Queen of Rambles

Remember the underwear guy from yesterday? He was still there (only with clothes on) when I went to do my load and he turned out to be very friendly. I can’t believe I was talking to some underwear guy. Apparently he and his wife come up here every few months to take care of his mother-in-law. She saves all her laundry for them. Must be the ultimate mother revenge, eh? Still doesn’t really explain why he was changing clothes in the laundry room, but at least he wasn’t some crazed, random weirdo who had somehow figured out a way to get into the laundry room.

Today has been a really good day. I figured out what I should do for a new career–be a guest speaker. There must be something wrong with me because I actually enjoy talking in front of large groups of strangers. Why is it I am so shy when I meet someone one on one?

The guest speaker plan has a few inherent flaws.

1) I’d have to have something to say.
2) I’d have to convince people that the thing I had to say was so important they wanted to pay big bucks to have me come and say it.
3) I’d have to travel a lot
a. I get car sick
b. I get air sick
c. I get train sick
d. I get bus sick

I’d probably also have to write a book or something like that. Writing a book would take a lot of work. I’m not so into work.

So can you tell I had a good day talking to these kids? It was by far and away the best guest speaking experience I’ve had here in Sweden. The teacher actually had the students prepare questions (and though they didn’t want to ask them because they were shy, she remembered what they wanted to ask and asked for them) and she had very good classroom control. She’s the first teacher I’ve seen here in Sweden (I’ve seen about six in action) that had any concept of classroom control. I was very glad to see that all was not lost in this educational system.

The kids were pretty funny. I had one group of 10 boys and they were very, very into hockey. Here’s a sample of the questions they asked me:

Do you play hockey?
Have you seen a hockey game?
Have you seen a famous hockey player?
Do you know {insert name of famous hockey player}? This one was asked about 12 times)
If I move to America can I play hockey?
Does your husband play hockey?
Do you want to play hockey?
Do you support Kiruna’s hockey team?

Obviously they had only one thing on their mind. I felt kind of bad that I couldn’t answer their questions to their satisfaction. They also wanted to know laws regarding gun control, prison sentences for murderers, how to be an exchange student, and rules regarding snow mobile use. Oh, and why there are different time zones in different countries. I had to explain the whole thing about the sun revolving around the earth. I just hope that was supposed to be a joke, but it didn’t seem to be.

After that I managed a short swim before heading over to Annica’s for the beginning of my new scarf! She did the first few rows so I wouldn’t get confused (it is knit 2 purl 2 for those who know what I’m talking about) and then I was on my way. I’ve already dropped a stitch so have a big hole. Bah. I will have to take it over to her tomorrow and see if she can fix it for me. It is going to be very pretty when it’s done, I think. The color is very lovely (but then, I do love gray-green-blue type colors. Obviously. Why else would I pick that color?).

And that, my friends, has been my day. Well, there was some other stuff thrown in, but you don’t want to hear about my sad overly tomatoed Swedish style stroganoff or my grocery adventures. Except I must say one thing. I hate not having my diet milk shakes! I have no idea what to eat. The oatmeal idea is not working at all. I have fond memories of oatmeal but the reality is just kind of nasty. I feel like Oliver Twist or whoever that damn kid was, begging for more gruel. Yuck. I don’t want to live in an orphanage. I should just go and talk to the health store people and see if they are getting more in or what. I must have it! I tried the stuff I bought as a replacement and it about made me gag. It tasted like fruit flavored raw eggs. What a waste of cash. I wonder if I could sell it. Someone must like it if they sell it.

Oh! I also got my letter to go in for my ultrasound. I have a time next Tuesday at 11:05. After hearing that my friend Julie was supposed to drink a ton of water before her ultrasound I was very surprised to read that I’m not supposed to eat, drink or smoke for 6 hours before the test. Bah! Why couldn’t they schedule it for a little earlier then? I’m going to be a grouchy Carrie. They don’t want to piss off a grouchy Carrie.

And, before I forget, I was totally going to tell you guys to visit the new home of Secret Agent Josephine! It looks great. A perfect home for one of the funniest and most talented bloggers out there. Plus you should check out her links. I don’t know how she does it, but she has the ability to sniff out really great read. Today I found Forever Feisty and it looks good. I’ve been enjoying several others that I found through her for awhile (Private Thoughts of Boogies Mom, Fish Outta Water, Finding Normal, The Litter Box). All great stuff. Check them out! They are all the type of women that I think “Wow, I want to be their friend,” which is unusual for me since generally I do better with male friends. And I don’t want to be friends with the author of every blog I read. There are a few that are authored by people I think I would not at all relate to in real life, but I still enjoy their writing so I read them. It’s kind of nice to also have a large grouping of blogs that really do make me want to know the author in person (though it’s doubtful that will happen with all that many of them. Maybe a few though.).

So there you go. More than I thought I was going to post, but I wanted everyone to look at SAJ’s new site and that set me off. Now it’s time for bed. This getting up early is for the birds. Now I have to go to bed early. What a vicious cycle.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2003 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.