Guess who broke her arm and is home on sick leave for at least four weeks?

This moi.

Guess what happened yesterday!

I'd just finished the last lesson for the week, and the kids were filing out. I was just helping some stragglers with their questions when a parent came into the classroom. She'd bought me some tulips, because she felt that she'd been "an irritating" parent all week because of all the emails she'd sent me about her concerns for her son. Isn't that just the sweetest thing?

If you don't mind gruesome murders, I have a rec for you! Midnattssol is Swedish/French crime drama that takes place in my home town. It's pretty dark, but I really enjoyed it. Most of the dialogue is in English, but there is also a lot of Swedish, French, and even Samí spoken.

Although, just as an fyi, in reality the Kiruna police still have their old offices. They are not housed in a school. Because that would be completely bonkers.

I actually had a parent barge into my classroom today and rage and swear at both the kids and I. One kid started crying.

What. An. Asshole.

I fear I've begun to grow fond of my students. Today one told me that he was moving, and I actually meant it when I said that I would miss him.

Apparently time + exposure = affection

We went to Narvik yesterday. We were just gonna shop a little, have dinner, and be back home in time for bedtime.

Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. First we had to wait for one hour at the border for the plow car to return from Norway so we and 20 other assorted cars and trucks could follow it like lost little ducklings through the mountain pass, which was a warning sign in itself, because it wasn't like the weather would *improve* come night-time. Then, naturally, the road closed entirely.

Long story short, we ended up having to stay in a hotel in Narvik overnight. At least it beat option two, which was to head north and try the other border crossing, a trip that would have taken 6 hours.

I thought it was kind of sweet how the minister talked about Superman and Harry Potter in her sermon. She even mentioned Superman’s Jewish roots! She was trying to compare Jesus to them in their respective roles as superheroes. I thought the comparison was a little forced, but hey, she gets points for trying.

The choir was a lot better than last year. Apparently they've gotten a couple more altos to join.

I come home from work and running errands, and grandma is putting groceries in the fridge.

"I bought ground beef!" She said, happy as a a clam. "Since you have to go to a seminar at 6 and I have choir practice at 6.30, I thought we'd just eat some simple ground beef patties!"

I run up and put down my own bags, and go into the kitchen and she says, like it's a fucking huge BOON, "You can make as many patties as you like!"

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

That was just what I wanted after having been away since 6.30 this morning, to come home at 4.30 and hear that the one hour of time I thought I'd have to myself today, I'll have to spend making fucking beef patties.

And when I start making the fucking things, visually annoyed, BECAUSE FUCK ME FOR NOT WANTING TO COOK RIGHT NOW, she has the fucking gall to say "they don't have to be anything fancy, just use onions and salt and pepper."

Like using some god-damn seasoning is what takes time. But no, just tell me to make a kilo of bland and tasteless beef patties. That is sure to save me a valuable 30 seconds.

This is the kind of thing that irritates me about grandma. She pretends like she's not, but she's awfully presumptuous.

I should have known this day wouldn't be going my way when I somehow forgot to put on a bra this morning and didn't notice until I was bounding up the steps at work.

Part of me doesn't really mind the snow. At least it forced me to spend 1 hour outside doing physical labour today. Considering how little I work out, and how few hours of sunlight we get here each day this time of year, that's undoubtedly a good thing!

I had a terrible pain in my stomach last weekend. It got infinitely worse whenever I moved around, but when I was lying down I could almost forget about it. I thought I was getting sick, but now I have a bad feeling it might have been my ovaries.

I didn't use to experience any discomfort during ovulation before, but in the last year, I've started to develop some cramps during that time of the month. Now I'm worried this might be the next step. My mom apparently also got worse cramps during ovulation as she got older. :/

As if menstruation itself wasn't painful enough, but at least that isn't debilitating the way last Saturday's pain was. If it feels this bad next month, I'm making a doctor appointment, because I can't be bed-bound one day every month.

In the meantime, I'm crossing my fingers that it was a weird combination of ovulation and food poisoning or something!

I work with 8- and 9-year olds, and today I had to reassure them that Donald Trump probably isn't going to be the next American president, and that even if he somehow does end up winning he'll have advisers who'll keep him from starting World War 3.

It's a real concern with children. They pick up on this stuff from their parents, and people are worried (and rightly so) what that mad man would do if he was in charge of the most powerful country on earth.

Me comparing two different red wines:

"Hmm, this first sample tastes sour and gross."

"Hmm, this second sample tastes sour and gross, and it also has an aftertaste with a hint of something unpleasant."

(full disclosure, though I'm not a big wine fan, I don't hate it either. These two bottles were just really gross.)

It was -8C when I drove to work this morning, but I've got my winter tires on, so at least I'm ready for the inevitable October snowfall when it comes.

Non-alcoholic wine, or, the wine gaffsie buys because she's just using it for cooking anyway, and going to Systembolaget takes too much effort.

I don't have an apartment, but now I own a sofa, a chair, and a footstool. Oops?



My mom will use them for now (she needed a new couch anyway), so it's not as big a waste of money as you'd think. Plus, they were a fucking steal at half price, and I fell in love with them at first sight. Ironically, I used my last paycheck from IKEA to pay for them. :D

~*~ When that one third-grader (you know, that one) has a loose tooth, and proceeds to pull it out and then paint his face with the blood. ~*~

*insert cutesy image macro here*

I'm trying to do some grading, but that's hard to do when this is what I have to work with:

We had a field day for the whole school today. I ended up having to place three different phone calls to various parents once we were back.

It's extraordinary how they know all the rules and regulations by heart when asked, but when push comes to shove they just do whatever the fuck they want anyway.

It's been a while *cough*ten years*cough* since I've been to the dentist, and I've finally decided to do something about it.

I looked up the number for the municipal dentist, the cost and the opening hours, and cheerfully rang them up.

The lady who answered the phone was very pleasant and professional when she helpfully informed me that the waiting list for a standard check-up in this town is 5 years