why yes, it is another interview...

lynne of wheatlands news, who i interviewed during the great interview meme, actually interviews people for a living, so i asked her to send me five questions. what can i say, i'm a girl who needs an assignment.  i've found this interview thing to be so much fun! it has provoked my thinking and helped me explain things even to myself while i was writing the answers. that's how a good interview should be.  so i give you lynne's questions and my answers:

lynne:  Your daughter Sabin has an unusual name. Where does it come from and how do you pronounce it?

me:  sabin is a twin, born 10 weeks early because i had the first case of listeriosis seen in denmark in 25 years. her twin sister, sophia, was stillborn. sabin, although only 1570 grams, was perfect and fine and healthy, but just very small. we felt she needed a very strong name after such a difficult beginning. so she was named after my paternal grandmother, whose maiden name was sabin. we decided it would work as a beautiful first name and would carry with it the weight of the strength of my amazing grandmother, who lived to be 96 years old and had ten children (not necessarily in that order) and was truly the matriarch of our family. although she didn't live to meet sabin, i know she'd have loved knowing her and would have loved that she had her name.

sabin's middle name is amalie, in case she grew up and didn't feel sabin suited her. amalie is a more common name in denmark. however, she strongly identifies with sabin and wouldn't dream of using something else. i call her all sorts of pet names and she often insists that her name is sabin and i should stop calling her pooka.

and it's pronounced "say-bin" with the stress on the first syllable and a soft i (not e-sound, but also not really a schwa (one of those upsidedown e's you might remember from linguistics and which i can't seem to make blogger produce)).

lynne: What do you feel about long, dark winter days?

the dark winters are something i struggle with living in denmark and something which makes the prospect of norway, which is even darker in the winter, a bit daunting. it might be ok if you had proper snow along with it, but instead, the winter is grey and dreary in addition to dark. it rains more often than it snows and there isn't much snow or even frost. most mornings when i run sabin to school, although it's still pretty dark out around 8 a.m., i don't have to scrape frost off the car.

i remember the first november i spent here, the sun never shined a single time. it rained an annoying cold drizzle the entire, grey, bleak month. that definitely gave me pause as to what i had gotten myself into.

where i grew up in south dakota, you had a proper cold, snowy winter and the winters were dark, but nothing like here. just as an example, chicago is more or less on the same latitude as rome and here in denmark we are more or less on the same latitude as the hudson bay. it's not as cold here due to the gulf stream and the fact of being surrounded by water (i guess that was what we called the lake effect in chicago), but the darkness is similar.

i think it's why the danes have this thing about "hygge," which is translated as "coziness," but which carries far more weight than that word carries in english, at least for me. inherent in it is a combatting of darkness with candlelight and red wine and good food and good design and laughter together with friends in your home. and that feeling wouldn't be the same without the darkness of the winter, so i've come to think that's something i can live with. i just have to be sure that when the sun shines i get out for a walk in it, regardless of how cold it is. we also try to go to the swimming pool on a weekly basis and there they have a "health cabin" with light and warmth treatment where you can spend 20 minutes or so and i've found that really helps.

lynne: What makes you feel most content?


as i'm waiting to start my new job (with the same company i worked for last year), i've actually been thinking a lot about this. because despite the doom and gloom of the newspapers and the television news going on and on about GEC, i actually feel quite content in my life at this moment. if i think about the reasons why, it has a lot to do with the fact of being in a home i love with people i love, surrounded by things i love, getting to do the things i love--cooking, sewing, painting, drawing--all domestic things.

despite spending a number of years chasing a career, i have to admit that many of my moments of contentment come from being in my home.  and the moments when i'm most often aware of feeling content are when i'm cooking with ingredients that inspire me or painting the walls a rich color that makes me feel good or sewing up a lap quilt or a pillow.

for me contentment also has to do with being able to spend a number of hours alone nearly every day. despite being seen as an outgoing person and largely being that, i have a great need for time alone to think. i love the quiet of the house around me or of listening to the same album or even the same song over and over. i love letting my thoughts wander as i sew seams. i crave the time to do that and feel most content when i have plenty of alone time.

i guess contentment comes as well from generally feeling that i'm where i should be at this stage in my life. although i didn't finish my Ph.D., because life took me in another direction, i don't regret it. in fact, i don't have a lot of regrets in general. all of the choices i've made and the experiences i've had have brought me to this place and this time where i feel satisfied. and it really does seem to be true that we have to go through bad experiences in order to be stronger and to appreciate the good ones.  i know that i am far more content now than i was at this time last year.

on the other hand, contentment is highly subjective and personal, isn't it? and who knows, i might wake up feeling far less content tomorrow because i also know that one of the things that makes me content is change and if things stay the same for too long, i get impatient and restless. i'm likely going to need to have some plane tickets pretty soon if i'm going to maintain this sense of contentment that i have at the moment.

lynne: How important is music in your life? What is your favourite type of music? I notice you write a lot about books your read and about your crafts but seldom mention music.

interesting you ask. music is very important and it's actually rare that i am without music. we have more iPods in this house than i care to admit and seven different speaker sets to plug them into so there can be music anywhere in the house(s). we have henry kloss radios in both of the bathrooms so we can listen to the radio while we're getting ready in the morning.

i've written a few of times about music, and pretty much all of the times i mentioned alanis morissette, who is one of my big favorites and the one i return to again and again to keep my equilibrium and sanity. but largely, i think i don't write about it much because it's something that's always there for me, like air, which i also don't write much about. :-) and i definitely don't have one of those widgets that triggers a playlist when you come to my blog--i have to admit that really bugs me when i come across those on blogs. i'm cool with people TALKING about their music, i just don't really want them to play it for me automatically, mostly because i have my own music playing. plus, i don't know where people are when they're reading my blog, perhaps they're somewhere where it would be really quite inconvenient to have regina spector blasting out of their computer speakers. because my list, if i had it, would have some regina on it.

my musical tastes run from what my sister calls vag rock (by which she means everyone from alanis, regina and sheryl crow to katy perry and lily allen) to chill and house, which i got into on a trip to turkey a few years ago to scissor sisters (might be vag rock too, now that i think about it) to jamiriquoi to nirvana to andrew lloyd weber's evita if i'm in the mood. i got totally into that, even before madonna played evita in the mid-90s and read every biography of eva peron that was published at the time. oh, and i love madonna and have since the beginning.

music was important in our household growing up. i had 9 years of piano lessons and almost as many of the flute. i continued playing the flute into college and although we don't have a piano these days, i do have my flute and should play it more often than i do. we sing a lot around here--with the music that's playing and especially in the car. and especially when my sister is here. sabin loves that.

the only thing i'm not a big fan of is most jazz, tho' some i do like. for me, there is a certain kind of jazz that just agitates me and makes me feel really restless and on edge. that's not what i want music to do for me--i generally use it to clear out emotions and find my balance again or to uplift my spirits and much jazz actually makes me feel the opposite of that.

but alanis, she's there for me every time.

lynne: What really makes you laugh?


husband. he's so funny and always says things that are so unexpected and hilarious. he can burst into a little song or make up a story and he makes me laugh every time. he's ironic and smart and just so funny. we laugh together every day and that's an essential component of my contentment as well.

jon stewart really makes me laugh too. intelligent, biting, satirical humor is the kind that's best for me. mr. bean-style humor doesn't really do it for me--that often just makes me cringe. but give me black adder any day. historically astute, bitingly accurate and just so funny, that's my kind of humor.

being with people i can laugh with, especially in a work setting, is really important to me. one of the things that made me realize i had to leave my job from hell was that i found that i wasn't laughing anymore. for me, laughter is a sign that things are good and if it's absent, i need to pay attention to that. and do something about it.

* * *

well, that was it, i think that was the last one. at least for now. thank you, lynne, for asking me these questions and thank you all for reading. now go, listen to some music you love, laugh and be content!

four kittens = much delight

i've been listening to the kind of podcasts that i wouldn't normally listen to - mostly because the ones i normally listen to do a lot of talking about trump and his posse of trumpanzees, and frankly, i'm over that. so i listened to some back catalog stuff from oprah's super soul podcast (the alanis morissette episode) and also the bittersweet life (start with micro and quite possibly also stop there). my mind is buzzing with ideas of things to write about, but it's quite late and while that doesn't matter so much since i'm taking the day off tomorrow, i need to let them gel until morning. but suffice it to say, i'm looking forward to writing some micro memoir pieces (as if this blog isn't already full of those), and to spending tomorrow with the kittens you see above. they were born on may 2 and they're just about to hit peak cute.

#4 - ode to the iPod

this week i'm writing each day about a person, place or thing that has had a big effect on my life. i'm going to be leaving aside parents, sister, husband and daughter because those are a given for having had a big effect and writing about that effect would be way more typing than i should do with the angry nerve in my left hand.

after three days of serious entries, it's time for a bit of levity.

i give you the iPod...ahem, or should i say iPods:

we have quite a lot of iPods in our household (those above are only mine, husband and sabin also have several) and 3 docking units with speakers to play them from. this is actually because of the importance of music in the daily life of our household. but could it be just any old MP3 player? no it could not. it must be the iPod. why? why the obsession with this particular little gadget?

because they're just so damn sexy. good design is very important in scandinavia and that has clearly rubbed off on me in my ten years here. i LOOOOooove the design of the iPod.  they're beautiful, sleek, shiny and even sparkly if you add bling like i did to my white 30GB one. (our friends refer to that one as the porn pod because they think it's almost pornographic that i blinged it out like i did.) (you can buy those stickers all ready made to just stick on.)

it all started when husband brought home a little black nano that his boss gave him as a christmas present 3 years ago. whoa, that was cool! and it was enough for the first year, until he left it on in the little pocket in the side of the seat along with his new bose headphones on SK944 ORD-CPH.  damn those business class seats. we were iPodless again and something had to be done.

at first, i thought i could get along with just one, the white blinged out one. 30GB is a lot of music. 5,924 songs, 9 videos and 135 photos to be exact. but then one day, it was full. and i still had other things i wanted on it. and i didn't want to throw away anything that was already there. so i got another one, a black 30GB one. and when nike came out with that running shoe tie-in, i had to get the green nano because i was SURE to start running regularly if only i had that. (strangely, that hasn't really worked, hmmm...) and let's face it, it's better to use a shuffle for running (we each have one of those too, i just forgot to include it in the picture). 

then, they went and changed the design of the nano. one couldn't be seen in the gold lounge with the old model, right? that wouldn't do at all. and i began to want them for different purposes. the smaller black nano has only podcasts on it, for example. and it's easiest to carry in my purse. 

then, my dear sister bought me the iPod Touch, which is the most beautiful, sexiest one of all. and which has only my "music of the moment" on it, since it's only 8GB, you can be selective about it and not use it really for storage, but for the best bits. i tend to carry it and the nano around in my purse, the big ones stay at home in the docking stations now, but at least one of them is playing all day long.  

it's odd that a small gadget can bring such joy, but it really can. i love getting out my iPod on the train and lovingly putting it away when i reach my destination, just seeing it when i do that makes me smile. i wouldn't get through all the painting i've done this week and have yet to do without the Scissor Sisters or the latest Alanis on full blast to accompany my brushstrokes.

music has such a capacity to soothe when you're wound up, or to get your heart rate up when you're feeling lazy. it can put you back in a good mood when you've had a bad day. it can underline your bad mood if you feel like wallowing in it. you can get it all out of your system, just by listening to the right song. it's so great that music is so portable now, so you have the ability to change your mood right there tucked inside your Crumpler (which is also brilliant design, i must say).

and tomorrow the 3G iPhone will be released, also in denmark! i'm so excited!!

molly's meme

molly (my very first follower) made up a meme. all by herself. and i mean, why not? someone's got to do it, right? well, she didn't actually tag me for it, but i'm going to do it anyway because i'm the fairy blogmother and i can do stuff like that. and plus, i'm going to pick up my blog campers today and so it makes for an easy scheduled post.

totally gratituous rock shot

here's what molly says about her brand spankin' new meme:

I've always had the problem of not being able to pick a favourite. I don't have one favourite movie or one favourite book, or one favourite food. Life's just a bit more complex than that for me. I'm 75% Gemini  - go figure.


So the idea here is that you list 5 items in each category, a favourite 5 - but not necessarily in order of favouriteness - to show the diversity/similarity/hilarity/polarity/ or extreme same-ness of your personal likes.


And then tag 5 peeps to do the same. And feel free to add or subtract categories as you like.
Down with meme imperialism!

and here are my favorite things....

5 favorite songs (this list would be different if you asked me in an hour or a day):
1. Hotel California - Eagles
2. I think I'm in Love - Beck
3. Citizen of the Planet - Alanis Morissette
4. Express Yourself - Madonna (this song saw me through a bad breakup)
5. My Sister - Juliana Hatfield 3

5 favorite films:
1. Fargo
2. The Princess Bride
3. Afgrunden (The Abyss) (1911 danish silent film--i loved it before i ever even came to denmark)
4. The Castle (it's a hilarious australian film)
5. Napoleon Dynamite
i had total deja vu writing this...but i think it's b/c of saturday's scheduled post (another meme).

5 favorite books:
1. Pushkin House (Pushkinskii Dom) - Andrei Bitov
2. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
3. Wind up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
4. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (just kept this one here from molly's list)
5. What I Loved - Siri Hustvedt

5 favorite crushes (there is a distinct old man theme going on here):
1. David Letterman
2. Hugh Laurie
3. Bill Clinton
4. Todd Benjamin (saw him moderate a panel last week at Nor-Shipping--i'm a sucker for a smart one)
5. Fox Mulder (yes, i realize he is a character played by David Duchovney, however, it's Fox, not David that I'm crushing on.)

5 favorite (random) things:
1. my pet rock
2. perfume
3. iPods
4. my Macbook Pro
5. iPhone

5 favorite things to eat (you knew i was going to have to add one of my own):
1. mango (especially in the philippines)
2. salty almonds
3. homemade pizza with wacky ingredients (pears & salad - potatoes & chicken)
4. watermelon
5. tapas - garlic shrimp, chorizo,...mmm, just thinking about it makes me hungry

and i thought that i would tag three new bloggers that have discovered me i've discovered recently and two old friends:

1.  just jules
2.  marinik
3.  delwyn 
4.  an open heart
5.  janet

and one more gratuitous rock shot, mostly because i put these on flickr the other day, but never blogged them:

forgive me odin...

this picture has nothing to do with anything

i've just been taking my merfish for a walk again

and the paparazzi are always about when i do that.

i really love polly's weekly confessions and have been wanting to do some myself since i first read hers a couple of weeks ago, but all this blog camp excitement kinda blew away any plans for posts that i had. now that it's coming together and settled down to a dull roar (tho' we could still use someone in the US who would/could host a blog camp: US at the same time as our june 19-21 sessions in DK & SA), i feel a list coming on...

forgive me odin, for i have sinned, it's been...well...a lifetime (what with me not being catholic) since my last confession. however, i hereby confess...

~ it's really windy and blustery outside today and as much as i am starting to believe that google is controlling the weather, i sometimes also suspect that i am. because the weather often reflects my mood. and i feel a bit stormy and restless today. so sorry about that, anyone in my meteorological region.

~ i have to do an interview at my former place of work. it was supposed to be today and i was very nearly psyched up/prepared for it when they called and changed it to monday. in a way i am relieved and in a way, it only prolongs the dread of going back in there. because that place wasn't good for me and it's taken a long time to get over it. and i'm actually pretty worried about what just stepping into that stuffy, cold, stiff environment will do to me. and we don't really have any more space for any more structures in our garden, which is my therapy.

~ those little music player thingies that trigger automatically when you visit some blogs drive me up a tree. they interfere with my alanis, man.

~ i have a tendency, despite my new years' non-resolutions, to leave pots on the stove until they become scary and have incubated a new life form that may or may not cause a global pandemic if i then open the lid and release said life form. which is why i don't risk it. and why i'm jealous of extranjera's maid, even if she does break the glassware. wine tastes the same out of juice glasses, i say. and if i had a maid, she could take care of those pots. also the one outside on the outdoor stove. that one's bad.

~ i'm a little envious of extranjera's creative post labels.

~ i totally have stewardess flight attendant envy. i know they're waitresses in the sky, but they're always so perfectly coiffed with beautiful makeup, artfully swept-back hair, pumps of just the right height, perfect nails and great jewelry, probably bought in duty frees around the world. and they travel all the time. i love to travel. and they get to hang out with pilots and pilots are often pretty cute. sigh, why oh why didn't i become a stewardess?  oh well, maybe it's not too late. SAS does stand for Sexy After Sixty, after all.

~ i'm not above threatening to blog about bad service in order to get better service (be watching for a post on this one coming soon, since it didn't really work).

~ i need to stop obsessing about follower numbers. but it's just so much fun. except when someone stops following and they go down. which seems to usually be after i swear too much or tweet about faulty usage of it's/its. dammit.

staying afloat

"All of us swim in the one sea all our lives, trying to stay afloat as best we can, clinging to such lifelines and preservers as we might draw about us: reason and science, faith and religious practice, art and music and imagination," says Thomas Lynch in a book review of David Reiff's book on his mother, Susan Sontag, in a recent LA Times.

what life preserver(s) am i clinging to these days in the stormy sea that is my life? sleep. books. cooking. family. friends. a reawakening creativity. my belief in fate. an overwhelming feeling of being guided towards something better. sheryl crow. alanis morissette. regina spektor.

favorite reads of 2008

a new year, a new box of beautiful pencils. since i decided to draw my purchases in 2009, ala kate of obsessive consumption, i felt i needed good tools with which to do it, so i got these lovely pastel pencils. they are beautiful, vibrant colors, but have a tendency to smear, so i may go back to my favorite stædtler triplus fineliners. but in the meantime, i am enjoying just looking at them in their pristine loveliness and they were pretty cool for drawing the embroidery thread skeins, so they do have their purpose.

i got a bit of alone time today. i warmed up the atelier and have had a couple of hours to myself out here (ya gotta love WiFi), listening to alanis, painting a bookshelf, looking through books, checking out my latest dozens kit, taking pictures of my pretty pencils. painting is so therapeutic, somehow in the methodic repetition of the strokes, my mind clears and find that i'm feeling peaceful and content again.

i'd also like to think that it's because we really got the colors right out here...the peaceful, yet creatively stimulating, warm teals, the old sideboard, being surrounded by all of my best creative supplies. but maybe it's also because i did get the tree taken down and that's not weighing on my mind anymore. the kids cleaned the bathroom sinks and swept, so that's not bugging me anymore either. whatever it is, i'm feeling much better.

* * *

now that i'm feeling in less of a deep blue funk, i think my head is clear enough to make the list of the best books i read in 2008. early in the year, i tried to keep a list of all the books i'd read. i did an installment of it in february and one in april and then, sadly, i didn't keep up the list. i did, however, keep reading. and reading. and reading. and i'm not sure i could accurately reconstruct because a lot of books were shelved in this house since april i might not remember all of those i read.

i discovered several new authors in 2008--haruki murakami and paul theroux and norwegian author eric fosnes hansen. i realize murakami and theroux aren't really "new" authors, but they were new to me and i went a bit nuts reading them, especially murakami. i think i only have two of his books left that i haven't read. they're on my shelf, being saved for a special occasion because i'm a little afraid of being in a situation where there's no new murakami left for me to read.

but here we go, my favorites reads of all those books i read in 2008 (not in any particular order other than the order in which they came to mind):

1. nigella lawson, nigella christmas. my new speciality--the julelog cake--came from this one, along with much of the other food i made in this house from thanksgiving through new year's eve. it's beautifully photographed, the recipes are easy, there are lots of pomegranates, and nigella writes like a dream. i want to lick her words off the actual page.
2. nigel slater, real food. most of the food i made in the first half of 2008 came from this cookbook. the coq au riesling sustained us through our kitchenless summer, because it worked a treat slow-cooked all day over the old rusty wood-burning stove in the yard.
3. jamie oliver, ministry of food. on those days when you're not inspired to cook anything, you can open this book and find something fast, easy, healthy and wonderful. jamie oliver has done marvelous things to make people all over the world into cooks, even when they thought they weren't. 
4. paul theroux, ghost train to the eastern star. this was his update of the trip he took 30 years before and which launched his career as a travel writer with his great railway bazaar. what won me over is that he may dislike singapore even more than i do, but he wrote so eloquently about it. but most marvelous of all is his mode of traveling for the sake of the journey and the experience. i hope i will be a better traveler on my next trip now that i've read him. and the best moment of the book is when he's in tokyo, hanging out with murakami!
5. paul theroux, dark star safari. i'm reading this right now and although i'm not finished, i'm putting it on the list (i began it in 2008). i am in love with africa thanks to this book. it makes me want to go back to egypt with a new attitude and i simply cannot wait to see what he says about cape town, which is one of my favorite places in the world.  i just ordered a couple more paul theroux travel books on amazon because i can't stand the thought of being without when i'm done with this one.
6. erik fosnes hansen, tales of protection. i discovered this norwegian author in an oslo bookstore on one of my frequent trips to oslo in 2008. especially the first tale in this book of three interwoven stories is haunting and will make you look at bees in an entirely new light. the underlying theme explores coincidences and whether there really are any. 
7. haruki murakami, wind-up bird chronicle. this is the murakami that started it all for me. i hadn't been so drawn in by an author since dostoevsky. and it left me in the same fractured mental state, seeing japanese everywhere and generally having murakami moments. the only thing i didn't do was manage to spend time down a well, but i probably would have had i come across one.
8. haruki murakami, hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world. this was my other favorite of the murakami i read this year, although this isn't to say that i didn't like norwegian wood, kafka on the shore, after dark and all the rest. there's just something about these guys who live in overlapping realities that i find so appealing. reading him puts me a heightened state of mind that is what i imagine cocaine is like. that's it, murakami is like cocaine to me. 
9. elizabeth gilbert, eat, pray, love. i know, it's one of those women's magazine must-read books, but this book was just what i needed at the beginning of 2008. to read of another woman's journey back to happiness after my bad break-up with my job, was just what i needed. and gilbert is funny and smart, if a little navel-gazing, but what do you expect in such a book?
10. robert scoble and shel isreal, naked conversations. the book is a couple of years old and that's a lifetime in the days of web 2.0, but it holds up well and offers tons of great ideas and advice for blogging in a business context. it made me realize that what i'd really love to do is find a way to blog for a living. i'm still pondering how to go about that one.

there are many other books i read and i might do a second installment of this list sometime later this week. i'd love to know the great books you read in 2008.

random things on my mind

although it feels sometimes like every stray thought that goes through my head comes out my fingers and onto this blog, there is actually a lot going on that never makes it here. because it's really quite impossible to cover every aspect of a life lived.

1

for instance, although i read all the time, i don't always share what i'm reading (tho' you can always tell when it's murakami). this morning, i just finished paul theroux's great railway bazaar. i had read of it many times, but hadn't ever read it. it's THE classic travel lit, written in 1973. the reason i bought it is that i've recently read a bunch of reviews of his new version of that same journey--ghost train to the eastern star. i ordered both from amazon not long ago because i didn't want to read the new one without having read the old. i'm already a chapter in and having many thoughts on this one that i will be sharing in the days ahead.

2

another thing i don't know if you know is that i am big fan of alanis morissette. i go back to her music again and again--it lifts me up when i need my spirits lifted and it lets me wallow in despair when that's what i want (sometimes one and the same song can do that--she's that good). she gives me strength, she's deep, she's silly, she makes so much sense and yet makes no sense at all--all at one and the same time. her music is my coping mechanism. it grounds me.

3

for years and years, i always played the refreshments' down together every time the plane was taking off. here in a homemade concert recording:



it always amused me to play a song with the refrain, "let's go down together," when the plane was taking off. these days i don't do it because they're a bit more hyper about not having any electronic devices on during take-off and landing. otherwise, i probably still would.

4

it bugs the hell out of me when people talk about molecular gastronomy. that's one of those trendy phrases made up by lifestyle editors and restaurant critics. all cooking is molecular, people--it's chemistry when you combine things and heat them up.

5

note to danish chefs: foam, except in a latte or a cappucino is SO OVER, so please stop serving me foamy sauces and soups.

and on that note, i'll quit..i wouldn't want to share everything that's going through my mind...

an interview with fidgeting gidget

fidgeting gidget recently moved back to the US after several years in canada, so it was fun to catch up with her as to how it felt to be home...

1. how is it to be back in the US?

Well, I truly don't think it's hit me full-on yet that we're really here for good. We've been doing the back and forth thing for so long that it still just feels like another long weekend. The best part so far has been sleeping in my own bed in my own bedroom. :) Having my kitchen back has been nice, too, although I'm no where close to having everything put away.

2. 9 bridesmaids...what was your sister thinking? :-)

My sentiments exactly! I couldn't believe she asked that many people to be in it, but it all worked out. Her father-in-law joked that the head table looked like a newer version of The Last Supper. I told her she should just have had me and her brother-in-law stand up with them, but what do I know? I'm going to keep track of how many of those 9 she is actually still talking to in a year.

3. what was the best thing about living in another country?

I'd have to say the diversity. The place where I worked had 54 different languages spoken amongst the employees. But diversity wasn't limited to the people--it also included the different types of food and the different cultural activities, festivals, shows, etc. that were available in the Toronto area on a regular basis. I love the US and the Midwest, but I've never lived anywhere that matches the diversity of Toronto (and I probably never will again).

4. what was the worst?

Too many people in one area! I'm used to wide open spaces, and moving from the Midwest to an area with a population of 5.6 million people was a huge shock for me. It didn't matter when I tried to go to the store, it was always packed. Traffic was guaranteed to be terrible, no matter what time of the day it was. I won't miss that.

This photo was taken on the 401 towards the end of rush hour traffic. I apologize for the bad photo quality, but hopefully it gives you an idea of how TERRIBLE traffic is!

5.everyone should own a...Boston Terrier.

6. don't go on with your life for another year without...

reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It was so great.

7. if you were a character from a book, any book, who would you be?

Matilda from the Roald Dahl book. She has super powers, her favorite teacher became her adopted mother, and she loves to read! What more could a girl want? (editor's note: i LOVE this answer")

8. what has been your biggest surprise about "the real world?"

Probably the fact that adults are often more catty and childish than middle school students. I always pictured people being a lot more mature in the workplace, and in my former workplace and in the workplaces of many of my close friends and family members, that is DEFINITELY not the case.

9. if you were a car, what would you be?

A 2011 Chevrolet Camaro. In black. Meeee-ow.

10. what's your favorite angry chick music when you're feeling like an angry chick?

If it has to be an angry chick singing, I go to Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill album. If it is a REALLY bad day, though, I play Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit on repeat. I know it's totally trashy, but it works.

* * *

thanks gidget for being part of my interviews. i think roald dahl's matilde is an inspired choice!

be sure to check out the fidgeting gidget blog for the latest antics.

blame it on the moon

i didn't really mean to scare everyone yesterday with the thought that i might actually be grown up now. i blame the moon. it was just a passing thing (tho' perhaps i'll always feel it when i stack wood, so that might be a good reason to get out of that activity) and it did indeed pass. i'm back to my usual very not grown-up self. just as an example, it's 6 p.m. and do you think i'm making dinner for my family? no, i am not, i'm blogging. that's not very grown-up at all, now is it?

i did, however, indulge in the very grown-up activity of tidying up my writing house/studio/atelier--place that i can't think of a proper name for--perhaps i'll just call it george. even down to scrubbing the floor. now THAT's grown up, but it was before the whole grown-up feeling faded. so i guess it was good for something, since it feels pretty good to sit out here, listening to alanis, fireplace merrily crackling and candles glowing on the dust-free surfaces, glass of organic, CO2 neutral transported (not sure how they did that) chilean pinot noir at hand.

it was a beautiful day and there was definitely a whiff of spring in the air.  sabin was playing with a friend and so husband and i went for a walk in the woods with our friends. there is such a difference in the sun. it's no longer so sharp and harsh, but actually warming again. there are fat buds sitting on the trees, but none are unfurling as of yet. they don't feel THAT safe and it is, after all, still early february. i'm amazed at how there are always mushrooms in the forest, no matter the time of year. today, it was these little fellas. aren't they pretty with the sun shining on them?

in all, it was a lovely, relaxed weekend. i cleaned, i stacked wood, i antiqued, i sewed, i swam, i went for a walk in the woods, i watched a james bond film, i had time to think and scheme and plan and now i've got that sunday evening feeling, so i'm ready to see what the week ahead brings. that's all you can really ask of a weekend, isn't it? maybe it was the moon...

tagging along

i got tagged by kristina. and even allowed myself to copy her snappy title. :-)  here are the rules:
1. Respond and rework. Answer the questions on your blog, replace one question you dislike with a question of your own invention; add a question of your own.
2. Tag eight other un-tagged people.
3.  it can be an idea to post the answers together with several completely unrelated pictures. :-)

What is your current obsession? i think we all know that it's eyeballs.
Good fika place? cafe le zinc right here in frederikssund, tho' kaffepikene in sandvika storsenter (oslo) is pretty good too.
Do you nap a lot? i don't nap nearly enough. and i'm generally in need of a nap because i stay up late.
Who was the last person you hugged? my daughter got a goodnight hug.
If you were a tree, what tree would you be? a birch tree, because i have a russian soul.
Have you ever had an altercation with the police? only once. in bulgaria. it didn't go well.
What was the last thing you bought? a fabulous dinner at dragsholm slot.
What are you listening to right now? tanya davis' "art" song.
What is your favourite weather? 70 degrees, sunshine, a light breeze. did i mention sunshine? but i also love really hot weather, as long as it's not humid.
What’s on your bedside table? a stack of books--mine and sabin's, a clay bowl made and painted by sabin and which contains a set of earplugs from SAS, 4 pony-tail holders, a pair of earrings, two sparkly bobby pins, a container of ricola cough drops, my iPhone, lip stuff, a 20-pack of staedler fineliners and a package of kleenex.
Say something to the person/s who tagged you. hi kristina, now that i know about fika we must get together sometime, since you're just across the sound, and you can show me the real thing! :-)
If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be?
cape town. hands down.
Favourite vacation spot? somewhere out-of-the way, not overrun with tourists. i'm pretty partial to turkey, especially the west coast.
Name the things you can’t live without. my camera, my iMac, my macbook pro, my iPhone,
What would you like to have in your hands right now? knitting needles and some really excellent yarn.
What is your favourite tea flavour? chai.
What would you like to get rid of? the junk in the attic.
If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? vanuatu for a bowl of kava.
What did you want to become as a child? an archaeologist. i wanted to discover a new type of dinosaur.
What do you like better, e-mail or telephone calls? email, hands down. i actually really dislike telephone calls.
What do you do when you get time alone?  read, write, blog, sing alanis at the top of my lungs.


8 people seems like a lot to tag, but tag i shall. however it’s perfectly voluntary - only do it if you want to! but i'd like to see what jules, amanda, molly, christina, char, starlene, beth and heidi have to say.  anyone else who might feel like doing this when you're otherwise uninspired, you are MOST welcome. :-)

keeping my vibe down

"i am someone easy to leave"

"even easier to forget"

a voice, if inaccurate.

did you ever have one of those days? well, it was otherwise a good day what with the retail therapy and all, but it's definitely been one of THOSE evenings.  

"i'm the one they all run from"

diatribes of clouded sun

someone help me find the pause button

you are all painfully aware of my kitchenless state. however, i was able to begin using my new kitchen sink today, which was a step in the right direction. tho' several times i still found myself taking dishes out to the bathroom. amazing how quickly one learns new habits and has to unlearn them.

all these tapes in my head swirl around

keeping my vibe down

so, inspired by having an actual sink, i bought salmon to cook on the grill. and i bought a mandolin to make a lovely salad of the fennel, zucchini, baby carrots and fresh new garlic that came in my dogme box from årsiderne today. i even went and got salty macadamias from Irma, although i don't even want to think about the food miles on those. i put the salmon in a pan in a bed of lemon, doused it in gorgeous, yellow, local, organic rapeseed oil and an inspire chardonnay blend from spiers (one of my favorite south african wineries--moyo, their restaurant is AWESOME, but i digress) and covered it in the fresh dill that came in the box so it could poach in the pan on the grill. in short, i actually felt inspired.

all these thoughts in my head aren't my own

wreaking havoc

silly me.

"i'm too exhausting to be loved"

"a volatile chemical"

"best to quarantine and cut off"

the kids set the table in the circle.  the sun was shining. the rest of the spiers bottle was chilled and sweating beads of moisture onto the bright linen tablecloth.  the fennel salad and a bowl of tzaziki were on the table awaiting the delicately poached salmon.  

all these tapes in my head swirl around

keeping my vibe down

all these thoughts in my head aren't my own

wreaking havoc

i called everyone to the table. the pan was hot and i had no gloves, relying on my inner chef's asbestos hands, so i set it on a chair that was next to the table.  and before i could do anything, it fell on the ground.  upside down. spilling my lovely salmon into snail trails, leaves and dirt, spoiling the whole thing.

"i'm but a thorn in your sweet side"

"you'd be better off without me"

"it'd be best to leave at once"

initially i swore up a storm, even inventing a few new swear words in the process. to salvage things and feed my family i went down to the grill where you can get quite delicious rotisserie chickens, which we could at least eat with the fennel salad and tzaziki i made.

all these tapes in my head swirl around

keeping my vibe down

all these thoughts in my head aren't my own

wreaking havoc

looking back, i think where it began to go wrong was when we opened the mail and received this invitation to a symposium in honor of my father-in-law that will be held this fall:

he died just after the first of the year two years ago. he was such a special person and we have so many of his books in our home. the invitation has a watermark of his signature in it. and it got me all on the wrong foot. he was very dear to me and made it clear that he loved me and accepted me wholeheartedly into the family. i worked closely with him on his technolution project, translating and editing for him to ensure the english was correct, my translations even being part of his exhibition at the library in alexandria, egypt a number of years ago.

when i ordered the wegner chairs today, it was to complement the first 4 he gave to us. as i photographed my bookshelves yesterday, he was on my mind, as our whole evolution collection was his. i love so much enountering his marginalia as i read his books, but somehow seeing his handwriting makes me realize he's no longer here.

he was a brilliant man. he invented a field of study of which he was the first professor at lund university in sweden. he surely had so much left to think and write and discuss. and i suddenly miss him so much.

but listening to alanis morissette helps me and it's her song tapes which i wove into the beginning of this posting.  sometimes you just have to wallow in your sorrow and cry your eyes out.

this makes me happy...

thinking about what makes me happy (for the next time when i'm feeling down and want to remember). these are not necessarily in order.

1. lots and lots of art supplies
2. watching sabin dig into the art supplies with her whole being
3. husband's drive to get household projects done
4. having something to look forward to...can be anything from a new job (this week!) to dinner guests to my writing house in the garden to our building project being finished, the mailman's arrival
5. having airline tickets in my possession (i currently have 2 sets, so i'm doubly happy)
6. ruins
7. shades of blue and green
8. my beautiful, colorful yarn
9. good chick music (sheryl crow, alanis morissette, regina spektor, feist...)
10. my iPod(s)
11. cooking some really fabulous food
12. my new juicer
13. a fragrant, hot, steaming, bubble bath, surrounded by candles and in which i sip a glass of wine and read a good book
14. clean sheets
15. the laundry being done on sunday night
16. the red retro smeg refrigerator i'm getting soon
17. henry kloss radios (even better if they dock an iPod)
18. bouquets of flowers from my own garden
19. sitting out in the circle in the garden on a sunny day with the sunday paper and a big pot of tea and breakfast on a colorful tray
20. laughing over a good story

this feels like a good exercise. to think about the positive. it's so easy sometimes to think about the negatives in life. to get bogged down in some petty little things. but really, there are plenty of great things on which i can better spend my energy. so, i think i will.