a small, not very coherent, collection of thoughts

i know this is a very serene picture, but i'm not feeling all that serene, there are a lot of things bugging me and they are all tumbling in my head. i'll get the trivial out of the way first...what the hell is a groom's cake? what groom wants a cake? (i need to be where facebook is not...so much for the new "re-focused on what's important" timeline, zuck.) and believe me, the cheeto satan does not weigh a mere 239 pounds. what a shithole. or is it asshole? or is it shitty asshole? yes. yes. and yes.

and now on to the less trivial...several times of late, i have read heartfelt, earnest facebook versions of life stories featuring the storyteller patting themselves on the back for never having accepted any kind of help...be it food stamps or financial assistance of other sorts. as if that's something to be congratulated for. as if needing and receiving help is a horrible, awful thing. honestly, is that where we are? if so, that just utterly sucks.

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when you're crabby from being hungry, it's called hangry, but what's it called when you're crabby from not sleeping well?

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if someone says your podcast trailer sounds "so npr" and also "so american," is that an insult or a compliment? i suspect it was an insult, but i'm choosing to take it as a compliment.

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reading studs terkel's seminal work - working - from the 70s. and i'm realizing we haven't really progressed all that much. it's fascinating and deep and comforting and also disturbing. i have a library copy, but i think i'll have to buy it. so i can write and underline in it - things like this: "i think most of us are looking for a calling, not a job. most of us, like the assembly line worker, have jobs that are too small for our spirit. jobs are not big enough for people."

that said, i genuinely do love my job. but i fear that's the exception, not the rule.

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a friend went to a course with tom of holland

and i want to too!

i have a whole stack of things that need mending.

monday funday

i was worried all night about the middle of the night uber i'd ordered for sabs to meet her 6 a.m. flight from newark and so i slept very restlessly. i dreamed that i had put regular gas in husband's diesel quashqai. and then i dreamed that i was reaching into a cramped space to lift out what i thought would be a kitten and i found it was a none-too-happy baby possum. scout, who hadn't been around for over a week, chose to meow plaintively at the window at a little after midnight. so when the dulcet tones of husband's north korean telephone (it's a huawei, which, i realize, is chinese, not north korean, but calling it north korean is so much funnier) called out that it was time to wake up, i wasn't ready. it felt like i'd only just gotten to sleep. plus, i didn't want to be in trouble for the gas tank thing. it wasn't the best start to a monday morning, which can be sketchy in and of itself. so i ate chocolate chip cookies for breakfast and made a pot of tea. i went to sit down at my freshly-renovated desk area to get to work and found scout sleeping in my chair. i couldn't possibly disturb him, i mean, what if he never got comfortable again? so i moved the chair over and brought in another one. let sleeping cats lie, they say, right?

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some moron in the white house (there are so many), did not realize this was satire.

screen time limits

do you think your kids spend too much time glued to their screens? i've long had my doubts, so i was happy to read this fresh perspective on one of the nytimes blogs. i think my doubts were for different reasons, but in light of the alarming stories i've read recently about something called free-range parenting (which we just call parenting here in denmark), this one rings true on some level.  but to this swaddling in cotton (to directly translate a phrase from danish) that we as parents do to our kids today, i would add that giving them screen time prepares them for the workplaces of the future. the fact is, we are surrounded by technology today and if you aren't comfortable with it and it's not second nature to you, you will be left behind.

and that's why it's after 11 p.m. and i'm still sitting here with five screens glowing gently on my face (including the phone i used to take this photo). just trying to stay relevant.

kidding aside, i listened to a 2-part freakonomics podcast about sleep. they interviewed a researcher who was looking into sleep patterns. she recommended that you leave aside the glowy devices for a least a half an hour before bed if you wanted to have a good night's sleep. but she also admitted that she doesn't follow this advice herself. as she said, the iPad is very compelling. and i'll admit i'm horrible at this. i often read something (a book, the nytimes, facebook) on my iPad as a prelude to falling asleep. and i'm sure that it means that i don't sleep as well as i should. which, according to the podcast, probably means that i don't do anything else as well as i should.

maybe i need to put aside the glowy devices at bedtime...

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squee! there really is an x-files revival coming!

sleep deprivation

i didn't sleep well last night. that happens sometimes. it's like i forget how to sleep. but it passes. when i get tired enough. my mind always goes a little wonky when i'm sleep deprived, but i suppose that's not unique. since i wouldn't want you to miss out, i thought i'd share some of the thoughts rants ramblings that have gone through my mind this afternoon:

1. i started yet another sewing project without finishing any of the others that i have started. i wonder if there are meds for this. it seems that what i like is cutting into the fabric, which is strange because my new sewing machine is wonderful and i love to sew with it.
2. i'm reading christian jungersen's the exception in the original danish--undtagelsen. and in telling amanda about it, and looking it up on amazon, i realized that i actually HAVE the book in english, so why am i slogging through the danish? the book came highly recommended by our best friends and i'm 82 pages in and hate all of the main characters. they're self-absorbed, righteous, and totally unappealing. how will i tell my friends? and how will i ever finish it? will i like them better (the characters, not the friends) if i switch to english?
3. if you check your flickr stats, your viewing goes WAY up on monday, after the weekend. that must mean there are a whole lot of people on flickr during work hours.
4. i wonder if there's a cocktail that goes with pancakes?
5. back to flickr. i am completely mystified as to what causes a picture to be popular because i think it has nothing to do with the quality of the actual photograph. case in point:  i discovered a group the other day called stick figures in peril. i thought that was such a hilarious idea that i dug out a picture of a stick figure in peril that i took several years ago in phuket. (goodness knows that if a stick figure is indeed going to find itself in peril, phuket is definitely where it will happen.)  and so i joined the group and posted it. that picture has had 593 views since i uploaded it on friday or was it saturday and has skyrocketed to my second most viewed photo behind the one that the moo people sent out in their december newsletter. and it's not even a very good picture, it's just funny. 

i think we all hope i get a good night's sleep and am back to normal tomorrow. whatever that is.

emergencies call for emergency measures

i slept like total crap last night. my mind whirling with the "to do" list for today to prepare for the arrival of my sister and her new boyfriend.  partly worries about a couple of my invoices that went missing in the customer's new accounting system, which has meant that i paid a whole lot of travel expenses with my own money and am rather desperate to be paid that money back! partly my VAT report (why is one of those eternally hanging over me--i need an accountant). and partly husband's snoring. he goes in streaks where he snores something awful and this is one of them. then, sabin came into our bed after a bad dream and she's gettting big, so it was crowded, plus then i froze because she's in the middle and kicks the covers off. it all added up to crap sleep.

but, then, i unexpectedly got this in the mail:

it came from a good friend who i used to work with. it was like he was totally psychic and knew exactly that i would need the smile this gave me this morning. thank you, michael!