Day 205: Unfathomably senseless

Happy is not high up on the list right now. Hard to connect with happy in the face of the senseless killing of children. 18 die in Connecticut school shooting

 My cousin's daughter writes, "The elementary classroom is a fun, warm, and welcoming place where young children are inspired to be the very best versions of themselves and where they become excited about learning. At the end of the day these amazing and inspiring children show so much love and appreciation for the opportunities they are given. How could anyone in their right mind want to destroy such a beautiful thing."

How, indeed?

Day 204: Out and about

When it's cold outside...really, really cold...it's good to make commitments that guarantee I get out of the house. Otherwise I have a hard time motivating myself to put on all those layers of clothing. How do families with small children cope with all this winter clothing? It must take forever to get out the door.

This evening's commitment was dinner and the theater with one of my two Swedish brothers. I've been so snowed under (pardon the pun) with putting on a musical, it felt really great to go see one instead, although calling a stage production of Dirty Dancing a musical pushes the envelope a bit. Still, I enjoyed being in the audience for a change. Really must do this more often.

Day 203. Ya still gotta love the Swedes

So off I trudge in the slushy snow to get the premier invitations out on time. Not the most glamorous part of the job but, hey, someone's got to do it :-) The nearest "last minute" mailbox (last pick-up time 19.00) is at Medborgarplatsen, one t-bana stop away or about a 10 minute walk from my place. (That was yesterday's news, btw; today, I learned that in Ringen it is 18.00 and at the one outside Ringen it's 19.00.) 

But I digress. I was trudging. Jo...Medborgarplatsen is a gathering point on Söder. Great in the summer. Lots of outdoor cafés, food vendors, a library, swimming pool, food hall and multiplex. And a last minute mailbox. This is the sight that greets me as I approach.

Red for Christmas, pose side-by-side with year-rounders Yellow and Blue, the national colors.

Ya gotta love it. Only in Sweden, bless their souls. These red season guests pop up every year at around this time and then retreat soon after Christmas, only to show up again reliably a year later. They'll motivate it with all sorts of stats, and surround it by rules and processes, etc. but still...I like living in a society where things like "last minute" mailboxes and Yule Tidnings matter.

As do Chanukkah greetings. Our Chanukkah celebration at Kungsträdgården this year was covered by a number of newspapers and TV stations. That was nice. A live and let live attitude goes a long way toward maintaining peace, as long as you don't equate "live and let live" with "don't care." We need to stop being divisive and instead reach out to one another, within and beyond our core group.

A long way from "last minute" mailboxes, eh?!

Namaste.

Day 202: What's important?

Spent the day buried in a project that should have taken max two hours and wound up taking all day. Bad planning? I don't know. Some people live in a "squeaky wheel gets the oil" mode while my focus is on optimizing for efficiency. When we try to work together, we clash. Puh.

Oh, well. The final product was superb. I can't show it to you here because it requires tactile contact, but if you're curious, send me your snail-mail address and I'll post you a copy.

And I got to walk through this lovely area...so white, and still (except for the wafting voices of the choir practicing in the tiny church that is in the middle of this enclosed courtyard). All in all, a good day.

Day 201: Holiday sales

A fun way to spend an hour or two is browsing Amazon in preparation for a trip to the U.S. No use starting unless I have an hour or two on my hands, because the site is way too good at suggesting items that I might find interesting. The danger is that my impulsive self will run amok so my routine is always to load up the shopping cart and then "sleep on it."

Today's treasures include Barbara Kingsolver's new book, Flight Behavior; Anne Tyler's The Beginner's Goodbye (which I already borrowed from the library and read but have to have my bookshelf); a DVD of Sondheim's Company; Louise Erdrich's The Round House. Did I mention you can do all this shopping while listening to sample music tracks?

Better get back to it now :-)

Day 200: The second hundred mark

Basking in the afterglow of Board Games...Yeah! my monthly gathering of game playing enthusiasts. Best part? Kicking back on the sofa with a clementine and admiring my clean home afterwards :-)

It's the age-old strategy of inviting people over so you're forced to clean. A prerequisite, of course, is that you'll only invite people over to your home if it is clean...which, hard as it is for me to grasp, I'm forced to acknowledge is not a universal truth. Me? I can't think straight when I'm surrounded by clutter, so it's pretty neat around here most of the time. And once a month, I give the place a real cleaning, then reward myself with an afternoon of fun in the company of people.

And as a bonus, I get a clean home to enjoy.

Next month, we're all going to see Assassins afterwards. Let the games continue!

Day 199: Oily business

And so it begins...eight days of everything fried. Happy Chanukkah! Plagiarizing from an acquaintance I bid all my Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist friends et al. lives filled with light that will show you the way to happiness, love and understanding.

Let the latke eating begin!

Day 198: Out of hibernation

Took the train out to the 'burbs today to have dinner with my Sweeties and their dad. It's about a 10 minute walk from the subway station to their house, through a residential area along tree-lined paths. In other words,  clean snow all over the place...the paths were lined with it, laden tree branches sagged under it, and children frolicked all around.

After three days in the great indoors, it felt great to trudge through the snow with my ever so wonderful cleats keeping me safely grounded and protected from slipping.

Winter...this type of winter...makes me happy.

Day 197: Dagens musikal

Attention ALL lovers of musicals. Here is a blog you will not want to miss.

Not mine. But mine.

This is today's happy...one new musical a day for 365 days. What an incredibly fun project this sounds like. I wonder what the next 365 will be to surface.

So, without further ado, I present my friend Johan Rudebeck, www.musikaldiggaren.se Hop on board, it's day 1!

Because you've got to
ac-cen-tu-ate the positive...

I 

Day 196: Oh the weather outside is frightful...

...which makes the fact that construction of two balconies in my building was started today incredibly amusing. It made me laugh out loud when I saw the workmen out in the garden building scaffolding in the midst of a snow blizzard. Ya gotta love the Swedes! A plan is a plan and weather be damned! But then, a picture's worth a thousand words:

Day 195: Hot potatoes

I've been accused by my colleagues of sending (too) many mails. Don't know if it's because it's true or for some other reason. I'm a fan of mail in a professional network and on this project I've been introduced to Dropbox and Basecamp, helpful tools to help keep people in sync. Down side is that everyone has their preferred communication style and inclination to learn ceilings, I think.

But that's neither here nor there...my day brightened considerably, even as the sun started setting at around 14.00, by conversation after conversation with the incredibly professional production team that I'm part of and help to coordinate. God, I adore theater people. And the process of making it all happen. What a privileged life I lead. (And by "God" I make no religious concessions whatsoever..."god," as we all know, "is in the details.")

Which brings me right back to the subject of e-mails. I honor my god of details. It's what gets me through the days. That, and the music, which never fails me.

Listen for yourselves...on Spotify for example :-)

Photos-of-the-day

My toasty wool socks from Riga come...

...in handy when the thermometer reads like this!

Day 194: Slip sliding..no way

Let me tell you what I am happy about right now:

1. After freaking me out by displaying a message that my user name and/or password was/were incorrect, it turned out that when I typed in both the password and the captcha phrase, I could log on after all. Phew.
2. In an hour-long phone conversation we were able to settle the contents and order of the program for Assassins. Efficient, aren't we?
3. Before leaving the house into the icy winter weather, I both remembered to take my cleats AND remembered where I stored them at the end of last winter.

On that last point, allow me to rave about this wonderful winter aide that enables me to venture into the great outdoors unhindered. I actually do not mind winter weather. The cold does not bother me much...you can always put on another layer of clothing. What terrifies me is the ice and the risk of slipping. It's happened to me once (resulting in a rather severe black eye) and it was not an experience I'd care to repeat. So last year, I bit the bullet and purchased a pair of cleats. They are made of rubber and fit snugly over regular shoes. Without them I would surely hibernate the winter away.

Day 193: Parlez-vous...?

After a month long hiatus from the Language Exchange meetup, I dived right in...to the kiddy pool. Sheesh, how hard can it be? I mean it's a language I used to parler fluently. But no sirree, those words are just stuck in there and refuse to come out.

It was a relief when the Swedish session rolled around and I could be in my element again, although I still find it somewhat bewildering to be the "language expert" at the table. Today one of the other hosts corrected an error I made...that was sooo nice, does not happen often these days which I attribute more to Swedish politeness than to my flawless speech.

After biting cold temperatures on the way home, I am now happy to be home and warming up supper.

Bon appetite!
Smaklig måltid!

P.S. Today's photo has no direct connection to the blog...it is just so fabulous, I had to share it!

Or whatever you say in your local language... :-)

Day 192: Waste not...

Leftover rehearsal fruit transformed...somewhere in the afterlife my mother is doing a cartwheel ;-)

One for now, one for the freezer.

Who's coming over for fika?

Day 191: Creature comforts...

It's been a serene home day today. Mattias called at 08.30, alltså before my morning coffee, always a dangerous move and done at one's own risk ;-) There was a quiet steady snowfall all day and the view from my kitchen was enchanting.

Had a long, uninterrupted pass of Rummikub, which I just love, this morning. Rummikub is a game of my youth. Nowadays, you can play it online with opponents worldwide. When I was a kid, my Aunt Giza used to have a  regular game with the neighborhood ladies, on her balcony. They rotated who hosted and when it was at her house, I got to play. By then I was 16 or so and it was a rite of passage. Before that, we played cards a lot. Everyone in my family was a card player. My parents had a circle of friends, mostly German, who met regularly at "the club," as we called it, to play rummy. It was all very civilized, with coffee and cake served. Fela, the proprietress, was a warm and gracious host. I would make it a habit to stop by at the club on my way home from school...looking for my mother, who often hung out there. Fela would offer saft and sometimes a piece of cake.

And now, my favorite comfort food: roasted chestnuts...MUMS...and putting away the laundry.

Day 190: Done and dusted

First snowfall of the season. And we had an open rehearsal today. The air was abuzz. After only 13 days of rehearsal folks, we put on Assassins. I'm impressed. And humbled. And moved. And grateful. And happy it was received well.

People were bewildered at first, and then drawn in and finally intrigued. And that's an amazing feat to have accomplished. Kudos.

Psyched for the next go-round. But first...Little Women, and laundry, and sleep. Not necessarily in that order...

Day 189: LOL!

Don't really know if this makes me happy...but it sure did make me laugh!

Day 188: Pit-pitty-pat

"Listen to the rain on the roof go

Pit-pitty-pat--

Pit-pitty-pat--

Pitty--

Sit, kitty cat..."

All day long...and my umbrella collapsed after only one use.

But what difference does that make when you're absorbed in creating musical theater. That is classy and funny and political and not? What an adventure...breathing life into characters... communicating intention...and the music, always the music to fall back on. Because you can't fake the music, it is what it is. An extraordinary challenge, one worth rising up to...and that's fun.

Charmed, I'm tellin' you...simply, charmed.

Day 187: Bees

Aaahhhh...four minutes to midnight...and I still haven't written my blog entry for today. And now there are only two minutes left before it's tomorrow and Day 188.

No problem, because when you're a busy little bee, there's always time. As the saying goes, "If you want something done, give it to a busy person." Which makes me so happy...you would not believe what we got done today...mug shots, and make-up, and costumes, and photos, and singing rehearsals, a run through, flyers, a planning session. And a blog before midnight! Life is good.

Day 186: My thanksgiving

I'm reading Little Women for book club and am finding it very soothing. There is something I like about being in the company of these girls. And so much of it still translates to today. There is an American spirit about it, a "can-do-ness" that appeals to the girl in me. Fun to revisit the Marches.

Thanksgiving Day. A little sad. Miss my family and friends. I'm not usually here at this time of year so it's no wonder I didn't get invited by anyone. Could have invited myself to a number of places where I would have been welcome, I'm sure. Still.

Then Lori called...so sweet. And she looked so beautiful in her gorgeous necklace. And life was good again. (namaste)

Today, a day of Thanksgiving. I honor my inner Jag. Which is I, in English. Ani, in Hebrew. And cook for the week. Allrecipes to the rescue as usual. Decided on one soup and one meat dish. Looked at what I had in the fridge. Last go-round it was pasta, so no pasta this time. Voilà the results, yumminess indeed.

(cont'd)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-carrot-apple-and-red-lentil-soup/detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-garlic-parmesan-chicken/detail.aspx

Back to the Marches: Amy's just come home from Aunt March's and declared that she intends to turn her closet into a retreat for meditation and being for herself. This blogg is my retreat in a way. For those who've been following, we're more than half-way through the journey. Thank you for coming along for the ride. And thank you Grace Ann for the inspiration.