kayak, in monterey, calif.

fish, in monterey, calif.

and that's a promise

I am not an American citizen. When someone asks me why, I tell them I have "lingering doubts." That's a line I have borrowed from a Seinfeld episode; it was Jerry's response when someone asked him why he wasn't an organ donor.

I am an organ donor, but it's true I have had lingering doubts when it comes to citizenship.

Proposition 8, which eliminated same-sex couples' right to marry, and the fact that California's Supreme Court voted yesterday to uphold it, changes that for me, though.

I'll become a citizen so that I can vote for equal rights in 2010, or 2012, or any year after that.

and do your part for everyone's right to marry

Listen to Regina Spector, and prepare to have your heart broken.

small purple california flower

small orange california flower

"bold, abstract art works" - imagine that

My favorite author reads The Wall Street Journal, so I don't have to. Today she found this article. It talks about the Obamas and the art they are borrowing to display in the White House:

The Obamas are sending ripples through the art world as they put the call out to museums, galleries and private collectors that they’d like to borrow modern art by African-American, Asian, Hispanic and female artists for the White House. In a sharp departure from the 19th-century still lifes, pastorals and portraits that dominate the White House’s public rooms, they are choosing bold, abstract art works.

I had a salmon scramble, delish

My friend Åsa came to visit last week. Saturday was the last day of her stay, and we had breakfast at Hobee's. This is the giant piece of cake they gave Åsa with her omelette.

When they saw me take a picture they quickly brought over a second piece, the more photogenetic blueberry cake you see in the background there. It even has the butter on top, instead of on the side, all pretty for the picture.

This made Åsa happy.

another memorial day

Link to something I wrote in 2003, in Swedish.

today's poem

I expect to pass through life but once.
If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show,
or any good thing I can do for any fellow being,
let me do it now... as I shall not pass this way again.

British religious leader William Penn (1644-1718)

what it means to be a woman

I had to go to the laundromat today. As I was folding something, out of the blue the woman working there told me that her sister-in-law has stage 4 liver cancer, and is dying.

Then she told me that her own brother tried to commit suicide last week.

We talked for a while. I showed as much empathy as I could.

Do men talk like this with people they don't know?

why do I feel like I am the last person on earth to figure this out?

I think worrying is the opposite of praying. Has to be, right?

eh-eh-eh-dhe

So I went in for the check-up mammogram on Tuesday. I was pretty nervous. But I didn't realize the extent of the nervousness until the receptionist asked me for my current address. I couldn't speak. I started bawling. She nudged the box of Kleenex over, and I proceeded to tell her my street.

Then she printed some forms for me to fill out, and attached them to a clipboard. I sat down and began.

The name of my street, as she had typed it, had about 3 extra syllables in it.

the 24 hour news cycle

I am getting twitters from my hometown newspaper. Yesterday they twittered that someone had left kittens in a cardboard box, in a downtown park. (It's in Swedish so you'll just have to believe me.)

(Kittens are fine, and will be available for adoption in 10 weeks.)

so that's a first

A (female) student followed me all the way into the actual bathroom stall today in order to give me her paper.

relieved

I had the first follow up mammogram after my cancer treatment today, and it came back all clear. My friend Steve said that was the best news he had heard in 250 years. I said he must be old.

make believe, and not in a good way

This morning my office mate asked me about something she'd seen on PBS on Sunday night. It had been a crime story set in Sweden, but with English speaking actors. She was confused.

She said it was weird, and wondered if they just couldn't find Swedish actors. Then she said the entire thing looked like a continuity problem, meaning that the occasional appearances (in documents, on a newspaper) of the Swedish language looked like they had been included by mistake. And the premise is an odd one: Actors speak English, but live in a Swedish environment.

Oh, wait, that isn't odd at all. That's reality. The world is bilingual.

Anyway.

Dan lasted 20 minutes. I lasted 21 minutes. Either it wasn't very good, or I am Americanized now and that's why I couldn't handle the slower than molasses pace.

Rape seed fields were stunning, though.

intertextuality

Remember the scene in Finding Nemo where the fish trapped in the aquarium plan an escape? There is lots of swimming inside tubing, and the issue of getting past a filter.

Watch for that same scene when you see Star Trek.

eggs

legs

evening sun

any info=too much info

Maureen Dowd writes in The New York Times about Elizabeth Edwards, and her new book. Ms. Dowd says it's a 'complicated question', and I agree.

I identify with Mrs. Edwards. I've had breast cancer, and I've had the experience of learning that I've been lied to over a long period of time (it was long ago, but still, it happened).

The interview on Oprah was hard to watch. Something isn't right. And I hate thinking that, because it makes me speculate about the Edwards's marriage, and their psyches. I wish I hadn't seen that interview. And I guess that also means that I wish she hadn't written the book.

On second thoughts: I know what didn't sound right to me. It was when she said she wanted to "protect him", protect the husband who had betrayed her. How about she protecting herself, and he taking care of the mess he created?

I want flowers on my head too

Let's celebrate a belated cinco de mayo (or cinco de siete, as the president would say) with this photo of my favorite Mexican, and a bunch of pretty girls.

you can do it 'metric' or 'standard' - but isn't the US alone in the 'standard' corner now? is it really a standard, then?

Calculated my BMI (link). Normal weight. Yay.

sinuses not happy

This five minutes of each type of weather situation we're having is giving me a headache. For reals.

cosmic order

I've sold a few items on Ebay, and the funny thing is that my buyers often end up being other Scandinavians. And I am not talking Scandinavian-Americans either. I ship my stuff (used, but stylish!) back to buyers in Finland and Norway. Weird, huh?

wash your hands after you eat too

First there was Piglet (thanks Robyn for reminding us). And then there was Babe, hero of my favorite film of 1995. And now there is the flu.

For some reason all of it just makes me want to go live on a farm.

Real dirt doesn't scare me. But the menu that I am handed at the restaurant where I have lunch, out of which someone else's crumbs fall, that makes me nervous.

No, I don't think I'll catch the flu. But those crumbs do make me think.

sorry to be cryptic but I don't want to give away the ending of a really good story

So, I finished reading my latest favorite book, and turned on the TV. I caught the final 30 minutes or so of Once, the somewhat predictable movie about an Irish street musician.

The song When Your Mind's Made Up, and the last story in Unaccustomed Earth say the same thing, at least to me: don't be proud, don't be stubborn. It will only hurt. Or worse.

from robyn

read it already

Unaccustomed Earth, the collection of short stories by Jhuma Lahiri, is so good it takes your breath away. The last story, and the last line of the last story, is heart breaking.

vote for asha's mom

Click this link, and scroll down to 'Verna Bailey'. Watch, be amazed, and vote for Oregon Educator of the Year!