Bureaucracy

So, I recently sent in my forms and documents to Danish immigration in hopes of getting permanent residency here. Actually, I applied 3 months ago, but at that time sent in the wrong form (for EU citizens...I thought it seemed a bit short...). Immigration was kind enough to send me the proper forms along with a form letter explaining my mistake. And, according to the form letter, I can apparently expect an answer to my quest within six months of applying correctly. Yay!

But I can't help but note that sending the form letter and forms alone took Immigration 2 months.

*Photo info: The view a month ago from down the street from my house (though admittedly, it's a long street)*

Optimism

I was first drawn to this because, well, cool car. But then I became aware of what is really going on.

Consider that it rained earlier today (only a bit, but still). Then consider that this is Denmark, where rain should be expected at any and all times. Finally consider that there is nowhere near this car where the owner could just pop in to take care of business in a few seconds. This is what I would consider optimistic behavior.

In honor of flower day

It's been a while since I've shown my girl off in blogland. But today is a big day -- she can now say that she's been alive in all the months of the year. She looks from this photo like she may have a career as a d.j. And why the flower get-up? Fastelavn.

Too lazy to not cross-post

Yes, it's from Facebook. I spend far too long on that site...I'm not even going to change the instructions for how to do this yourself on Facebook. Because when I say lazy, I really mean LAZY. And I won't tag anyone as I can't imagine I still have any readers at all at this point. But if you want to read this, and then do it yourself, then feel free, and I'd love to read the results (as indicated in #25).

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 RANDOM THINGS, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.

1. I can procrastinate more than anyone I know, and I know some mean procrastinators. All things considered, it's sort of surprising that I can hold down a job, or that I've finished university.

2. The thing I most looked forward to when I moved to Denmark was learning a new language.

3. I met my boyfriend on the Camino de Santiago, the French version. Because as everyone knows, the best place to meet Danish men is in the North of Spain.

4. I bite my cuticles, and have done for about most of my life. I rate the durability of my romantic relationships by how bothered the other person is by this (so, the more bothered they are, the more I figure they care).

5. If I won the lottery, or landed a super-high paying job, I'd outsource all housecleaning.

6. I once intended to start a collection of first edition books. My intention led to me buying the first three Books of Blood, and a first edition copy of Pornucopia. Then I stopped collecting.

7. Growing up, we always had a dog in the family. I miss having a dog in the house. I tried to make up for that gap with sea monkeys. It wasn't the same.

8. All food can be improved by one or more items from the following list: vanilla, ginger, garlic, balsamic vinegar, chocolate.

9. I do regularly attempt to not spend so much time on-line. The key word being 'attempt'.

10. After my studies of bilingualism, I will probably take it very personally if Idunn doesn't end up being really competent in English.

11. I loathe and somewhat fear talking on the phone. I will go to occasionally ludicrous lengths to avoid doing it.

12. I'm still planning to run a marathon. Eventually. Probably not until next year, maybe in the winter.

13. Although I am settled and happy in Denmark, I would move back to Lisbon in a heartbeat. I have saudades whenever I think about it, and have done pretty much since I left it in the first place, in 2001. It think it's all the comfort food. And the comfort language.

14. I have absolutely no idea how I come across to others. Probably a shy person thing.

15. My hair and I have come to an understanding. I leave it pretty much alone, and it does pretty much what it wants. Life is much easier that way.

16. It's been far too long since I've gone to a completely new country, and even longer since I've gone to a completely new continent.

17. I used to regularly read a book a day. I'm working on getting back to even sort of that level of textual interaction. Of course, at that point, it was fiction, and now I'm mostly reading non-fiction, which takes me longer.

18. I check for my brother multiple times a day on iChat. If he's there, I chat with him. If he's not there, I log off again.

19. I forgot to cash a paycheck I received shortly before moving to Portugal. I found it years later when cleaning out my stuff in California. I still have the check somewhere.

20. It's kind of weird how many random people I've reconnected with on Facebook. By reconnected, I mean that they're on my friend list. I really should take the time to actually write to them or something. See item #1 at this point....

21. I'm madly deeply in love with a 9-month old girl. It's kind of spooky. Thor gets offended when I refer to her as the love of my life. But he can't get too upset, because, well, she's the love of his life, too.

22. I miss my regular blog...but at the same time, I seem to have totally run out of anything to write about on a personal blog.

23. Since April, I have discovered a new ability to sing any song, badly, with made-up baby lyrics instead of the original ones.

24. I am not good at taking compliments. They make me nervous, and usually I don't really believe them.

25. I've really been enjoying everyone else's 25 things, and I hope to read even more of them.

Oh, so THAT'S what I'm doing...

I've never been a joiner. I can still recall my amusement after the first time I voted, spending time reading about each candidate, proposal, local initiative, and making up my mind on each specific thing, then seeing a 'how to vote' sign hanging on a doorway on another dorm room and realizing that I had (with a couple very minor exceptions) voted a straight democratic party ticket. Or my discomfiture upon finding out that all those ideas of religion and morality that I had pieced together over the course of much of my adult life, and which I felt were so unique to me, brought me to almost exactly the dictionary definition of secular humanism.

And, now with blogging. I was happily doing my own thing, writing when the urge struck, trying to have something interesting to say, but nothing too prolific, nothing about much of anything. Not too fussed about how many readers I had. And then I read this. A movement to write thought-through meaningful posts, and not too often, quality over quantity. I clearly am following at least half of that formula. The question is, do I want to admit that it's o.k. to join stuff, and to embrace the slow blogger label, as I have embraced the label of secular humanist (and to a lesser extent, the label of democrat), or is it time to rebel, write all the time on topical issues? O.K., who am I kidding, as the primary caretaker of an increasingly mobile and active infant, when would I have the time to write like that? Whether I am a slow blogger or not, I will be blogging slowly for the foreseeable future. So there, now it's official.

Just to put things in perspective...

So, earlier this month, we did the Portuguese Camino de Santiago, from the cathedral in Porto to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, about 240 kilometers worth of hiking. 13 days of hiking, carrying backpacks (and in Thor's case, also carrying a 6 kilo baby in a front carrier) on the sides of very busy highways without much in the way of margins, up and down what appeared to be old riverbeds, through some industrial area, but also a lot of green foresty areas, by vineyards being harvested, and through small villages. We started hiking at around 8 each morning (so, when it became light), and finished each day at around 2 or so in the afternoon.

And then, after arriving, and spending a day resting in Santiago, we rented a car to do a bit of a Portuguese/Spanish roadtrip before flying back to Denmark from Madrid. We picked up the car at a bit before 10am, and started to drive towards Lisbon, where we were to meet with some of my old friends from when I lived there. And found ourselves driving back through our starting point of Porto (well, o.k., past it on the motorway) right around lunchtime.

Moral of the story: there are many ways, and many speeds in which to do things. Each have its place, but sometimes, it's good to take the slower path.

Of Facebook groups, babies, and elections

I try to avoid video links here, but I really can't help but post this one. You've most likely all seen it before, probably multiple times.



It's funny, and sad, because it's so scarily accurate. Which gets me thinking about a Facebook group I recently came across (and joined), 'I have more Foreign Policy Experience than Sarah Palin', which as of today has 171 thousand members. In fact, it occurs to me that my 5-month old daughter has more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin. Yes, it's true. She's been to one foreign country, and will be touring 2 more in the next few weeks. She's bicultural, and exposed regularly to two different languages. And, in the various groups that she attends, she interacts with babies from many different countries, and is equally at ease with all of them. Add to that her 'tell it like it is' approach to problem solving, and why shouldn't she be considered for Vice President?

So, I suppose this means that I'm really not a Republican?