I spent the summer wasting, the time was passed so easily

Sources:
1. 2.   3.  4. 5..  6. 

I just don't understand how summer days can be so short. It's not that I really want to do so very much. Just the usual, you know, have a couple of good meals, watch a film or an episode of something, get work done for my thesis, and have time for a shower and reading before bed, and some time to sit outside, listen to music, sew, draw, read books that aren't about Roman slaves. That's not to mention weekend days, going to the city, dancing, seeing friends - things it seems a thesis student is meant to set proudly aside.
If anyone has some time-management tips, or better yet, knows of some magical or scientific ways to make a day two times as long, or reduce the need for sleep (and I like a whole ten hours) I'd be glad to hear them!

frågor och svar

I have unabashedly stolen this questionnaire from Sandra and I hope she doesn't mind! I want to start writing more in Swedish, I've got to practice you know, and answering questions is a nice, dip-a-toe-in way to get started, without having to think too much or form long, complex sentences!

vad har du på dig?
vit t-shirt och pistagegröna kortbyxor. Jag gick helt och hållet för pastell i år.

Hur mår du?
lite stressad men glad för att vädret är så fint idag. och lite ledsen för mig själv för att jag måste sitta här och plugga istället för att vara utomhus nu att det äntligen är skönt väder.

Vad önskar du just nu?
Att vara på semester. Att min stor final uppsatsen vore klar och att jag inte behövde plugga längre.

vad har du ätit idag?
bröd med skinka, cole slaw, och kyckling schnitzel

vad ska du göra imorrn?
läsa, läsa, läsa

och på söndag?
läsa.

vem saknar du?
min gammal rumskamrat. Det gick dåligt mellan oss när jag flyttat till sverige, för nån skäl jag fortfarande inte riktigt fattar. Trotts att allt det där hände för mer än två år sedan, ändå saknar jag henne, då och då.

senaste köp?
shorts och en t-shirt på H&M

vad skrattade du senast åt?
igår kväll, jag kollade en gammal avsnitt av The Simpsons

vad grät du senast åt?
Jag blev faktiskt ganska ledsen häromdagen för att jag saknade mina vänner som alla bor så långt borta. Tror att jag gråtit lite, men jag var ju hemskt trött.

vem sov du senast med?
min stor grå hankatt.

vad läser du just nu?
1Q84 (andra delen) av Murakami

senast sedda film?
The Hardys Ride High - som sagt är jag inne på riktigt med gamla Andy Hardy-filmer

Vilken svordom använder du mest?
fuck (men jag försöker motstå den om jag kan, ordet är ju bättre ju mindre man använder det), piss, balls - jag måste erkänna min svaghet för riktigt smutsiga svordomar.

Vem var den senaste som ringde dig?
Farsan. Typ, "Jag handlar. Behöver vi mjölk?"

Har du dejtat någon av en annan religion?
det har jag gjort.

senast 3 inkomna sms?
"Tonight we will stay in PEI"
"aww, little (big) one!"
"Byeeee! Thanks for hanging out! Enjoy your treasure!"

Vad stod de i ditt senaste skickade sms?
"Gee!"

Vilket var ditt favoritämne på gymnasiet?
Writer's Craft

Vilken är din favoritfrukt?
hallon!

Vilka kändisar har du blivit jämförd med?
i princip, inga. En gång var jag jämförd med Shelley Duvall, men vi liknar inte varandra, tror jag. 

Vad är du rädd för?
Att blir dement när jag är gamla

En person du tycker är snygg?
Al Pacino

Blir du lätt svartsjuk?
Nej, inte längre. 

Din favoritkaraktär ur en serie?
Maeby Fünke. Nej, Liz Lemon. Nej, Maeby. Jag var aldrig duktig på att välja bara en favorit.

Vem skrev senast åt dig på facebookchatten?
Jag använder den inte

Vilket språk hade du velat lära dig?
Spanska, rysska, japanska, nederlandska - alla världens språk!

Vad för sorts killar faller du för?
roligt och snällt, med bra musiksmak (det vill säga som tycker om samma musik som jag!)

Vart vill du åka just nu?
sverige!!! och New York. Och Argentina.

Vad önskar du dig i födelsedagspresent?
en banjo.

Sådär! Ursäkta mig mina stav- och grammatikfel!

♥

Translation: Answers to questions. Read with google translate if you are interested!

My old friend, you came back!

this video temporarily disappeared from youtube, but it's back up again:

I think it's the most beautiful thing in the world.

Elegy for a healthy plant Or, another problem with condos

The yard maintenance person cut down my pepper plant with an edger today. I didn't notice until hours later, when I went out to pick some onions for dinner. I'm truly upset. I don't have a photo, but it already had a good-sized pepper on it, a smaller one, and lots of blossoms that were turning into fruit. It was such a healthy plant! I know it was just one plant, I can get another, shouldn't take it so hard, etc., but I am really upset. When I heard the mower running out back I thought of going outside and asking them to be careful around the garden plots, but then thought it probably wasn't necessary. Lesson learned. This is not a terrible place to live, but I really will be happy to have my own garden somewhere soon, where I take care of everything and there are no nosy neighbours just a few feet away.

Daylight savings

I went to Toronto on Saturday and forgot my camera and my phone charger! And my toothbrush. But the camera stuff was worse.  I miss living in Toronto so very much right now, and everywhere I look in the city are beautiful photographs waiting to me made. But anyway, here's a little peek into my day.

 Green papaya salad with shrimp and pork belly at Pho Bai, a Vietnamese restaurant. Lauren and I always eat there when I'm in the city, but I can't help it. It's just too delicious to pass up.

 My outfit, in Lauren's room. The skirt is from Åhléns, the cardigan is HM and my sister gave me the t-shirt ages ago.

Saturday pep!

coffee pause

Some treasures from the grocery store. Tea and honey in sweet packages.

 Mini-mini Pannetone (yeasty cake with currants and orange peel).

Study break!

Saturday in Toronto

Today I said "enough!" to studying, and went off to the city.

I missed my train so I stopped at the fabric store.  These are nice together, aren't they? I have a pattern for a "lounging outfit" - essentially glorified pyjamas - that will be just perfect!

Here I am waiting for the train.

I was wearing my new pants that I sewed myself, I just love them!

I took the streetcar along Queen Street E to meet my friend Tad for lunch.

This place has good burgers as well as a cool sign.

I ordered this incredibly gigantic and delicious bowl of mushroomy noodle soup for supper and managed only a fraction of it.  It's so huge that it came with a ladle instead of a spoon!

Then it was time to go.  We got coffee but I forgot to take a picture of it.  Here is what I saw while waiting for the streetcar, instead.

I wanted to meet my friend Ali for a drink afterward, but the subways were not running due to a broken water main, and it had become so very cold out and started snowing, and as you saw, I went out without socks for some reason! I didn't want to walk very far in the cold, so I went home instead.

Now I am here eating cheese and crackers and watching Mad Men, which is pretty nice too!

No offense!

I love Glee.  I think it's awfully problematic in a lot of respects, and it rubs me the wrong way when the show presents itself as being somehow outside of, and above, stereotypes and prejudices, without really doing anything to prove that claim.  The treatment of Artie (a paraplegic student who uses a wheelchair) is particularly bad - but I could get into that another time.  Nevertheless, I love the show.  Look, a recent episode featured rival glee clubs settling a score via a Michael Jackson showdown.  For that alone, they kind of own me.

However, I just watched last week's Valentine's Day episode, and I can't stay silent.  A very brief plot point involves a religious student confronting his latent homophobia.  Sounds great, certainly topical, but unfortunately the show, like so many other cultural products, refuses to make a firm statement on the matter, retreating instead to classically postmodern relativism and weak-kneed resistance.  In the episode, a new student at McKinley High, a formerly homeschooled, guitar-playing, hippie-Jesus freak boy who is the son of a Bible salesman, joins a group called "The God Squad," made up of himself and three other students, all glee club members.  They decide to raise money for charity by performing singing telegrams for kids at the school.  When asked by a female student to perform a romantic song for her girlfriend, however, the Christian student is given pause.  He doesn't know if it's appropriate, with his religious beliefs, to sing for gay students, as he's "never met any gay people before." The other three "God Squad" members tell him that their version of Christianity is not homophobic.  The group's leader has the final word when she states that she "doesn't want to hurt anyone," but she also doesn't want to "make anyone uncomfortable by forcing them to do something they don't believe in," so maybe the group shouldn't sing for Santana and her girlfriend at all.  This is a problem.

This line of 'argumentation' is nothing more than the expression of postmodern liberalism, which when forced to confront a situation instead ducks uncomfortably from side to side, claiming that it only wants to avoid causing offense.  Homophobia is not okay.  No matter what the justification. It is offensive. It is more than okay, it is in fact absolutely necessary, to make unequivocal statements against it.  It is okay to say, firmly and loudly and over and over, that it is wrong to treat some people differently because they are gay.  It is okay to say that it is wrong to be homophobic, and that your friends who feel differently will not accommodate you if you are a homophobe, even when you claim religious justification.  The goal is to destroy and eradicate homophobia, not to make a world where almost everyone is 'okay' with gay people, but where those who are not are never made uncomfortable for this position.  It is okay to make homophobic people uncomfortable, because there is no place for homophobia in our world, and how else are we going to change it if we're afraid to "cause offense"?

In the end, the new student, thanks to "thinking and praying" realizes that it's okay to sing for gay people after all.  And the song was great.  Nevertheless, a culture which tells us, over and over again, that all opinions are equally valid, that's afraid to make too many strong statements, lest we exclude those perfectly good people who just happen to hold one or two deeply objectionable opinions, is a culture in trouble.  Glee is not the only example of this.  You can find it almost everywhere you look.

Sunday.

Rice milk and apple mash for Sunday lunch. Why not? That and an episode of Glee make for the perfect afternoon break.

The secrets of the world, via google maps

You should definitely look at this blog and listen to this song at the same time.  It's a really special experience.

time machine

If I could go back and tell Teenage Dawn that someday there would be a website called Etsy where all the vintage sewing patterns and ephemera - stockings, bullet bras, girdles - she was always searching for would be available in one easy place, she would - well, who cares, I have shopping to do!

Snow!

Snow! Finally finally finally.

Every January first when I was a small child, I would get upset at the turning of the calender, and cry about how much I liked LAST YEAR, that it was so much nicer than this year can ever be, how can it be a new year already, etc.  Now I look back and wonder how a very small child of four or five or six could be so perturbed by time's quick passage.  I seem to have the innate sensibilities of the elderly when it comes to time.  It is, nevertheless, reassuring to observe that my nostalgic impulses have always been present.

I still feel the same at the turn of the year, but I've come to like New Year's anyway.  It's not the parties - December 31st is the worst night to go out.  Everyone is out drunk and clumsy on the streets and it's just not much fun.  Instead I prefer to stay more or less sober, and enjoy the feeling of January 1st.  It really does feel special and clean and new on that day.  It's become a bit of a tradition for me to go for a New Year's walk, revel in my lack of hangover, and maybe come up with some resolutions.

This year suited me perfectly.  My boyfriend and I went to a party hosted by a friend who does not drink, so it was fun to stick to saft and Pommac and stay sober in solidarity with our host.  The next day we watched the New Year's concert from Vienna with a champagne breakfast served by my boyfriend's parents.  In the afternoon we watched Fanny and Alexander.  (What a feeling to watch it without subtitles!)

As for resolutions, I made quite a few.  I was inspired by this, Woody Guthrie's excellent list of resolutions from 1942. Some of them center on increasing my environmental responsibility: Eat vegetarian at least two times a week (which I generally do anyway, but it feels good to have it as a commitment); refrain from buying new clothes - only second-hand or self-sewn; use what you have - no buying new books, fabric, etc until I use what I have at home.  Others are fun: to make time to see my friends in Toronto more often and to learn the banjo.  The one I'm having the worst trouble with so far is number 3: Do the dishes! I really am the worst about leaving them to the side and letting someone else pick up after me.  My favourite is number 9: raise chickens.  This is presenting a bit of a logistics challenge as I will likely be away from home for three months over the summer, but I do so want my own hens.  My dad had his own chickens when he lived in the countryside during the 70s and I think now, when I'm living at home, is the perfect time for him to show me how to keep hens. 

I think I'm going to have more luck with these resolutions than I did last year, when I resolved never to ever do anything I will ever come to regret.  What about you, dear imaginary readers? Have you made some resolutions?