do mean it to a little bit) to help me out with some cash. naturally, during this frantic run, i managed to find time to grab not one, but two double lattes. and by the time i got back, not only was husband vaccinated against yellow fever, but also against hepatitis B AND their stupid card machine was back up and running, so they didn't need my hard-earned cash (tho' i am very grateful for irene's help!). it was a monday kind of thing.

and then i set this guy off at the airport so he could head off to north carolina (no yellow fever there) and then onwards to brazil (possibility of yellow fever there). i'm a bit envious of brazil. south america is one of my missing continents (Oz is the other one). then i high-tailed it for home, where the feverish child had been left on her own (with big sis when we left) and where research into these called. so much for being a resourcestærke parent, leaving the child home alone sick. but it was deemed better than dragging around in the car to get carsick at the moment of leaving. i wish we'd all been headed off for brazil. i already had yellow fever. the vaccine. or was it japanese encephalitis? or maybe typhoid fever. i never remember.

in lieu of going to brazil, perhaps i'll just have to watch the movie:

hope your monday was fabulous.

monday's lessons

things i learned this monday:

1. i wore my grey hugo boss suit today and the pants are really loose. who would have imagined that i'd lost weight? and how fat was i before? holy crap.
   
2. some moron apparently packed my suitcase because it was missing:
1. deodorant
2. clean underwear (too much information, i realize)
3. my wolford knee-highs (which meant i was wearing slightly bulky grey SOCKS with the heels and the hugo boss today)
4. any tights for tomorrow's austin reed skirt suit.
5. no shampoo or conditioner whatsoever.
   
3. it did, however, contain:
1. 3 different kinds of perfume
2. a ball of yarn and some knitting needles
3. my 20-pack of staedler triplus fineliners
4. about 50 receipts from stores in manila
5. 6 different mac paint pots
6. 2 sets of false eyelashes
4. i am lucky this hotel is right next to the largest mall in scandinavia, so i have now remedied all of #2 (except for the bulky socks i had on all day with my open-toed pumps).
5. my fingers remember how to do all that dumb PC stuff (like ctrl-alt-del), even if my conscious mac brain has blocked it all out.
6. learned a new term in the IHT: mediagenic (new for me, anyway).
7. i have a hard time telling the difference between spoken norwegian and spoken swedish.
8. that ryan air guy is really wacky (yes, i'm watching BBC world).
   
9. i think the mirrors in this hotel might be long-hair mirrors. i swear my hair seems longer in norway.
   
10. 38% of the people in my new company have a master's degree. 4% have a Ph.D.

i hope you learned something too this monday. :-)

p.s. i haven't forgotten the 50 followers thing...post on that coming soon!!!!
p.p.s. i'm not done with the whole eyeball thing yet. 

just another mundane monday

turns out i was premature in my being pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of the fabric-softener scented washing machine repairman. you see, he fixed only one of the two problems and he left a totally NEW problem behind. which i didn't realize until after i did the first load. and naturally, they can't send someone back 'til thursday. grrr. crappy ass miele repairmen. actually, i have to give meile credit, now that i'm naming them by name, the girls on the customer service phone are great and you get to talk to a live person right away, rather than wading through some kind of automatic system and being directed to bangalore or bangulu as they're calling it now. i guess they just don't have very strict requirements as to whether you, as a washing machine repairman, have actually ever repaired a washing machine or might be capable of doing so.

then, around noon, husband called in a panic and asked me to bring him some clothing suitable for fencing. that took nearly two hours to locate said clothing (in dirty clothes pile since washing machine still not fixed) and drive it to him and get back home. note to self: ask husband more questions about what kind of course it is he's attending anyway....

and then i realized that although it was cloudy and dreary as hell in denmark, the sun was shining in sweden and that just seems unfair on so many levels--they've got nicer cars, more style, lower taxes, all the good names on the ikea stuff (the only stuff with danish names is insignificant stuff like bottle openers and the like) and now this:

after that run, it was time to pick up sabin. she did the absolute sweetest thing and completely restored my faith in humanity (which was waning in the face of extreme lack of sunshine) by filling a bag with all of her heinous bratz dolls and announcing that she wanted to take them to school the next day and give them to her friend aleyna, who is a girl from a turkish family (which somehow makes it even sweeter to me, tho' it shouldn't really matter). how cool is that?

and on top of it, she made a crown for the cat out of pipecleaners. i picture build-a-bear clothing on this cat's horizon:

i did very little that was on my list--my excuse being that the hardware store was out of the good firewood thingies so i couldn't warm up the studio without risking life and limb and of course, husband blowing a two hour hole into my day. and i made chicken for dinner--i found a package in the fridge and felt i had to use it up before it went bad, plus the child is a huge carnivore. but tomorrow is another day and we can be vegetarians then.

pros and cons

just to think about something other than politics (how ARE we going to survive another month of this campaign?), i have, in usual monday fashion, decided to compile a list (or lists). so, i give you:

stuff my parents could have done better:

1. they never insisted that i brush my teeth (as a result of which i have about 15 fillings).
2. they cut my meat 'til i went to college. this created many embarrassing situations for me when i  went out in public and actually had to cut my meat by myself. not good.
3. i have really bad eyes. i'm like one diopter from needing a dog. we're talking -7 here! (at least in my left eye, with the right not far behind at 6.5.) that's just bad genes. tho' strangely, neither of my parents' eyes are that bad.
4. made me think one shouldn't throw things away because you just might need them someday.
5. told me that people were "just jealous" when i wasn't getting along with them (this may have given me an inflated sense of myself and an inability to see what was really going on).

but, to be fair, they did lots of stuff right:

1. gave me an abiding love for reading.
2. and writing. (that's also good genes.)
3. and music (9 years of piano lessons, almost as many flute and years of singing).
4. the fearlessness with which i face the world.
5. taught me there was a world outside that small town i grew up in.
6. my only rule growing up: "win or don't come home." (my sister's rule: no pot in the living room (more about that another day)).
7. an expectation that good things happen, not bad and things work out for the best.
8. anything is possible if you work for it (this is generally an american thing, isn't it?)
9. education is important.
10. raised me democrat, which made me open to the world. (thanks, dad!)
11. raised me to question things, rather than just accept things at face value.
12. raised me to love animals (not dogs, but cats and horses).

what did your parents do for you?