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Watching goals unfold

So, since I last dropped by, I’ve turned 62, the fun of which was thwarted by seasonal flu and a mild case of covid-19. Good riddance, 2022. For 2023 I’ve been trying to not forget my work PC at home, which I did twice. I mean… I laughed it off, but I didn’t like it. […]

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61

I’m in my 60s! How strange! But I honestly am excited about this decade I have soundly joined. Oh, there are changes. One eyebrow has started to hang intermittently. The body just isn’t as firm or flexible as it once was, but it’s still healthy and does what I need it to do. Honestly, I […]

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Strength

“Wow! It takes such strength to say what you said!” I was dumbfounded. I didn’t understand. It wasn’t like I had to argue with myself, calm shaking hands, take a deep breath, before telling my coworkers I have anxiety. I just said the words. It seems to have mattered more to my listeners than to […]

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The beginning continues

I have moved from the prologue of this book of adventures that is now me and on to the first chapter. In the month that has passed since you last heard from me, I have created an altar (inspired by a Daily Om article), I have do Sanskrit chants like “Asatoma Sadgamaya” (spelling varies wildly) […]

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One meter apart

It’s been almost a month since I’ve been at the office. As it happens, my lunch gang all live near me and today we meet for lunch outdoors. It’s one of those classic April days: Still winter in the shade, darned near full summer in the sunshine. A day that’s hard to dress right for. […]

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Brave enough, after all

Prologue: I am no longer on partial sick leave. I am considered well and am back to work 100%! I have new tasks but am the master of my day, even though my work calendar has never been as full as it is now! Now: I was tasked with teaching some part-time workers about what […]

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Five year journey, part 1

I’m thinking about the last five years, because the blog I started in 2014 went poof as I switched providers. (Always read the instructions thoroughly before switching website hosts, kids.) Then a bit of magic happened and I could save my texts and restore posts; the photos were already saved. As I went through and […]

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Lisa’s Eleven

A little musing and sharing via eleven questions thought up by Lisa and found via Paula. 1) Socks? Love them or hate them? Handknitted socks a co-worker made for Secret Santa. And I won them! They keep my feet toasty in rubber boots. — I have cold feet. Socks, please, and they have to cover […]

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// marks the spot

I have seen the plans for the light rail station coming to my bit of the ‘burbs. I know that the footbridge I have crossed to and from work since 1986 will become history and I’ll get a new bridge about 50 meters to the west. “My” footbridge as seen on the way home It […]

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Too much, too soon

Yesterday’s grouchiness was a warning. My body and my moods are basically klaxons trying to get my attention. This morning I had no energy, no desire, no absent Grumpy. He was still with me. He had a message. I hate when I’m like this. I hate that my emotions so easily rise to the surface […]

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Grumpy got hugs

So, as usual, I am Mercurial and go up and down more than a rollercoaster. After a great day yesterday—which I realize now may have taken more out of me than I thought, with all that talking to the psychologist—I ended up grumpy today. Total raincloud-right-over-my-head grumpy. Grumpy At the end of the day, a […]

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May is for strikes

I remember strikes used to terrify me. I was so brain-washed by the American view of unions that I quit mine here in Norway once in a panic. I rejoined quickly and have a gold pin for 25 years’ membership and first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to be on a proper strike.As April rolls […]

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Misguided versus misogynistic

Yesterday’s post about a badly behaving co-worker, reminds me of another time a male co-worker behaved badly. In that second incident, a good man made a mistake. I did go to HR this time. I felt he needed to know that he had been terrifying. Norwegian men can get so tall. The guy in this […]

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Threat or warning?

I always joke about how I don’t make threats; I warn. That’s because I don’t believe in idle threats. I think if you threaten somebody, you should also mean to carry the threat out. So I may as well warn. It’s a bit weird to write the above, because I’m a relatively harmless person. But […]

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Since last we spoke 5 months ago and what’s next

So, I dropped off the face of the Earth—no, I didn’t, just dropped off my blogging. The autumn got rough. Maybe a lot of bad weather during the summer was a part of it. Maybe it was astrological. I had a stressful fall. Maybe I gave myself a stressful fall. Seriously, I drive myself nuts […]

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Willy-nilly

I’ve never eaten at McDonald’s as much I have in Norway. Ironically. You’d think I’d be a regular when I lived in California, but no. Meanwhile, in Norway, McDonald’s has been vote Best Employer for 2016. If Burger King had moved into my local mall some 20 years ago, I’d be eating Whoppers. But it […]

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Back at work. Back at writing?

Ah, the lovely lazy days of summer vacation. All rested and feeling creative again, so I started blogging. And then summer vacation ended and I went back to work. And suddenly, I don’t want to write. It’s been interesting being back at work. Before the summer we were backlogged and stressed out. During the slow, […]

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Junior Gull update

Junior Gull has been spotted again, in good health and twice as big since last we saw the little one. An adolescent magpie was hanging out on the balcony outside my office window, and an adult gull was quite upset at the corvid’s presence. A behavior the gull would have only if it had babies. […]

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Missing: Junior Gull

“Somebody needs to go check.” “Janitor?” “He’s on vacation. I’ll do it.” I learned that one of my co-workers gets into take-charge mode when it’s about someone’s life; in this case, a gull chick. I took a picture of Junior just the other day from my side of the building. This afternoon, one of the […]

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US presidential election 2016

This morning I doddle at home so I can catch the latest news at 7:30 AM. I learn that Pennsylvania has ensured Trump’s win. To my own surprise, I burst into tears. I repair my make-up and go to work. There, I discover I am the office political commentator, being the only American here. “What […]