Picnic in the Park...or Not

The better part of today was a beautiful, sunny, dare I say warm day!  I worked in the morning while admiring the sunshine.  I had a fun lunch outside, in the sunshine, whilst working on Wacky Wednesday games with a friend from church.  I walked home in the sunshine and spent a couple of hours reading outside in the sunshine.  Hence, the thought that we should go on a picnic tonight and enjoy the sunshine was not really such a stretch.  (The Finnmaster is sick right now.  boo.  Motor trouble.  boo.  Can't get a hold of the service providers because hardly anyone works in July in Sweden.  boo.  But I digress. boo.)  So, we walked to the store, bought yummy picnic supplies, loaded up the dog and the car and drove out to Djurgården.  We arrived at Rosendal's Trädgården in time to find a table under a large umbrella which was timely since it started to pour minutes after our arrival.  

We thought it would pass.  So we ate our nice picnic supper surrounded by raindrops.  Tanner wasn't so happy.  He really hates the rain.  But we really, really, really thought it was just a passing shower and so held out for sunnier skies.  Alas, after a short abatement, the skies re-opened and it poured and poured.  We realized that even if it did clear soon, everything was soaking wet and thus we piled back into the car and came home.  Now I'm sipping Caribou decaf that I have stashed in my cupboard and watching the day's action from the British Open.  Not a bad way to spend Friday night.  At least we're warm and dry.  And Tanner is happy. (:

Marina Night Watch 2012

We have, once again, fulfilled our civic duty to our boat club by spending the night in the marina as night watchmen.  It is easy duty.  Show up at 23.45.  

23.45

Walk around the marina a few times to make sure there is no suspicious activity.  Vacuum and mop.  Leave at 6.00 a.m.  The night goes quickly and thus far, without incident for us.

Tanner loves it.  It is quite possibly his favorite night of the year.  He runs free throughout the marina, hops in and out of the water, scares the ducks and indulges in other kinds of dog revelry.  I nap, read, surf the net and take pictures.  I still love to watch the progression of the sky during the high days of summer here in Stockholm.  

2.00 a.m.

We've had a wet and cloudy summer thus far although I was surprised yesterday when we ran into some tourists from England and they were remarking how happy they were to be in Stockholm where it is so much better weather than England.  Yikes. At about 21.00 a huge storm blew in and poured rain.  We were happy that by 23.45 the rain had ceased and while huge clouds lurked in the sky, the trend seemed to be in a clearing direction.  
It was chilly but dry throughout the night.

3.30 a.m.

Morning broke beautifully and by 3.30 a.m. the sun was shining brightly on the boats and the water.

4.06 a.m.

When we drove away at 6.00 a.m. the promise of a beautiful day was unfolding before our eyes.

5.15 a.m.

5.15 a.m.

Tanner sitting on the dock in the early morning sunlight.

It's still chilly but at least it is not wet.

6.00 a.m.  On our way home to sleep a little!

The Swedish Summer

Weather is talked about a lot here in this far north land where extremes are the norm.  All winter we wallow in darkness, holding out hope that the earth is indeed spinning on its axis so that one day the sun will reappear in all of its bold beauty and bring warmth and light to our land.  Well, at least it brings light.  But it is not always the case that it will bring warmth and this is one of those years when we are having a bad summer.
It was really quite strange or me to spend almost a month in my earthly paradise: Palm Springs, CA.  It was really something to wake up every day and see sunshine and feel heat.  I realized that over the past 14 years I have become rather neurotic about weather.  I find that on sunny, warm days in Stockholm, I almost get panicky, making sure I am spending enough time in the sunshine.  Maybe a lack of vitamin D makes you nutty in the head. After not thinking about whether or not the weather was going be good in CA, I realized that I spend a lot of energy thinking about weather, talking about weather, being frustrated or overjoyed by weather.  And I have absolutely zero influence over whether or not the weather is going to be good.  And truth be told, I would guess a full 60% of the time, the weather is lousy here.  So I have tried to turn over a new leaf and simply realize that whatever the day brings is what each day brings and if I have time to enjoy the sunshine, I will, but if I have to work on a sunny day, that does not mean I am doomed.  It has helped me feel a bit more sane even though we are having a terrible summer.
Case in point, 30 minutes ago a huge lightening, thunder and hail storm blew through town.  Scared the daylights out of me and Tanner.  Now it has passed.  But it was really coming down hard and the thunder claps were huge.
There seems to be a brightness in the sky that might lead to a beautiful evening.  If so, I will take a walk and enjoy it.  If not, I will stay in and enjoy that too.  I really am trying to not live by the weather.  But I suppose if I am honest, I will still utter a Teyve-like prayer but instead of saying "Lord, would it ruin some grand eternal plan if I were a wealthy man", mine would sound more like this: "Lord, would it ruin some grand eternal plan if I could have a healthy tan?"  At least it's light outside for most hours of the day right now.

Wacky Wednesdays Revisited

We have embarked upon our summer wackiness once again.  Here at Immanuel International, we do a five week Vacation Bible School (VBS) type program, once a week for five weeks instead of one week, every day.  It works great for us and we have incorporated an adult bible study/discussion time and our teen program into one great night for all ages, five Wednesdays of the season.
Oh, our summer program is small in numbers and is nothing like the churches in the US who boast 200-300 kids in a week's time, but our little format works great for us and gives people who are in Stockholm a gathering point during the summer weeks when many people leave town for 4-6 weeks at a time.
Truth be told, VBS has always been one of my favorite things in the whole world.  When I was a kid, I would attend as many as my mom would drive me to!  And as an adult, I was always up for volunteering in one capacity or another.  Over time, I learned that my personality is well-suited to being involved in the ham-it-up skits as well as being as action packed song leader!  Who doesn't love doing motions along with singing a catchy tune?  My inhibitions somehow get set aside when faced with the task of getting kids to laugh and sing about Jesus.  
Turns out my husband, Doug, likes it just as much as I do so when we started doing VBS together, we found that his ability to write incredibly creative and funny skits combined well with my willingness to do just about anything to make kids laugh!  We've been doing VBS together for 18 years and the joy-filled memories of all those summers just make me smile.  We hope along the way kids learned something about the love of Jesus and gained a favorable picture of how much fun our journey with Jesus and life at church really should be.  The church needs more joy and laughter. We hope to be contributing to that in some small way.
This year we are characters at SonRise National Park.  Doug is the ranger, Rocky.  I'm one of the wilderness challenge participants, Kitty Can-Do, an expert in EVERYTHING who needs to learn that life is not always about being number 1 but rather, more importantly, how we reflect God's character.  The funny thing is that if you've been around us for any number of the years we've been doing this, you'll see that our characters and the plots are basically the same year after year!  Doug is the wise leader, I'm the silly off-track one who miraculously learns how to follow Jesus every year.  Through a series of crazy antics we always seem to figure out a way to make everything turn out well in the end!  I'm really not sure who enjoys this more...the kids, the adults, or us!  And speaking of kids, these little guys were simply adorable.  They were moving the to music by the end of the evening!

So if you happen to be in Stockholm anytime between now and August 8, pop on in to Immanuel Church, Wednesday nights at 18.00.  You'll laugh, you'll learn, you'll love.

Swimming in the Swedish Summer

July 7.  The absolute latest it's been in a summer for me to go swimming for the first time.  June was the coldest month on record for Sweden.  It rained and rained and rained.  I thank God I was in California for most of it!  Consequently, Stockholm looks like a jungle.  Super overgrown and even the water is full of moss and plants that I've never seen before!  None the less, when the temperatures finally rose to a suitable place where we could say, "It's hot today," we put on our swimsuits and took off for everyone's favorite swimming hole, Brunnsviken.  It's about a 25 minute walk from our house and once there, you escape to beautiful surroundings and a lovely spot on the water.  Tanner is always first to go in, showing zero hesitation no matter the weather.  Admittedly, the first dip into the cooling water always take one's breath away, just a little, but once in, it is completely refreshing.   The water is usually very clean and yesterday was no exception except for the incredible amount of moss and algae growing up from the bottom of the sea.  We played "chase the stick" with Tanner and then Charlie, a sweet 2 year old retriever appeared and the two of them had a very good time.  Watch the video to see the boys playing and to hear me speak some very bad Swedish!  

As we were walking home, I was thinking about what a treasure it is to live in a city where you can swim in really clean water just about anytime you want to.  Too bad said city isn't really all that warm most of the time!  But it's early July and I'm hopeful that the next 6-7 weeks will yield many days when we can wander down the street for a nice refreshing afternoon in the water.

What to Do With the Blog?

Hi hope I haven't lost my readership entirely.  I have not put up a blog since May 29.  I think that is the longest I've ever gone without posting something.  I'm struggling a bit with where to head with my writing.  I am giving serious thought to splitting up Across the Pond into two parts.  Keep Across the Pond as my travel, Stockholm, fun stuff in life blog and begin a new one that addresses the political, spiritual and serious life issues that I am also longing to get more involved with.  I'd like any feedback on this idea that readers have.  Would it increase my readership and more importantly, would it generate more comment?  I am interested in dialogue around political and spiritual issues but not quite sure how to generate that.  And I still want to write about life abroad, our travels, etc.  So, I'm pondering the following:
1.  If I have the drive and commitment to get serious about writing and
2.  If anyone would read both blogs!
So if you are a regular reader of Across the Pond, what do you think?
Also, I'm looking for a new blog name for the serious one.  Any suggestions are welcome.  If you've read this for any time, you should have figured out by now that I am an evangelical even though that term raises the hair on the backs of many people's necks and is so deeply tied to the right wing in the US that it doesn't really fit me since I am also a fairly liberal democrat.  I've thought about The Christian Democrats: Not Just A Political Party in Europe but it's kind of long and most Americans probably don't really have an understanding of political parties in Europe so the irony gets lost on them!  So I'd love for you to weigh in and let me know what your thoughts are.
And I'm hoping with this post to kick-start my creative writing juices once again.  Hope you're having a good summer (in spite of the extreme weather) or winter (if you are reading from Down Under!).

Flying Across

I began writing this post 7 hours into my 12 hour flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Los Angeles, California. I started this morning with a 10.15 flight from Stockholm after being stuck in traffic and arriving to the airport a little too close for my comfort level. Everything worked out fine but it's not a good feeling to be sitting on the airport bus and not moving. That's when you wish you would've just paid the extra money and gotten on the fast train to the airport!

Half on a dare from my book club, half out of my own curiosity, I did a little experiment while taking this long flight this time around. The reason we are going to the US right now is because we were invited to do a wedding by a couple who met in our church! She is American, he Malawian and they are getting married in Fort Wayne, Indiana on 22 June and will then live in the US. So, of course, once you make the trans Atlantic hop, it's silly to not make a vacation out of it. So, because we are doing this wedding and because they want us to wear our high church attire, I decided to travel while wearing my priest collar to see if it made a difference in the way I was treated. (That's code for, will they give me a free upgrade!?). Let me assure you that it made no difference whatsoever in getting a better seat. But I did get many different looks from people. Some would see me and look away, others smiled, while most just went about their business. I felt a little odd at points, exposing my profession in this way. All in all, it was an interesting experience but clearly, clergy get no privilege whilst flying.

Upon check-in, I was disappointed to learn that no, there was no upgrade possibility, even through using points, and no, there were no seats with an empty next to them. (Always an essential question when checking in for a long haul flight.) Instead, they said it was packed to the gills (well, not really.  A German would not use that expression, but they did say there were no empty seats) and thus I was dismayed to see that the Lufthansa plane we were on was an oldie. No inflight entertainment center at your seat but rather still using overhead monitors for the day's entertainment. And a seat configuration that is killer any way you slice it. 3 4 3. I am on the side, in a 3, next to the window with two men occupying the middle and aisle seats. It is not an easy task for me to get up so I'm just kind of hunkered down in my little seat. Oh, and I'm also in the back row of our section which is actually OK because no one is kicking me from behind or pulling on the seat as they get up. The Italian man sitting next to me is taking up a bit too much space.  I have to gently nudge his leg now and again to remind him that I am sitting next to him in a cramped space!  He had pretty bad breath too, which I learned when he fell fast sleep with his mouth open thus breathing out hot, stinky air with every breath.  Oh well, such is the bizarre intimacy you share with total strangers on a plane!

But a hysterical thing happened mid-flight that I've never seen before. Of course, on a 12 hour flight it is good to keep moving and do some exercises of your arms and legs, even in your seat. I try to move a bit, but with the two big guys blocking my way to the aisle, I'm know I'm going to be incredibly stiff later. But I digress. Out of no where, an older gentlemen gets up out of his seat and starts doing arm lifts! He just stood there getting some exercise and I thought, well, good for him. He knows how to handle the long haul. But then I started seeing arms shooting up all over the place! People all around him caught onto the fun and started doing arm lifts from the comfort of their own seat. No one else stood but it was quite a sight seeing all these hands and arms popping up and down around me!  Always good to have a little unexpected inflight entertainment!

I'm finishing this blog post the next morning at 5:32 a.m. pacific time.  I've been awake since 3.45 after getting some much needed rest.  The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful.  I got on earlier flight out of LAX to Palm Springs which was delightful.  I ate some tacos, enjoyed seeing my parents, watched the Angels win in the bottom of the 9th with a walk off homer, and sat in the jacuzzi before I collapsed into bed.  I'll be jet-lagged for awhile but that's OK...I can always take a nap.  I'm on vacation!  I did Skype with Doug so that was an added bonus of being awake at 4.00 a.m.  It was only 1.00 p.m. in Stockholm and he was home on his lunch break!