It's been so long since I've done this that I hardly know where to start. As seems always to be the case, both quite a lot and nothing much has happened since I last posted. I'm getting ready to head down to Uppsala this afternoon for what will be my last trip before the long summer at home. I'll be away for a week, not returning until next Monday ( Read more... )

I am having a hard time right now not feeling like an utter failure at my life. Without going into details that aren't really mine to share, I will say that one of our kids is struggling rather a lot with a variety of things, and the situation is taking a toll on the entire family. Despite what feels like heroic effort on Olof's and my part (as ( Read more... )

Today is a day I've been dreading for a while now, the day that I'll say my final farewell to Asbjørn. He's two weeks shy of his fourteenth birthday, he's got what are almost assuredly cancerous tumors in his mouth, and he's just tired. He's ready, and I'm as ready as I'll ever be (which is to say "not ready at all"). The vet will come out to our ( Read more... )

When I was younger, say from my early teens to my late twenties, the dawning of a new year gave me intense anxiety. I wasn't worried about the coming year, but I was incredibly bothered by the loss of the year that was. Even at the time I would have had difficulty articulating exactly what it was that troubled me so, and when I think back on it now ( Read more... )

It happens very rarely that I'm in Uppsala over a weekend, but I had a full week last week as well as meetings on Monday and Tuesday, so I'm in the middle of a longer trip. I came down last Tuesday morning, and I won't go home until this coming Tuesday evening. Though I do enjoy the time I spend here, this is just a bit too long (especially ( Read more... )

I see that I'd better get something posted today if I don't want the entire month of November to be blank. I suppose I should address the subject of my last post, from mid-October and say that Asbjørn is doing great some six weeks after his most recent mouth surgery. He ended up having to be anesthetized so that the vet could pull a tooth, and that ( Read more... )

I haven't updated recently about ... well, about much of anything, I guess, but what's on my mind at the moment is Asbjørn, so that's what you're getting ( Read more... )

I find myself annoyed by almost everything in my life at the moment which, I'm aware, is not necessarily the ideal condition in which to post a long overdue update, but it is what it is. Most of what's annoying me I won't detail here, so as to protect the not-so-innocent, but I will say that, like probably every other American, I am so ready for ( Read more... )

Until I started living in Uppsala part-time a year-and-a-half ago, I had never lived by myself. I got married right out of high school, and when that relationship ended I first moved home to my mom's, then I had roommates for a couple of months before moving in with my next boyfriend. By the time that went south, I had Lydia, so even though I was ( Read more... )

It's been kind of a rough week for the Tjerngrens, with every single one of us felled by miserable cold. All four of the kids at home missed school the first four days of the week, and even Lydia was home feeling poorly for a couple of days. I went down to Uppsala on Monday morning and figured that I'd miss out on the fun, both because I rarely get ( Read more... )