Lucky Cat

This is the bed I sleep on here.  It's a nice bed, but it's not my bed.
 

My bed back home has a dip slightly right of center where I sleep, as though someone were sleeping on the inside, next to the wall.


I watch my neighbor across the courtyard cook for himself everyday.  When he's finished cooking and he's ready to eat, he turns off the overhead lights and turns on a small lamp on the kitchen table.  He always eats alone.


The flowers are going nuts out there, especially the cherry blossom trees.  The pink petals were everywhere, swirling around in the fountain, turning the water pink.  Reminds me of April in New York, when the cherry blossom petals whoosh along Park Ave. by 42nd St., swept into blushing piles by the wind.
 
Not to be all emo, but what other flower is as pretty as it's dying? 
 

This weekend was Valborgsmässoafton and Labor Day.  I love these random Swedish holidays.  Valborgs involves a big bonfire.  I went to Rosendals Trädgård and Skansen on my day off.  I thought I would stay for the bonfire, but I got bored.



I did stay for the Stockholm Academic Male Choir (Stockholms Studentsångarförbund), though.  I loved them.  At the end of the set, the old men helped the older men step gingerly off the risers.
   

On Sunday, after a texting my friend at the wrong number, I wound up on a boat to the Stockholm archipelago by myself.  I went to an island called Sandhamn.  The boat ride was 2 1/2 hours.  Luckily, I brought a book. 


I walked through the woods until I reached the sea.


The ocean, the scene of so many feminine demises, pastel silk floating around willow wrists.  Virginia Woolf, Kate Chopin's Edna Pontellier, the real little mermaid.  But water can also enlighten.  Think of M.F.K.'s Sea Change, Helen Keller.  W-A-T-E-R water.  After a long walk along the rocky beach, I nearly missed the boat back to Stockholm.  I had gotten lost in the woods, so I used the iPhone GPS to try and make the blue dot (me) connect with the little ship icon on the map.  As I ran down the hill, I had to laugh at the lesson -- nobody's going to save me but me. 


To celebrate having caught the boat, I treated myself to a cheap mazarin (my favorite) and a cup of tea.  I think I have to lay off the coffee.  It's giving me acid reflux.  


Tonight, La Doug and I ate ice cream together over Skype. He had Haagen Dazs vanilla chocolate chip. I had Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk with sliced strawberries. We both finished the last of our tubs.