Monday, April 18, 2011

Sömnlöshet

So, I don't know how all this sleeping stuff is supposed to work anymore, apparently. My body and mind feel like they're incredibly tired, but I close my eyes and lay back (the normal modus operandi when it comes to "sleeping") and all I get is horizontal mixed with a lack of seeing things. Goteborg, 3:37, and the dire and ever-circling wolves of disrupted circadian rhythms howl at my threshold.

Thank you, William Gibson.

Still, it's been a lovely trip thus far. The flight this time around went better than any of the previous iterations by, like, a zillion times. Outside of a bump to first-class seating, I couldn't have asked for a better experience. A special prayer of gratitude is spoken in for Nadine, the woman who took us around the back doors of the byzantine workings of the O'Hare airport with the grace and aplomb of a seasoned diplomat. She was so nice to my mom I wanted to hug her, but behold the power of my emotional resolve. A tip was given in the place of any invasion of personal boundries, and I think we both dodged a bullet, there. Still, the meagre remuneration I was able to offer was pittance compared to the largesse of courtesy demonstrated by the woman in question.

And that right there is good reason not to write when I'm mentally exhausted, obviously.

Chloe was kind of adorable on the plane, BTW. The poor kid was shaking like a leaf when we were gearing up for take-off on the tarmacadam in SLC. She was as anxious as I've ever seen her, and I was honestly concerned we were going to have to stop the aircraft and turn around (I wonder what the airline's policy is for dealing with a hysterical 14 year-old with a stevedore's vocabulary? Kinda glad I didn't have to find out.), but by the end of the flight to Chicago she had gone from begging me to pull up the plastic shade to the window to begging me to change seats so she could watch the storm clouds pass under us. It was so much fun to watch her switch from fear to wonder in just a few minute's time. I really wish Sofia could have been there to see her little girl face her fears so well. Proud and happy uncle moments for everyone.

Charlotte and Sofie picked us up at the airport, and it was almost heart-breaking how good they looked. (Tony and Lennart, you are beautiful, too!) I'm a little jealous that the only real manifestion of the Bjorklund blood in my life has been the ability to spin profound guilt from straw coupled with a body that has a penchant for snapping in two in a stiff breeze.

But I digress.

For those of you in the know, I will tell you that Jesper and Josef are giants. Giants! If they weren't so darned good looking I'd think that maybe they got a little troll* blood in them. Josef is a little taller than I am at 16 and Jesper stands a good 4 or 5 inches over my 6' blah. They both rock climb, so they're of course built like, well, like rock climbers, and both play guitar excellent well (Josef flamenco style). Their English is immaculate and almost a match for their kindness and generosity of spirit.

Hilda is reaching Aesir stature as well, and has taken to the drums and sewing for her creative outlets. I hope I don't sound creepy when I say this, but she's a beautiful young woman. Kajsa is about as delightfully charming a tomte as one could hope to encounter in the Swedish countryside, and my Swedish has increased tenfold because of her tutelage (that's right, kids, I now know ten Swedish words!).

For those of you not in the know, let me just say that my cousins' children come correct, as the kids up to so recently used to say.

Film at eleven.

*I apologize to any trolls reading this, it's just that, to a majority of the folk of the Midgard, you just really ain't getting the job done, looks-wise. Sorry.

3 Comments:

Blogger Goshzilla said...

Why the heck are none of my paragraph breaks showing up? Mecdrox, fix this!

11:06 PM  
Anonymous yes, that mike said...

glad to see you blogging again. amazed that lack of sleep hasn't blitzed your penchant for ten dollar words.

pics or it didn't happen.

11:28 AM  
Blogger Goshzilla said...

Lack of sleep kind of erodes the steel bars of will that keep my persnickity vocab in check.

My technological expertise still suffers, though. Working out the whole image thing. Should hopefully be better with next post? At least I was able to get the line breaks working. Hate to see the whole blog carom off the guardrail and over a cliff because somebody cut the line break...

...


...what?

3:32 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home