Day 332: Some days...

...it's easier to write this blog than others. Today was not one of those days. I woke up with a headache bordering on migraine, spent the day in bed despite the glorious spring weather that finally made an appearance in Stockholm and canceled plans to go out for Culture Night. So how do you write a "finding happy" entry on a day like today?

If you're me, you go back to the blog's original idea, to find something positive to write about every day. After a long nap, the headache finally gave way to hunger. There's a good sushi restaurant next door that prepared my meal on a plate I brought along from home. And there's a movie on TV that begins in a few minutes that has a 7.6 rating in IMDB and that Roger Ebert called the best film of the Sundance Film Festival the year it was released.

Oh, and there's generic Excederin, the miracle anti-headache over the counter drug.

Plus, tomorrow's another day :-)

Day 331: You never know...

My little afternoon project was to update the bulletin board in our building's lobby with the names of the new board members. We have one of those boards that you affix gold plastic letters to. As it turns out, this year we have an unusually large number of Ks in our board members' names so I did not have enough letters to go around.

Fortunately, the name and phone number of the letter place is on a sticker on the storage box. I called to make sure they still sell them, which they do. As I was speaking to the nice woman on the phone, it occurred to me to ask if they would be willing to mail the letters to us. Now, bear in mind that I am talking about seven letters, hardly big business for them, so I did not hold out much hope for a positive response. Which only goes to show that if you don't ask, you're sure to get a No,
because this time, I got a Yes.

Her condition was that I send an order via e-mail which I promptly did. A few minutes later I received a confirmation. The letters would be mailed to us on Monday. In addition, she took it upon herself to send a payment voucher so that we don't get charged an invoicing fee. Now that's customer service!

Day 330: Colorful

Have I mentioned that I have not bought a transportation card since my return from the U.S. on Feb 4? My reasoning was that I would not be riding the subway and buses regularly enough to make it worthwhile. It would be more economic to pay as I go. As it turns out, I have a strong resistance to paying as I go. Instead, I choose to walk. So it's win-win all around.

One consequence is discovering areas in my own neighborhood that I never knew existed. Today's surprise was this colorful view in front of a local restaurant:

Uplifting on a gray and rainy day like today.

Day 329: Nitrous oxide

More commonly known as laughing gas (lustgas på svenska), nitrous oxide is my hero of the day. When I had to have my first root canal and was dreading going to the dentist, my then sister-in-law suggested I find a dentist that can provide laughing gas. It doesn't exactly make you laugh, nor does it reduce pain. You feel the pain, but you simply don't care all that much. I tried it and I was hooked. Since then, no dentist may enter the room without it.

And so it was today. Now the Novocaine is wearing off and the throbbing pain begins. So my second hero of the day is the last batch of chicken soup that is defrosting even as I write. Thank goodness there is something I can eat that does not require chewing!

Day 328: All's well that ends well

Not such a great start this morning. After yet another "can't fall asleep till the wee hours of the morning" night, up at 6:30 AM to make an 8:00 AM dentist appointment. Got as far as two stations from my place when the subway delays began. The train ahead of ours was stuck at the next station. Wound up turning around and going home after consulting with the dentist. (What did we do before cell phones?)

That auspicious start left me tired and cranky and not at all looking forward to this evening's meeting of the new co-op board. This was to be the first meeting of this year's board elected at last week's shareholder meeting. We have a relatively large board (7 members and 2 deputies, impressive given the building has a total of 24 units) and this year three of the nine are both new to the board and to the building.

The main order of business at the first meeting is deciding on a chairperson, secretary and treasurer. Our treasurer agreed to continue as treasurer for the coming year. I've been secretary for several years now and quite like that role. However, our chairperson left the board after several years of service and I suspected my name would be floated in her stead. And I was right.

To my delight and surprise, one of the new board members expressed an interest in chairing! He was ratified and I can thereby continue as secretary. Not only that, but in a round of introductions we discovered that we have a doctor, an electrician, a superintendent, two computer nerds, a couple of handymen and a lot of creative ideas on our board.

Great way to end the day!

Day 327: A beautiful day in the neighborhood

Eight PM and still a moderate amount of daylight. Walking through this town is enough to make me happy. Today, especially so. Today is the 65th anniversary of Israel's independence day and as I made my way toward the café where a celebration was planned, I passed by a number of people speaking Hebrew. A rare event and one that made me feel like part of a community, albeit a mostly invisible one. Nice.

Day 326: Happy sleepy

At 4 AM, I was still reading. Not so fond of nights when I simply cannot fall asleep. At 5 AM, daylight broke. Sometime after that I finally fell asleep and woke up at about 10 fully aware that in four short hours the gamers would arrive and my place, simply put, was a mess.

Now it's 9 PM and everyone's left. The dishes are in the dishwasher, the place sparkles and I can go to sleep. Can't wait! Oh, and I received two energizing e-mails too.

It's been a good day all around.

Day 325b: We're off, we are...

325a
Not exactly champagne and caviar if you catch my drift. Equally enchanting not doubt, Being good isn't good enough (Sånger om längtan...songs about longing) with the ever wonderful Johan Rudebeck at Café Tjärlek. Four o'clock if you care to join.

Update coming afterwards...'cause this is for sure today's happy :-)

325b

And a report after. Fiaf, Jacque Brel, Hasse o Tage, Kander and more in the most charming café ever! Go Johan and Eric.

(Note to self: have a party at this café! Soon.)

One sings...

...the other plays...

...in the coziest café ever!

Day 324: (Still) Gotta love those Swedes

Today is gray, gray, gray. Reminds me a lot of my first visit to Sweden in 1991. It was also April and the weather was chilly, overcast and damp, just like today. But I made lunch plans with a friend near her place of work and was determined to walk the 5.2 kilometer there, rain or shine.

Along the way, I passed a number of different daycare and school classes taking an excursion. It's the cutest sight. The really young kids are dressed in reflective vests and hold on to each other or the teacher or the stroller if there is one. They look something like this:

Today, for the first time, I noticed the very clever "walking rope" for children who are a bit older It functions to keep the kids together and connected to the teacher at the same time. It is a length of rope with evenly spaced handles. Each child grabs hold of a handle while the teacher grabs the front of the rope, and off they go. The advantage over holding hands is the contact between the kids and the adults (there are typically two, one at the head of the line and another at the end). Here is what it looks like in action:

Clever, no?

Day 323: Popularity

On Sunday, it will be that time of month again. No, it's not what you're thinking (been there, done that, doing it no more...hey, another reason to be happy!). No, it's Board Games...Yeah! on Sunday.

I organize these event via Meetup and have done for several years now, limiting attendance to 12 people, which is who many I can comfortably accommodate in my apartment. It's a good number too for playing. We can split up into two or three groups and switch around during the afternoon.

Nowadays, the event always has a waiting list. So I sent out a mail to the people who registered, including those on the waiting list, asking them to change their RSVP to No if for some reason they cannot make it. To my surprise, over the next two days, the waiting list got longer. Tickles me pink that these events are so popular.

Let the games begin!

Day 322: Statistics

Never before have I been as excited to get an update from the Apple App store! Today's Wordfeud update features game statistics! That is music to the ears of a math nerd like me. And they are well designed stats too. You can see your wins, losses, etc. for each language and board combination that you play. These stats only cover games that were started on February 16 or later.

Here's what I discovered:

• I play a lot of Wordfeud (OK, I already knew that but I put it at the top of the list so that you won't have to comment :-))
• My percentage win rate in English (83%) is only slightly better than in Swedish (78%)
• I resign very few games, and those I do are never because I am losing
• It is easier (for me?) to score high points and to make 7-letter words in English than in Swedish

But anyway, see for yourself...oh, and do send me a game invitation if you want to play. My username is OdellaBella.

Day 321: Commuter no more

With the best of intentions, I set my alarm bright and early so that I would have time to walk to my dentist's office for today's 8 AM appointment. And then the snooze function popped up. Four times. There went my walk. Fortunately, Stockholm has a great transportation system and the subway got me there in time.

It's been a very long time since I've ridden the subway at that time of morning. As I was being squeezed by morning commuters I found myself thinking how glad I am to no longer be doing this every morning. Perhaps that was the whole meaning of the snooze function...to bring me to this realization.

The 4 kilometer walk home was all the more delightful!

Day 320: Jewish penicillin

Lunch

The wonders of FB. My neighbor posts that she's come down with a bad cold. I comment that I have homemade chicken soup to help her get better. And so it is! A batch of "Jewish penicillin" on its way next door. Perfect way to commemorate the Shoah and help a friend and neighbor. Plus, I got to eat some for lunch too :-)

Care package

Day 319: Singin' in the rain

One of the absolute best inventions ever is the headphones. As I marched off to the Language Café to try and revive my long-lost French, I put in my ear buds, turned on Spotify and walked to Gamla Stan singing the entire way. Singing makes me happy. The look on people's faces as I walk down the street singing out loud is priceless. I do it without ear buds too but have to admit to a certain freedom and pleasure with them in. For one thing, I'm surrounded by music. For another, I can't hear myself which means I'm not inhibited and can sing with gusto. Mind you, I'm fairly certain I'm singing on key, but I know I don't sound quite as loud or as good as inside those ear buds.

And the rain? It was actually sleet. None of it stuck but we are all beginning to feel that spring has simply gone on strike. Hey, but what do I care? I'm singing.

Days 317 and 318: Sweeties

Fell into bed last night in a state of happy exhaustion. Just as I was falling asleep I realized that I did not write a blog entry. But the sleep train was too fast and I too eager a passenger. Sometimes, you live so happy you just don't have to write about it.

The source? An entire day with my Sweeties at the Museum of Technology. We arrived when it opened and left when it closed. The two big attractions that lured us there were electric cars you can drive and a workshop where you could program Lego robots to drive through a course on "Mars."

These were both successes with my (now 9-year-old) Sweeties but the biggest hit of the day was the Wii dancing game. It took some convincing to get them to try ("But I don't want to dance Auntie Bella!") but once they did, that's all they wanted to do! Such a good form of exercise too. And something we could share as I love to dance and love games...and love the Sweeties too of course. You can see a sample of their dancing in this video clip:



To my delight, one Sweetie slept over, complete with breakfast, a piano recital, two readings of The Sound of Music pop-up book (including all the songs) and a long listening to music on YouTube while snuggling on the bed session.

People, I tell you, life is good!

Day 316: Odds and ends

A day of clearing up what I like to call the "niggelies." Here's a sampling:

- order food for the co-op annual meeting
- invite hosts to language café on Monday
- send a letter off for comments
- empty the dishwasher
- fill the dishwasher
- re-file returned keys
- research what's in town for two nine-year-olds to do
- inform a NYer about a museum tour
- clean the mud off yesterday's walking shoes
- process annual meeting RSVPs

When I take care of the niggelies I realize how many different things I am involved with and what fun it is to do them. Also, I feel happy and efficient.

Now, good night!

Day 315: You can't beat city hall

Yes, my American friends, I know the expression is "you can't fight city hall" but in this instance I mean beat. As in, ours is so beautiful, it can't be beat. Just take a look at these photos (bearing in mind that I took them more or less blinded by the sunlight) and tell me you don't agree!

It lifts my spirits just to walk around the courtyard. As a bonus, it is situated right by the water and the view is simply spectacular. And that, my friends, is today's happy.

Day 314: Book hangover

One of the women in the book club I belong to used the term "book hangover" to describe the feeling when a book you've read keeps holding on. You can't quite shake it and you can't quite get into the next book because the previous one has not moved over to make room for a new arrival.

That's how I'm feeling today, and it's about a book that I did not think was particularly well-written, although it got a lot of critical acclaim. It's called The Book Thief and is set in a small town in Germany during the time of Hilter. According to the author, the theme of the book is the power of words and I can see that he is true to that theme. That, however, is not what stuck with me. Rather, the story got me thinking about how important it is to know what's important in order to create a life you consider a life worth living.

I'm happy to have found something worthwhile in the book, at least in retrospect.

Day 313: Physical fitness

It's occurred to me twice in the past week that I am currently in the best physical condition I've ever been in. This will come as a shock, or as amusement, to those among you who know me well and know how much I despise working out. Still, it's true.

I remember one of the first times that I visited Stockholm and stayed with a friend who lived near Hornstull on Södermalm. She was teaching a tap class at the time and suggested we walk over Västerbron to the class. I thought the walk was endless. She thought it was a hop, skip and a jump away. Nowadays, I walk everywhere, including this week over that very same bridge...and beyond.

Feels good. Makes me happy.

Today's photo is of a sight that made me happy on the walk home from Gamla Stan. It was taken at 8:10 PM and you'll note that the sun is just setting. The journey toward the light is so very beautiful.

Day 312: Hope springs eternal

Spring hopes eternal? Either way, for the first time this year I did not need a scarf, hat or gloves on my walk from Skanstull to Gamla Stan. Perhaps we will have a spring this year after all???

Oh, and as you can see in the photo below, the Swedes are out in droves wherever outdoor seating is available. Never mind all the ice flows...the sun is shining people, let's worship.

And I even got to practice some French. It's a good Sunday one and all!