Yes, We Love This Country as it Rises Forth

Norway grew a year older on Monday and Norwegians everywhere bubbled over with pride and celebrated as per usual.

Step 1: Dress up
Step 2: Grab a flag
Step 3: Stuff yourself
Step 4: Go out into the streets.
Step 5: Stuff yourself some more with ice cream and hot dogs.

Cities

One summer while I was living in the States, I was home in Oslo for a few weeks. After some drinks in town with friends one night, I decided to walk for a while instead of getting right on the subway home.

It was one of those magical Norwegian summer nights, where, even though the sun has disappeared, you know it's never going to get really dark, one where, even though the nights are warm, a hint of a chill starts settling, reminding you that regardless of how much the sun does to warm it up, Norway is actually a really cold place.

Zeros and Ones

As a general rule, I make it a rule not to make rules for myself. Except for that one. And a few others.

Which is why I never became a vegetarian. Those of you who know me know that I'm a big fan of balance and finding a good middle ground. I appreciate nuances. The world is a pretty complex place and I don't think that making strict rules for oneself will really do a lot of good. If you're going to look at the world in terms of 0's and 1's, you're going to need a whole heck of a lot of them in order to approach some kind of adequate view on the way things work.

Another reason is that I really like meat.

Remembering NYC

When I left NYC at the end of January, although I don't think it was all that visible, I arrived in Norway with a special souvenir: a few extra pounds. NYC is full of every kind of amazing, mouthwatering, scrumptious food and it's very nearly impossible to avoid putting on some weight while living there. I know I can earmark at least a portion of my little NYC-belly to Billy's Bakery, Crumbs, Sugar Sweet Sunshine, Burgers and Cupcakes, Magnolia, and Cupcake Cafe... I had such a soft spot for those round little single serving-sized cakes and incredible ones could be found around every corner. Sigh, I miss them...

[Lemon Meringue Cupcakes. Recipe follows below.]

Cupcakes aren't a thing here in Oslo. Sure, there are other temptations, but there's a different food culture in Norway than there is in the States.

I'm back!

Last night I had a dream about tomatoes.

It wasn’t all that exciting, except for that these tomatoes were grown in my garden, right outside my window. In the dream, I planted a tomato plant and then forgot about it. A few months later, I went outside and there were three bright red tomatoes hiding in the dirt, ready to be eaten. (I realize that tomatoes grow above ground, but in my dream, they were hiding in the dirt.) And that was all, a short little simple dream.

This was a dream I had last night, but it’s also a real dream of mine, to be able to walk outside, pick a tomato off a vine, chop it up and use it right away.

This little tidbit of a dream also reveals how I want this scenario to become a reality: I want to plant a seed, forget about it for a few months, then come back and enjoy the benefits without putting in the work that is obviously required.

Pain in the neck

On Wednesday, I woke up and couldn't move my head.

It was mildly scary and really pretty painful. I had no chance of making it to work: even holding my head up without support was excruciating. I felt like a baby who's head bobs down because it's not strong enough to hold it up. But for me, when my head bobbed down, it hurt like crazy.

I spent the day in bed with about 10 pillows strategically placed under my head and my roommates running back and forth waiting on me. (I couldn't even pick up a glass of water...) I was going crazy by the end of the day from not moving or doing anything or being able to use the swivel function of my head. If you think about it, that's really quite a handy function.

Amazing

This weekend, I filmraced.

I've done it once before, and it was crazy then and it was crazy now. 24 hours to write, shoot, edit, and deliver (in person) a short film. My team consisted of some friends from work and a friend from college. I think we came out with a halfway decent film, given the time constraints. I'll post a link once we put it online.

I only slept an hour and a half during the 24 hour period, and our team took the term filmrace to heart when, 21 minutes before the deadline, we decided to sprint the 15 blocks to the drop-off location instead of taking a taxi. (It seemed logical at the time, but so did a lot of things... Sleep depravation will do that to you). We made it there with a minute or two to spare, sweating and dryheaving. Turning in the film was all that much sweeter, though.