So, Peting had his birthday party. It was actually a lot of fun!

Mom wasn't here, but she'll come over tomorrow. I can't wait. My little brother was here and I gave him a great big hug, because I've missed him. I've missed both my brother and mother lately, because life and especially work has been just a little bit crazy. And still is, to be fair, even if it does feel like I'm more in control now then I was before.

Anyway back to the birthday party!

Peting's relatives and mom came over, obviously, which was a lot of fun! I love my MIL, I really do. I do know she reads here at times though, and I found out later that she was worried I was mad at her about all the carb-talk, but I'm not MAD. I was IRRITATED about it, but you know. Big difference. And that comes and goes to. There was not much carb-talk today though, maybe a mention. And I did give her a grand big hug telling her I do really love and she is a great MIL. WHICH IS TRUE! And not just something I say. I've written that more than once during all the years I've written here. It's funny really how much like my mom she is, even though my mom is loud and boisterous and my MIL is more subdued. They're still very much alike in a very good way.

There was a lot of gifts for my dear Peting. He got a Yoda bobble head that Alexandra had picked out. Well, to be fair, she'd said that 'dad needs a Star Wars doll'. Said and done, we went to find one. We did, in a game-store. But she wanted to buy the big Yoda softie, which was... a bit big and also a bit more expensive... *LOL* So we went with he smaller bobble head one. :-) He got a gift card to buy something there to, and a thermometer that tells you the temperature both inside and outside at the same time. So he was very happy. Especially when he got a even bigger gift card from his aunt, so he'll be buying A LOT of games in the future, I'm sure. *LOL*

What with how stressed I'd been lately, I didn't bake that much. I made a classic swedish birthday cake with a marzipan cover and swedish farm cookies (on Peting's request), and my dear best friend made salmiak macrons as a surprise! Oh, and I'd bought chocolate chip cookies from a teen at the school I work, since his class collected money to go on a trip together. :-) So there was plenty to eat for FIKA!

Before FIKA we had lasagna that Peting had made. He's REALLY good at that, and it tasted DIVINE!

To say everyone was stuffed after that would be an understatement. *LOL* So the little birthday party was a HUGE success!

My best friend lingered though, and we had a loooong talk before she left. It felt really good. We've both felt a bit exhausted and down lately, so just to sit and talk for hours was JUST what we both needed, I think. We've known each other for so long now 25 or 26 years, I think. So we know each other inside and out by now. And we know that sometimes we have to push a little to get each other to talk. This time I needed a little pushing. And she knows just how to. She didn't leave until a bit after 8pm, way after Alexandras bedtime. But she got to stay up a little longer today since it was a special day and all.

Thank anything holy for my best friend. Seriously. I don't know what I'd do without her. She's so good at getting my head straight when I mess myself up. She claims I do the same to her, even though I don't know how. Maybe I don't have to? Safe to say we help each other out when we need to. :-)

Now it's defiantly bedtime, and I'll get to hang out with mom tomorrow. Awesomeness!

This entry is cross posted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

Onwards to some real life updates and stuff, because well... why not? It's what I do, what I use this journal for. To get stuff off my chest, good or bad. And if anyone reads, than that's fine to. :-)

Last weekend not so much happened, but the weekend before that me and Alexandra went by TRAIN to visit my brother and his kids.

Alexandra had never been on a train before that. To say she was existed would be... a bit of an understatement. To say the least. She did great though, and it ended up being a great experience. Now though she keeps nagging us that she wants to do it again. X-D

We also went to the big public pool and spa and sporting arean called... Arenan. Yeah, well. The public pool part of the house is AMAZING!!! Seriously amazing! :-D It was smaller and not that much to call home about when I was a kid, but since they renovated that place, it has ended up really amazing. So we had a really good time there me and my brother with our kids. Alexandra was extatic since she loves going to public pools AND hanging around with her cousins.

After that we went home to my brother and made his specialty for supper... Meatball pizza. X-D Kids loved it, and after that they just hang around watching TV, since they were so tired, so it was easy getting them IN bed. Harder to get them to sleep since they were so happy to have a sleepover together... Cousins... *LOL*

Once they fell asleep, me and my brother tried some strong liquer and baked a cake, cookies, muffins and spongecake... Because the day after that my brother had his birthday party!

YES! My little brother turned 36 years old! YAY!!!!

And Peting came as well, of course, and after the birthday party we just went home and collapsed.

It was a GREAT weekend, and I have to agree with Alexandra there... We HAVE to do that again! :-D

After that it's been work, work, work... daycare, daycare, daycare... Split up with visits to the stable.

Yes, I haven't mentioned that, have I? Alexandra, my dear darling daughter, who has nagged us about horses and wanting to start riding has finally started to do just that. I think she started to beg about it when she was around 3 years old. Thanks to her cousin being a seriously horsecrazy girl, and still is.

So every Saturday we go to the riding school, and she has about a 45 mins riding lesson. Alexandra is VERY shy around new people that she doesn't know, to the point of it being almost annoying. But at the riding school, I guess there's HORSES!!! So who has time to be shy then? *lol*

Last weekend and this week though has been less fun. Night between Thursday and Friday Alexandra started coughing. And coughing and coughing and coughing and coughing... All night long. So I stayed home with her during Friday. While she kept coughing. Alexandra had croup as a baby, so as soon as she starts coughing... she is REALLY COUGHING!!! So we spent Friday in the cough watching weird cartoons. Moderately enjoyable, until...

My ear started to hurt and feel weird... And as soon as something effect my ears, my tinnitus goes high wire and is getting REALLY NOISY!!! I usually don't notice it, but yeah...

Alexandra stopped coughing during the weekend, but my ear and also the other other ear just kept getting worse. The noise going louder, and I started to be hard of hearing. Worse and worse...

Worked Monday, since my schedule was SMACKED FULL! Managed being bought supper in the evening by my workmates since I'd had my 40th birthday this year. And, during my workday, looking good while being photographed for the yearly school catalog where there's photos of all the classes in the school and all the staff. :-)

And I managed a visit to the nurses office/care center as well! Where I got medication that you drop directly into your ear, so I started doing that right away!

Tuesday, worked my gruling ten hour day, and felt worse and worse, my hearing got worse and worse, and it was a pain in the ass to try to hear what the patrons in the regular library was saying...

So, Wednesday onwards I've been at home. I rarely call in sick, since I'm the only librarian at the school, and they rarely very rarely take in substitutes for me, since it's not easy being a sub for me since I have everything in my head... :-P

Unfortunally though my ears haven't improved. Instead it feels like they've gotten worse. :-/ And of course Alexandra got sick as well Tuesday running a high fever. Today though she was perfectly fine, so she's going back to daycare tomorrow. Today she's pulled me down and talked straight into my ear. And I had a hard time hearing her despite that. :-( I feel horrible about it.

Plan for tomorrow is to someone get to the nurses office/care centre to get more help, because I can't be on sick leave any longer!!! Besides, I'D LIKE TO BE ABLE TO HEAR WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING TO ME, THANKS!!!!


This entry is cross posted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

Let's continue from where we left off, shall we?

After I'd dropped snowstormskies off at the airport, I went straight home. We had dinner, and... we packed.

Because the day after that, we went on a little trip with my brother. To Astrid Lindgrens World. It's a park built around the worlds and characters from the books written by Astrid Lindgren.

We were going together with my brother and his two kids, which had Alexandra totally excited! We'd rented a cabin and my brother brought his caravan. :-D We didn't get access to our spots in the camping ground until after we'd been at the park, but it didn't matter. It was the park we were aiming for, after all. :-D

First day we walked around the most. We aimed to see a few shows/plays they have around the park. It's split up in various areas, each for a book and their characters.

That first day we saw most of the park and the various themed areas. And of course caught a few shows as well.

Thing is, each area has seatings around the main building of the area. And there's shows and an actor playing the character is there during certain times. So we caught a couple of those shows/plays. About 20 mins long each.

We caught Brothers Lionheart, Pippi Longstocking and Karlsson-on-the-roof that first day. It was lovely! The actors were great, and clearly cared about their characters! Even the kid-actors!

But the best part about this park is, I have to say, how damn well made the place is! There was no plastic, no cheating, nothing like that. The whole place is built with pure craftsmanship, and a skilled one at that! If it was a wooden house, it WAS a wooden house built from the ground up, even the miniature once! A stone wall, WAS a damn stone wall even if it might not be a big one, but it was built as if it could have been! There was no cheating going on.

Even in the restaurants and FIKA places, you had real plates, real glasses, real mugs. No paper or plastic. The food, sweets and FIKA-snacks? All produced, baked etc locally. Everything tasted damn homemade, and was DELICIOUS!!!

Price? Not to bad. The entrance fee was the highest, but once you were in there everything but food and souvenirs was for free. And not even the souvenirs were hugely expensive! But those for later. :-)

Anyway, we enjoyed ourselfs. The kids ran around and played and explored everywhere. At Ronia the Robbers area, Matt's Fort, Alexandra fell and scratched the palm of her hand and was very upset. It was just a small scratch, but she did walk around begging for bandaids all day. She get it, and then after a while she pulled it off and wanted a new one... Thank heavens the staff at Astrid Lindgren's World was both kind and patient! :-D

Less than an hour before the park closed, we left and went to get my brothers caravan set up and get to our cabin. Which we did. And the cabin was GREAT! Very beautiful and comfy. And my brother could set his cabel up, so he got electricty in his caravan. :-D All good! And he also invited us over for a mini-barbecue, since he had his mini-grill with him. So we had hotdogs as a late dinner before we all collapsed in our respective beds. :-)

Photos from Day One at Astrid Lindgren's World (multiple on each!): One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six

The next day it was RAINING!!! Pouring down when we all woke up. But at the point where we'd emptied our cabin and all kids had eaten, been to the bathroom and you know... all that. It had stopped raining, but the sky was still grey, so we made sure to have the proper equipment with umbrellas for us adults and for the big kids, and Alexandra had rubberboots and half her rainsuit, just the rainpants since she wanted her normal jacket and an umbrella like everyone else. Deal!

Said and done and we went to the park with the goal to see as many shows/plays as we could possibly figure out! The park had an app and, of course, a brochure where all the shows during the day is listed.

We aimed for Matt's Fort, area with Ronia the Robbers Daughter, and to let the kids have fun on the way. But, on the way we stumbled upon Madicken's area as well! So we stopped to check their show before we moved on... And suddenly someone started talking and singing close to us again when we continued! We'd stumbled upon Rasmus and the Tramp as well! *LOL* Amazing! So we watched them as well. :-D

Then, finally, we arrived at Matt's Fort to watch Ronia, her robber father and all his robbers! IT WAS SO GOOD! For those not knowing, Ronia the Robbers daughter is my favorite book! I ADORE IT!!! So to see it on a tiny stage, part of the story, that was AMAZING! So good! Also, they sang the songs from the movie, which I loved, and it was just all around great! The kids loved it to, since the robbers sang good and were some funny characters to. :-D ALL GOOD!

After that we focused on the kids favorites... First off Emil of Lönneberga! So we continued on to that area to watch a show play there. It was great! So funny! And the songs written for that story and movie are so so so good! Probably some of the best written for Astrid Lindgren's stories, to be honest. So that was great! And the kids loved it!

We'd forgotten to eat, so we took a break for food, then we went to watch Pippi Longstocking again, because she's Alexandra's favorite and she's the youngest. ;-) The other two kids loves her to, so that was an easy decision! So went there, the kids played around with a ton of other kids in Pippi's house and then we watched Pippi. Just as good and funny as the day before. Best part was to see how Alexandra got all into it as we watched Pippi. *grin*

Then we had some FIKA, because dads need coffee... *lol* Then we went back to Emil of Lönneberga and watched another play there... Again, very funny and the songs are WONDERFUL!!! Emil is not my favorite of Astrid Lindgren's character, but the songs are some of my favorites. :-D

And then... it was time to leave. In between the shows, the kids walked around and explored. Checked out things. Tried things. And we bought homemade candy. And they just enjoyed being together as cousins. My brotehrs kids, Tilda and Theo are 10 and 8 years old. And Alexandra is just 5 years old. But Tilda and Theo are WONDERFUL with Alexandra, really loves her! Makes sure she's OK, they don't run away from her, they help her climb around in all the fun houses, explore things, explain things to her... It's just... They are just SO GOOD with her! I LOVE seeing it!

Anyway, we finished our day with Alexandra getting a toy there. Since she's learned to use the toilette properly instead of the potty. *lol* Positive reinforsment. ;-) And I figured she'd pick a Pippi doll or an Emil doll, since those are her favorites. But no. OF COURSE she picked a softie toy... a softie horse. Pippi's horse. *SIGH!* We have so many softie-horses at this point... Not surprised though.

And then we packed up, and started our journey home. After about an hour we split up, my brotehr and his kids going one way and we the other for another hour and a half. Then we were home, and all of us collapsed in the bed after getting our bags up to the apartment.

It was a great, great, great trip though! I had SUCH a good time! And us adults decided that we have to do something together next year to, because we all had such a great time. :-D

Photos from Day Two at Astrid Lindgren's World (multiple on nearly each!): One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven

And that concludes my vacation adventures! We were supposed to go to the coast to, but the weather there was supposed to suck during the time we were there. And who wants to be at the coast and not be able to swim, eh? So no. We'll do that at another time.

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

Midsummer. Again. :-/ Ever since the disastrous trip to Peting friend a couple of years ago I feel really horrible during Midsummer. Which ALSO bums me out, because Midsummer used to be one of my favorites holidays during the year. :-/

*sigh*

Thing is, it has gotten even worse. Because since my mom meet her gentleman caller, she goes to parties with him on Midsummer. So... Me and Alexandra is pretty much dumped all alone at Mom's house during Midsummer.

Peting is going to his friend in the north this year to. And mom, well. She's going to two Midsummer parties with her gentleman caller, which makes me feel even more down. I mean, we're not able to go visit her that often, but still he goes first. :-/

If I'm jealous? A little, yeah. If we're there, why doesn't she want to hang out with us? When her gentleman caller is there, it's... I don't feel as comfortable. I don't know. It's odd. :-P

And I feel horribly guilty for saying that to. Because Mom seems to genuinely care and love him. *SIGH*

As you can clearly see I am not doing quite good right now. I hope I'll feel better shortly. I do have my vacation from work right now. Which doesn't mean I'll have it slow.

Oh no.

• 22 - 28 June, Being at mom's and celebrating (ha!) Midsummer.



• 2 - 6 July, snowstormskies are here visiting, which I'm SOOOO looking forward to!!!



• 7 - 8 July, Astrid Lindgrens World Park with brother and his kids as well.



• 10 - 12 July, Going to the coast and staying at a luxury hotel for two nights. Hopefully the weather will be nice...



• 17 July, going back to work. So there's a lot of things going on. Fun things! I should be happy about it! It's just.... A lot. And then Midsummer... UGH. Next year I'll be renting a car, because that would take a load of the stress for me, to be quite honest.

Wish me luck tomorrow?

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

Catching up a bit with all these questions here. :-) Let's see how it goes... And if anyone has the stamina to read all of them through. X-D

( Question 20 - 30 )

( Question 31-40 )

( Question 41 - 52 )

( All the questions! )

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

WTF, Game of Thrones? Seriously? UGH.

First though, health. I'm getting a cold. Again. And it has made it's home in my throat. Again. *grump* I did stupid this weekend digging around among my medieval clothing and stuff, and to say my asthma went high wire then would be an understatements. Stupid. So to say my breathing has been fucked up these last couple of days would be an understatement. :-(

Visited my brother Sunday which is always awesome. :-)

And today I had Dogge Doggelito coming to the school to have lectures for the 15 and 16 year old kids. Man, he was AWESOME! And such a nice guy all around. :-D Worked ten hours though and with the above mentioned health issue, I am now EXHAUSTED!

But I did have energy for Game of Thrones. And I liked most of it. I did. I especially liked Theon and Sansa, although seeing Theon leaving was... sad. :-/ I liked him with Sansa, but I guess the guilt was to much for him poor guy. I don't think his sister will be happy to see him back though...

And Ramsey Bolton, wtf with that character!?!?! Anyone with even the littlest bit triggers need to just change the channel as soon as he shows up. For serious. And now he'll be even more dangerous. Especially since he disposed of his newborn brother and his father. Dude. Cold.

No sign of Daenerys yet, but on the other hand we got some sign of life from Bran Stark, which was nice. And we got a flash back from Eddards childhood. Really sweet! (Oh, Hodor is apparently a mystery to! Interesting!) And hey, Max von Sydow played the three eyed raven! MAX FUCKING VON SYDOW! I love that old man! He is SUCH a great actor and has SUCH a presence even at the age of 87 years old. Dude. He'll probably die in front of the camera. He is AMAZING! I love him.

Sorry about the fangirling there...

Then there's Thyrion who probably have the biggest freaking balls of them all. He's a dwarf and he goes to release two dragons that probably just sees him as food... Only they don't, and man, that scene was AMAZING!

But what really bugged the hell out of me was... Jon Snow. I never really liked Jon. He was to good. To noble. To nice. Only time's I could stand him was with his friend Sam. So I was thinking good riddance with him when he was stabbed.

And now the big shocker in the end is that the red woman brought him back (despite having lost her self-confidence and is doubting in her faith).

So now Jon fucking Snow is back.

I'm not happy about that. At all. :-/

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

Can I just say HOLY FUCKING SHIT IN THE OCEAN?!?!?!?! o.O Now I've been part of friending memes before, many times. But I've never EVER been a part of one that has taken off like this. My flist is BURSTING! Geezes, fuck! o.O

Excuse the language, but yeah... o.O Circling the wagon -friending meme rocked my socks off!

Anyway, so part of the deal was to make a post about myself, so here goes... I'll excuse my wordiness right away.

( So we begin.. )

( Education and work…. )

( Family... )

( Fandoms... )

( Hobbies... )

And I… think that’s it. Props to you if you got through all that. Told you I was wordy! X-D

If you got any questions, I’ll be happy to answer. :-) I really am an open book.

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

Note: This post was written a few weeks ago, but I didn't get the photos uploaded until now...

And then there was the visit from New York. I still have a hard time believing they’ve really been here! o.O

I was a bit panicked before they came here, since I was supposed to work both days they were here, Friday and Saturday. Friday was no problem to take off, but the three hours for Saturday was a bit worse. Eventually we found someone that could help out, thank gawd… So I was off and available for both days! WOHOO!!

And I was SO NERVOUS! I mean, I’ve known ruchirahni almost since I started to use my LJ, and man… that is a LONG TIME AGO! I didn’t remember how we’d meet, but Ruchi did, so she told me. :-) Apparently she’d ended up in an idiotic drama in a Xena community and I’d stood up for her and also gone to her LJ to say hi. Eventually we ended up friending each other and that’s how the story goes. I don’t remember this, but I’ll take her word for it. ;-)

Anyway, ruchirahni is a vegetarian, so the Friday she and her best friend was to arrive, me and Alexandra started with a slow morning and then we went grocery shopping for vegetarian food. Once that was done, we went to the train station to pick them up.

See, they’d explored Sweden quite a bit before arriving to me. They’d been in Stockholm, the island Utö, Gothenburg and then me. For a history geek Stockholm is perfect. There are SO MANY museums there! You can learn quite a bit of swedish history in Stockholm alone.

Then they’d been to Utö which is a gorgeous island in Stockholms archipelago. And then they’d been to Gothenburg, which is the neighbouring city to Borås. So it was a short trip to Borås. And me. :-D

I was so nervous while we shopped me and Alexandra I had a belly ache. X-D Stupid, really. Like ruchirahni says, we’ve known each other so crazy long we shouldn’t be nervous about meeting!

Alexandra thought it was fun to be at the train station and just wanted to go on the trains! Eventually they showed up though, and I gave ruchirahni a great big hug. And it felt JUST RIGHT! Nerves just flew off of me.

And Alexandra started whining right away. Great… Figuring she was hungry we went home to my apartment first, where I cooked Alexandra food (definitely hungry at that point…) and ruchirahni could explore my little home and I could get the groceries away. And we talked. Talked and talked and talked. Sara, ruchirahni’s friend was very nice and waxed poetically about the swedish coffee!

We had a lovely time watching Disney Junior with Alexandra and making sure she got some food in her (and feeding Sara a swedish meatball).

Done with Disney and food, we went to the hotel where ruchirahni and Sara were staying, and Alexandra fell asleep and took a nap. GOOD!

Then we figured we could go downtown for a FIKA! Which we did, even going to mine and Alexandra’s favorite fika-place. You think Alexandra behaved? Alas no. She was IN A CRANKY MOOD! And was going to make sure everyone knew about it.

( Cranky Alexandra is cranky... )

I’d thought we’d go exploring the Textile Museum after our fika, but Alexandra was having none of it. At that point, peting73 was off from work and halfway home, so we went to pick him up and dumped Alexandra on him. (Sorry dear!)

Finally we could go to the Textile Museum, which was great! Even if we could only stay for a short time, since they were closing and all that, we still made the most of it. They have old clothes in a part of the museum that you can try on, which had ruchirahni and Sara go a bit nuts! Pulling me into the crazy we had a bit of a dress up session. *lol* Was a lot of fun! The exhibit they had going of a famous swedish designer was nice to, so I’d call that a successful visit.

( Being silly in the Textile Museum! )

I think it was on the way back to the car that we checked out the University Library which is right next to the museum. ruchirahni loved it and wondered loudly why they didn’t have libraries this nice at the universities in New York? Uhu… I wouldn’t know. X-D I thought New York University was a good one? *lol* And hey, you got New York City Library which is out of this world if I’ve done my research right. ;-)

( Interior of the University Library in town )

Then we went home to my home again for dinner, which peting73 had cooked and it was DELICIOUS! Such a nice vegetarian stew! Alexandra was cranky again though (sigh) so she got the leftover meatballs from lunch.

The rest of the afternoon evening was spent talking. Talking, talking, talking. Both me and peting73 are some serious history nerds, movie nerds and book nerds, so the swedish part of those subjects were definitely covered. (I’m still amazed how little you learn in the US about WWI and WWII…) Alexandra eventually went to bed, and we made MUDCAKE! And had an evening FIKA! (You can never have too much fika…)

( New Yorkers in my couch! )

At one point during our discussions we discovered it was 1am in the morning! O.o OOPS! So I drove ruchirahni and Sara to the hotel making a plan for the morning.

And that concludes day 1!

Next morning we took a slow morning for Alexandra’s sake, but we still managed to head out at around 10am. First stop was the big city library where I used to work. Again, ruchirahni waxed poetically about how nice it was. *lol* I loved seeing her walking around in the library among all the books. If ever there was a book nerd, it’s her. For serious. *grin*

Alexandra loves the library, so she was (for once!) in a good mood in the kid section checking out all the picture books. We found the book I bought for my brothers kids, the POP BOOK! X-D So I had a little story time there for Sara and ruchirahni. It’s a kid book and kids LOVE to talk about pop! X-D

( Exploring the city library and being booknerds of all sizes! )

After that visit we got in our little car and drove to my brothers. Which takes 1½ hours. And it’s a bit cramped in the car… But we made do, and we had some lovely discussions in the car to which made the car-ride feel shorter.

Once at my brothers, we found that he was enjoying the sun on the backside of his house, listening to music after he’d baked a cake. A MUDCAKE OF COURSE! This seems to be a running theme during their visit… I have to send them the recipe… *lol*

And as soon as ruchirahni and Sarah saw the cows grazing on the fields around my brother’s house, they got all excited and got in the field (past the barbed wire) to say hi to the cows. My brother, who works on a farm on a daily basis was a bit flabbergasted at this, but went with it. So we showed them a good way to get to the cows and my brother started talking swedish farming with ruchirahni and Sara since ruchirahni is a vegetarian, so she was really interested. Swedish farmers have a TON of rules they have to follow, more so than many other countries apparently, which she found very interesting. :-)

Also, my brother had been an idiot and ruchirahni went into Doc-mood and checked his eye since it was hurting him and got quite red and irritated. If you are doing any welding, people. Use protection. And don’t do like my brother who just closed his eyes. IDIOT!

After we’d eaten mudcake and said hi to cows and tried to get Alexandra to eat anything (impossible since she was still grumpy), we left my brothers and went to moms instead. My brother came with in his big huge car, a Ford Galaxy from the 1960’s, which ruchirahni and Sara rode in with him. On the way to mom’s we saw some elks/moose which got the New Yorkers all excited.

( New Yorkers on the swedish countryside! )

At mom’s, Alexandra perked up a bit. She’d had a nap in the car, and hey… Grandma is always popular. :-)

More vegetarian food at mom’s, she’d made a full on dinner with some vegetarian beefs she’d found. ‘It looked interesting, I had to try!’ was mom’s reasoning behind picking that. They were made out of quorn and DAMN they were tasty! Even Alexandra ate quite a bit! So we were all stuffed after that dinner!

After that we walked around and explored my mom’s yard and grounds. The garage which still looks like when my dad lived. The playhouse dad built for use when where kids from scratch. The view. The woods where we used to play. Our neighbours, closest one where the daughter in the house was the one who started off my bullying. Basically I told and showed all the things that had meant something to me when I grew up. Mom walked around with us as well, and even though she’s not that good in english (she understands it well, but can’t speak it), she managed to throw in a small comment here and there anyway.

Since it started to rain when we’d walked around for a bit, we went inside again looking at all of mom’s pretty things (she likes to collect pretty things and decorate her home). Checking out where my room used to be and all that stuff while mom prepared a…. FIKA! :-D We also took the chance to say hello to all of mom’s four cats, including HUGE Ozzy that ruchirahni fell in love with, I think… He’s a Maine Coon… and a BIG one! Currently weighing around 11-12 kilos, and he’s not fully grown yet… Insane!

Then we had FIKA downstairs. And talked. And talked and talked and talked. :-D Both mom and I agreed and told ruchirahni she would be a WONDERFUL doctor one day, since she got her heart right where it should be. Mom should know. She’s 62 and has worked as an assistant nurse ever since she started working.

Alexandra just played with mine and brothers old toys while we were talking that mom has pulled down from the attic. We didn’t even notice how the time flew until it was 9pm or so in the evening, and we had a 2 hour drive to get back to Borås.

( At my mothers to see where I grew up! And to be spoiled... )

While driving we continued talking and talking and talking… So the ride back to Borås didn’t feel that long as it usually does. We also made a plan for the next day so I could drive them to the airport. I insisted. It’s only a 30-40 min drive, so why shouldn’t I? And their flight didn’t leave until midday, so it was no problem really.

Dropping ruchirahni and Sarah off at their hotel we then drove home and once we’d gotten Alexandra to sleep in her bed instead of the car, we both collapsed in our bed.

Next morning was good and nice (with a kiddo not to cranky, wohoo!). Once I was ready I went to pick up ruchirahni and Sarah so we’d be at the airport at a good time before their plane left. Once at the airport we had a FIKA, of course. ;-) And talked some more. During the whole weekend I felt quite comfortable talking to ruchirahni friend Sarah, since I’ve learned so much about her from ruchirahni’s entries. And apparently ruchirahni had talked to Sarah a lot about me to, so it went both ways. (It appeared as if it was only good things to! I hope at least…)

As it got closer to them leaving, we hugged a lot. Both me and ruchirahni assured each other that we were very happy about finally getting to meet. And that YES! Apparently I was just what ruchirahni had expected. And ruchirahni? Well… She was just what I had expected. Just a 1000 times more so! :-) Such an awesome woman. Whoever ends up with her as a psychiatric doctor is going to be really fucking lucky! :-D

Once I’d dropped them off, I felt empty and sad. Already missing them. We talked and laughed so much my jaw was a bit sore. :-)

Such amazing women. Just… amazing. It still blows my mind that she’s been here. It really does. All the way from Brooklyn, New York City, USA to little Borås, Sweden. Amazing.

So happy to be able to call you a dear friend, ruchirahni.

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

So... the 23e of January I broke my leg... A week later, my mom fell over and scratched up her whole face. Going on a check up, she found out that her bad knee? Had a crack in the kneecap. Fuck. No cast needed, but she needs a protective knee pad thingy to make sure her kneecap stays put. And guess what? The week after that my brother... got ran over by a cow (well, a heifer) and twisted his knee... so one of those knee pad thingies for him to, but he only had to use it for about a week or so.

WTH? o.O

And that's not all!

Mom came over last weekend to hang out and help us out a bit. As long as she's taking it easy and moving around slow, her knee is fine, so that's good. Anyway. Guess what happened then? She dropped her phone in the toilette! X-D No joke! We didn't find it there until about an hour after she'd noticed it was gone. And that's just because I needed to use the bathroom.

Geezes. Enough is enough universe! Give us a break!

At this point all there is is to laugh about it all, to be honest.

I watched an amazing movie the other day. Desert Flower. I pretty much broke down. It's about the life of Waris Dirie and her life from being a little girl in the Somali dessert to a model and to a spokeswoman against female genital mutilation. To say I broke down during that movie, despite the fun parts, would be an understatement. It was done to her when she was 3 years old.... Just 3. About the age as Alexandra....

To say Alexandra got plenty cuddles that night would be an understatement.

( Desert Flower Trailer... )

Watch it. I think it's an important movie. I've put a hold on the book at the closest library (where I'm supposed to be working if it hadn't been for my broken leg...). It's next to Alexandras daycare, so I'm sure peting73 will pick it up for me.

spicehobbit, my best friend, came by said hi and helped me clean a bit as well not to long ago. She dropped off the book Temeraire av Naomi Novik. In english. ;-) So there's that. And I'm reading the book Toddler Taming as well. Because, damn. I have a toddler now. o.O At least Alexandra is a moderately calm toddler. :-)

Now I'm going to hobble with my walking support (looking like this) to go eat and watch some Supernatural and read a bit. Working on a link/pimp post as well. Gonna be a lot of 50 Shades of GreyFail in that. ;-)

Laters!

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

Back to work today. Feels weird and good. I have an easy start though. This week I am working at the library closest to where I live. So it takes me about 5-10 mins to get to work, which is quite the difference how it’ll be later on... I wish I could work there all the time. I love the patrons there and the other librarians that work there. It’s an integrated library, meaning it’s both a regular library and a school library at the same time. And since I love working with both things, it would be perfect for me. Not to mention, Alexandra’s new daycare is in the neighboring house...

Nothing to be done about, I suppose. I know shit will hit the fan when I get back to the school library where I usually work. I have this week here (bliss), next week at a library outside of town (I haz the car), and the week after that... time to unpack the library I packed before I went on my summer vacation/holiday. AND plan and start up my anti-bullying project that I have a budget to use for.

Oh yeah. Back to work. With a vengeance. Can you tell?

It’s good that I keep busy though. If I’d been unemployed I would just have gone around thinking about Tashé constantly. I can’t help but wonder if she would still be alive if I’d been unemployed and able to talk to her more? Crazy thinking maybe and it’ll probably drive me crazy to, but I can’t help it.

Mom, my brother and his kids and spicehobbit came over to visit yesterday. It was good. I needed that, all them hugs and the love. It was nice. We took all the kids and went downtown to the big new playground there and let them lose. It was brilliant. If a bit hot. We have a bit of a heatwave here in Sweden currently, and you can definitely feel it. But the kids had fun, and I had cold drinks with me for everyone.

Then we went to grab a fika at a fika-place close by. While we were there... it started to rain. A lot. So we were quite wet once we got to the car. And after the drive up to our home and the run from the car at the parking lot? We were all soaked! *lol* But I had plenty clothes to hand out to everyone so no one had to walk around wet.

After that little adventure we had dinner and all the cousins played the afternoon away until it was time for them to leave. It was lovely. It really really was.

Week before that I spent 5 days with mom, including my birthday-weekend, so we got home this Wednesday last. She’d arranged a barbecue on my birthday and invited a few friends and neighbors.. and family... *smiles* *shakes head* She’s a bit nuts my mom, and she loves to arrange parties and get-togethers. It was a success though, and I did have a lovely lovely day. Days after the celebration was spent lazing around and also peting73 doing a mad dash back home and returning because he forgot his pain-meds (STUPID!) and me going out drinking and clubbing with my globetrotting cousin Mariell, who have since left to work at an insanely luxurious hotel at the Maldives again.

Good times were had, and I am trying to keep them in mind to ward off too much of the sadness I feel. It’s there, and it should. But I can’t drown in it. I have a family to take care of and be with after all.

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.