big talker

things I miss about the States

All things I miss about the US seem related to places (actually this also relates to food I now see, to shop for or sit down and enjoy) and people. I miss ...

• our house; hanging on the porch in the spring (surrounded by the scent of lilacs) and summer (into the fall), visiting with friends and good neighbors, going for walks in the neighborhood.
• eating lunch at the house with Leighton; yummy sandwiches made with fresh bread from the local bakery (Brick Oven Bakery), just down the street from our house.
  
• driving up and down to the Twin Cities in the midst of the vast prairie landscape, maybe stopping for a bagel snack at Einstein bros. in Bloomington. Walks in the arboretum.
• stopping for ice cream at Hogan brothers. Or having lunch (hummus pita sandwich and spicy bean soup) there.
• the warehouse district in Minneapolis, along the river, crossing the bridges, stopping for sushi at Origami.
  
• beer on the roof at Brit's in the summer, downtown Minneapolis.
• or at the deck of the Tavern or the Contented Cow, both overlooking the Cannon river in Northfield.
• or at Pracna on St. Anthony Main, on the riverfront, in Minneapolis (a surly furious).
• our local co-op, the freshness of the food, the friendly people.
• good yummy fresh salsa and healthy (sort of, right?) chips.
• corn on the cob in late summer.
• the lucky jeans store in Mall of America (though I hate shopping, I appreciate that I can find jeans that actually fit here).
  
• the lakes in Minneapolis, Minnehaha creek, Mississippi river (even)

These are just some of the things I miss about living in the Midwest. But I also get homesick for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, and even other places in the States where I've been. I miss neighborhoods, parks, places to eat and drink, stores (like REI and Target, the Wedge, Trader Joe's, and our local co-op). I miss friends, family, neighbors, colleagues. I miss the general friendliness of people that you know and don't know.

Ahh, those good old days... A photo taken by Leighton, right around the time he moved into the house, back in 2006, late summer, me sipping a margarita.

lovely bypåske (city-Easter)

After a couple of nights at my parents' cabin, we returned to Oslo on Thursday where the snow is melting rapidly now, crocuses are peeking through, and the birds are singing. It's so lovely! Easter in the city is amazing in Norway; everyone is at their cabin, skiing and snacking on oranges and chocolate, leaving the city quiet in an almost surreal (but extremely peaceful) manner. We went for a stroll in the castle park (Slottsparken) on Friday and then out on the pier and along the water front (Aker Brygge) yesterday, basking in the sunshine. Tomorrow we leave for Barcelona. Rain is in the forecast down there, but I look forward to seeing more of spring.

Lilly's finally healthy again after a long cold with a nasty cough and extremely snotty nose. She still has a wheeze in her lungs, especially when she whines (and she does seem to have entered a new phase of whininess. I must quickly add though that she also continues to strike everyone as an extremely content and happy baby).

Leighton's posted lots of photos in our album, documenting our trip up to the cabin. Also some from Easter here in Oslo, including this one of Leighton and Lilly at åpent bakeri by the castle park, across from the new literature house (Litteraturhuset), and more to come from our lovely sunny springy bypåske.

spring has sprung! and a new stage in life begins...

Spring has finally sprung, lots of snow on the ground still, but everyday we can notice it receding on the lawn in front of our building. It feels so good to walk on bare asphalt again, and this morning I noticed some hestehov peeking through on my way home from the gym. In February, I wrote about how spring makes me feel so light and high; though I'm not quite there yet, there is something about this time of the year that makes me feel so exceedingly excited. Yet the body is still sluggish, struggling to shake off the heaviness of winter. Maybe it's spring allergies as well, a dull headache in the front of the head.

It's Easter week and tomorrow we'll be heading up to my parents' cabin in the mountains. Then next Monday we fly down to Barcelona for a week. Last week we had a little roadtrip through the heartland of Norway (through Telemark via Kongsberg, Notodden, Skien and Porsgrunn on day I, then along the coast of Vestfold via Stavern, Larvik, Tønsberg, and Holmestrand on day II).

Here I am with Lilly in front of what used to be my grandmother's house (in Porsgrunn):


We're also looking ahead to our trip back to the States this summer to pack up my office and our house, and our move over to Eidfjord, a small town in the innermost part of the Hardanger fjord where my dad has a house he inherited from his sister. We'll be staying there next year, taking turns writing and watching Lilly. St. Olaf did not grant me an extension of my leave, so I quit. I don't want to return to the excessive work hours of a place that does not support my time to write and do research. We'll be sad to be gone from friends there, and there's so much in the States we're homesick for (I have a list of things I look forward to doing while we're back this summer!). So I'm glad we'll be keeping (at least) one foot solidly planted there; what with all our friends and family there. Since I first moved to the States, back in 1995, I've been so happy to have two homes. It makes me feel richer (and less claustrophobic).

We've put our house in Northfield on the market and hopefully it will sell okay. We hope to make enough money on it (or at least not loose any!) so we can buy a used car over here.

Lilly has three teeth now, is a very quick crawler, and loves getting herself up into standing position, holding on to whatever. She'll play peekabo forever, and loves it if we mimic her by shaking our heads when she does so. She laughs often, and it's a very contagious laughter.

Standing, falling, crawling