Day 23 -something you crave for a lot

I think that would have to be coffee. I crave a lot of other things as well, but there are very few mornings I don't want (and by want I mean desperatly need) my cup of java. I don't drink coffee any other time of day, just in the morning. Or with breakfast I should say, some weekends and days off I may not have my first meal before noon, but it's breakfast all the same, and coffee is the best part of it.

This morning we started driving from our Boise hotel at 10 am and it was with one luke warm and bitter (although free) cup of coffee I started that ride. But we made it to north Idaho safe and sound and I got the caffeine I needed.

Other cravings include candy, dark chocolate, salty pretzels and cheese... just to drop a few.

Now Christmas is just around the corner and I have a feeling I won't have to crave much of anything for near future.

Day 22 - What makes you different from everyone else

That’s easy, my DNA. Oh, and my finger prints. Other than that I’m no more and no less unique than anybody else.

People like to act like they’re so deep and misunderstood and special and all that. Yeah, yeah…we’re all special. We’re all also just animals that eat and poop and sleep and want love and affection and attention.

I don’t like to argue with people, especially not people I like. It makes me sad and upset when people don’t like me or say mean things about me. I want to be a better person than I honestly think I am. I think of great comments and witty come backs long after I should have said them, and then I think “next time, next time I’ll that to his/her face!” but I won’t cause I want people to like me.
I care about what other people think.
I gossip and talk behind peoples’ backs sometimes.

But ok fine, sure I have some things that make me different. I have a scar over my belly button that makes my stomach look like I had a c-section delivering a Barbie doll. I have one large birth mark behind my knee and one on my lower back. My ears are grown together at the top, so like that flap that most people have, I have too, only it’s not a flap but more like a baked in pizza crust. That’s how different and special I am.

Day 21- Something that makes me happy

Swimming. In the summer time. In lakes. It doesn’t just make me happy, it helps me function. I need water around me so bad I sometimes feel like a fish. Living down town Coeur d’Alene this summer was heavenly for swimming. Pocatello kind of sucks for it.

I don’t mind the ocean, the ocean is great, but you get all salty and if you’re in Sweden it’s freezing and if not you have to worry about jelly fish or sharks or whatever. I like lakes.

Day 20 - Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future

I already married him so… and I do see myself being with him in the future. I feel like I’m a pretty good person on my own, but with him I’m just better. With him, everything is just better. Oh, that’s so corny….fine, this is the person I married and the person I am excited to be spending my future with.

Day 19 -Nicknames I have and why

For the longest time I didn’t have any. I remember wanting one, but with a three letter first name and a last name so similar to a guy in my class who was already called “Burre” I was out of luck. Not until high school, through a play on words/misunderstanding, did I end up with “oosty” based on nothing but a coincidence. That evolved into “oostylainen” and often just “oost” or “lainen.” Years later did I find out that lainen is Finish for “small person” but that is (also) just a coincidence.

In college some people called me Os, which is funny now since add an “a” and that is what people here in the US call me.

When I had my hernia the girl’s I worked with at the restaurant called me “druvan” which means the grape. Because the hernia made it look like I had a grape under my t-shirt.

This summer I had a boss who called me Asiago cheese.

My parents and the rest of family have never called me anything but Åsa.

Day 18 -plans, dreams, goals I have

I just wrapped a bunch of presents for our X-mas party tomorrow and lunch was absolutely nuts at the restaurant today (thank god I'm almost done with that place) so I am not going to take this too seriously.

Plans. I plan on picking up almonds and vodka tomorrow, I think that's all we forgot to buy today.

Dreams. I had a pretty crazy dream a couple of months ago about us having Thanksgiving dinner with out neighbours and it was so frustrating because whenever I would grab something and put it on my plate it would turn into something else. Like I'd take a spoonful of green been casserole and when I'd look down it was suddenly spaghetti. The yams turned meat balls, the bread became marshmallows and so on...really annoying.

Goals. When I was little I had a deal with my dad that whenever I scored a goal in a soccer game (it had to be a real game, with the team) I didn't have to eat black pudding for two months. I didn't score very often, but when I did, I was always way more excited about the no black pudding than the actual goal.

Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for the day?

A person to switch lives with…hm, I love how these theoretical questions can keep your mind busy for ever, like it’s so important to get it right in case somebody would actually come knock on your door at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning and tell you to grab your purse cause you’re off to live the life of Lady Gaga/David Beckham/your mother/the pope…whatever.

Well, if that were to happen I think I would want to go life the life of (oh I feel like I should pick President Obama or Queen Elizabeth or Mother Theresa or somebody real important and interesting and blah blah blah)
Honestly though, I don’t know. Maybe I’d be my sister for a day so I could see what it’s like having four small children.

Speaking of which, it seems very very possible to be able to go home for 3-4 weeks this summer, I talked to my new boss about it yesterday and she said they pretty much close down for July anyways. Yay!!

Day 16 -Another picture of yourself

Another picture of me. This is almost exactly a year ago, New Year’s Eve actually. We were in Torres del Paine national park in Chile and spent three days hiking. That night though, we were at a base camp and went to a party at the loge with a bunch of random Germans, Spaniards and people from all over. It was fun. The 8 mile hike the next morning was not.

Day 15 - Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play

I don’t have an Ipod. I used to have a MP3 player but lost it somewhere in South America. I would like one but it doesn’t seem like a high enough priority for our budget right now. Maybe I'll have to win one. They have a contest at work now for the holidays where you can win an Ipad if you sell the most gift cards. But I really don't see the point of an Ipad, unless you need it for work, which I don't.

Day 14 - a photo of my family

This will have to do. This is Marta and Sandra. That is my mom and my littlest niece. I love and adore my mom even though we don’t always seem eye to eye, she is the reason I am who and how I am.
Sandra I have yet to meat, she was born this summer and hopefully I will see her before she turns 1.
If there are actual daughter and aunt points…. I don’t think I have very many.

Day 13 -a letter to someone who has hurt you recently

Dear X,

Friendship is not a one way street. When I ask you how you are, it’s not to be nice it’s because I want to know. And you always let me know. You always let me know everything, and I listen to it.
Maybe it’s because you assume your life is more eventful and exciting than mine, which is probably is, but you’ll never know because you seem to not care. I moved to a new city and looked for work (and friends) and could have used a cheerful word here and there or even just a reply to some of my messages.
Do you just assume that because I’m married nothing in my life is worth talking about now?
You are still my friend, you always will be, but I’m sad to say I don’t consider you my close friend anymore. Maybe time and distance had a part in that too, probably.
Anyways, I wish you the best, you’re a good person and I hope you’ll find true happiness. Whatever.

Day 12- Why I blog

Why? Because I love to write, that’s the main reason. Chairing feelings and information and pictures and whatever else… sure, yeah that too. But if I didn’t like to write I’d probably just make a lot of phone calls or update my facebook status ten times a day.

I really don’t like to speak on the phone much, especially not in English. But I married into a family who likes to pass the phone around like it’s a magic salt shaker or something so I’m getting a lot of training in small talk nowadays.

Writing is a form of communication that doesn’t necessarily force you to think twice about what you want to say, but it allows it. I like that.

Day 11 - Another picture of you and your friends

I told you this would be the hardest part, all these pictures.

Anyways, this is a whole other group of friends, from our time in China. I still keep in touch with most of them, although not nearly as frequently as I could and should and would like.

This was a fun night, visiting Jason (the guy in glasses next to Dylan) in Bao An. Good friends, good times.

Day 10- songs I listen to…

..when I'm sad, happy, bored, hyped, and mad.

Well. When I clean I like to listen to Tenacious D, Me first and the gimme gimmes, or anything fast and fun.

When I drive I like to listen to sappy love songs and sing along as loud as I can. I never understood singing in the shower. I mean, people (and you) can hear how off key you are, you get water in your mouth and if you forget the words you’re stuck with humming and wondering how the hell the song actually goes. With a CD or the radio in the car you can belch all you want, the sound of the engine (and the actual singer) got you covered.

When I’m sad I like anything slow and blue. The Lost Patrol is an old favourite when it comes to sad times.

But other times, really I’m not that picky. As long as it’s not techno or country-pop or just annoying in some other way, I’m fine.

Day 09 - Something you’re proud of in the past few days

Oh, I don’t know… had this been the assignment for day 12 or so instead I might have been able to say I’m proud of my GRE scores. But I don’t know about that yet.

I don’t have kids to be proud of and I’m certainly not proud of my cat who tore down the Christmas tree today and broke two ornaments and the top star.

Am I proud of the fact that I make it out of bed every morning and to work on time? Nah, not really… I feel like you have to have problems keeping your tongue in your mouth and ride a different bus to be able to take pride in such things.

It’s also very un-Swedish to say that you are proud of things. Out loud, I mean. I don’t think we’re actually more modest, we just act like it.
We don’t like to talk about things we are good at, take pride in, won awards for and so on.

I’m telling you, interviewing for a job is a lot different depending on what country you’re in.

Another thing we don’t really say out loud a whole lot is “I love you.” We obviously don’t love any less than Americans. But we use the word differently, and a lot more sparsely. I have never, to my recollection, said “I love you” to my parents, siblings, grandparents, or really anyone but Dylan.
That doesn’t mean I don’t love my family, I do love them, a lot. But when I speak to them we’ll say things like “I miss you, we’re thinking about you, kisses and hugs, your in my heart, etc”

To me it’s just the same and I was never even aware of this difference before moving here. But it is a little weird to me when people here tell me “I love you”, all casually. I mean like friends or people in Dylan’s family. I don’t want to be rude and not say it back, but at the same time it feels really strange to say “love you” to somebody I’ve known for three months when I’ve never said it to my own brother. So it always turns a little awkward and I’m sure I come across as the cold Swede.

When my younger brother left for Australia two years ago he actually told my parents that he loved them when they dropped him off at the airport. He said things got super weird; mom got all teary and dad coughed for a long while before finally saying “Ahem, well…yes of course we do. So…off you go!!”
Haha, we don’t like to state the obvious, I guess.

Day 08 - short term goals for this month and why

This month, huh? Well, let’s see…
To make x-mas treats and cookies. I don’t really plan on cooking a whole lot food, I’ll help out but leave it up to the more experienced cooks to rule the kitchen.
To enjoy the holidays and time in northern Idaho with friends and family.
To talk to home more than I usually do and make sure my family knows how much I miss them.
To go skiing.

Anything else? Probably, but that’ll have to do it for now. I intend to enjoy this holiday season as much as I can and maybe, maybe I get to spend next Christmas at home, which would be wonderful.

Day 07 - A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you

My husband, best friend and the only person I would be comfortable crying in front of, naked and wearing face paint. A girl I met in high school and still consider one of my real good friends all though we don’t see each other close to enough once said about her then boyfriend
“I am so comfortable with R, I don’t even know what would be embarrassing, like I could be crying naked in front of him, wearing face paint.”

I don’t know why but I have always remembered that. And I don’t know about soul mates and Mr Right and all that stuff. But I could cry naked in front of this man, wearing face paint.

He is not perfect, I am everything but. But this is the person who have had the biggest impact on my life so far and I can’t wait to see what else he is going to bring into it.

Day 06 - Favorite super hero and why

Hm, I honestly can’t say that one comes to mind just like that. Superhero, I feel is either Superman or Spiderman or something like that or an actual person with amazing strength and personality.

Cartoon wise I am going to have to go with Batman. It was the only “boyish ”cartoon I would watch when I was little and I still prefer Batman over any other action hero.

Real person wise I am afraid I’m going to forget somebody if I mention somebody. Let’s just put it this way; all the people I meet that make me want to be a lot like them without making me feel inferior or belittled since they are so freaking amazing, they are the kind of everyday super heroes the world needs more of.

And when I can come up with a real good example, I’ll let you know. How’s that? Ok, job done for day 6. Yesterday I took the GREs and had a job interview and today I got the tree and decorated it and cleaned the bathroom and made the neighbour a birthday cake. Phew. Good thing I was dumb enough to request the wrong day off from work or I wouldn’t have had time for all that.

Day 5 – a picture of somewhere you’ve been

The Great Wall. It’s pretty great, I’ll give you that. This is from the second time we were there. It’s June and the weather is muggier than it was back in August when we were there the first time. But the first time we forgot our camera. We felt pretty stupid, don’t worry.

We lived in China for one year, not Beijing though but Shenzhen, and it was definitely one of the most intense years of my life. I learned a lot, was frustrated a lot, laughed a lot, gained patience, had wonderful massages, amazing food, brutal cases of food poisoning, met remarkable people and witnessed remarkable things. I would never ever live there again, but I would love to go back and visit.

Day 4 - a habit I wish I didn't have

It’s not so much a habit as a personality trait I suppose, but I’m very unspontaneous. Time with South Americans in college and travelling has helped a bit, but at heart I’m still about as flexible as clockwork.
I like to know what the plan is and if there is no plan I feel the need to make one, pronto. For me, half the fun of a party, going out or having dinner with friends is looking forward to it.
I keep a calendar even when I’m not in school or really need it for work, just cause I like the overview and daily planning. My best days are when I know everything we’re going to do (and it’s all fun stuff, of course). Not saying I can’t enjoy a surprise… I can. But if you really want me to enjoy the surprise, tell me about it three days early!

I have a father who will plan dinner for 6 pm and call you and let you know if it changes to 6:10. He will also call you at 6:12 and ask why you are late.
I have a mother who is so afraid to be late that she’ll take you to the airport an hour before the hour they tell you to be there early. So it’s not like I don’t know where I get if from.

Day 3 -picture of my friends

These are my most recent friends. Or a collection of them anyways. It's funny how people get to become your friends. When you’re a kid it pretty much depends on where they live and if your parents get along. Then various things like sports, style, music and coolness come into play. And the older you get the more you look at if your partners get along, if you work together and basically how convenient it is to hang out…

And then there’re obviously different kinds of friends. The ones you like to hang out with and call when something is going on. And the kind you can call even if nothing is going on and that will give you a hug when you’re crying without thinking twice about it and remember your favourite silly movie and get you your favourite candy when you’re coming over and never, ever make you feel like you have to pretend to be anything that you’re not.

I have some of each kind. I could have more. But I’m not complaining. I love and miss and cherish and feel grateful for my all friends, only in different ways.

Day 2 - the meaning behind my blog name

The meaning behind my blog name. well, let’s see… I’m foreign and I live in Idaho. The blog is about my life in Idaho. Doesn’t get much more straight forward than that.

I have another blog as well, which I have had for quite a bit longer. I started it because I was leaving Sweden (again) and wanted my family and friends over there to be able to stay updated with what I was doing without having to send out mass e-mails. Then Dylan and I went to South America and I switched languages and started blogging in English instead so his family and our American friends could keep track of us as well. Once we came back to the US I switched back to Swedish.

But what I found then was that I missed being able to write about everyday things without having to explain them all the time. Most Swedish people don’t understand stuff like Black Friday, Thanksgiving, March Madness, the GRE, crazy people at Wal Mart and Fox News without a pretty thorough explanation.
So I started this blog and even though I often feel like nobody actually reads it (except for Jean-Pierre) and sometimes feel like it just steels time from my other blog, I enjoy it and intend to keep it alive as long as it entertains me.

Blog challange, ok it's on!

I saw a different version of this a while ago and decided it was too personal and would be too hard to complete. Then Dylan’s cousin introduced me to this one and it seems nicer. The hardest part may be posting all those pictures, we have not been very good at taking pictures since we stopped travelling. Oh, well. I’ll try, and this is what will be happening.

Day 01 - A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02 - The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 03 - A picture of you and your friends
Day 04 - A habit that you wish you didn't have
Day 05 - A picture of somewhere you’ve been
Day 06 - Favorite super hero and why
Day 07 - A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08 - Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09 - Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10 - Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11 - Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12 - How you found out about blogs and why you made one
Day 13 - A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14 - A picture of you and your family
Day 15 - Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16 - Another picture of yourself
Day 17 - Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18 - Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19 - Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20 - Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21 - A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22 - What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23 - Something you crave for a lot
Day 24 - A letter to your parents
Day 25 - What I would find in your bag
Day 26 - What you think about your friends
Day 27 - Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28 - A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29 - In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30 - Who are you?

So, day 1 and here are my 15 facts and a picture.




-I have attended three different preschools, three different high schools and three different universities. And I hope to add a fourth university to that list.
-I love running. Not every run is a good one and I don’t always love it while I’m actually doing it. But the older I get the more I feel like it’s really my body’s choice of exercise, it keeps me sane and makes me feel good and strong.
-I miss my family every single day and sometimes feel like a traitor for living so far away from them.
-I also know that I would never be happy living in my home town. I’m restless like that and need to move and do different things to stay happy.
-I don’t really believe in faith and that there’s only one person on the planet who can make you happy. But I have found a real good one and would happily have moved to Greenland for him. Good thing he’s only from Idaho.
-I really want to have children one day. Reason and logic tell me two years or so from now would probably be a good time. Emotions and biology tell me yesterday would be even better.
-In my next life I would like to be a ballroom dancer.
-I look a lot like my mother and brother.
-I have been a vegetarian since I was 16. Living in Idaho, it’s not always easy to explain to people why I don’t eat meat and sometimes even harder to find good food options. But I’m still happy with my choice and don’t miss meat one bit.
-I can make bread in a brick oven, the old school way. My mother taught me when I was little and I have yet to meet anyone my age that has that skill.
-I love to travel and want to keep doing it, always, although not as much and intensely as we’ve been doing it these last years.
-My favourite colours are maroon and purple.
-I cry real easily. Movies, songs, good news, bad news; it doesn’t take much. I get it from my mom.
-I have never wimped out on swimming once my bathing suit was on. I take great pride in this. I may say no if you ask me to swim, but if I say yes, then damn it I will swim.
-I hate monopoly. I’ve only played it once and don’t plan on doing it again.

Turkeyless Turkey Weekend

Back in Pocatello after a Thanksgiving weekend that was a disappointment in some ways and a pleasant surprise in others.

Disappointing was
-the fact that Dylan’s parents and brother and sister were not able to come down. The weather got in the way and you don’t want to mess with mothers, especially not Mother Nature.
-the lack of turkey on the Thanksgiving dinner table. Well, personally I could obviously not complain, it’s not like I care whether the people next to me eat bird or pig. But the kids were expecting turkey on Turkey Day and were very disappointed. Good thing they have an understanding mother who agreed to cook them one for the next day.
-that I saw nothing on Black Friday that was really unordinary. We went at 8 and it was really not that crazy at all. Like a normal Saturday close to Christmas-ish. The only place where the line was ridiculously long was Bath & Body Works… I was gonna get a chap stick but decided against it.

Pleasantly surprising was
-that we didn’t get in an accident heading out there. Not really, but I was nervous. The weather was bad and people drive like ass wipes.
-more quality time with Dylan’s cousins. The more time I spend with them (which has not been much in the past) the more I really like them. I’m so glad we have them as close as we do.
-that I actually got to go shopping. Knowing Dylan I was not expecting to, but Crystal invited me to go with her and I had a great time and found some good stuff.
-that a lot of the snow melted so the drive back was hassle free.

Not much, but something

An extremely unproductive day is coming to an end. Well, we did get winter tires on the car, which was well needed. And if paying somebody else to do the work and sitting on your butt at Les Schwab for two hours waiting can be called productive (which in this century I actually think it can) then I guess we kind of did get something done after all.

Jean-Pierre is debating whether to stay in Paris over x-mas and get drunk with his mother and aunts or go to Marbella to visit his father and his new, young wife. Neither option is very tempting and since he doesn’t have to decide quite yet he is hoping for yet another alternative to present itself.

thoughts on a snowy saturday

Homesickness.
Here we go again.

I don’t exactly miss my hometown, or the suburb I grew up in. Although I’m excited about going back to visit, I would never want to live there. I miss my family and friends, but not in a painful “I wish he or she was here right now” kind of way. Well, sometimes I do, but most of the time I just feel like it would be nice to see them more often, be able to call whenever, meet for lunch, just normal stuff like that. What I miss the most is feeling like I belong, fit into the context.

People here act like they’re from soooo far away when they’re from Washington or California. The west coast must be located right next to New Zealand from the way they talk about it.

Most people at work are from Pocatello, people’s old teachers come in to eat, old friends, family, acquaintances and such.
People say things like “oh, you must be Rachel’s sister, I went to school with her” or “your dad stopped by the shop last week, tell him I said hi” or “I’m in your cousin’s class, and our house is down the street from your mom’s”

Well, you get the picture. Nobody ever runs into my dad and if somebody that went to school with my sister were to walk in I promise to run naked around the restaurant.
The first real snow fell heavy over Pocatello today. Guess that’s what made me a little nostalgic. Good thing I have a family on this side of the puddle too, I’m excited to see them next week and even more excited to be spending Christmas with them in a month. I really don’t mean to complain, I’m good where I am and I am determined to make the very best out of our time here.
But when the snow falls, I can’t help but remembering all the snow that falls at home.

Culture, creepos and weirdos

Last night, after scoring some major culture points for watching Cabaret at the Performing Art Center, we took it down a few notches and went to 1st National Bar for a drink. Since Bobby knows pretty much every single person in Pocatello we weren’t surprised that he knew the couple sitting at a huge table by themselves and readily joined them when he invited us to. But right as everyone (there were like six of us) were sitting down, the couple got up and the girl mumbled something about being right back. Then she came back like ten minutes later with a bunch of CDs, a scarf and some other knickknack and explained that we had walked in on her dumping him and she had just collected all her stuff from his car.

That was awkward.

A few minutes later we were joined by a marine guy who slammed some beers and then praised alcohol since it allowed him to talk about the stuff giving him nightmares.

That was also awkward.

And finally we went to Charly’s where we ran into a guy who is a regular bar fly at work. He is all muscles and not much more. He wanted me to feel his flexed thigh muscles (quads, is it?).

That was not awkward, just plain weird.

Pocatello is home to a lot of weirdness. But I don’t know if we just happen to stumble upon it a lot or if we somehow attract it.

shopping and showers

We are going to throw a little holiday/end of semester shindig here in a couple of weeks. And when I say little, I mean little since our place is. But it should be fun still. We’re doing gag gifts and the dress code is either actually nice clothes (boring and safe) or the tackiest holiday sweater you can find. Or Santa I guess, I would not be opposed to somebody dressing up as Santa.

So anyways, today I went thrift store browsing for appropriate gadgets and garments. I didn’t find any horrific x-mas sweaters for myself (I’m thinking either a snowman or reindeer pattern would be nice) but I did find a music playing tie for D and some tacky plates to serve the food on.

I also found some odd wine glasses that I really liked and a gift for the baby shower I’m invited to next weekend. It will be my first shower ever, and not just baby shower, I’ve never been to any shower of any kind before. I’ve been invited to a few but never been able to attend. And then there was supposed to be some kind of wedding shower before my own wedding… not sure what happened with that one actually. All I know is I wasn’t invited.

But hopefully there’s no secret to showering besides showing up with a gift or I’ll make an ass of myself.

Pumpkin Spice and things that are nice

I have had a few comments lately (not here obviously, nobody ever leaves a comment here..) about my hating(?!) on America.
Well, I admit that there might have been some less enthusiastic postings lately, but hey…there’s no hating. There’s frustration and unfamiliarity and homesickness but no hate.

So, to make amends or whatever, here are some things I love about the US.

Malls. Seriously, I do. I know lots of people despise them and consider them a stereotypical symbol of everything that is wrong with this country. But ever since I first stepped foot in Mall of America, Minnesota I’ve been smitten. True, every mall I’ve been to since have been smaller, nothing beats the mega mall, but I still like the smaller ones too. I can spend hours looking for nothing and everything, time stops when I step into a mall.

Candy coffee. This is my own term for coffee tasting like Hazelnut, French Vanilla, Peppermint Chocolate, a million other flavours and my latest favourite, Pumpkin Spice. At home, a splash of milk in your dark roast is almost a sign of weakness. Here you have cowboys dumping tablespoons of Caramel Toffee in their coffee mugs. Love it.

Pretzels. However they come, soft with super orange, super fake processed cheese, tiny and salty, braided honey wheat, chocolate covered, I love them. A warm, fresh pretzel while shopping in a mall…. Oh yeah.

Thrift stores. Before coming here I had only been to Swedish second hand stores and unless you have enough money to spend your time in regular stores and are in Stockholm or Gothenburg, there’s really no need to bother. But here they are both cheap and places for great finds. Not always, but often enough.

Public restrooms. Not that I love being in them, but I do appreciate that you have them. Everywhere. And they are always free.

Okay there’s definitely more but that’s what I can come up with of the top of my head right now.

They say home is where your heart is. But your heart can be in more place than one. Home will always be Sweden. But home is also where my mail comes to, where I sleep and where my husband and cat are waiting for me.

Good parenting

Yesterday I had a 4 year old boy ask for rootbeer, which I brought him in a cup, and the first thing he did when he got his pop was to add sugar to it! He poured at least two sugar packets in there and his mom just laughed and was like “oh, that’s just how he likes it” like that was so cute.

Then a girl I work with told me she had a little girl ask for milk the other day but her mother said “no honey, you had milk this morning and there’s a lot of fat in milk, you should really have a coke instead”

Scary is what it is.

sick of kid's shoes and garden salads

Dear America,
you may not know this but not everybody has feet size 6 or bigger. Finding shoes my size is like finding good tippers at work; very hard and when they do come around, they’re still not for me.

Also, America (or should I say Idaho) since I have your attention. Some people don’t eat meat. That doesn’t mean all they want is salad, they might want something else, something cooked. Food. That’s still not meat. Did I loose you there?

And finally, America, this is going to be very hard to understand. You are not the only country in the world. There are lots, and I mean lots, of other countries. And, get this; people live in those other countries. So when somebody says “I am from Sweden” that means they are not American, not from your country, but from a different country. Know those little planes? Yeah, people travel in those. So even though a person was born and raised in one country, he or she may have travelled by plane and now live in a different country. Imagine that.

I'd rather eat my words than my food

I can’t believe the eggplant turned out so salty, I hardly put any salt in there. I can, however, believe the banana bread turned out so disastrous. Flour is not overrated.

So to sum it up: two hours in the kitchen, tons of dishes, barely eatable tofu-eggplant casserole and a bunch of banana mush in the garbage.

What a shitty housewife night, good thing there’s TV.

Dancing in my kitchen

Major housewife points to me today, I’m cooking and baking at the same time! Although the tofu-eggplant dish that’s in the oven right now looks kind of funky, I think it will taste ok still. And the banana bread that’s next in line to hit the hot spot shouldn’t be possible to mess up unless I forget it in there.

On the other hand I totally left the laundry on the line last night and when I woke up to slushy snow this morning, I thought “F*ck, but I am not going out there to collect drenched pants and shirts before work” and figured maybe it would get sunny later. But, it didn’t get sunny later; it’s been raining snow all day.

And then we have Dancing With the Stars on TV. I don’t care if people make fun of that show; if karma is good to me I’m coming back as a ball room dancer. Hair tight enough to straighten wrinkles. Sky high stilettos that I can hop, skip and twirl in. Feathers and rhine stones and a Crest white smile. Oh yeah.
When I was little I would watch ball room dancing on TV and give points to the different dresses and how they moved when the girls danced. If I was famous it would be for the sole reason of being able to be on DWTS.

Pain I deserve

Oh the pain, the pain. It’s intense, intense. When I have to use the bathroom, I look back, aim and then let myself fall onto the seat. Walking down stairs is the worst. Getting out of bed is not fun either. But who cares, I did it! I ran a half marathon and I did it well. Well enough, that is. I’m satisfied.

I don’t think I’ve been this sore since that body pump class in high school when I couldn’t even lift my arm to turn the alarm off the next morning. Or the very first time I snowboarded, that was brutal too. At least this is only in my legs, but it’s bad bad. Good thing I requested today off because I don’t think people would have been patient to wait for a server walking like a duck that needs to take a dump to serve them their food. I work tomorrow though; hopefully it will be a little better by then.

Now I’m waiting for Extreme Makeover Home Edition to start, I’ve heard they’re showing the Pocatello episode tonight.

watch my back

When I worked at that hideous call center back home the only thing that kept me sane was secretly checking my facebook and constantly letting people know how much I hated my job through my status updates. Then people at work wanted to add me as their friend and all of a sudden I had to watch my updates. Not that I thought they’d love the place either, but you never know.
Writing, posting, linking and simply putting personal stuff online can so easily come back and bite you in the ass. You have to be careful, but the only way to be safe is to not do it. I’m not safe. I should be more careful. I have already had do delete some old posts.

Anyways, life on the edge I guess.

D went to free Friday with our neighbour today. A PhD student scoring free food next to homeless people and alcoholics, how is that for morals? I don’t feel bad about it as long as the people in line with them have enough money for beer and cigarettes and he only takes stuff like vegetables and deli items that nobody else wants and that will go bad soon anyways. Knowing how much food we throw away at work I assume most grocery stores do the same. And it’s not like he’ll be a regular there.

Please, don't make me tell you I don't like you, I hate confrontations...

It’s really weird when people you don’t like, like you. We have a girl at work who is simply obnoxious. Everything about her makes me want to turn around and walk the other way. She looks a lot like Ursula, the evil octopus queen from the Little Mermaid, and she acts like an immature 14 year old on crack.

As far as I know, nobody really digs her sense of humour (stupid), her work ethics (missing without a trace), her looks (Ursula should cover that) or her loyalty (always talking shit about her co-workers) and rumours has is she might be getting booted soon.

But she likes me. I don’t know why. But whenever the manager or somebody else tells her she needs to quit gossiping and focus on her job (she really should) she gets really upset about it and comes crying to me. It’s awkward because I am usually pretty ticked with her already because I have been cleaning tables, seating guests and doing things like that, that’s her job. But then she comes and corners me in the coat room like a big sobbing monster and wants me to say sweet things about how unfair everyone is and make her feel better.

I honestly don’t know if she is only terrible at reading hints and clues, I mean it’s obviously not her greatest talent, but am I also subconsciously sending out the wrong signals?
I just want her to leave me alone, damn it.

What's the trick to getting a treat in this joint?

Halloween is coming to an end. I guess we had a few trick or treaters last night and a few less tonight, but Dylan had the lights off so I don’t really know what night was the main night. I missed all the kids though, worked dinner shift both last night and tonight.
We did go out to the bars last night and it was fun, but I really don’t like being in bars that are that packed. It was fun to see all the costumes but other than that…super long bathroom lines, impossible to get drinks, almost as impossible to find a place to sit, I’m over it. Busy but not full, that’s how I like my drinking establishments.

And now I’m tired but know I won’t be able to fall asleep if I go to bed, hate that feeling, so I’m staying up even though Dylan is in bed already and I have nothing to watch on TV and nothing to do. Read my book I guess.

October is over, enter November. Jean-Pierre loathes the holidays and sees November as a last month of piece and normalness before the hysteric mania that is December and Christmas time. But he doesn’t live in America where the holiday season never ends, just takes a few short intermissions.

Thanksgiving will be fun, but it’s the people I care about; decorations and dead birds and cranberries in the shape of a can, I could care less about all that. I already told people at work I don’t give a shizzle about New Year’s, I can work all through New Year’s, I’ve done it before and will gladly to it again.
But Christmas, I have to get time off for Christmas. Otherwise I will cry tears of childlike disappointment and disproportional pain.

Tamales

I just bought tamales I can’t eat (cause they have meat in them) from the Mexican couple that walks around our neighbourhood and knocks on doors with plastic bags full of steaming hot, home cooked food.
It’s not like I think they have 18 hungry children sitting at home starving and hoping mama and papa will bring home some money for groceries. If they had 18 starving children you’d think they feed them the tamales and skip the detour via our neighbourhood.

Still, I can’t pretend it doesn’t make me feel like a good person, buying their tamales. Like I’m helping people less fortunate than myself. Because cooking a bunch of food on a Friday night and then going door to door trying to sell it is not something I would do unless I was hurting for money I assume that they are hurting for money. But what do I know?

Maybe cooking is their passion and they found that selling tamales in old town Pocatello is a nice way to make some extra money and put towards a Caribbean cruise. Maybe.

Spending 10 dollars on tamales is not something we could do everyday, my dearest and myself. We had Subway earlier today cause we were lazy and hungry and felt like getting something ready made and quick. I felt a little bad about that since we could of course have made sandwiches at home, it’s not like Subway is that spectacular. But I clearly don’t feel the least bit bad about the tamales, quite the contrary.
Blessed mother Åsa saves the world by buying tamales. Singing doves and green meadows and pink flowers. With salsa on top.

Everything sucks - just wait

Super shitty lunch today; 3 tables and 15 bucks. Ridiculous and a waste of my time. My time is far from precious so it takes a lot to waste it, but this did.

The shitty lunch was followed by some more hassle on campus with registration and admission and all that crap. It’s such a head ache, I’m not even going to get into it. Being foreign sucks balls.

Eventually everything sucks in some way though. School, work, people and stuff like that obviously, but also your friends, family, love and yeah….pretty much everything. At some point, if you stick with something long enough, everything will suck.
Those are my words of wisdom for today. A Buddhist monk might have said it first, but it stands repeating.

On a more positive note, I’m going wine tasting tomorrow with my new girlfriend Jessica. We didn’t have the talk yet, but I am still going to call her my girlfriend. She cut my hair this Monday and then we decided to go out and do something together. I am way excited; it’s been a long time since I had some quality time with just females.

Happy Holidays

Some people just poison the air around them. When they are not around you can breathe, relax and feel comfortable in your skin. And when they are present, everything is ten times harder than usual, you mess up simple things and everyone is in a bad mood. We have a person like that at work, a manger. This week I have been lucky enough to not work a single shift with him. It has been wonderful. I hope he has the whole weekend off.

Tomorrow we are supposed to carve pumpkins. I have been wanting to do it for a while now, but tomorrow I think will be the day. It will be my second pumpkin ever, the first one was in Moscow. I’m a little bummed that I have to work next Sunday night, though. I’ll probably miss most all the trick or treaters.

So yeah. Halloween will be nice, Thanksgiving will surely be a good one too. But I don’t really care that much about these American holidays since they are new to me and not something I grew up with. I mean, it’s always nice to get together with family and friends and celebrate something, but they obviously have no nostalgic meaning to me. Christmas on the other hand, I’m going to go bananas over Christmas. I have practically been counting down since last years Chilean Christmas done wrong in the middle of summer. This year better be good. It will be good. I will be all over it.

Purple support and a ticket on my purple car

Today you were supposed to wear purple if you support gay rights. Just like you were supposed to wear denim on Oct 5th to support breast cancer (treatment...I assume?) and all the chips bags have ribbons on them now and you can run and walk and donate can foods and wear socks and hats and bracelets and god knows what else to support cancer, hear disease, lung disease, diabetes and god knows what else.

It's very hard to keep track and very easy to act supportive even if you're not.

I have to wear black at work, but I wore purple socks. I'm sure the gays were glad. Then I went to the gym (where people could actually see my socks) and got a ticket for parking in the university district without a permit. That, I believe, is my first ticket ever. Dylan was not thrilled.... I was not either, obviously, but had I not run into some people from his program right after finding the ticket, I would probably not have told him.

Annoying, and stupid (on my part). Next time I will make sure I park so far away I might as well just drive home and park there.

Darryl Jr smells a deal

We have a new neighbour, somebody moved into the apartment next door to Nate and Chris. Some African chick, I have not seen her yet. Hopefully she's cool though.

That house next door, where Nate and Chris have the bigger apartment, is for sale. It has two aparments; the guys' place with two bedrooms, a big livingroom, a smaller, but open, kitchen and a fire place. Then there's the smaller place, which still isn't too small; one bedroom, a livingroom, bath and a fairly large closet. There's a garage out back, a basement with washer/dryer, a nice patio and a decent size yard.

Dylan wants to buy it, he has been eyeing it since he saw the For Sale sign and the more we hang out over there, the more he wants it. Of course we have nowhere near enough money to buy it at this point. I have to admit that if we're looking at spending 4 something years here, that would add up to a lot of money thrown away on rent if we don't buy something.
But then there's of course also the fact that other people actually live there now.

I don't know. I am definitly missing that Stiegemeier gene that seems to make your whole system twitch and ache if you think you're not getting a good deal. Buying something eventually seems like a good idea in theory, but not yet.
I'm Swedish; we rent, we share, we cheat on our taxes, all we want is to be normal and we will avoid a conflict at any cause.

A day well spent

Just spent a good three hours driving around Pocatello counting yard signs for the upcoming election. It’s for one of Dylan’s classes. I must say I’ve had more fun on a Saturday.
We figured poor people in trailer parks would be less likely to care about the election than rich people in nice neighbourhoods. Now we now that (judging by the number of political signs and posters) poor people in trailer pars do indeed care way less about the election that rich people in nice neighbourhoods. A day well spent.

As for work, I’ve had a hard time deciding weather to stick with my job or keep flirting with other places that I feel would pay better, give me more shifts and be less cooperative. And so I got an interview lined up. But no, now I’ve decided (once again) to stay where I am. The grass is not always greener and I don’t want to be a flaky quitter or risk screwing myself over.

Here we go again

People, seriously, let’s make this easier on everybody involved in your restaurant experience. There are a few things you have to understand.

-First of all, the hostess is not your server so there is no need to make eye contact with her, smile or waist any other politeness on her- or him- whatever, like I said, it doesn’t matter.

-Don’t listen to your server’s name and try to remember it, they only say it to seem special, not so you can call on them if you need anything. The only time you want to notice your server’s name is if it’s something you can make fun of.

-If you’re with a large group, go ahead and assume that everybody wants water. Carrying 10 or 15 tall glasses of water is done in an instant. If the procedure of fetching water glasses that will mostly be left untouched slows down your server, go ahead and take a good chunk out of the intended tip.

-Servers are mentally slow by nature. Always assume they will get your order wrong. Even if they repeat your entire order back to you, it doesn’t mean they understand what they are saying; parrots do that trick all the time.

-However, mind reading is mandatory is waitress-school. Go over how you want your burger cooked at least three times, but don’t tell them you want the pickles on the side and no mayo, they should be able to figure that much out on their own.

-Once the food arrives, make sure not too look too excited as this might indicate satisfaction and hint to the server that you don’t need them anymore. Critically scrutinize your plate, this is the perfect time to put on glasses if you have a pair, and ask for that side of pickles, extra napkins and a refill on the salt shaker, just to make sure your server doesn’t slack off.

-Ask for refills on everything that is refillable free of charge. That’s the whole purpose of free refills. If you will actually eat those fries or drink that coke doesn’t matter one bit. The only way to make sure the glass is not just half full but actually full, is to have it sitting in front of you.

-The doggy bag part can be tricky, you don’t want to have to bag up your food yourself; on the other hand, you can’t trust your server not to steel or tamper with your food when out of sight. The best way to go; do it yourself but make sure they understand how unhappy you are to have to do so and take another good chunk out of the tip.

-Splenda, Equal and all that stuff is free for restaurants, but not for you. Stock up before you leave!

-Make sure you get every single penny of your change back if you pay cash. If you pay with a card, go ahead and take both copies of the slip, it’s a myth that the one that says “business copy” actually has to stay at the business. That’s none of their business, it’s yours.

Enjoy your dining out, but never, ever let on that you are enjoying it. Restaurant staff is not people, they are servers. That’s why they are called servers for crying out loud, so go right ahead and bring the medieval “server and king” style back.

A tank of gas can only take you so far

I filled up the car with gas, 35 dollars. Then I went into work and made 36 dollar. One dollar plus today.

Some days are about the future, some days are about the past and some days are just about getting through. Jean-Pierre is having the third kind today. Hating his teachers, his roommate, his life and the world there is no time for pondering and no energy left for decision making. He is not going to even check facebook today.

I am so glad fall is finally here. Crisp, cool air on sunny days with a sky, high and blue. Yesterday it was raining and Sunday when we actually had a nice day like that, I was working. But still. Bring on the scarves and scented candles; I’ve been ready since August.

Sunday 10-10-10

Just got back from a better day at work than I had yesterday. More money, less busy and no (major) screw ups.
The house is kind of a mess, but I am not about to clean it right now.

So this is how I see it.
Jean-Pierre is sitting at a single table outside a small coffee house in central Paris. He has a scarf wrapped loosely around his neck. October is chilly and the thin anorak style jacket he is wearing does a terrible job of keeping him warm. The café au lait in front of him is turning cold fast. A to-go cup with a lid would keep the hot beverage hot, but Jean-Pierre would rather drink cold coffee (he would rather be caught dead) than with one of those horribly ugly American style styrofoam or paper cups that scream out “I am too busy and too stupid to enjoy my coffee.”

After six cigarettes, he is still as clueless as when he sat down. Coffee and cigarettes on a busy street normally clears his head, but not today. His skinny lap top computer clashes with the antique style of the coffee mug and exterior design of the café.
He’s checking facebook, reading random blogs about random places he will probably never visit. He’s debating whether to make an omelette or something more substantial for dinner when he gets home. He’s starting to really annoy the waitress who wants to clean her section and end her shift. Her name is Claudette. She is positive he has no idea who she is even thought he comes in for coffee several times a week.

Jean-Pierre looks busy, tapping the keys of his sleek computer with focused frenzy. He has learned about an ex-gang member in Sweden who has a prize on his head after the police refused to put him in a witness protection program. He has read about NHL-football players accused of cheating on drug tests. Film reviews and weather forecasts and fashion updates have made their way into his conscience.
But he has come non the closer to making a decision about his future. That was his plan for the afternoon, but it did not work.

He leaves the café and his half empty cup without paying. He knows Claudette will be angry but let him pay for it next time he comes in without making a fuss. He does know her name.

Decisions are like that sometimes, impossible to force out of their hiding. They’ll come out in time, when they’re good and ready, but no sooner.

Personally, I have decided to not even go to the interview at the Brewery. I would feel dishonest and probably not take the job even if I got it.

Enter Jean-Pierre

Someone recently asked me about blogs; what they are, why you have them and so forth.
I told him I had two and he asked if anyone read them. I said I knew people (family and friends at home) read my Swedish blog but that I honestly had no idea if anyone ever read this one...

So then what's the point of having a blog that nobody reads? (one might wonder, and he did)
Well, I suppose I just like the thought of people being able to read it. I can't write whatever because there is that slight chance that whatever will find its way back to whoever it was about.
I can be honest or I can invent things and events, but if I go completly nuts with it, again, there is that chance someone will call me on ny BS.

So, I'll keep doing it. For me and my imaginary reader Jean-Pierre. JP is a French student who lives in Paris even though he hates it there, because it is good for his image.
More on him later, now I am going to be social and nice to our guests Nate and Chris even though I am still a little mad at them for waking us up at 3 am last night.

Costumes and Curry

Chill Friday getting ready to work the Brunch-shift both Saturday and Sunday. Tomorrow night we are going to Indian night on campus; naan, curry and hopefully lots of yummy foods.

Then we were supposed to go to Flip Side after that, a bar just two blocks from our house that puts on costume parties all the time, and this time for Superheroes. So yesterday we went to the thrift stores and Dylan got a Donatello Ninja Turtle costume, well no he didn’t actually. He got long johns that he dyed green, purple fabric and a stick. Then he spent 3 hours making a shell.

I got a fairy godmother/medieval maid costume and was going to get a wand and cast spells on people, but then Dylan (unfortunately) found this yellow jump suit (what the hell are the odds?) and bought it for me even though it seems to have been custom made for a skinny umpa lumpa. It fits extremely funny, somehow it’s too short, too saggy and too small all at the same time. But yeah, so now I’m going as a poorly dressed version of April O’Neal instead.

Well, good good thing that we ended up going to Flip Side for a little bit last night because as it turns out, the Superhero costume party is not until next weekend! Tomorrow is band night and live music with a band from Washington. I would not have been happy showing up to a concert in my yellow outfit….

“Hi, I’m with the band…my name is April”
yeah I don’t think so.

Money Honey

Yep, i got it. Passed the test and will go in today to get my schedule. Nice, just so I can actually start bringing in some money.

I don’t like to talk about money though, or plan ahead for every little expense.
I know how that sounds, ok so let me explain.

I don’t like making a super detailed budget plan and then have to remake it every time a lunch is a little pricier than expected or a pair of flip flops break and a new pair ruins the budget for that day. Dylan loves it.
Where I like to plan social events ahead of time so I know whether I need to dress up or can just slouch in sweats, he hates that. But he can’t help but planning every little cent we’re going to spend and then he actually seems to enjoy remaking his budget when the not-planned for night out ended up adding a six-pack of beer and a $ 25 bar tab to the expense list.

I just try to be smart about it, not spend too much on the necessary stuff and not buy too much unnecessary stuff. I am dying to go shopping, the real fun kind of shopping where you don’t actually need anything but still want to find whatever looks cute. It’s at the point where I don’t even go into stores that will tempt me anymore. I need to get a few pay checks under my belt before I can let myself go to the mall.

what the hell muffin pan..?

My hand is cramping up like a claw. I don’t think I’ve written anything that long since middle school. The menu test, I took it today and I can’t really say how I did. I definitely missed some celery sticks, lettuce leaves and pieces of parsley, but hopefully they’re not too picky about the garnishes. I think I got most all the main dishes down close to perfect, except the sandwiches….they have so many different toppings and there is no rhyme or reason to what goes on what.
Swiss cheese, pickles and BBQ-sauce sound like a good combo to anyone?
Not me, but apparently to whoever made the menu.

Whatever, at least I did it and now I just have to wait and see.

I just signed up for the GRE-test (draining another $160 from our account, I really hope to putting some in there soon), and I’m taking it in December. I’m going to have to study, cause if I do real good on the verbal section they’ll waive my TOEFL-test and thus save me a lot of money.

Today I made blueberry-banana muffins. Muffins don’t really want to work out for me, don’t know why. The chocolate cake I made for Chris’s birthday came together surprisingly well, the cobbler was a hit. Why not muffins? Why?

Elbow noodles in creamy cheddar cheese sauce

Studying the menu for my test tomorrow.

Chicken strips come with Honey Mustard, Fire Wings with Blue Cheese. There are pieces of red and green peppers in the rice pilaff that cannot be removed. There is pico the gallo in the guacamole but it can be made without it upon request. The broccoli had margarine on it but the cauliflower has butter. The Chicken Mushroom Pasta is spicy where as the Chicken Broccoli is not.
I’m not sure it was a good idea to say I’d take it Monday…..but you can retake it if you fail so maybe I’ll just have to do that a couple of times. It’s not like it’s hard, just a lot to memorize.

Last night we had game night here and it was a lot of fun. We played Quip It! and Outburst and everyone seemed to have a really good time. I want to get the new version of Scruples though, that game is one of my absolute favourites.

Dylan is studying for his first actual test tomorrow. So we’re both studying, only he is studying real stuff and I’m studying Asian Glazed Baby Back Ribs and Peppercorn Steaks. I’m slacking, blogging and checking facebook and he’s slacking taking naps and downloading music.

I have been thinking a lot about home this week. Because Linnea is here and I speak Swedish almost every day (as supposed to maybe once a week if my mom calls) and I also because I got a care package stuffed with goodies from home. I miss it, a lot. But I also feel like I’m starting to get comfortable here.

I miss my friends. And being gone for such long periods of time tells you a lot about who your real friends really are. There’s one I am kind of disappointed with lately. Maybe I’m being unfair, but I feel like she only keeps in touch with me when she needs someone to talk to about her messy life, if she’s fine, no need for me…

Oh well, back to the Italian Cream Cake and the kid’s Shirley Temple Float. I have pass this damn exam and not get hung up on energy draining people.

would you like that wide a side of sarcasm?

I worked my seccond day at the restaurant today. Well, not worked, trained. In order to be a server you have to train for four days and then pass a final exam. It is indeed rocket science, serving food to people, in case you didn’t know.

I’m glad I have a job though, and so far so good. There’s quite a few people working there, which is nice. The more people at a place, the less it matters if you don’t get along with everyone.

It’s weird how getting along with people tend to be a common issue for me… I am such a lovable person, right?
No, I’m not trying to fool anyone, myself included. I know what and how I am;

-I judge other people very fast. In fact, I don’t know how to relate to people unless I have put a label on them first (cool, smartass, annoying but sweet, stupid, nice, potential friend etc.) I don’t, however, have any problem changing the labels. Cool can go to smartass in one comment and stupid can be bumped right up to potential friend in a matter of a conversation.

-I am not very good at dealing with criticism, it takes very little to make me cry and my skin is rarely thicker than that of a grape.

-Still, I can be quite insensitive to other people’s feelings when it comes to harsh comments and not so constructive criticism.

So right now I am training for a job I really think is below my level of education and capability. At the same time I am nervous I won’t pass the test or do a good job because I really need a job and this is not a bad one compared to some really sucky, minimum wage ones.

I just want to go back to school. Back in time, back to school, back to basics.

my very first political meeting and my bizillionth going away party

I can’t remember last time I went to a going away party that wasn’t for me. Oh wait, actually I can. Like every weekend and a few times in between for the last month.

Jake is going to Uruguay, like for real I think he actually is going to Uruguay, but he hasn’t yet. He has just been going for ever, since we met him actually… because that’s how we ended up talking to him and Bobby, about South America.

So last weekend was his official going away party since he had actually purchased his ticket. It was rough, a lot of fun, but rough. And now tomorrow night is another one. I’m excited, it’s at Charley’s and their Karaoke nights are supposed to be really good. But seriously, if he doesn’t leave after this one, I think we might have to switch and start calling them Welcome Home parties. Mixing it up.

Tonight we went to a meeting with the College of Democrats. I know right? Like what the hell am I doing there? I can’t vote and I don’t know jack shit about the political system here. But as they said themselves, they’re democrats in Idaho; they can’t afford to be picky.... Sad but true. And at least I know enough to know I’d be a democrat if I were in fact American.

And they were all really nice and it wasn’t like a political meeting at all, more like cool, liberal people who want to do a little more than just talk about how much society sucks. And I am definitely up for volunteering at food banks and shelters and stuff where they need my work force more than my political knowledge.

unemplolalalalalayed

Is there a job in Pocatello I haven’t applied for yet?

The bilingual car salesman? Check.
The bakery manager? Check.
The veterinarian? Check.
The nail tech? Check.

Not really, but pretty freakkin close. I am so sick of this I am ready to start singing on the street corners. Soon.

In the mean time I am trying to keep my spirits up.
How’s that working out?
As my Chinese students would say “maybe…so so”

Jaques is cooking up a storm but I just like listening to him

I have no patience with people who take themselves too seriously. Seriously. If you can’t make fun of yourself, you’re not a fun person. Some people just try too hard to come across as this super cool, laid back, awesome guy or girl but as soon as somebody tells a joke on their behalf or they appear in a funny but not so flattering story, they get all defensive and butt hurt and prove that they are anything but laid back and cool. We hung out with a guy like that recently.

Right now I’m watching a cooking show with this French dude. I have no idea what he’s making or what he’s saying really, but I love his accent. French and Spanish people get a kick ass accent when they speak English. Germans tend to sound angry no matter what, Finish people sound constipated, Norwegians sound like they are forced to speak when they really rather be singing, Swedish people sound like they have stick up their ass or are reading from a script, Russians sounds like the words got stuck in the back of their throat and the only way to get them out is by adding a lot of rolling R’s and gurgling noises.

In my opinion.

Oh, I guess he made some kind of rooster dish. Looks French. Now he’s working on a raspberry cake that looks delish.

I jinxed it...

No, I don't really think I jinxed it, but last night I was informed that I didn't get the position at the university. The one professional job in the city of Pocatello, the one job I really, really wanted, the thin thread I hung such heavy hopes on... no wonder it broke.

I broke a little too. Why is it that I always end up crying the night before interviews and important meetings? Last time it was the writing center and I watched I am Sam the night before....good move, I looked like I had goggles on, underneath my skin. And this morning I met with the director of the English departmend regarding my future ESL studies. Puffy, puffy eyes.

I am not in a super good place right now. It will get better I am sure, but right now I am low and blue.

Running out of patience

I am so sick of waiting for people to get back to me. And so sick of people not getting back to me.
Seriously.
So tomorrow I have to let the Child & Adolecent center know if I want the job they gave me Friday. I don't. But I don't know for sure that I have enough pride, money and patience to say no either.

So I go running, I do laundry and I send out a million e-mails applying for jobs I am way over-qualified for and don't even want, but I pretend that I do, and either way it doesn't matter because I still don't hear back from amyone. Discouraging, yes yes it is.

Never gonna get it, never gonna get it

Never gonna get it, never get it.

Fairs and Foods

The first time I ever went to a fair was the Minnesota State Fair in Minneapolis. I was a high school exchange student and had been in the US for less than a week. It was quite the experience, let me tell you.

The farm animals didn’t impress me all that much; I have farmers in my family, although the fact that people got trophies for showing them off, that was something different. But the beauty pageant where they carved the winners face out in a butter statue, the lumber jack show with guys running up huge poles like they were spider man dressed out in flannel and the fried cheese on a stick, that all blew me away.

I’ve been to a few fairs and rodeos since, but there is nothing like that first one. Tomorrow we are hitting the South Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot and hopefully that will be fun and the weather will cooperate, it was raining today.

Right now I’m kind of feeling a little iffy. I had cafeteria dinner with Linnea (the Swedish exchange student) and I feel like my stomach is all out of practise for that all you can eat but probably shouldn’t style buffets. I used to eat Bob’s food all the time in Moscow and it didn’t face me one bit. But right now that tuna bagel clearly doesn’t want to mix with the sesame garlic stir fry. Ugh.
Oh well, some good healthy fair food tomorrow will probably make the system happier…

Fairs and Foods

back to normal after all the cake is gone

The birthday turned out good, Dylan liked his presents (money clip, a vintage t-shirt and a fleece jacket) and the cake was a little dry, I thought (less flour next time) but people still liked it and finished the whole thing.

And Boise State won, which was a nice finish even though I could care less about football. And I mean that, I would care less if it was a non-Idahoan team playing or if it was baseball.

Anyways, today has been less productive, tomorrow I plan on applying for a job at a center for troubled teens and kids. I did get a call back from a gym where I applied...and I might drop by there tomorrow too, if nothing else seems promising... the gym pays quite shitty and is only like 15 hours a week.

It's hard, I feel lazy and unproductive but then I can't apply for jobs that don't exist either.

On a different note

There is a lady in the house on our right.
There is also at least one dog, somewhere between 5 and 10 cats, a nephew of some sort and an older man that seems to spend more time there than anywhere else.

She is an artist of some sort.
She tends to her cats and the dog and the nephew and the man. She sees the world in a different way than I do, I think.
I often think she is kind of crazy. Then I feel bad and think that she is probably a way better person than I will ever be.

There is a guy in the house on our left. He lets an ex-convict live with him for free. He mows the lawn for the lady with the cats and then they smoke pot together.

There are dirty dishes in my kitchen and they bother me so much more than the financial crisis.

Bengals, Vandals & Unemployment

The Bengals played the Vandals yesterday. Dylan doesn’t think women’s’ soccer is very interesting and I don’t think soccer in general is very interesting if the teams are not really good or if I don’t know any of the players. Last Friday we sat through a whole game and it was pretty brutal so yesterday we showed up with 20 minutes left of the game and saw the Vandals win. I was rooting for them too, I don’t feel like a Bengal and their fans were also freaking annoying.

Today it’s time for American football, first game of the season. Same as for soccer, I wouldn’t go if it wasn’t for the social aspect, lots of people are going and I’m sure it will be a good time, sort of. I just can’t get over how long an American football game is, after 20 real minutes sometimes not even 2 minutes has passed on the game clock. I would also probably focus more on the game and less on the clock if I knew the rules… which I do more know than 5 years ago…but still, I can’t say I get it.

Nice with a 3 day weekend, for me it doesn’t really make a difference since I still have no job… but it makes me fell less bad about not having one when other people are off too. Still no word back from any of the ones I applied for. I’m getting really sick of waiting.

D has a B-day

Dylan’s birthday is coming up and I’m trying to think of what to do about that. Not much I can do about it, but a lot I could do for it. I’m going to bake a cake, I already told him I would, and I will. We have a kitchen, we have a pan, I have no excuse not to.
Then I feel like I should get him a present too. Nothing too big or fancy, with all the new stuff we had to buy while setting the new apartment up, and with me not having a job yet, it’s not exactly in our budget to go crazy with the b-day gifts. But our neighbour just flashed his new money clip/card holder the other day, showing it off like it was the coolest invention since the locomotive, and Dylan acted like it was too. He hates carrying his wallet and always just has loose coins, cards and bills in his pockets. So for now that’s what I’m thinking I’ll get him, and maybe a new shirt or something.

The whole getting each other presents thing went downhill pretty fast for us. The first year we were dating Dylan got me a head lamp, rain gear and other stuff that made me feel like he was getting me equipped to be his girlfriend. For my 26th I got a pineapple (but we were in Thailand and he did propose later that night) and it’s not like I’ve been getting him diamonds and sports cars either. And now that we have a joined account I know I can’t spend too much on his present even if I wanted to, because he’d know and think it was stupid to spend that much on a gift.

So, money clip and a shirt or two from the thrift store, how does that sound? It sounds very likely to me. Oh, and a cake, can’t forget about the cake. Maybe I should get candles too.

no sushi to be found

Little miss Daisy just got a bath. She was not a fan of that procedure, but she came in stinking so bad we had to. I think she must have crawled up a car engine or something, who knows. Now she's walking around shaking her legs, smelling like soap and looking like a drenched rat.

The weekend has been fun but intense. Our new friends Jake and Bobby are definitly party animals I can't keep up with. Really nice, really cool guys, but they party in a different league. Jake spend the night in our chair with Daisy wraped around his head. Right after he announced he hated cats.

Pocatello has a lot of bars, a lot of Dollar stores, a lot of Mexican restaurants, a lot of Chinese restaurants and a lot of diners. But I don't think there is any place to get sushi. That sucks, I would love some sushi today.

muffins and cats

I finally made those muffins today that I’ve been talking about ever since I registered for a muffin pan at Target last summer. Excited as I was, I went all out right away; blueberry, flaxseed, whole wheat and raisins. They would have turned out good too, I really think, had I known that there is a difference between baking soda and baking powder.

Now, take a moment before you call me an idiot, after I translated both these ingredients to Swedish (and wished I had done that before popping the pan in the oven) I realized what they were and that what I thought was baking powder was in fact baking soda. Oh well, my muffins turned out a little flat and sad looking, but tasted good still. Dylan ate two, and not to make me feel better either, before I had even told him they we defect.

I also brought some over to our neighbour lady, I can’t remember her name ever, but she’s like an old artist type hippie who has a about a million cats running around and at least one dog who howls like a siren most days. She says he’s grieving the loss of a friend. Anyways, she told me today that the man living behind us, across the alley, sometimes catches cats and kills them. That kind of scared me, but as she continued her story, telling me that he did it one time when she was foster caring for 15 something stray cats…most of which would not come close to humans or be friendly in any way…I kind of felt like he would probably tell the story differently. Either way, she is a nice lady and our Daisy spends most of her time outside in her yard since she has all her friends there. But she is definitely a crazy cat lady.

knock knock - who was there?

Something pretty scary happened last night. At least I thought so.

After dinner me and Dylan went over to our neighbor's house. They were having a little BBQ out back and some beers. But since it was kind of chilly out and I wasn't drinking, I had very little patience with the one neighbor's love of talking only about himself and calling everybody either bitch or fool. So at like 10 I went home. I left the door unlocked since I didn't know if D had keys or not and it's not like we live in the ghetto.
Then I woke up at like 1 am from the sound of the door opening, I know I wasn't imagining it because the cat ran out to see who it was too. But assuming it was D I just laid in bed half asleep expecting him to come in and start brushing his teeth and all that normal stuff. But instead I just heard some footsteps in the living room and then the door was shut again. I got out there, the cat sitting in from of the door looking like "who was that?" and man do I wish she could talk!

But he/she/it, who ever it was, was gone. I called D who didn't pick up, texted him too, but no answer. So I locked the door and went back to bed, obviously unable to fall asleep. Half an hour later D comes home and has to knock on the windows for me to let him in. He said it wasn't him who had been there earlier (I had told myself that maybe they'd decided to go to the bars and he had just come back for his wallet or something...) so it remains a mystery. But from now on I am locking the door.

not cool

I am so over summer. Let there be fall already, I'm done with the sweating and the sun screen and the flip flops and the shorts. Done. I want fall and windbreakers and long pants and socks and scarfs. I so wish I could jump in a lake right now to cool off. Maybe I'll have to convince Dylan that's what he wants too...he's home taking a nap right now while I'm using the internet at the library.

Last night we had a BBQ with our neighbours Nate and Chris in their backyard and then went out and about Pocatello's nightlife. It was a pretty fun night that ended pretty late. Today all I want to do is swim. But the oasis is far from our desert camp.

Who said nothing happens in Pocatello? TV is here!

So far Pocatello is hot, weather wise, but pretty cold job wise. Today we drove out to Blackfoot and went swimming to cool off, which was nice, but I wish there was a closer place to go swimming.

Job wise I am really hoping I get that job for the university, but I have no idea how good my chances are and when they will start actually calling for interviews and stuff. So I am looking for other stuff too, but there could definitely be more jobs to apply for…they’re few and far between.

The Swedish girl has not contacted me yet, Dylan looked her up on the ISU web site but I don’t want to seem too eager and insane so I will give her at least a week or two before I contact her.

Just saw on the local news that Extreme Home Makeover is happening right now, right here in Pocatello. On 8th street. I feel like walking over there to sneak a peak.

I'm going to beat her down and make her my friend..moahaha

Here's what's cool; there's a Swedish exchange student arriving to Pocatello from Umea University tonight. I went to the IPO and asked and they told me. Her name is Linnea and she has no choice (given that she's cool) we are going to be friends! So I'm excited about that, I don't care that she probably went abroad in the first place to meet foreign people and experience a new culture and all that jazz and not just hang out with someone from her old city....I can be her guide in the jungle of Wal Mart's, Starbucks, over sized everything and the Idahoan mentality. Or something.

I have also applied for a couple of jobs, one that I really really want....and I'm trying not to get my hopes up but they are way up.

The new apartment is pretty cool, not huge in anyway but big enough and now pretty much all decorated and livable. So...so far so good I suppose.

I need a swim

Why is it that when you’re hung over and hungry anything you eat will make you feel like you should have eaten anything but just that. Or is that just me?

Last night out at Curley’s was fun but after parties always seem like way better ideas in the parking lot then when you wake up the next morning. I’m hung over. But while Dylan is napping I think I’m going to go jump in the lake. Then we should hopefully both be ready for our anniversary dinner at Scratch tonight.

I got my new running shoes in the mail today, way excited! Not running today but tomorrow I’ll have to take them out for a test run. I really want to do that half marathon in November so I better start working towards it…

Focus on fun

My second to last day at work today. Yay! Kayla is getting a puppy and bringing it back here on Sunday. Yay! Dylan’s 10 year reunion and our anniversary are both this weekend. Yay! We got a new bed, a chair and a book case yesterday. Yay!
Is this getting annoying? Probably, Yay!

Well, to tone all the excitement down I have a feeling that once the fun weekend is over, packing and cleaning and getting ready to go is going to get hectic. And as excited as I am to be done working at the restaurant, I can’t help to worry about getting a job in Pocatello.

But for right now I’m sticking my head in the sand on that one and trying to focus on the fun stuff. Worries always catch up anyways.

I vote for green trees and more bikes

I got the election information and voting card and stuff in the mail today. The Swedish elections are this fall. I really don’t plan on living in Sweden within the next four years but still feel like it’s my duty and responsibility as a citizen and a believer in the democratic system (and all that blah blah..) to vote. So I guess now I’ll have to do some research and find out what I want to vote for. I’ll probably end up doing one of those “what party should you vote for” polls on facebook. And then a different one on a different website, cause you know you always want to independent sources…and call it good. I feel like bad adult.

Today I told a customer who got mad because we don’t serve waffles, French toast or pancakes that he should just go to IHOP instead. I kind of enjoy working my last week not giving a damn about what people think.

Got to experience and enjoy Art on the Green for the first time yesterday. Not unlike any other street fair or market place I’ve seen, but fun still. I like strolling around looking at the knickknack and craftsy stuff and overpriced food items and handmade jewellery and all that. First me and Dylan did Sherman Avenue and down to the park. We made pretty good time, less than 20 minutes and hardly stopped to look at anything. Dylan was exhausted and done with people and art. Not me, but I was lucky enough to meet up with Allicia, a girl from work, and walked with her over to NIC and looked at the stuff they had over there and then all the way back down Sherman again and looked at all the stuff I raced passed before. Didn’t buy anything but food, although I was really tempted by some porch ornaments, since we’re moving and I don’t know what our place is going to look like yet.

I really felt like doing something fun last night, until around 7 when I got super tired and fell asleep on the couch. I don’t nap, it’s just not something I do. It throws my whole day off and makes me feel icky and jet lagged and confused and so I just don’t like to do it. But yesterday morning I was woken up at 6 am by Dylan who wanted me to go jump in the lake with him and Paul. And that’s probably why tiredness hit me at 7 pm… so we just stayed in and watched SNL. Not too bad. Cheap Saturday.

our little teenager has purple hair

I am so not excited about cleaning this poor little excuse for an apartment out before we move. But I am excited to move in to our new place. I hope it’s as nice in real life as it is in my head. Of course I realize that it probably won’t be, but still I hope.

I’m also not very excited about the long drive down to Pocatello. I never really enjoy a long drive but this time I’ll actually have to drive myself…it’s going to be really hard on my nervous driver persona, I know it. The longest I’ve ever driven before I think is down to Moscow.

I had today off so as soon as Dylan got off work, which was even earlier than expected because his kid locked him out of the house, we headed out to Rathdrum to do laundry and let Daisy run around in the backyard. Not being able to go outside turns her into a fluffy ball of hell and now that she can jump high enough to get into the trash, onto the sink, up on the toilette, pretty much everywhere…well, we really try to let her be outside as much as we can. Now she’s dead asleep next to me on the couch, her three white and one purple paw all stretched out. She stepped in Austin’s paint.

nuts anyone?

The lease is signed and in the mail. The U-haul is rented and paid for. We leave on the 10th and I am getting very ready. Mentally I have already quit work and it’s not a totally unpleasant feeling to not care at all about your job. The boss has finally realized he has to hire somebody though because three of us are leaving and will be gone in less than two weeks. An add is on craigslist and people have been stopping by all day. Hopefully they hire somebody that can start training next week, just cause I think that’ll be fun to see. The place is a bag of nuts. Cracked nuts, full nuts, half nuts, sweet nuts and gross nuts.

Scary to think that I have no idea when I’ll be working again though, hopefully I’ll be able to find something in Pocatello half way quickly… but you never know.

hopes for a home

Yeay, we have found an apartment in Pocatello that we both like and now I really really hope we get it! Close to campus, backyard, not very big but not too small either, 400 bucks a month. Hopefully we get it.

Today I was off work and naturally the weather was crappy… it seems to always be the case. I was kind of hung over from going out last night though, so the weather did kind of match my overall state of being. But I did go to the DMV and now I finally have my Idaho licence, not that it makes a big difference, but it is sometimes very inconvenient not to have one, so there…I’m officially a Idaho resident and driver.

Tomorrow I work again, all day again. It really is a pretty long shift working 11-close when we sometimes don’t get out of there till 9:30 or even later. Lunch was crazy both Tuesday and Wednesday so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. When we get too busy it just really sucks, you end up not getting very good tips cause people have to wait forever for both their food and service and we just run around like lost chickens while people are rude to us. I can’t wait to leave that place, I’ll miss some of the people I work with, we have a lot of fun sometimes, but the management can go shove something up someplace.

I’ll also really miss the coffee. Monday morning after I passed the road test I had an hour to kill before work and went to Thomas Hammer (or whatever that place is called) for breakfast. It was not at all as good as our stuff (God, I’m getting so coffee spoiled. It’s ridiculous..) although I think part of it was picking Irish cream for my flavour shot, I forgot I don’t really like that stuff.
But I only drink one latte a day and no more than two shots. I started with one, now I always do two but that’s it. Some people I work with do quads, sometimes several times a day. Nuts.

I would like to thank the academy...

Another day at the office. Another day to put on top of the stack of days that will go unremembered from my life.

Nothing special about today except for maybe that my co-worker told me that her mom is in prison for driving drunk and killing somebody. The reason (she told me) was that we have a couple of regulars at the restaurant that very often (like 3-5 times a week) drink a butt load and then drive home and that really bothers her. It bothers me too, a Monday not very long ago D was picking me up from work and he actually ended up giving them a ride home because they were just trashed…anyways, tonight they were ordering their eighth Mug Club beer when she told me about her mom.

I already knew though, cause our gossip queen for a boss had already told everyone a long time ago. He’s such an unprofessional, immature douche for a manger…but again, that’s beside the point. My two second dilemma was whether to tell her I already knew or fake a surprise. I faked a surprise. I don’t expect an Oscar anytime soon but I think I pulled it off.

This is the girl who’s only healthy leg I wanted to kick just a few weeks ago. I feel bad for her now, though. Not because of her mom (well, that too but that’s old) but because ever since the girl who stole money from the restaurant (what did I call her? Amanda??) was fired, this new girl has become the new little chicken to pick on in the nest.

Yes, she is annoying when she acts like going to college makes you genius and yes, she is indeed lazy and does as little as she can any time she works… but she now has a group of four catty girls actively keeping her in the cold and that’s just not nice. So I’m trying to give her a break. Not another broken leg, but a break.

No bike but extra cheese

Damn who ever stole my bike (that wasn’t even really mine) from the Riverstone bus stop. May he or she wreck real hard and get bad scratches and bruises on all knees, elbows and hands. It was locked up and all, they stole the lock and everything. Freakin’ bus people, they’re crazy.

As far as work goes, there’s a lot of it lately. I feel like I work more than I really want to and I pretty much close everyday. But who knows when I will be able to work once we move so I really shouldn’t complain. I’m not complaining, just whining a little.

You get so sick of people working at a restaurant; well I bet you get sick of people working a lot of places…. And a restaurant just isn’t an exception. Last night we had two adults come in with 9 (nine!!) kids 15 minutes before we were closing, then they stayed for over an hour, made a huge mess and didn’t even tip 15%. Today I had a couple get taste samples of every single beer on tap and then decide to drink coffee. I had to read the entire menu to two older ladies who acted like the world would go under if they made the wrong decision about what dressing to get for their side salads. And it was during lunch rush too, the entire time my boss was yelling from the kitchen “Asiagoooo, your order is uuuup!!!” He calls me Asiago. Or Asiago Tuna Fish for long, and sometimes Ozzy Osbourne. It’s great. Seriously though, I don’t really care, it’s only a little annoying when customers think that’s actually my name and ask “so were you named after the cheese?”

a day off -where's my sun?

My one day off this week (except for Sunday which is always off since we’re closed) is almost over. Did I spend it well? Well, considering I’m in Cd’A and the weather was kind of crappy…yeah, I think I spent it ok.

We’re looking to get bikes and downhill skis for Pocatello since we’ll need them for getting around town and are planning on getting ski passes. It’s so funny to me that Dylan has gone skiing once (a few months ago in Sun Valley while we went down to southern Idaho to look at Pocatello and ISU) and now pretty much considers himself to be intermediate. I’m not a very good skier when it comes to downhill skiing either, but that’s the thing… I have been doing it on and off since I was four years old and just because I can make it down the hill half way quickly without breaking any limbs that doesn’t mean I’m good. At least not to me. But we’re just different like that, I guess.

We’re also in the process of filling out an application to rent a place down there. Part of me is really excited about it, the other part still hasn’t landed in Coeur d’Alene yet and has no idea what is going on.

My new little niece is chubby and has dark hair, unlike any of her siblings. She has the upper lip that is the trade mark of my mom’s side of the family though, so we know she wasn’t switched out at the hospital. Hopefully I get to see her before she turns one… that would be nice. My sister has four kids and in six years I have attended one baptism and one Christmas. Not a single birthday. I’m a very absent type of aunt.

Directions and me

There is something missing in my head and it’s the part of the brain that handles directions and information about locations and positions of places I need to go. Seriously, people don’t understand how I can be so bad at taking, giving and basically dealing with directions, but I’m not making this shit up, this how bad I am.

Example, I am supposed to drive somewhere (and right there I’m partly screwed because I know that I’m driving to an unknown place and worrying about that takes up more than half of all my mental capacity) and someone tells me:
- Ok, so you’ll go straight on Boekel and then across 95 and then make a right… unless you want to take Lancaster, which would work too….

And then they keep on talking and I listen and I listen but I don’t hear anything but “right, left, intersection, bottom of hill, second right, house on left, stop lights etc” like it’s a nursery rhyme and they might as well be talking about chain saws; I try to understand but there’s a mental block and I just don’t.

I realize that people get frustrated with me and I don’t blame them at all. If I told someone “this is a hand, and this is a foot, here are the knees and right here on top is a head” and they were like
“what? Oh, I’m sorry, you lost me at foot…” I’d probably think they were retarded too and get annoyed.

But if God ever appeared in front of me and said
“Åsa, if you want to survive, you have to make a right by the big tree and then salvation will be on you left in about 3 miles” I’d be dead for sure. I can’t do directions, I just can’t.

one end and one beginning

I really kind of wanted the Netherlands to win today…does Spain really deserve to be both European and World champions? According to Willy, probably. It’s a shame he couldn’t come up and join us for watching the game, that would have been fun. Especially since there were some actual Dutch people at Capone’s today.

But, now the world cup is over and we have to wait for 4 years for the next party…there’s always that empty feeling at the end of any big event like that, the Olympics, the World Cup, the European tournaments. I hate when it all ends and you know you have to wait so long before the next one.

On a happier note my niece finally decided to join the rest of the people on the outside today. She was born 11:32 am (Swedish time) and so begins the countdown for a name. 3 months you can leave your child nameless before the authorities interfere and my sister and Peter have been pretty darn close to deadline with the previous kids so I’m not going to even ask if they have any ideas or suggestions for at least a week or two.