Random post

I haven’t done a random post in a while, so, as I have a few non-related topics to write about, might as well throw them all in the basket here!

 

• Inauguration. Was that great or what? I went to a Democrats Abroad party at the Hard Rock Oslo last night. The party started at 8pm, they were showing a rerun of the event. I got there around 6:30 so was able to catch the very end of the ceremony live. The national anthem? Made me cry! I couldn’t believe I was being such an emotional freak, but, damn, it felt like release, and it felt like home, and it felt like a tie with an America I remember and grew up in, not the one that it has become. So, yeah, I cried. I cried harder when I realized I was getting filmed by the local news, and I can’t sing worth a damn and they were recording me, so that was embarrassing. I met my friend Elaina there and we wolfed down nachos (still tasty but a bit undercooked, all the cheese slid down on one side of the pile of chips and was not melted, which was a bummer. I like evenly distributed nachos!). There were lots of Americans there, especially what seemed like loud New Yorkers and New Jerseyites, but it was nice to be with people who I understood intrinsically and we could share the excitement in a truly American way. I also talked with a couple of other bloggers there, Tressa, from American in Norway, who I have met before, and Corinne, from Northern Natterings, who is pretty new to Norway and seems very cool. I think we might want to plan a Blogger Gather some time, for all us expats, American and otherwise, in Norway. Anyone?

 

• Blogs. Speaking of blogs, I’m always impressed with other people’s blogs. I am a lazy blogger, it’s more of a writing exercise and a diary than anything, so when I see other blogs where the bloggers have really put in time and effort on boosting their readership and making pretty backgrounds, and stuff, I always sort of wonder, why am I not doing that? Then I remember, oh yeah, I’m lazy. I don’t think I want 1 million readers, that seems like work, I’m happy with a couple hundred thousand (eek!). I’m one of the older (since 2004!) expat bloggers in Norway, I’m so proud to see new ones coming in and really making a go of it. (But I am also a little been there done that, if I can admit that, as I felt exactly the same as them when I got here, sort of confused and curious and a little lost, but eager to get going on the expat adventure as well. It’s like rereading my thoughts when I got here, reading their blogs.) Maybe I should network more, but it’s all I can do to keep up with my blog reading, I just don’t have energy to comment that often. Plus I am blocked from all blogs or networking at work, and only have a bit of time in the evening to do my blog catch up/writing/reading, as I have to also let Rich use the computer at some point. So I will just motor on with my little blogspot, and keep it small and simple. I did add Tressa and Corinne to my blog roll on the side bar, though. Welcome gals!

 

• Snow. Holy shit! We got pounded with snow this week. I mean, wow. Snow after snow, it took days for the snow plows to work through it all and even then a lot of people just couldn’t get out to work on Monday. And then it snowed again all night Monday into Tuesday. I’ve never seen so much fall all at once. As so often happens, though, after a big snow fall it warms up just enough to melt a lot of it and turn it mushy. Don’t get me wrong, there are piles and piles left, but now instead of walking on fun crunchy light snow, we are walking on wet icy mud and water. Really hard to wear cute shoes when there are three inches of snow sludge on the sidewalk!

 

• Travels. Got some travel lined up. Rich and I are going to Paris for Valentine’s day. Paris is not exactly balmy then, but hey, it’s Paris for Valentine’s day. I am already tasting the steak frittes. Mmm….beef and wine. And I think I am going to spend a lot of time in the Marais and in St Germain this time. We’ve got a hotel in Montparnasse. Just call me Kiki.  Later in March we’re booked to go back to Munich for the Starkbierfest, we had such a good time last year, we’ve managed to cadge some more friends into going and maybe we can get pictures of people other than me dancing on tables! And for Easter I am going to the US to visit my parents, haven’t been there in a while (my parents’ house) and it seems time. Usually it’s so expensive to travel over Easter from Norway, as everyone leaves the country then and everything is closed for five days, but for some reason flights to the US are extremely reasonable, so I thought, what the hell. Target, here I come!

 

• Life. My hives have mostly disappeared. I still have some red spots but they are fading. I have some scratches on the skin on my arms and back where I just couldn’t help itch, I hope they fade by this weekend as we’ve got a party to go to where I am wearing a slinky backless dress. A scarred back would not look nice. As you saw from the photo, our apartment is still all torn up. Some progress is being made, the bedrooms and laundry room were just newly repainted, so I guess they are done in there? I still don’t have access to anything. I am SO SICK of the skeleton wardrobe I have right now. Gah! They told us it will take a week longer than they planned (I expected delays) and that there will be some other work ongoing even when we get back in to our flat that will take another month or so, but from the outside. Damn. I just want to unpack all my goodies from Thailand/Java/Bali, and get sorted again. I also want to go through my 1600+ pictures. The internet in the temp flat is a bit wonky, so once we get back to our own fast connection I can upload pics to Flickr.

 

I think that is all for now in Random Land. Overall things are pretty boring right now. Sorry about that.